Awesome people fill anime fandom, bonding over hobbies in a time-honored tradition. So, I make sure to save some shows to watch with friends. I find popular shows some of the best to watch with people because we can share our thoughts before we get online takes. This is why I watched Solo Leveling with a friend, and you should, too.
The Heart of Solo Leveling
If you’ve been living in a doomsday bunker and don’t know what Solo Leveling is, I’ve got your back. Solo Leveling is the story of Sung Jin-Woo, a 20-something adventurer. He lives in a portal fantasy Earth, where strange portals appear, monsters try to escape and kill humans, and adventurers must use their magical powers to seal the portals to protect humanity. When we meet him, Jin-Woo is an E-rank adventurer scraping by to pay his family’s bills. His mother is in a coma. His sister is in school. Without him, multiple lives will be torn apart, but Jin-Woo risks his life for a pittance because of how weak he is. Even among lowly E-rankers, he’s among the lowest.
Being an anime based on a Korean web novel, Jin-Woo doesn’t stay weak, of course. Usually, I would explain the cheesy or mediocre circumstances of his ascension to power, but in the case of Solo Leveling, spoiling the opening episodes seems wrong. Solo Leveling is at its best when it makes Jin-Woo really struggle, and the first few episodes are moments of peak struggling. Enjoying those first episodes with friends can raise that peak even higher.
Just don’t bring anyone who saw or had the show spoiled unless they know how to keep it to themselves.
Literal Solo Leveling
Once Jin-Woo powers up, the premise starts. Jin-Woo is the only person capable of becoming more magically powerful in a world of already rare magical people. So, although he may not be able to beat every threat from the start, any enemy another character finds impossible to defeat is fair game for Jin-Woo to destroy… eventually.
Solo Leveling is an unapologetic power fantasy, but Jin-Woo is surprisingly grounded. His goal to cure his mother’s magic-induced incurable disease keeps the stakes above mere survival while not making leveling itself the goal.
Jin-Woo’s compassion doesn’t stop at his mother. He endangers himself to help others. While his compassion decreases, or he prioritizes it less as the story progresses, he remains compassionate throughout the whole show. Some people online call him a boring stoic with no character, and I think that criticism is unfair. I wouldn’t rate him as the best character to recently air. But he’s an intriguing power fantasy protagonist, and he won over enough people to win Best Main Character from the Crunchyroll 2025 Anime Awards.
Admittedly, it’s hard to see compassion at work when Jin-Woo spends much of his time alone. Internal monologues carry a lot of Jin-Woo’s scenes. A guy talking to himself about the mechanics of his level-ups or his new powers isn’t thrilling character work. These monologues can drag. If you’re bored with breaks in the action to learn about magic item purchasing mechanics, chat with your friend. It also helps to have someone around who remembers a detail about a power from two episodes ago that seemed unimportant at the time. Because some powers matter more as the show continues, while others stop showing up.
Action! Animation!
Like Demon Slayer before it, Solo Leveling accomplishes a lot by looking good. Its action set pieces are all over the internet. People meme, make GIFs, and discuss Jin-Woo’s memorable moments. It has all the buzz water cooler shows want. If you’ve avoided watching despite all that but like action, Solo Leveling is worth checking out for these moments alone. Animation carries the show a bit more than stakes at times. Over-design can be an issue. However, it never bothered me except for some of the lighting effects.
By watching with a friend, you can experience these moments together. Excitedly discussing in real-time the last fight or stressing out about Jin-Woo’s survival makes anime viewing more special. Reacting when Jin-Woo blows past opposition because he’s overpowered also has its appeal. Lots of shows are easy to watch in silence, but Solo Leveling brings the big moments that are hard not to discuss. Instead of having to go online or text someone, you’ll have your friend to hear you out.
Solo vs. Group Jerking
My major complaint about Solo Leveling is that nobody matters but Jin-Woo. Some people love the OP protagonist who wins at everything in contrast to other characters who are all pathetic, but I don’t. I’d heard that nobody seems to matter in Solo Leveling except Sung Jin-Woo, and that’s painfully true. Even Jin-Woo’s friends and his love interest exist to fail and be rescue victims.
Thankfully, even though every woman unrelated to him wants Sung Jin-Woo, the power fantasy never turns into an ecchi fantasy. Jin-Woo is a classic oblivious male lead who pays no attention to women. This makes the show easy to watch with a friend because you don’t have to ensure you share the same level of culture.
Concluding Friendship
Between vibing over the good and poking fun at the bad, I was able to watch season 2 from start to finish in one great sitting. I’m sure I’ll watch season 3 the same way. Solo Leveling is a high-quality show in some ways and deeply flawed in others. But watching with a friend can make both aspects more enjoyable. Shows like this, which energize the fandom and make a big splash among anime fans, are perfect for watching with others.
The best part of watching anime with friends is that only boring shows aren’t worth the trouble. Bonding is fun regardless of what aspect of a show speaks to you, and Solo Leveling has a lot to bond over.
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