Episode 11 (Episode 23 overall) of Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise From the Shadow- was a fantastic exercise in demonstrating the absolute brutality of combat. The series has been making a variety of comparisons in the most recent episodes.

Comparisons between Hunters writ large, comparisons amongst the S-ranks and their varied strength, and comparisons between what magic beasts are able to achieve through evolution vs what Hunters are able to. It just so happens that in this case, the ants of Jeju Island have evolved far beyond what even some of the strongest Hunters in the world are able to contend with.

Last week ended on a shocking cliffhanger after the reveal of a black ant with terrifying magic power, a beastlike scream, and combat abilities sufficient to decapitate an S-rank healer in an instant. In terms of what we’ve seen before, this scene felt reminiscent of Jinwoo’s fight against the ice elves when he instantly disembodied an elf who saw fit to challenge him to a duel.

This came after an entire episode that did a good job showcasing how all of these S-rank Hunters are a cut above any of the combatants we’ve seen thus far in Solo Leveling (apart from Jinwoo, of course).

That episode did it’s job in establishing a solid start to the Jeju Island raid and setting a baseline for what we can expect from S-ranks from Korea and Japan (if you’re watching the international version of the anime). This episode similarly did its job in establishing some rising action and a series of threats to overcome, constantly dashing the false hopes of the Hunters by throwing more and more at them just as they overcome some impediment. And luckily, despite the episode leaking a bit ahead of its official premiere, sites like Downdetector were rife with fans experiencing the slowness on Crunchyroll indicative of a super popular episode.

Taking Out the Queen

Episode 10 came right out of the gate with terror, coupling a disturbing bit of piano with three Japanese Hunters getting their heads fully ripped off. It was a great cold open and set the tone for the entire rest of the episode: everyone is doomed. The Japanese Hunters, who have already been portrayed to be stronger than the Korean ones, could do nothing against this mysterious new ant.

This essentially started a timer for the rest of the episode and imparted any viewer with the background knowledge that no matter how much success any of the Hunters have elsewhere on the island, something will be hunting them down in short order.

Credit for this structure goes to the original story, which ended a chapter with the first beheading before moving on to the fight against the queen, but the Solo Leveling anime did a good job adapting it and adding to the terror of the scene with stellar voice acting and a fitting musical backdrop.

Over on the end of the Korean Hunters, they start the main section of the episode off by taking on multiple generations of ants as they get deeper and deeper into the nest and toward the queen. For a section with an many moving entities as this one, I thought the animation was remarkably consistent, with their only being a few moments with noticeable use of 3D animation rather than the series’ typical 2D.

The movements of the Hunters as they clashed with the ants were quite well done, especially the dance-like motion of Cha Hae-In, who is always a favored recipient of flavorful choreography both in the original manhwa and in the anime adaptation.

The various powers of the Hunters, apart from their standard combat, were showcased well, including Baek’s ability to see an incredible distance, a colorful taunt, plenty of firepower, and Baek’s magic beast transformation. His power’s are a personal favorite alongside the otherwise refined moves of Hunters like Cha and Choi.

The anime made the (in my opinion) wise choice to trim some of the scenes of people watching the fight back away from Jeju Island, including a rather clever choice to show someone watching the fight on their smartphone such that the focus was still on the combat and only passively showing the reaction and incredible viewership from the outside.

I thought this maintained the energy of the battle better than the manhwa did. With that extra space, Solo Leveling also adding some additional bits of combat to the scenes against the Queen’s royal guards, showcasing each and every one of the Hunter’s skills against the ants in ways that weren’t there originally.

The added attack scenes lacked the sort of cinematic animation we got in episode 6 of the Season, admittedly, but the final push against the queen more than made up for it. We got an absolute treat of a sequence with Hunter Cha’s final combo on the ant queen. I can tell a great deal of care went into making sure her attacks were just as graceful as they were powerful, and the swelling music undergirding her onslaught contributed an almost heavenly, divine quality to her movements. It felt like watching an angel take down a devil, and I think that feeling was intentional.

A Devastatingly Powerful Ant

The black ant’s arrival at the queen’s chamber was perfect. I especially appreciated the high pitched noise in the background early on, almost as if it releasing its magic power was a concussive blast with lingering effects one everyone in the vicinity. Solo Leveling also absolutely nailed the sound it makes, with the scream eerily having characteristics of both a beast and a human. I’d be curious about the process of putting that sound together, but it was done quite well.

At this point, the parallels between this monster and Jinwoo are more than well enough established. Like Jinwoo, it represents the pinnacle of strength for an evolving species, an existence that surpassed the others around it and acts like an anchor and hero when needed most.

The song playing during its absolute curb stomping of the Korean S-ranks was the same song that played as Jinwoo took out Hwang Dongsuk and his crew mercilessly. And the brutality was much the same, with each of the Hunters getting more or less one-shot and only saved by Byung-Gu’s healing ability. As the healer met his end getting absolutely munched by the ant, we also learned a key component of its abilities.

Like the Chimera Ant king Meruem in Hunter x Hunterthis ant king is able to inherit the abilities of things it consumes, in this case gaining the capacity for human speech from Byung-Gu. It was particularly nice to hear its voice slowly mature over the course of a few seconds before finally sounding downright human. Akira Ishida did an excellent job with this initial voice reveal.

Considering the ant managed to speak Japanese as well as Korean, and considering some of the missing body parts of the killed Hunters, we can likely assume it gained some power from the others it took out as well.

The ending of the episode revealed the sinister side of the Japanese Hunters as they celebrated the destruction of Korea’s military might and opted to leave the Hunters within the nest to be taken out by the returning ants. There were a few cut moments throughout the episode that put a bit more focus on the foreign policy side of Solo Levelingbut I’m glad this moment wasn’t winnowed down too much as it really shows the sinister and cold side of Goto that I feel was cut out from earlier parts of the anime, perhaps to create some contrast here. As cold and powerful as he is though, it seems even Goto was no match for this ant king. We’ll have to wait for next week as Jinwoo finally makes his appearance by teleporting to the battlefield.

Images via Crunchyroll
© Solo Leveling Animation Partners