Solo Leveling

Solo Leveling is a franchise born from a Korean web novel (manhwa) written by Chugong, originally published on KakaoPage between 2016 and 2018 under the original title Only I Level Up. The webtoon adaptation illustrated by Dubu (REDICE Studio) then propelled the license to global scale, accumulating several hundred million reads while setting a visual standard for the Korean portal-fantasy genre.

The universe revolves around Sung Jinwoo, an E-rank hunter - the weakest in the universe - who finds himself trapped in a double dungeon and emerges transformed: the only human able to progress through a leveling system invisible to others, he grows in power asymptotically until becoming the Shadow Monarch, commanding an army of reanimated dead.

The manhwa concluded in 2021 after 179 chapters, making way for an anime adaptation produced by A-1 Pictures (Sword Art Online, Fairy Tail). Season 1, aired in 2024, was a worldwide hit on Crunchyroll; season 2 followed in 2025. The franchise is currently on hiatus on the anime side, but is thriving in terms of video game adaptations: notably Solo Leveling: Arise, and the upcoming Solo Leveling: KARMA.