I Just Realized the Solo Leveling Anime Is Doing What One-Punch Man Never Could
 

Solo Leveling has reached a level of success not a lot of people could have seen coming. Its first season broke record after record, even becoming the most-liked series on Crunchyroll in just 12 episodes. With a popular manhwa/webtoon backing it up, not many could have predicted the heights that Solo Leveling would reach in its first season, drawing a ton of comparisons to One Punch Man, another series with a solid web comic backing it up, leading to a similar success with its first season.

Solo Leveling and One Punch Man might have a lot in common, but there's one huge area where they differ. The second season of Solo Leveling looks to continue the trends put forward by its predecessor and succeed by that much more. The second season of One Punch Man, however, left a lot to be desired, causing many fans to wonder how such a great series could drop off so heavily.

Solo Leveling and One Punch Man Had Similar Beginnings

Both Started as a Web Novel and Web Comic Respectively

Solo Leveling and One Punch Man have a lot more in common than most new and old fans might recognize. Both come from humble beginnings and, while other series may be backed up by a major studio, or have an author who has already built a large following, Solo Leveling and One Punch Man both started on the web as a novel and comic respectively. Chu-Gong, the author who created Solo Leveling, hadn't published any other notable works by the time Solo Leveling was first created.

ONE, the mysterious creator of One Punch Man, didn't have any prior projects either when he first started self-publishing. While he's since created a variety of other works, including one of the best anime series of all time, Mob Psycho 100, he had the same start as Chu-Gong.

Both series started from basically nothing, expanding into massive franchises due to their amazing stories. Nobody would have predicted just how big both series would have grown, especially considering where they started.

Both Solo Leveling and One Punch Man Had Excellent First Seasons
And Became Major Hits When They Finally Aired

Another area where Solo Leveling and One Punch Man really came together was in their first seasons. Both had an incredible debut, breaking the world of anime wide open in an instant. The first season of One Punch Man is one of the best animated seasons of anime altogether. Saitama, Genos, and the rest of the characters in One Punch Man look exceptional, and their fights are always jaw-dropping. The animation behind the Genos versus Saitama fight alone should earn the series an award.

Solo Leveling quite literally broke records on Crunchyroll when its first season debuted. The animation was absurdly good, the story was edgy in the best way possible, and anime watchers got their first taste of Sung Jinwoo, the sole Hunter whose strength is accelerating at an unprecedented pace. The first season of Solo Leveling, like One Punch Man, left nothing to be desired. Both series started so well, that they immediately stood out from all their competitors.

When the first season of One Punch Man cemented itself as an unexpected comedy anime, the series was quickly labeled one of the funniest of all time. People couldn't wait for the second season to come out, and the same can be said about Solo Leveling. There's not a single moment in either first season that should be cut. Each one adds to the series, leaving not a shred of fat to slow the viewing experience down.

Solo Leveling's Second Season Is Much Better Than One Punch Man's
Whereas One Punch Man's Season Two Fell Off

Where the two series began to differ immensely is in their second seasons. While Solo Leveling would then surpass Jujutsu Kaisen's record on Crunchyroll, the second season of One Punch Man dipped in quality by a noticeable amount. Solo Leveling somehow took the show to even greater heights in a way most people didn't even think was possible, considering just how good the first season was. And Jinwoo's story would only prove to get even better as new episodes dropped, with the numbers reflecting that directly. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for One Punch Man.

Nobody knew how big One Punch Man was going to be when it first aired, so the decision-makers of the series didn't book Madhouse to animate the next season.

The second season of the hit series was beginning to stir some controversy as fans identified a lot of key flaws in several areas. Initially, One Punch Man was animated by Madhouse, one of the best animation studios in Japan. Madhouse is known for a lot of other hit series, including Parasyte: The Maxim, Black Lagoon, and the top-ranking anime of all time on myanimelist.com, Frieren: Beyond Journey's End.

Nobody knew how big One Punch Man was going to be when it first aired, so the decision-makers of the series didn't book Madhouse to animate the next season. They instead deferred to J.C. Staff, and the dip in animation quality was palpable. Not only was the animation considerably worse, but the story fell off too.

saitama from one punch man with his arms crossed with stills from the manga bug ego in the background
Related
One Punch Man's Creator's New Monthly Manga Could Be His Best One Yet
ONE's newest manga series Bug Ego is finally being serialized by Shueisha which could finally give the new work the attention it deserves.

One Punch Man is at its best when the series focuses on the titular One Punch Man himself, Saitama. The second season puts him on the back burner and focuses on the other heroes that make up the bulk of the Hero's Association. While characters like Bang, Garou, and more can be interesting, they pale in comparison to Saitama. Without the protagonist, the series feels like any other shōnen anime with its normal roster of heroes, and that's not the point of One Punch Man's franchise. Saitama exists to break all the rules in the best way possible, and without him, the story isn't nearly as great as it was during the first season.

Solo Leveling Succeeded Where One Punch Man Faltered
If Madhouse Animated One Punch Man Season Two, Who Knows What Would Have Happened

While One Punch Man got worse during its second season, Solo Leveling only got better. Like Sung Jinwoo himself, Solo Leveling continues to grow stronger as a series the longer it goes on. If Madhouse had come back to produce the second season of One Punch Man, it would have been much better than what fans received, but even higher-quality animation wouldn't stop the story from getting more boring.

Solo Leveling hasn't reached its peak yet, and it's headed in that direction with no stops in sight. It's one of the best edgy anime series of all time, and it will only continue that trend for the remainder of the second season and well into the third. One Punch Man might be trying to do too many things at once, whereas Solo Leveling focuses on Sung Jinwoo almost entirely, and One Punch Man happens to put a lot of side characters in the spotlight when they may not deserve it.

Solo Leveling and One Punch Man are excellent because of their main characters. If One Punch Man could take a page out of Solo Leveling's book and focus solely on Saitama, maybe it would be close to breaking the same records Sung Jinwoo has obliterated time and time again.