Anime: Ore dake Level Up na Ken: Arise from the Shadow 1m1bu

This will be an extension of the review I wrote for the first season, so make sure to check that one before starting with this one.

1) Better received
The second season of Solo Leveling has a much more positive reception compared to the first season. It was no longer up against something like Frieren. Its main antagonist was the third season of Rezero, which had the same problem that people didn’t like about the first season of Solo Leveling: Not being mostly focused on the main character. There is no more kicking around the bush regarding why everyone is watching the show for. People were here for the power fantasy and nothing else, which wasn’t the case while he was still weak in the first season and the show was desperately trying to convince you it has interesting world building or an elaborate power system. It didn’t and the audience was stuck following a lame loser who was weaker than most other hunters. Now that he is overpowered and has eclipsed most others, the dopamine fix works much better. Meanwhile, Rezero, once one of the most popular anime, did the mistake of moving away from the protagonist’s psychological problems and spending way too much time on secondary characters that the audience does not care about.

2) Much less emphasis on statistic screens
The second season also fixes the mistake on constantly interrupting the action to show fairly basic statistic screens. Although they are still there, they take up a lot less screen time and the numbers are often hidden, thus becoming an aesthetic rather than a vital element you have to constantly pay attention to instead of enjoying the aura farming. This also removed the nonsense about the protagonist not knowing how injured he is without looking at the screen instead of just feeling pain.

3) Taking advantage of the shortcomings
Everything that is dumb about the setting (most of it) is now properly exploited and becomes entertaining instead of frustrating. The complete lack of safety protocols of the first season are now an excuse for the protagonist to show off his coolness instead of a cheap excuse to throw him in life-threatening situations that could have easily been avoided. It’s still dumb, but now it’s only the secondary characters that get pulverized by the monsters all the time. The protagonist uses that to show off how much stronger he is than everyone else, which adds to the power fantasy.

4) The protagonist has more agency
Most of the first season was essentially the videogame system forcing the protagonist’s hand on every step of the way. He was not free to refuse or strong enough to deal with the consequences. Now that he is strong enough to basically enjoy partaking in fights, he is far more proactive and the system does not dictate what he must do next.

5) Character development is STILL sudden and artificial
This problem persists from the first season. The protagonist breaking down emotionally when his mother woke up had little thought put behind it. It was sudden, it had no build up, and nobody in the audience cared about his mother since they were watching the show for the aura farming. The writer clearly has no skill here and insists on rewriting his characters whenever he feels like it instead of putting the work to make the change believable.

6) No more moral dilemmas
The second season doesn’t have moral dilemmas. They were always hollow and stood in the way of the power fantasy. The villains of the second season are not manipulative jerks and the protagonist is not questioning his humanity anymore.

7) The protagonist is no longer an underdog but he is still a cheater
The protagonist was never compelling as an underdog, since he was the only one who could level up. He was essentially cheating the whole time since he had gamed the system in a way nobody else stood a chance against. That didn’t change in the second season, but at least now he no longer pretends being an underdog and every agency in the world wants him on his side without caring about whether he is cheating or not. Meaning, there is no more pretense.

8 ) Grinding and training are not shown as much
Similarly to the statistic screens, scenes where the characters train or grind dungeons have also been lessened in volume and duration. They were always a waste of time when only the protagonist could level up, and now they are either skipped or they are very short, allowing the power fantasy to take up more screen time.

Conclusion
Although Solo Leveling is still nothing intelligent, the second season removed most of the chaff and the pretense, thus becoming much more enjoyable as far as mindless entertainment goes. The only real problem it has now is its terribly handled personality changes. Beyond that it’s an enjoyable mindless actionfest for the meatheads.