THE LEVELING OF SOLO LEVELING
We start our journey where it all began—with D&C Media in Korea. As the publisher of the webnovel, they shed light on how the story of Solo Leveling developed from ideation to publication. From there, we travel to meet with Redice Studio, one of the largest webtoon studios in the world, and discuss Solo Leveling's transformation from script to illustration.
Special
SP1 - A Hunter Rises
Source: Crunchyroll
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(Please feel free to edit the speaker names if incomplete or inaccurate. Names are handled on a best-effort basis depending on the info on the source file. Dialogue is left as is.)
SIGN Solo Leveling: Chapter 1
[00:21] ---
I find that it's a piece that
evokes emotions in everyone.
[00:26] ---
It can be said that it's the
most successful Korean webtoon.
[00:32] ---
It's the kind of story everyone dreams of.
[00:36] ---
"We have to do it as a webtoon at all costs."
[00:44] ---
It's a great work worth rereading
when you're bored.
[00:49] ---
This is why Solo Leveling is very cool.
[00:54] ---
It's no exaggeration
to say that Solo Leveling
[00:59] ---
pioneered the international webtoon market.
[01:02] ---
My coworkers instantly told me,
like, "You have to get into this."
[01:09] ---
When the animation arrives,
[01:12] ---
it will truly be the
completion of this universe.
[01:39] ---
Solo Leveling is a story about resilience,
perseverance, and fighting for good,
[01:47] ---
and I think that are the three themes
that we get to see a lot of the time
[01:51] ---
through the main character Jinwoo.
[02:02] ---
Sung Jinwoo started off as
a young and weak character,
[02:06] ---
but his personality changed with time,
which I felt was unique.
[02:13] ---
On Kakao Page it said that
Solo Leveling is a masterpiece
[02:17] ---
and all my friends around my age
were reading it.
[02:20] ---
My name is Kim Young-Jo,
and I live in Seoul.
[02:39] ---
D&C Media was founded in 2002.
[02:42] ---
We produce web novels, webtoons,
manhwas, and merchandise
[02:47] ---
and distribute them in Korea and overseas.
[02:54] ---
Hello, I am Choi Wong-Young,
CEO of D&C Media.
[03:05] ---
What's most important for us is
good novels and webtoon authors.
[03:12] ---
Our skilled team's task
is to find those webtoon authors.
[03:20] ---
Aspiring authors can send publishers
their manuscript via mail or directly.
[03:32] ---
Those manuscripts will be given to the editors,
which we nowadays call PDs.
[03:40] ---
A team of those producers will review
the manuscripts and rate their potential.
[03:49] ---
Afterwards the team decides
whether or not they will reach out to an author.
[04:01] ---
Usually, authors use their works
to express their thoughts.
[04:16] ---
They feel lost when having to directly interact
with their readers, so they tend to avoid it.
[04:26] ---
For example, when they are public officials.
[04:32] ---
Those tend to hide themselves and
prefer communicating via their work.
[04:41] ---
They don't like the spotlight.
[04:46] ---
I think, with Solo Leveling,
we were lucky in many ways.
[04:54] ---
Our first contact with the author Chugong
was on an online platform—
[04:58] ---
that's where we read Solo Leveling
for the first time.
[05:04] ---
Back then, there were not
many comparable works,
[05:08] ---
so we were confident
that it would be well received,
[05:13] ---
but we didn't except so much hype.
[05:19] ---
This epic journey started with D&C Media.
[05:36] ---
What's most interesting to the people
seems to be the story.
[05:41] ---
An interesting story needs to be captivating.
[05:47] ---
Of course, the author wanted
the novel to be successful.
[05:54] ---
The story takes place in Seoul
with a Korean background,
[06:00] ---
and I think the author
wrote himself as Sung Jinwoo.
[06:06] ---
A good writer speaks through his work
and connects with his readers.
[06:15] ---
Sung Jinwoo has a rough start and
doesn't really find his place in life.
[06:26] ---
But seeing how he is then given opportunities
and starts to grow as a person...
[06:32] ---
"I want that too," "I want to get better too"—
that's what I thought.
[06:43] ---
In Solo Leveling, an ordinary young adult
experiences amazing things
[06:49] ---
and saves the world.
[06:51] ---
The kind of story everyone dreams of.
[07:10] ---
The story rose in popularity,
so we asked ourselves,
[07:15] ---
how we could express it visually.
[07:20] ---
I read the story in my office and thought,
"We have to do it as a webtoon at all costs."
[07:31] ---
If a novel is adapted into a webtoon,
you need an artist.
[07:38] ---
Who could be a suitable candidate?
[07:49] ---
Back then the webtoon industry
was rather small,
[07:53] ---
so we had to go abroad for promotion.
[07:59] ---
That's where we met Redice.
[08:05] ---
The owner of Redice
was at the Beijing Book Fair
[08:12] ---
and met a representative of D&C by chance.
[08:16] ---
Neither knew which studio
the other belonged to,
[08:20] ---
so they mistook each other as Japanese
and spoke Japanese first,
[08:26] ---
until they found out that they were both
Korean, one from D&C, one from Redice.
[08:31] ---
Both wanted to cooperate.
We told them about a great web novel we had,
[08:37] ---
and Redice wanted to
work with us on that project.
[08:42] ---
That's how Solo Leveling
turned into a webtoon.
[08:51] ---
I am the CEO of Redice Studio,
Jang Jung-Sook.
[08:55] ---
Redice Studio is leading the webtoon
production in Korea and globally.
[09:07] ---
Making a webtoon requires certain steps.
[09:12] ---
First, a pencil sketch gets digitized,
[09:16] ---
followed by line art, color,
background, and final corrections.
[09:27] ---
The most impressive thing about Solo Leveling
is the great artwork made by Jang-Sung Rak.
[09:40] ---
On Twitter, many people expected at least
ten people were working on the webtoon.
[09:48] ---
But it was our first project, and Jang-Sung
Rak's artistry was simply unmatched.
[09:55] ---
Alongside a highly skilled colorist
and a great storyboard writer,
[10:02] ---
they finished the main story
as a team of three.
[10:07] ---
A year ago I was living with
Jang-Sung Rak, learned a lot,
[10:12] ---
and worked on a spinoff with him.
[10:16] ---
I am the cartoonist Seung-Jin Kim.
[10:18] ---
Since it was our first graphic work,
[10:22] ---
we collected many references
to ensure a certain quality standard.
[10:35] ---
Usually, we upload one episode per week,
[10:40] ---
but we need to have 20
prepared before launch.
[10:43] ---
For 20 episodes,
we need around five to six months.
[10:48] ---
During this time, the producer
and artist work closely together,
[10:52] ---
discuss feedback, and correct the draft
[10:57] ---
until the final version is set.
[11:00] ---
I researched a lot, wanting to make
the illustrations look more natural
[11:07] ---
through directing and coloring
[11:11] ---
Until then, from staging
and drawing to coloring,
[11:21] ---
I had never seen a draft
of such high quality.
[11:24] ---
I was sitting in our publishing house,
asking myself how they did it.
[11:53] ---
In Korea, most people have
their mobile phones with them at all times.
[12:02] ---
They can be quickly and easily used,
which makes reading webtoons simple.
[12:14] ---
I think that's the biggest advantage
Korean webtoons have in the global market.
[12:50] ---
It's no exaggeration
to say that Solo Leveling
[12:55] ---
pioneered the international webtoon market.
[13:34] ---
The setting itself is interesting
because we see the juxtaposition
[13:38] ---
of the earthly world that we know of
and we're very familiar with
[13:41] ---
which is also, we see countries like Korea,
Japan, and the U.S. featured in this story,
[13:46] ---
which is familiar to us, and then we
also get to enter these blue gates
[13:51] ---
to then enter a dungeon in a fantasy setting.
[13:54] ---
To me, Hapjeong Station in the story's
introduction was the most impressive.
[14:00] ---
For us Koreans, it's a popular meeting place
if you want to hang out.
[14:07] ---
Turning this station into a dungeon
makes it easier for the reader
[14:15] ---
to dive into the story
and be captivated by it.
[14:20] ---
So, you see the fantasy world and the
earthly world that we are all familiar with,
[14:25] ---
and that fantasy setting allows us
to escape from reality.
[14:43] ---
Entering society as a young adult,
I felt like I knew nothing—
[14:49] ---
like I couldn't do anything
and lacked experience.
[14:52] ---
My situation was similar to Sung Jinwoo's.
[15:03] ---
It's a great work worth rereading
when you're bored.
[15:11] ---
Webtoons and novels are part of the "snack
culture," merely seen as means to kill time.
[15:18] ---
But if you can relate to the characters,
it's more than that.
[15:24] ---
Then you want to possess it
in some kind of physical form.
[15:32] ---
Readers who read the work online
became attached to the story.
[15:41] ---
They wanted a physical copy
they could own and collect.
[15:50] ---
Instead of only having it on their phone,
they wanted a real book.
[15:58] ---
To fulfill those needs,
we published a paperback version.
[16:07] ---
Even the most exciting stories
can be quickly forgotten.
[16:13] ---
But if I'm able to put even just one volume
on my shelf, it will stay in the back of my mind.
[16:40] ---
I remember ordering the first
two volumes immediately,
[16:44] ---
and I felt sadness, unfortunately, at the end
[16:46] ---
because I realized I read through the first
two volumes back-to-back in one night,
[16:50] ---
and then I would have
to wait for more volumes,
[16:52] ---
because I'm a person who likes to read
the physical volumes, rather than digitally,
[16:55] ---
and so I'd have to wait two to three more
months to get another volume to read it.
[17:08] ---
After Solo Leveling was published
and rose in popularity,
[17:17] ---
the word "solo" itself became
somewhat of a phenomenon.
[17:25] ---
Solo Leveling made a huge impact
and gained many fans,
[17:32] ---
so more and more works
with "solo" in their title appeared.
[17:39] ---
Having Solo Leveling create
sort of a subculture of manhwa and novels
[17:50] ---
and receive so much love
and attention from its readers
[17:57] ---
makes me kind of proud,
even if I am merely a reader myself.
[18:15] ---
The transition from novel
to webtoon is one thing,
[18:17] ---
but up to animation is something
I could hardly have imagined.
[18:21] ---
As a fan and reader,
I look forward to the animation.
[18:30] ---
I didn't make the story big,
but I contributed a lot
[18:37] ---
to the creation of the animation.
That makes me proud.
[18:44] ---
The web novel turned into a webtoon
and now even into an anime.
[18:50] ---
When the animation arrives,
[18:54] ---
it will truly be the completion
of this universe.
[18:59] ---
Solo Leveling is definitely on a journey
to level up in its own franchise.
[19:03] ---
So, we got to see this start off as a
light novel, actually published in Korea,
[19:08] ---
and then eventually Redice making
that story into an actual manhwa,
[19:14] ---
now being illustrated into picture form,
[19:16] ---
and now we get to have the anime
adaptation, so now it's...
[19:19] ---
Really, I guess in a way,
it's at its third level.
[19:22] ---
SP2 - Second Awakening
Source: Crunchyroll
Translator:
Editor:
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(Please feel free to edit the speaker names if incomplete or inaccurate. Names are handled on a best-effort basis depending on the info on the source file. Dialogue is left as is.)
[00:16] Furuhashi
I was reading a variety
of webtoons at the time,
[00:20] Furuhashi
and the thing that really drew
my attention was the artwork.
[00:26] KR
When the animation arrives, it will
truly be the completion of this universe.
[00:39] KR
The transition from novel
to webtoon is one thing,
[00:41] KR
but up to animation is something
I could hardly have imagined.
[00:45] Jinwoo
Everybody, get down!
[00:50] Chris
...this start off as a light novel
actually published in Korea,
[00:53] Chris
and then eventually Redice making
that story into an actual manhwa,
[00:59] Chris
and now we get to have the anime adaptation.
[01:02] Jang
Japanese animation studios
are by far the best.
[01:06] Furuhashi
I'm not sure how to express this,
but we're working hard every day
[01:10] Furuhashi
to make sure that we live up
to everyone's expectations.
[01:13] Chris
So now it's... Really, I guess in a way,
it's at its third level.
[01:31] Kim
In Japan, the webtoon format
wasn't really how it was perceived.
[01:36] Kim
It was seen as a kind of
vertically scrolling manga—
[01:41] Kim
either that or as Korean manga,
[01:45] Kim
and that goes to show
how little notoriety it had before.
[01:59] Kim
But over time it started
to become more recognized,
[02:03] Kim
and now they're often referred to as smartoons,
with a lot more people reading them.
[02:17] Kim
Hello, my name is Kim, and I work in Kakao
Piccoma's Global Content Department.
[02:23] Kim
Piccoma is an app where
you can jump on at any time
[02:30] Kim
to read original manga and smartoons.
[02:36] Furuhashi
After I had looked into it, it became clear
that it was a global phenomenon,
[02:40] Furuhashi
not just popular in Japan...
[02:43] Kim
The first time I read Solo Leveling,
I went through three or four chapters,
[02:50] Kim
and I had to see what happened next.
[02:53] Kim
I ended up staying up all night reading.
[02:57] Furuhashi
Part of the reason I chose
Solo Leveling was...
[03:01] Furuhashi
I was reading a variety
of webtoons at the time,
[03:05] Furuhashi
and the thing that really drew
my attention was the artwork.
[03:11] Furuhashi
That was the first thing
that really struck me.
[03:15] Furuhashi
After that, I started thinking how
I would like to turn it into animation...
[03:24] Furuhashi
My name is Furuhashi, and I'm a producer
at Aniplex working on Solo Leveling.
[03:31] Choi
For Solo Leveling, we received offers
from many different studios.
[03:39] Takahashi
Solo Leveling is being produced like
the majority of anime in Japan,
[03:43] Takahashi
with a production committee,
[03:44] Takahashi
where you have a variety of companies
investing in the show in order to create it.
[03:53] Jang
Japanese animation studios
are the best, right?
[03:57] Choi
From all of those, we chose Aniplex.
[04:01] Takahashi
So, on the committee you have
Aniplex, and Crunchyroll,
[04:04] Takahashi
along with the licensors
from Korea, all involved.
[04:09] Chris
We saw the original story as a light novel,
then to a manhwa, then to an anime now,
[04:13] Chris
and now we, as Crunchyroll, Aniplex,
and all the different committee members—
[04:18] Chris
we get to be a part of making this be in the
hands, in the reaches of a global audience,
[04:24] Chris
by bringing the anime to the world.
[04:36] Chris
So when we are doing co-production
[04:38] Chris
it means we have a much more
intimate relationship
[04:41] Chris
with the title and the people and
the committee members involved,
[04:45] Chris
which allows us to talk about
things at a much earlier point.
[04:54] Kaneko
I first learned about Solo Leveling when
Furuhashi-san, the producer at Aniplex,
[05:05] Kaneko
showed me the project
outline in July of 2020.
[05:16] Furuhashi
A big part of why I chose A-1 Pictures
to work on the project
[05:20] Furuhashi
is their success with a number
of titles, regardless of genre,
[05:26] Furuhashi
which really speaks to
their level of ability.
[05:30] Kaneko
Hey there, folks, I'm Kaneko,
an anime producer from A-1 Pictures,
[05:35] Kaneko
and it's a pleasure to be here.
[05:37] Nakashige
I'm the series director, Nakashige,
and thanks for having me.
[05:44] Nakashige
When I first read it, my initial reaction
was "So this is what's popular now?",
[05:50] Nakashige
but also a twinge of nostalgia.
[05:54] Nakashige
It reminded me of how,
when I was doing art in 2009—
[05:58] Nakashige
when I was still drawing as an amateur—
[06:01] Nakashige
I used to read a lot of
vertically oriented manga.
[06:06] Nakashige
So it also took me back to that time.
[06:09] Kim
I'd say there are three big differences
between smartoons and Japanese manga.
[06:15] Kim
One being that smartoons,
like their name would imply,
[06:21] Kim
are designed to be read
on smartphones or on the PC.
[06:27] Kim
That means scrolling vertically.
[06:32] Kim
Another thing is that they tend
to have a faster pace, per-chapter,
[06:38] Kim
with the amount of information
conveyed being simplified.
[06:42] Kim
And the last big difference
is that they're completely in color.
[06:55] Furuhashi
I have to say, my favorite thing
about Solo Leveling really is the art.
[07:01] Furuhashi
The action plays out in this really
cool, stylish, and stoic fashion,
[07:05] Furuhashi
which is a big part of its appeal.
[07:10] Furuhashi
Beyond that, there's also the fact that
the story takes place in the real world.
[07:18] Furuhashi
It is not a story about traveling
entirely into another world,
[07:22] Furuhashi
which I think makes it easier to get into.
[07:31] Jang
Aniplex has a great production system.
[07:36] Jang
For the character design, there was
the original work, the webtoon, to refer to.
[07:45] Jang
The anime characters were
designed with that as the base.
[07:51] Jang
Every step had to be confirmed by D&C.
[07:59] Nakashige
With regards to what advice we received
from the staff of the webtoon,
[08:04] Nakashige
we got to speak to them, as well
as the author of the original novel.
[08:08] Nakashige
So, for example, there would be characters
who didn't show up in the webtoon.
[08:11] Nakashige
They'd be brought up in dialog
but wouldn't appear in the artwork,
[08:15] Nakashige
so we would ask, "Well, what are they like?"
[08:20] Nakashige
Other than that, we'd ask things like
"While the protagonist is doing this,
[08:27] Nakashige
what are the other characters
up to around that time?"
[08:31] Nakashige
and then seed those elements into the script.
[08:50] KR
As producers of the webtoon,
we're similar to assistants.
[08:54] KR
When we get to see the first animations,
we'll continue to provide feedback.
[09:01] KR
That's how we pushed the process
forward up to this point.
[09:14] Sung Jinwoo
That might be why I was able to tell...
[09:17] Sung Jinwoo
Everybody, get down!
[09:33] Cho Myung
What the hell?!
[09:35] Joo Jae-hwan
Nobody mentioned this!
[09:36] Ra Hyeyoung
What is going on here?!
[09:37] Joo Jae-hwan
How should I know?!
[09:38] Kim Sangshik
You all right?
[09:39] Park Beom-shik
Yeah. How about you, Kim?
[09:41] Kim Sangshik
I'm fine.
[09:42] Lee Joohee
No more... No more!
[09:46] Sung Jinwoo
What is happening here?
[09:49] Sung Jinwoo
How is this possible?
[09:51] Sung Jinwoo
We're trapped. We're done for.
[09:54] Sung Jinwoo
We're dead. Dead.
[10:00] Sung Jinwoo
We're gonna die!
[10:05] Furuhashi
In terms of adapting a webtoon into an anime,
[10:09] Furuhashi
I'd say the biggest difference
is probably the pace of the story.
[10:14] Furuhashi
For example, with a webtoon,
a single collected volume...
[10:16] Sung Jinah
You need to take better care of yourself!
Do you know how worried I was?!
[10:20] Furuhashi
For a typical manga, that would cover
two to three episodes worth of material.
[10:22] Sung Jinah
You always end up a mess,
even when everyone else is fine!
[10:27] Furuhashi
But for a webtoon,
it really is much faster paced,
[10:31] Furuhashi
so a collected volume is only about
one and a half episodes of material.
[10:40] Furuhashi
And that was one hurdle
we needed to deal with.
[10:43] Furuhashi
So, in order to overcome that,
we added a bit of extra meat to the story
[10:48] Furuhashi
with an eye towards the overall adaptation.
[10:52] Nakashige
It's such a brisk read
[10:53] Nakashige
that it can sometimes be a little
too breezy for 20 minutes of TV,
[10:57] Nakashige
and with film you need
upswings and downswings,
[10:59] Nakashige
so we try to think hard about how to control
that, what to add and what to subtract.
[11:06] Nakashige
It'd be simple to just say
this is an episode,
[11:08] Nakashige
it's going to contain
this many chapters of story,
[11:10] Nakashige
but as an animated product that'd result
in something that's pretty monotonous,
[11:14] Nakashige
and wouldn't properly convey
how entertaining the original was,
[11:18] Nakashige
so like I said before, we consider
where to add additional stuff,
[11:22] Nakashige
and where to subtract extraneous stuff,
in order to help develop the pacing.
[11:33] Kaneko
This is an original work from folks in a
different country with different sensibilities.
[11:41] Kaneko
And then we take that and present it to
the world through the filter of anime...
[11:46] Kaneko
It's really an interesting sort
of formula we've created here.
[11:58] Furuhashi
With Crunchyroll, they've been a huge help
in regards to the localization efforts.
[12:07] Furuhashi
Since we want Solo Leveling to be
a global hit, not just a domestic one,
[12:13] Furuhashi
part of that meant putting
a focus on the localization
[12:20] Furuhashi
for each region it would be released in.
[12:46] Takahashi
At Crunchyroll, we don't often independently
host premieres for shows before they air.
[12:56] Takahashi
But in the case of Solo Leveling, there are
a lot of fans of the original work already,
[13:03] Takahashi
so we've been holding world premiere events
across the world, starting with Los Angeles.
[13:11] Takahashi
This really isn't something
we could do with most shows,
[13:15] Takahashi
so helping coordinate these
different locations across the globe
[13:20] Takahashi
really was a new experience.
[13:33] Chris
So, as an example of
how this gets played out,
[13:35] Chris
when we were talking about
what is a big promotion
[13:40] Chris
that we could do with
Japan, Korea, and the U.S.
[13:42] Chris
as being the three biggest
markets for this title,
[13:45] Chris
we talked very early on about doing some sort
of premiere event in these three countries.
[13:52] Chris
We got to be a part of those discussions
[13:54] Chris
and also very much have
a collaborative effort with Aniplex
[13:58] Chris
on the premiere events themselves.
[14:00] Chris
So we're making sure that when we do
some of these marketing promotions
[14:04] Chris
that we are actually including the
localized nuances of the different regions,
[14:09] Chris
so that we can actually appeal to those fans.
[14:12] Chris
Because it's different for an
American to view this title
[14:14] Chris
as it would for even someone
in Europe, like the British,
[14:19] Chris
the French, the Germans will have
a slightly different view of the title,
[14:23] Chris
and so we have to think about
from their perspective,
[14:26] Chris
what is it that they'd be excited about.
[14:30] Takahashi
What we're doing with this campaign
[14:33] Takahashi
is operating on a scale
that we usually don't work at.
[14:37] Takahashi
And I think that's personally
helped me level up, as a producer.
[14:44] Chris
How's everyone doing?
[14:48] Chris
Who's excited for the first
two episodes of Solo Leveling?
[14:56] Chris
It's such a pleasure
to be here with you guys.
[14:58] Chris
It's been an incredible day so far,
with the guys here from Japan—
[15:03] Chris
by the way, when they come
out here, I have to tell you,
[15:05] Chris
you have to give the craziest
and the loudest applause
[15:09] Chris
because their flight got canceled yesterday.
[15:13] Chris
They got here this morning.
[15:28] Announcer
Before we begin, as a reminder,
[15:31] Announcer
there is absolutely no flash photography
or recording of this screening.
[15:36] Announcer
Seriously, don't make us send you
into the next dungeon.
[16:03] Jonny Tran
That actually blew my mind.
[16:06] Jonny Tran
I'm so excited to see more,
because there's a lot of gore,
[16:09] Jonny Tran
some great fights, and the
cliffhangers are set just right.
[16:12] Justin Han
I think this is probably my number
one favorite webtoon of all time,
[16:16] Justin Han
so finally getting adapted... Y'know,
it's like a dream come true, actually.
[16:20] Jeremy Evans
I haven't read it yet, but after watching
this, I have to read everything now.
[16:23] Chris
The franchise itself has
a very, very bright future.
[16:26] Chris
A lot of the fans who have been keeping up
with this title from a manhwa perspective
[16:31] Chris
are really excited to see
this become animated,
[16:33] Chris
but for those that have only
just heard about the title,
[16:36] Chris
this is their chance to really get into
this world that Solo Leveling has built,
[16:41] Chris
and to jump into this with other fans,
[16:44] Chris
so we're really excited to bring this globally
to all of our audiences, and to our fans.
[16:50] King Vader
I've been excited ever since
they had the teaser trailer,
[16:52] King Vader
so I'm kinda coming into this, y'know, blind,
but nevertheless, I'm excited.
[16:57] Reagan Kathryn
The animation was stunning,
like the voice acting was fantastic...
[17:00] Samuel Leggett
Japanese animation, and honestly
Japanese film in general,
[17:04] Samuel Leggett
they have, like, a raw invoking emotion.
[17:07] Furuhashi
With Solo Leveling,
in anticipation for the show,
[17:11] Furuhashi
I've been traveling to
different countries for events,
[17:15] Furuhashi
and when Solo Leveling comes up,
the crowd always erupts.
[17:21] June Yoon
It's one thing to scroll the pages
of a webtoon, certainly,
[17:26] June Yoon
and be amused and entertained by the story
in whatever resonances that we may get,
[17:31] June Yoon
but it's something else to watch it
unfold on a screen, with animation,
[17:36] June Yoon
and sound effects, the mixing,
the music, the acting...
[17:39] June Yoon
It really feels like everything
came together in a cohesive piece
[17:43] June Yoon
that really, really, really
feels complete, in a sense.
[17:51] Furuhashi
I'm not sure how to express this...
but we're working hard every day
[17:55] Furuhashi
to make sure that we live up
to everyone's expectations.
[17:57] Takahashi
We're all aware of how popular
Solo Leveling is as a comic,
[18:03] Takahashi
so being involved in the anime
adaptation is very exciting,
[18:11] Takahashi
as well as being a lot of pressure.
[18:17] Stella Chuu
This webtoon far and exceeds
anything I've ever read before.
[18:21] Stella Chuu
It's cinematic, as you're reading it,
[18:23] Stella Chuu
and so now that it's finally
being turned into an anime,
[18:25] Stella Chuu
I feel like... it's finally
deserved. Like, we're here.
[18:29] Stella Chuu
All the fans, we've been waiting
for years to get up to this point!
[18:32] Stella Chuu
Solo Leveling is here,
it's an anime! Aw, let's go!
[19:08] Chris
I know that A-1 Pictures being
the animation studio on this title
[19:12] Chris
will deliver that. They'll do an amazing job,
[19:14] Chris
and we've seen amazing past works from them,
[19:16] Chris
so I put a lot of faith
in them, too, as a fan.
[19:20] Furuhashi
It's our goal to make something
that will exceed everyone's expectations,
[19:26] Furuhashi
so we hope you'll check it out.