Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise From The Shadows- Episode 2 Review - Ice Elves
It feels like the fight scenes are getting better choreography-wise. This is a well-animated episode that’s filled with good about of action and story. Writing-wise, I was surprised by a few choices and it makes me wonder what will happen later on.
Jinwoo and the other Hunters are still trapped in the Red Gate. The episode takes place right after Jinwoo kills the Ice Bears and decides to make them shadow minions. The Ice Elves are the real threat in the gate, so Jinwoo goes to deal with them. I do like that they give some plot relevance with how Jinwoo is able to understand their language and how they seem ‘controlled’ with the leader Barca having a little ‘rewind’ moment that Jinwoo noticed. I wonder what that’s about. The shadow monarch power is very interesting. Jinwoo is essentially able to perform magical necromancy by reviving dead enemies, human or beasts, and transform them into a minion. He did it with the Ice Bears and now he did it with Kim Chul who is now Iron. I wonder if he’ll do it with important characters later on.
Speaking of Kim Chul, the dude was an ass. Yes, his team died but it was mainly his fault that they did and he took it out on the lower ranks who survived. The way he was trying to gaslight them into thinking it was their fault for letting the higher rank die felt karmic when he died and resurrected into Iron. I wonder if Jinwoo only does this to bad people.
Other than the Jinwoo parts, the parts with Hwang Dongsoo and Baek Yoonho was interesting as both characters have reasons for being at the gate, but Dongsoo decides to leave after showing the viewers a glimpse of his strength. It only makes the big showdown between him and Jinwoo even more anticipating. I was also surprised with how strong Woo Jin-chul is because he stopped two S-class Hunters when he is A-rank himself. That man is clearly stronger than he looks.
I thought this whole ordeal was to make Song-yi reconsider being a hunter, but she developed a crush on Jinwoo and even calls him by his name. Fun fact, in the Korean version of Solo Leveling, Song-yi calls Jinwoo “oppa” which is basically what a girl would refer to an older guy she knows, where it be a friend, family, relative, or someone close enough. In this case, she knows Jinwoo is her friend Jinah’s brother, hence why she’s allowed to call him oppa. In the Japanese version, she calls him ‘onii-san’, which is basically the equivalent of ‘oppa’, but it can be used by either gender and it’s mainly used to refer to a young man who’s a bit older than you. After Jinwoo takes her home, Song-yi calls him Jinwoo-oppa, signaling a closer friendship between the two. In the Japanese version, she calls him Jinwoo-kun, meaning that she has taken off the honorifics card and is on a first-name basis, which also shows their close friendship. I feel like people should do some research when it comes to how Korean and Japanese people refer to others because the West doesn’t really do these sort of things. I’m familiar with the Korean terms as I am Korean myself.
Now that this Red Gate arc has come to a closure, I wonder what’s next in store for Jinwoo. Will he challenge the S-rank Dungeon again? Will he do something else? I can’t wait for the next episode to arrive! Let me know your thoughts on this episode!
