Long-time followers of mine will know my interest in webtoons and media from South Korea is relatively new. As a lifelong lover of manga, Korean comics known as manhwas, were a stark transition for me. It took a while to come around because I had a hard time getting past it being in full color. But look at me now! I have accounts for almost every webtoon service and have even made the move to K-dramas! I am brand new.
Upon learning that Solo Leveling was being adapted to an anime, I was on board. I had heard of Solo Leveling many times but it isn’t in my typical reading genre. Watching I can do though, since I already liked other webtoon to anime adaptations. I had watched and enjoyed Tower of God and God of High School. As of today, I’m not completely caught up on the Solo Leveling anime, but I’m loving it. When I got the news of a behind-the-scenes documentary of the making of the anime, I was excited to check it out.
The Leveling of Solo Leveling is a two-part documentary produced by Crunchyroll in collaboration with Allso, a Paris-based production company. It was directed by Lenny Grosman and written by Thomas Chatriot. The documentary takes place in Seoul, South Korea, and Tokyo, Japan. Through interviews with D&C Webtoon, Aniplex, Crunchyroll, A1 Pictures, and fans, the documentary details the journey of Solo Leveling from web novel to manhwa to anime.
Part one of The Leveling of Solo Leveling focuses on how Solo Leveling went from a web novel to webtoon. It also has a broader focus on the webtoon market in South Korea, and its impact there and globally. Part two details how Solo Leveling took off in Japan and was adapted into an anime.
As someone who is still a new manhwa/webtoon fan, I appreciated this inside look not only into Solo Leveling, but the webtoon industry as a whole. I foolishly thought of the industry as more informal than it was. Learning these huge powerhouse companies are backing these popular comics makes a lot of sense. It was great to see how everyone loved the web novel and decided this story needed to be a webtoon immediately.
I enjoyed that the documentary highlighted some of the decisions that go into making an anime adaptation of a webtoon. While I enjoy both mediums, I do not think about how they are different on a technical level. The interviews with Aniplex’s producer Sota Furuhashi, A-1 Pictures producer Atsushi Kaneko, and series director Shunsuke Nakashige gave insight into those differences.
Those differences include how fast-paced webtoons are: where a manga volume would cover 2-3 episodes, a webtoon volume would only cover 1 and a half. Elements need to be added to the story to make it translate well into a 20-minute anime episode. Director Nakashige explains that the story moves so fast, for TV you need to make sure it is a bit slower and has highs and lows. Producer Kaneko put it in a way I understood- they are taking a story from a different culture and keeping that culture intact, but applying an anime filter to it. That line shows the amount of respect and care they have for the source material.
Overall, I deem this documentary a must-watch for fans of the anime and manhwa industries. It should also be a requirement for those who critique adaptations. It’s easy to critique an anime when you are expecting a 1 to 1 adaptation. This documentary highlights why that is not always possible.
Aside from the industry intel, the documentary is visually engaging and perfectly captures the storytelling about Solo Leveling‘s journey. All the professionals were interesting to hear from and provided so much context on why this story has this legacy. I am also hopeful more documentaries like this are in Crunchyroll’s future. While many people just watch anime, a lot of fans would like to learn more about the work that goes into it.
