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
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.)
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:
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.