# 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](https://www.crunchyroll.com/watch/G4VUQVJ2X/a-hunter-rises)
Translator:
Editor:
Timer:
QC:
(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](https://www.crunchyroll.com/watch/G14U410M2/second-awakening)
Translator:
Editor:
Timer:
QC:
(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.