“There were unprecedented difficulties”: Solo Leveling Producer Went Above and Beyond for the Anime’s Global Audience

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Of all the manga and manhwa in the past few years, very few titles have managed to leave a lasting impression on their viewers, like Solo Leveling. The story features the perfect underdog story of Sung Jinwoo, who happens to be the weakest hunter in humanity’s history but aspires to be the strongest.

Sadly, the title has been a topic of criticism, where fans found the show to be nothing like the source material. To make matters worse, the show felt flat after just a couple of episodes. With Season 2 already defying expectations, the producer has come forward, shedding light on the monumental effort they put in to appeal to the global audience.

Solo Leveling’s producer sheds light on the trouble circling Sung Jinwoo

Ch’ugong’s Solo Leveling sent shockwaves in 2024, as it was one of the most anticipated series that many were looking forward to. However, upon release, it put its viewers in a chokehold. The anime was nothing like the manhwa, which had gained incredible success for all the right reasons.

Major problem followed Sung Jinwoo's name in Solo Leveling

Contrastingly, the anime adaptation failed to resonate with the traits of the source material, where some claim the series started an unwanted trend. However, this can’t disregard the fact that the series has made an astronomical effort to please its global audience.

Recently, during an exclusive interview via X (@chromat1cfire), Mr. Sota Furuhashi, the series’ producer, threw light on the problems surrounding the production that hindered the work that “aimed at a global audience.”

Taito Ban was allured by Sung Jinwoo's character sketch

He said,

As it is a work aimed at a global audience, there were unprecedented difficulties in the production. For example, the name of the main character in the original work is “Mizushino Shun” in Japan.

He continued explaining the Korean origins of the show and how outside of Japan Mizushino Shun is called “Sung Jinwoo,” and they did something unexpected to appeal to the Otaku community in Japan. The producer added,

Since it was originally a Korean work, the character names were localized for Japan, but outside of Japan, they are known by their Korean names.

He emphasized that to make the series more appealing to the Japanese audience, the names were localized, but outside the E-Rank Hunter was known by their original name.

Thus, taking a drastic step to ensure the show did appeal to the global audience.

Solo Leveling did not consider failure as an option

In the same interview, Sota Furuhashi put weight on the importance of the character’s name in Japan and overseas. This made them decide to do two dubs, where one will be exclusive for the people of Japan, while the other will be made for overseas viewers.

Sung Jinwoo is called Mizushino Shun in Japanese version

He said,

Because the character names are different in Japan and overseas, we did two dubs, one for the Japanese version and one for the overseas version, which is something we’ve never done before. Japanese voice actors are popular overseas.

Furuhashi-San added that they were “conscious of people” who preferred the subbed version. Hence, they made appropriate changes throughout so that they “don’t feel out of place.”

So we were conscious of people who watch anime with subtitles. That’s why we changed the character names during dubbing so that they wouldn’t feel out of place. We also used English for the backgrounds, status screens, etc.

Despite criticism closely following the show, the production team deserves a huge round of applause for the efforts they put in to make the title become a global sensation.

Nevertheless, with the arrival of the second season, fans are excited as the debut episode has raised the bar and made them look forward to Sung Jinwoo’s next chapter.

Solo Leveling Season 2 Episode 2 will be released on January 12th, 2025 at midnight (JST); it can be streamed on Crunchyroll.

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