Solo Leveling Ep. 6 “The Real Hunt Begins” really lives up to its episode title. It’s the episode where Sung Jin-woo finds out the world of Hunters is a dog eat dog world, and that it’s kill or be killed. Fortunately, he’s got an eldritch video game on his side, so it’s all good.

Solo Leveling Ep. 6 “The Real Hunt Begins”: Details

Solo Leveling textless key visual.
That red on his blade isn’t entirely due to paint.

Solo Leveling Ep. 6 “The Real Hunt Begins” is the sixth episode (you can read reviews for Ep. 1, Ep. 2, Ep. 3, Ep. 4, and Ep. 5 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.

Takashi Sakuma is the director behind Solo Leveling Ep. 6 “The Real Hunt Begins”, with Norimitsu Kaihō as the writer, and Takashi Sakuma (again) and Yoshihiro Kanno doing the storyboard. 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. 6 “The Real Hunt Begins” features the voices of Taito Ban (Aleks Le in English dub) as Sung Jin-woo and Genta Nakamura (Justin Briner in English dub) as Yoo Jin-ho. The only other notable voice role in this episode is Banjō Ginga (Kent Williams in English dub) as Go Gun-hee.

When and Where to Watch

Solo Leveling Ep. 6 “The Real Hunt Begins” made its airing and streaming debut on February 10, 2024. You can watch this episode only on Crunchyroll. In fact, you can watch this entire anime only on Crunchyroll for the moment, due to this anime being a Crunchyroll exclusive at the time of this writing.

Solo Leveling Ep. 6 “The Real Hunt Begins”: Synopsis

Ah, now we finally get to the scene in this thumb.

Alas, Solo Leveling as a whole is a very recent anime. You know, due to it being ongoing and all. In fact, Solo Leveling Ep. 6 “The Real Hunt Begins” only just premiered 4 days ago as of this writing. Thus, instead of a spoiler-filled plot summary, you will all be getting the official synopsis of this episode from Crunchyroll. You can check that out below:

While the C-Rank dungeon raid by Jinwoo and the others seems to be progressing well, the moment they step into an area covered in mana stones with a sleeping dungeon boss, things take a wrong turn.

Solo Leveling Ep. 6 “The Real Hunt Begins”: The Good

Solo Leveling Ep. 6 "The Real Hunt Begins" screenshot showing Yoo Jin-ho being a good boy.
Good kid there. Hopefully, he’ll get Jin-woo to be less obsessed with his eldritch game?

If you’ve been watching this anime since Ep. 1 (or even was a fan of the webnovel/webtoon by Chugong (with Dubu of Redice Studio as the artist for the webtoon) since before the anime started, then you realize that the best part of Solo Leveling Ep. 6 “The Real Hunt Begins” is the action. Not the story or the characters, but the action and nothing but. The action remains as fluid and as well-animated as ever before. You can really tell that A-1 Pictures is putting their all into the animation during those fights. Seriously. That blood spray is just gorgeously grotesque. You know what I mean if you’ve watched this episode.

It’s not just the animation and action this time that gets all the attention though. The music of this episode is pretty top-notch too. Especially when that melancholic song starts playing during a certain scene. No spoilers, but let’s just say that song fits the bloody scene quite well.

Even the story this time is a cut above the usual fare in Solo Leveling. To be fair though, that’s a low bar to clear. When the average plotline is basically “Sung Jin-woo plays his eldritch video game”, any storyline is a cut above the usual fare. Regardless though, the storyline that began in the previous episode is still pretty engaging. The fact that this storyline isn’t quite over yet when you see the dying seconds of it only makes me eager for more.

Solo Leveling Ep. 6 “The Real Hunt Begins”: The Bad

Solo Leveling Ep. 6 "The Real Hunt Begins" screenshot showing Sung Jin-woo showing the bad guy leader that murder doesn't pay.
You can tell just in this one scene that this guy is about to have a bad time.

Honestly, my one complaint about Solo Leveling Ep. 6 “The Real Hunt Begins” is the same complaint I’ve had of the entire anime so far. Simply put: Sung Jin-woo doesn’t have a life outside of the System. He never talks to anyone about it, aside from an oblique reference to it to his younger sister in which he’s as vague as possible. He doesn’t even talk to Lee Joo-hee despite Ep. 1 implying that they were in a relationship, or at least were good friends. I feel like this anime could’ve been better if there was a larger cast of main characters for Jin-woo to interact with. Otherwise, it’s basically just the story of a shut-in and his video game obsession.