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No other anime in 2025 made waves quite like Solo Leveling. What started as an unassuming web novel is now one of the biggest anime sensations of the decade. But calling it popular feels like an understatement. It became a global movement. The show didn’t just trend, it dominated. It broke records, flooded streaming charts, and set an entirely new standard after sweeping nine awards at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards, including the crown jewel, Anime of the Year.
And here is the craziest part. This wasn’t a decades-old franchise with years of hype behind it. Solo Leveling, a story born from a web novel in South Korea, went head-to-head with legends like One Piece, Demon Slayer, and Attack on Titan, and won. You don’t pull that off unless the story, the visuals, and the sheer passion behind it hit harder than anyone saw coming.
Where does Solo Leveling come from
Funny enough, Solo Leveling did not kick off with flashy animation or major studio backing. It actually started out as a web novel written by Chugong, published online between 2016 and 2018. What began as a small passion project in one corner of the internet didn’t stay quiet for long. The story caught fire, spreading beyond South Korea faster than anyone expected.
Before long, it evolved into a webtoon, brought to life through the jaw-dropping art of Jang Sung-rak, better known as Dubu. The webtoon ran from 2018 to 2021, and by then, Solo Leveling wasn’t just a story. It was a phenomenon, translated into countless languages and read by fans across the globe.
At the heart of it is Sung Jin-Woo, a guy who starts out as the weakest hunter in the world, an E-rank, barely stronger than a normal person. In a world constantly threatened by portals unleashing monsters, that's basically a death sentence. But everything flips when a dungeon raid goes horribly wrong. Instead of dying, Jin-Woo wakes up with access to a mysterious leveling system that lets him grow infinitely stronger. What follows is a journey from nobody to the single most powerful being alive. And it's one wild ride.
Plot, arcs, and how it evolved
This is the ultimate glow-up story. Jin-Woo goes from being the guy no one respects to someone capable of wiping out entire armies of monsters on his own. But it is not just about raw strength. Along the way, he faces shady organizations, dangerous guilds, and eventually supernatural entities known as Monarchs and Rulers, beings locked in a cosmic war that stretches back eons.
The story itself is broken into several key arcs. It all kicks off with the Double Dungeon incident, the moment Jin-Woo gets his powers. Then it moves through the Reawakening and his first hunts, where he starts to understand just how powerful he can become. The Jeju Island Arc delivers one of the most brutal and cinematic battles in the entire series, with Jin-Woo facing off against a colony of monstrous ants. Eventually, everything escalates toward the Monarchs War Arc, where the fate of the entire world hangs in the balance.
A visual and aesthetic masterpiece
When A-1 Pictures stepped in to adapt Solo Leveling, they didn’t just do the bare minimum. They went all-in. The result is an absolute feast for the eyes. The animation is crisp, fluid, and full of weight. Every fight feels like a blockbuster action movie. Every shadow Jin-Woo summons feels tangible. Every blow lands with impact.
And the soundtrack? Unreal. Hiroyuki Sawano, the genius behind scores for Attack on Titan and Kill la Kill, delivered a musical backdrop that turns every fight, every quiet moment, and every plot twist into something unforgettable. The music elevates the tension and the triumph in a way that few anime ever manage to pull off.
Breaking records titles dethroned in 2025
When Solo Leveling: Arise from the Shadow dropped in 2025, it didn’t just perform well. It obliterated expectations. Crunchyroll’s leaderboards had never seen anything like it. The show surged past massive names like One Piece, Demon Slayer, Attack on Titan, Jujutsu Kaisen, and Chainsaw Man to claim the top spot as the most-rated anime on the platform.
By the time the dust settled, it had racked up more than 594,500 user ratings, a number that would have sounded impossible not long ago. It wasn’t just a regional hit — it dominated worldwide: Asia, Europe, Latin America. Everywhere you looked, Solo Leveling was sitting comfortably at number one.
Critical acclaim and award domination
Calling the 2025 Crunchyroll Anime Awards a win for Solo Leveling feels like an understatement. It was more like a victory lap. The series walked away with nine major awards, more than any show in the history of the event.
It took home Anime of the Year, Best New Series, Best Action Anime, and Best Main Character for Sung Jin-Woo. Hiroyuki Sawano grabbed Best Original Score, and the show also snagged Best Ending Sequence with Request by Krage. On top of that, the voice actors crushed it too, winning Best Voice Acting in English, Portuguese, and Spanish.
Critics couldn’t stop talking about it. From the faithful adaptation to the stunning animation, the show managed to take everything fans loved about the webtoon and crank it up to eleven.
Audience numbers and global impact
If the awards weren’t enough proof, the numbers tell the rest of the story. Solo Leveling held a top-ten spot on Crunchyroll in more than 60 countries for most of the year. It became the most-watched show in places like South Korea, Japan, Brazil, Mexico, Germany, and the United States.
The hype was so real that it sparked one of the biggest subscription spikes in Crunchyroll’s history, blowing past the numbers set by Demon Slayer: Mugen Train when it first dropped.
What is next for Solo Leveling
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With the way things are going, the only real question is how soon we are getting more. There's no official confirmation yet, but insiders are already hinting about a third season. And if it happens, all signs point to it adapting the Monarchs War Arc — one of the most intense, emotional, and action-packed chapters in the entire story.
From its humble beginnings as a web novel to becoming a record-breaking juggernaut, Solo Leveling is not just an anime. It is a phenomenon. And chances are, its impact on the anime world is only just beginning.
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