Solo Leveling Ep. 3 “It’s Like a Game” finally starts the titular game for Sung Jin-woo. Alas though, this third episode also reveals to us that Jin-woo is in way over his head. Especially since, as it turns out, he barely even knows what a video game is.

Solo Leveling Ep. 3 “It’s Like a Game”: Details

Solo Leveling textless key visual.
Already, you can tell that Jin-woo has the face of someone who makes you think “Poor, naive, innocent fool”.

Solo Leveling Ep. 3 “It’s Like a Game” is the third episode (you can read reviews for Ep. 1 and Ep. 2 here) of the first season of this kinda sorta urban fantasy action anime. Said anime is the anime adaptation of the South Korean web novel and webtoon series of the same name by Chugong. A-1 Pictures (Black Butler, Blue Exorcist, Sword Art Online) is the animation studio behind this anime.

Takayuki Kikuchi is the director and storyboarder of Solo Leveling Ep. 3 “It’s Like a Game”, with Shingo Irie as the writer. Shunsuke Nakashige is the director of Solo Leveling overall, with Noboru Kimura also being the writer for the same. Hiroyuki Sawano is the composer of the music you hear in the anime.

Speaking of music: the opening theme music for Solo Leveling as a whole is “Level” by Sawano and Tomorrow X Together. Meanwhile, “Request” by Krage is the ending theme music.

Voice Cast

Solo Leveling Ep. 3 “It’s Like a Game” features the voice of Taito Ban (Aleks Le in English dub) as Sung Jin-woo. Other notable roles include Haruna Mikawa (Rebecca Wang in English dub) as Sung Jin-ah and Rina Honnizumi (Dani Chambers in English dub) as Lee Joo-hee.

When and Where to Watch

Solo Leveling Ep. 3 “It’s Like a Game” made its streaming premiere on January 20, 2024. You can watch this episode only on Crunchyroll. In fact, you can watch this entire anime only on Crunchyroll for the moment.

Solo Leveling Ep. 3 “It’s Like a Game”: Synopsis

Alas, while he looks terrifying, he seems to be a bit dim.

I want to say that normally, this would be where you all get a spoiler-filled plot summary of Solo Leveling Ep. 3 “It’s Like a Game”. However, as has been the case for a while now, this is a spoiler-free review. Especially what with this anime being so new and all, and so fewer people will have watched this episode. Thus, you will all get the official synopsis from Crunchyroll instead. You can read that below:

Jinwoo remains behind in the temple dungeon to save his few surviving party members, and with a swing from the god statue’s blade, his life comes to an end—or so it seems, before he wakes up in a hospital bed.

Solo Leveling Ep. 3 “It’s Like a Game”: The Good

Solo Leveling Ep. 3 "It's Like a Game" screenshot showing Jin-woo staring at a reversed version of the System.
Looks simple, doesn’t it? Alas, he has no idea what he’s in for.

I would say that the drama is one of the best parts of Solo Leveling Ep. 3 “It’s Like a Game”. You’re just watching some random dude who’s running around with a new video game. A video game that’s this random dude’s only chance at survival, by the way. And yet, this is also where we find out that Jin-woo is a complete newbie when it comes to video games. Any video games, mind you. He has to ask his little sister about basic video game concepts. That’s how much of of a newbie he is. That’s where the drama comes in, where we watch a newbie start a game for the first time, and get horribly overconfident as a result. We can only hope for more drama coming in for Jin-woo’s newbie mistakes in future episodes, starting with the next.

As for the other best part of Solo Leveling Ep. 3 “It’s Like a Game”? The action, of course. The actions scenes of this episode all features some very fluid animation and a logical progression of events. In other words: you can easily tell where the fight is going and how it got to where it is. A-1 Pictures has clearly put a lot of effort into the choreography of the fight scenes. It’s similar to how much effort Ufotable put into the fight scenes in Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. Both anime series are definitely shows you watch for the fluid action, if nothing else.

Solo Leveling Ep. 3 “It’s Like a Game”: The Bad

Solo Leveling Ep. 3 "It's Like a Game" screenshot showing Jin-woo at the beginning of his penalty mission.
Jin-woo finding out that when the System wants a penalty mission, it means it.

Oddly enough, the one thing endearing about Jin-woo is also something I would criticize for it on the grounds of personal tastes. I’m personally not a fan of stupid characters being used dramatically. I’m fine with them in a comedy, but I can’t stand dramatic stupidity. I can tolerate Jin-woo’s actions in Solo Leveling Ep. 3 “It’s Like a Game” though simply because it’s clear he’s in way over his head. He’s never played a video game in his life, and so should have no reasonable idea on how a video game interface would work. His “stupidity” here actually makes sense. Hopefully, this apparent stupidity will fade as he gains more experience in using the System.