With the first season of Solo Leveling in full throttle, I wanted to share a little insight on some themes that it touches and possibly explain why it became so popular.
Some Technical Details
Solo Leveling is a web-novel or webtoon/webcomic written by Chugong and illustrated by Jang Sung-rak, serialized between 2016 and 2018. I am writing this article mainly to consider the impact webtoons and technology in general had on the graphic novel industry; furthermore, this time I will not enter the debate of whether or not this work may be considered an isekai or not. By this point, I convinced myself that categories such as isekai do not have a real value or meaning and function mainly to indicate the presence of certain elements within the general setting and world building. On another note, I will also not address the discourse game-reality and the plethora of manga that share this common leitmotiv (that would be a monograph by itself).
Tropes and Themes
Starting from the very title and cover art, one would expect to read a decently actioned-packed, not exceedingly deep, narrative of a protagonist becoming very powerful because of a quasi-game-like feature of levelling up. It’s pretty self-explanatory really. However, what I personally did not expect to read was a story with good world characterization and political intrigue to boot. Within the world of Solo Leveling, various people awake with magical powers and fight powerful monsters; the ‘loot’ that these monsters drop (and yes, that is gaming jargon) is then harnessed by humans for scientific breakthroughs and as sources of energy. This in turn sets the stage for national and international guilds that hunt down these monsters not only for survival (although that is an important aspect as the murderous monsters cannot be hurt by normal weapons) but for substantial economical gains. This is a detail that I personally appreciated while binge-reading this webtoon. Attention is given to the world building and the political intrigue that comes with these formed guilds: the prestige as well as the power they would gain from acquiring stronger hunters for instance or better ‘loot’ is not inconsequential. Although the main story unfolds in Korea, as readers we witness manipulation, scheming and backstabbing even on a global scale – between nations and exceedingly powerful guilds. This is an index of a story that was well thought out and constructed.
So let’s get down to the finer details without spoiling the plot. Solo Leveling is a power fantasy thru and thru; it begins as the story of the underdog given that the main character initially is in the lowest tier of hunters. This however is set aside quickly given that for a unique reason and coincidence he is the only one capable of actually getting better (by levelling up, hence the title). There is a consideration here on how the webtoons touches even on the theme of classism and how everyone else cannot change the rank they receive as hunters – it acts like an innate unchangeable quality. The story might not be innovative, but by using various canonical tropes to their full potential, the author manages to deliver a story that hooks the reader. You might imagine the general direction of the plot from this description: the underdog (always appreciated having someone to root for) becomes overpowered and somewhat of an anti-hero as well. It follows that the narratological structure features a good vs. evil theme and that in the end the main character will stand by humanity’s side. The action is paced with moments of world building and minor comical relief scenes – this gives Solo Leveling its overall flow and its acclamations.
Innovation and webtoons
While the wetoon format has been around for quite some time and we could trace back certain works to the end of the ‘90, let us concentrate on the fact that this phenomenon started to gain popularity by the beginning and mid of the 2000s. Furthermore, in the last decade this format has reached substantial peaks – even more so in Korea. Although they do have manhwa that are published in print, there is a conspicuous slice of the market dedicated to webtoon.
So how did this format become so widespread?
The simple answer would be accessibility, although there are many more tangential factors at play. In a technological world, more and more emphasis is given to having everything on hand, ready right away and in a portable fashion – it is to no surprise, as such, that there is a wide array of apps that let you read anything on your phone (manga, comic books, graphic novels, webtoons). Generally in the case of comic books and manga one would however have to enlarge the image to better understand the scene whereas that is not necessarily the case with many webtoons. The art and narration has been adapted in such a way that the ‘comic strip’ fits in a narrow screen and you can read it by scrolling; cell phones and tablets become ideal.
I want to direct your attention to how this process of adaptation to a different format also inspired authors and artists to rethink their technique, to envision their stories by scrolling through them from top to bottom rather than sequentially. In a slender narrower format of images, the spacing and positioning of characters or their dialogues has changed in order to give a feeling of fluidity. In various web-manhwas and webtoons the ability and knowledge of the authors is reflected from their usage of this format. A full webtoon page would be more difficult to be appreciated on a computer without enlarging it, but it becomes ideal to be scrolled on a phone. Case and point, here is a portion of an image that comes from Solo Leveling.
This represents a knight that is kneeling after having eliminated a foe. It is almost reminiscent of the use of a camera angle that starts at the top and then closes in on the detail.
In a world where everything has been seemingly done before, Solo Leveling demonstrates that there is still room for something new to be created; the boundaries may still be pushed.
Happy reading.