The Solo Leveling release date on Crunchyroll is confirmed to be in January 2024, the Winter 2024 anime season.
However, there will be multiple world premiere events for episodes 1 and 2:
- December 10 – Tokyo
- December 10 – Seoul
- December 14 – Los Angeles
A trailer PV was released in September 2023:
The Solo Leveling anime was originally confirmed to be in 2023 by Crunchyroll. However, on February 15, 2023, anime news leaker Sugoi LITE claimed that the Solo Leveling anime will be postponed.
At one point, the official announcement only stated, “Coming Next Winter,” so it was previously uncertain whether this time frame could include December 2023 (Attack On Titan similarly had an odd release schedule).
On March 21, 2023, the official announcement specified the Winter release time frame with a new key visual and a teaser PV. On September 10, 2023, it was confirmed that the first season was planned for 2024.
The Solo Leveling anime will be streaming on Crunchyroll in North America, Central America, South America, Europe, Africa, Oceania, the Middle East and CIS as it airs in Japan. The Korean series is also known as Only I Level Up in English.
The Solo Leveling anime TV series was confirmed to be in production during Anime Expo 2022 on July 3, 2022. During Aniplex Online Fest 2022 on September 24, 2022, it was reaffirmed by a longer teaser trailer that the premiere would be in 2023.
The original author and the illustrator released statements celebrating the Solo Leveling anime:
“About six years ago when I was writing the very beginning of Solo Leveling, if someone had said to me, ‘The novel you wrote will become a comic,’ I bet I’d have told them to stop pulling my leg. But now, I’m told that it’ll be animated?! Seriously, stop pulling my leg!… But these days, I’m feeling excited and thrilled. Since I’m still half-doubting that this is real, I want to see Jinwoo and the other characters get animated soon and feel relieved. I’ll keep working diligently while looking forward to that day.”
– Chugong, Author
“Solo Leveling is finally making its anime debut. It feels like only yesterday that we got the offer for the anime adaptation. I feel so overwhelmed when I think that the anime is really being created right now. This is all thanks to you fans who love and support Solo Leveling. I’m filled with gratitude. Thank you very much. Also, please support the animation production team. If this anime gives new enjoyment to the readers, I’ll be very happy.”
– DUBU, Illustrator
The Solo Leveling staff includes director Shunsuke Nakashige. Noboru Kimura is in charge of the scripts. Tomoko Sudo is the character designer. Composer Hiroyuki Sawano (Kingdom, Bubble) makes the music.
Studio A-1 Pictures has produced great anime TV shows and movies like Fairy Tail, Sword Art Online, The Seven Deadly Sins, Your Lie in April, and the 86 anime.
The Solo Leveling OP (opening) theme song music “LEveL” is performed by SawanoHiroyuki[nZk]:TOMORROW X TOGETHER.
The ED (ending) theme song music hasn’t been announced yet… well, at least for the anime itself.
In late December 2021, Solo Leveling publisher D&C Webtoon shared a teaser trailer for the Solo Leveling OST (official soundtrack). The K-pop group The Boyz released the OST track “Echo” in February 2022.
The Solo Leveling cast includes:
- Sung Jinqoo voiced by Taito Ban
- Yoo Jinho voiced by Genta Nakamura
- Sung Jinah voiced by Haruna Mikawa
- Cha Hae-In voiced by Reina Ueda
- Choi Jong-In voiced by Daisuke Hirakawa
- Baek Yoonho voiced by Hiroki Touchi
- Go Gunhee voiced by Banjo Ginga
- Woo Jinchul voiced by Makoto Furukawa
This article provides everything that is known about Solo Leveling Season 1 and all related news. As such, this article will be updated over time with news, rumors, and analysis. Meanwhile, let’s delve down into what is known for certain.
Why the Solo Leveling Episode 1 release date is in January 2024
As of the last update, D&C Webtoon, Crunchyroll, Aniplex, Studio A-1 Pictures or any company related to the production of the anime has not officially confirmed the exact Solo Leveling release date. However, the production of a Solo Leveling anime has been officially announced. It’s also been confirmed that the anime is releasing in Winter 2024.
Once the news is officially confirmed this article will be updated with the relevant information.
Typically, once an anime project is announced to be in production the time frame for the first episodes will be confirmed within a year or two.
In this case, the production decision was apparently decided internally years ago but they were not ready to announce the Solo Leveling anime project to the public. Anime productions are scheduled years in advance so often times the staff and studio involved in the production need to keep the project a secret for years before they’re publicly announced. But that’s when anime news leakers will hear about the project through their sources.
Another factor is the pacing of the story. Similar to the first part of Attack On Titan: The Final Season, it’s possible that the producers determined that Solo Leveling Season 1 needed more than 13 episodes for the first cour.
Therefore, since the Solo Leveling anime was officially confirmed at Anime Expo 2022 (July 2022) only to be unofficially delayed, it was predicted by Anime Geek that the Solo Leveling release date would most likely be in January 2024.
The Solol Leveling anime announcement was leaked ahead of time
Before the official announcement, anime news leakers were correctly claiming that the anime production committee will include both Crunchyroll and Aniplex. What’s more, the animation production company will reportedly be Studio A-1 Pictures.
The Solo Leveling anime website sololeveling-anime.net was registered by GMO Internet, the company that handles websites of other A-1 pictures anime adaptations like Sword Art Online. (Keep in mind that you can’t use domain registrations to determine the animation production company.)
Additionally, back in January 2022, anime news leaker SPY claimed, “Solo Leveling TV anime in production.” When SPY was asked if he was “sure” he simply replied, “Yes.” SPY does have a history of providing accurate anime news leaks.
Similarly, news leaker Jaymes Hanson was teasing the possibility back in December 2021:
At the time it was also a believable rumor since the popular Solo Leveling manhwa finished adapting the ending of the web novel’s story in late 2021. There’s already a Solo Leveling video game and live-action TV drama being developed, so why not an animation project?
How many episodes will the Solo Leveling anime have?
The number of episodes for the Solo Leveling anime has not yet been announced. However, based on the manhwa comic series (see the anime/manhwa comparison section below for more details), it’s likely that the first season will be multiple cours.
A “cour” is a three-month TV broadcasting block based on the physical seasons, usually composed of 10 to 13 episodes.
Since the Solo Leveling comic series is already finished, it’s also possible the first season could be a complete adaptation rather than continuing with a Solo Leveling Season 2. In that scenario, let’s just hope the Solo Leveling anime is a split-cour anime for the sake of the production schedule and animation quality.
A “split-cour” is where a single anime season takes a multi-month break before resuming TV broadcasting. Recent examples would be Attack On Titan Season 4 Part 3 and Spy x Family Part 2.
Solo Leveling Season 2 anime likely?
The Solo Leveling story is long enough that it will require multiple cours to adapt properly into an anime. The 179 chapters of the webtoon (or 270 chapters of the novel) are divided up into 22 story arcs, including the Chapter 0 prologue and epilogue. None of the story arcs are overly long, with the longest being 18 chapters in length.
Assuming the Solo Leveling anime TV series is divided up into multiple seasons, the best stopping point is shortly after the Jeju Island arc (Chapters 90 through 107). Without getting into spoilers, it offers a climactic battle and a major turning point in the story based on certain character developments.
If the story is divided up that way, then the Solo Leveling Season 2 anime would line up with the second season of the webtoon. Of course, an optimal adaptation would be a split-cour anime a Solo Leveling Part 2 anime picks up the story again at the same point.
Why Solo Leveling character Sung Jin-Woo was changed to Shun Mizushino
In the past, three Japanese studios have already adapted a Manhwa series into an anime: Telecom Animation Film (Tower of God), MAPPA (The God of High School), and Production I.G. (Noblesse). Arguably, Studio MAPPA already has enough projects on its full plate (Chainsaw Man, Jujutsu Kaisen, Jigokuraku, etc.), and Studio Telecom Animation Film is reportedly already working on Tower of God Season 2.
Since Solo Leveling is a South Korean creation so some fans were hoping that a Korean studio like Studio Mir could handle the project. (Studio Mir is simply an example since they’ve never adapted a manhwa or manga series before. Most of their projects have been produced for Nickelodeon, Adult Swim, or Netflix, including Voltron: Legendary Defender and The Legend of Korra.)
A secondary issue was whether the animation could even be considered an anime if a Japanese studio wasn’t involved. It’s a difficult question to answer since there have been anime projects where the director was Korean (The God of High School). There have also been anime projects where a significant portion of the work was outsourced to Chinese, Korean, and Philippine studios.
The reason that a Korean studio seemed possible at one point is due to how the novel addresses some political issues between South Korea and Japan. In fact, the Japanese are literally cast as villains!
On that basis, Japanese studios like A-1 Pictures were probably leery about associating their name with the project unless significant story tweaks are made. And that’s what they’ve done since the name of the main character, Sung Jin-Woo, was changed to Shun Mizushino, which has proven to be controversial in its own right.
Of course, it’s not like the politics of the story focused on only Korea and Japan. The Solo Leveling Season 2 webtoon also featured issues between the USA and China.
But since the main character was given a Japanese name it’s likely that the story could be changed even more in order to avoid naming other nations as villains.
Solo Leveling Chapter 179 ended the webtoon’s story
The story for the anime TV series would be based on the Solo Leveling webtoon (Korean manhwa) by writer Chugong and illustrator Jang-Sung-Rak aka Dubu. The ending of the series was released as Solo Leveling Chapter 179 on December 29, 2021 (the English version came out on January 4, 2022).
The Solo Leveling webtoon has been released by multiple services. KakaoPage provides the original Korean version, while Piccoma handles the Japanese release, and Pocket Comics/Tappytoon the English release.
On Tappytoon, the Solo Leveling chapters can be read for free, but there is a long multi-day wait until the next chapter is unlocked. Alternatively, readers can unlock new chapters immediately via tokens or points. Also, the newest 16 chapters must be unlocked with tokens or points, so you can’t simply read to the ending for free.
The Webtoon was divided into two parts. Solo Leveling Season 1 ran from March 2018 through March 2020. After a multi-month hiatus, the Solo Leveling Season 2 release date was on August 1, 2020.
The webtoon has been released in four print volumes by D&C Media as of April 2021. There will probably be around 12 print volumes in total.
The Solo Leveling web novel was first serialized starting in July 2016. Solo Leveling Chapter 270 was the ending of the web novel. There are 13 print volumes in total and one side story volume. The Solo Leveling English translation of the web novel was released with the title Only I Level Up from December 2018 through June 2019.
North American publisher Yen Press has been releasing the official print edition of the English translation for both the Solo Leveling light novels and the graphic novel series. The English light novels were up to Volume 4 as of March 29, 2022, while the final webtoon Volume 4 was released on March 22, 2022.
- Updated April 6, 2023: Added new visual and “Winter” time frame explanation.
- Updated September 24, 2022: Added Aniplex event info.