Highlights
- Daily workout routine in Solo Leveling resembles Saitama's training in One Punch Man - both lead to immense power.
- Ending sequence is reminiscent of Five Nights at Freddy's, with Jinwoo facing a sinister situation in a creepy facility.
- Jinwoo's dagger flip in Episode 3 alludes to Arya Stark defeating the Night King in Game of Thrones, showcasing his combat prowess.
The following contains spoilers for Solo Leveling, available to stream on Crunchyroll.
Solo Leveling is one of the most talked about anime adaptations of the Winter 2024 season, and for several reasons. With the fandom having anticipated this adaptation for several years since the manhwa's end, the arrival of the anime by A-1 Pictures has been a majorly significant moment, especially when it comes to the growing trend of anime adaptations of Korean IPs in the 2020s. With great production value and a style that can sometimes call back to the visual feel of the Solo Leveling manhwa, the anime has been a triumph.
The anime adaptation not only remains faithful to the original adaptation but there is a clear effort to elevate the story and improve on aspects that the manhwa might not have gotten quite right. Part of this elevation is the inclusion of various Easter Eggs and references to not just other anime, but other media as well. Here's a rundown of all the Easter Eggs in the Solo Leveling anime so far.
A New Solo Leveling Documentary is Coming to Crunchyroll
"The Leveling of Solo Leveling" will explore the rise and development of the Solo Leveling IP.
The Training Regiment
How To Be OP
Perhaps the loudest reference or Easter Egg in the Solo Leveling verse is the training regiment that Jinwoo is forced to undertake to avoid penalty from the System. This training requires Jinwoo to run 10 kilometers, and do 100 push-ups and 100 sit-ups every single day of his life – the very same thing that Saitama did for three years straight to gain insurmountable power as the titular character of One Punch Man. While the specifics and the rate of growth, as well as context are different for these characters, it is undeniable that this aspect of Solo Leveling was inspired by ONE's One Punch Man.
The Ending Sequence
Five Nights At Freddy's
The ending sequence for the Solo Leveling anime features early Jinwoo seated in a strange room watching surveillance footage on a television. As the song progresses, various shots of parts of the building Jinwoo is in are seen, and it's set up to appear that something is slowly approaching the room he is in. Jinwoo's facial expression communicates a level of discomfort or fear as the sequence continues, and the visuals show various angles of Jinwoo monitoring this strange facility. This is reminiscent of the 2014 horror video game Five Nights At Freddy's, which follows Mike, a security guard who works at a pizzeria at night and soon realizes that the animatronic mascots become homicidal.
The main antagonist is Freddy Fazbear, a creepy teddy bear with an unnerving smile. Mike must find a way to stay alive for five whole nights while the mascots try to invade the security room, hence the game's title. The gameplay is reflected in Jinwoo's situation in the Solo Leveling ending theme, especially at the end of the sequence when the door swings open and Jinwoo stares at the empty corridor beyond, reflecting how the security room door swings open to show no one standing behind it in the game. Perhaps the ending sequence reflects Jinwoo's relationship with the System.
Solo Leveling: Who Is Kang Taeshik?
Here's a breakdown of the Hunter Association Surveillance Team member, Kang Taeshik, and the role he plays in Solo Leveling.
The Dagger Flip That Killed the Night King
Jinwoo, The Goblin Slayer
In the third episode of Solo Leveling, Jinwoo has learned that not completing the physical training task that he has to do on a Daily Basis will lead to an extremely dangerous penalty quest. Completing the Daily Task for a while led to him receiving a random box containing a key to an Instance Dungeon at Hapjeong Station. In that Dungeon, Jinwoo is attacked by goblins and then an entire pack of Steel-Fanged Lycans. While the goblins attack him 3-on-1, he makes use of the cheap dagger that he has always had, despite being overwhelmed by their erratic movements and teamwork.
The way Jinwoo grips the dagger is similar to how an Assassin-type in video games, with an emphasis on stabbing and slashing outward rather than inward, and with this grip, he manages to inflict a killing blow on the second goblin as it charges at him. Running towards the third goblin that is preparing to attack, Jinwoo realizes his grip isn't conducive to attacking in that context and performs a tricky flip of the dagger, catching it in midair with the correct grip to slash the enemy. The sequence is reminiscent of Arya Stark's defeat of the Night King in Game of Thrones, as she is also a warrior most comfortable with a dagger over other kinds of weapons.
Jump Loose Like You Have a Zenkai Boost
Dash, Sung Jinwoo!
In episode 9 of Solo Leveling, Sung Jinwoo and various other Hunters are accompanied by Hunter Association Surveillance Team member Kang Taeshik, who brought three criminal Hunters along to make up for numbers. In the latter stages of the episode, it turns out that Taeshik is a murderous Hunter who has been quietly acting as a hitman for normal humans, using the lack of access to what happens in the Dungeons to secretly dispose of his target. Taeshik’s murderous nature forces Jinwoo to fight him to protect his friends. In the battle, Jinwoo prepares to use his Dash Skill, bouncing in place much like Goku does to warm-up in the Broly movie, with focus placed on his shifting feet much like in Dragon Ball Super: Broly; which felt like Solo Leveling paying homage to the undisputable legend that was Akira Toriyama.
The Giant Spider
In the fifth and sixth episodes of Solo Leveling, Jinwoo goes on a C-Rank raid with a group of Hunters led by Hwang Dongsuk, who often hires unsuspecting low-ranked Hunters to enter raids with his group, with the intention of leaving them for dead when the hard work is done. Jinwoo and D-Rank Hunter Yoo Jinho are left to fend for themselves after Dongsuk and his crew leave the lair of the sleeping Dungeon Boss, pretending that they're only going back to fetch tools to excavate the abundance of mana crystals found inside. The Dungeon Boss was a C-Rank Giant Arachnid, but the color scheme for this beast in the anime is completely different from the manhwa.
In the Solo Leveling manhwa, the Giant Arachnid is a dark reddish color, while the anime version has a black body with a reddish hue appearing at the tips of its mandibles. Over its eyes are two symmetrical splashes of white that make it look like some kind of mask. Black and white in this configuration is reminiscent of Venom, a major antagonist in the Spider-Man universe who has the same white splashes over his eyes, and a black body courtesy of the Symbiote. The fact that the giant spider also had a long, curling red tongue and rows of extremely sharp teeth was the cherry on top of a rather subtle reference.
Familiar Faces?
"Enforcement Mode: Hunter Association"
In the eighth episode of Solo Leveling, Jinwoo and various Hunters receive summons for their participation in a D-Rank raid, reuniting various members from the Cartenon Temple incident, but also formally introducing us to Kang Taeshik from the Hunter Association's Surveillance Team. Taeshik appears at the D-Rank Gate where Jinwoo and his former associates have gathered, accompanied by a group of criminal Hunters whose services are required to make up for numbers. What's interesting is not Kang Taeshik by himself, but the context of a tall, young man with spiky black hair leading a band of deranged criminals into dangerous situations for work, all while a young woman with some variation of a bowl cut ensures that things are happening "by the book".
All together, Taeshik, the nameless lady from the Association, and the criminals are reminiscent of the dynamic between Akane Tsunemori, Shinya Kogami, and the police force from the Psycho-Pass franchise. The lady from the association's striking visual similarity to Akane, together with Taeshik's visual similarity to Kogami make for one particularly hard-to-spot Easter Egg. There may be even more Easter Eggs to come in future episodes. Solo Leveling is available on Crunchyroll, with new episodes released every Saturday.
Solo Leveling: 10 Most Evil Characters In The Manhwa
These characters embody the lifeblood of evil and villainy in the Solo Leveling series.
