Solo Leveling Ep. 12 “Arise” marks the end of the first season of this anime. However, this is not the end of this anime. Nor is it even the beginning of the end. No, as one Winston Churchill once said, this is merely the end of the beginning. All with Jin-woo looking like he’s finally going to stop being a one-man show. Maybe?

Solo Leveling Ep. 12 “Arise”: Details

Solo Leveling NA key visual.
At long last, Jin-woo is getting closer to be that guy on the top of that building.

Solo Leveling Ep. 12 “Arise” is the 12th and final true episode (you can read reviews for Ep. 1, Ep. 2, Ep. 3, Ep. 4, Ep. 5, Ep. 6, Ep. 7, Ep. 7.5, Ep. 8, Ep. 9, Ep. 10, and Ep. 11 here) of the first season of this kinda sorta urban fantasy action anime, minus the sole recap episode so far. 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.

Shunsuke Nakashige himself directed and storyboarded Solo Leveling Ep. 12 “Arise”, with Noboru Kimura as the writer, and Tomoko Sudo sa the chief animation director. Shunsuke Nakashige is still 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. 12 “Arise” features the voice of Taito Ban (Aleks Le in English dub) as Sung Jin-woo. Alas, like in the story in general, he’s the only main character in this finale episode. However, we do have the voice talents of side characters, including Banjō Ginga (Kent Williams in English dub) as Go Gun-hee and Daisuke Hirakawa (Ian Sinclair in English dub) as Choi Jong-in.

When and Where to Watch

Solo Leveling Ep. 12 “Arise” made its airing and streaming debut on March 30, 2024. You can watch this finale episode only on Crunchyroll at the moment. 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. 12 “Arise”: Synopsis

An appropriate video for this review, and a banger of an ending theme music to boot.

Alas, Solo Leveling has only just ended its first season, with a second season on the way. Thus, you will all get the official synopsis of Solo Leveling Ep. 12 “Arise” from Crunchyroll instead of a spoiler-filled plot summary. You can check it out below:

Drained from endless battle, Jinwoo sees a phantom of his past self. To overcome his own past as the Weakest Hunter of All Mankind, he struggles to find a way to clear the job-change quest.

Solo Leveling Ep. 12 “Arise”: The Good

Solo Leveling Ep. 12 "Arise" showing a very tense Jin-woo wielding his Venom Fang knife.
Doesn’t look like it’s good for him right now, but well…

There’s just no question that the best part of Solo Leveling Ep. 12 “Arise” is the action scenes. Alas, that’s pretty much the bread and butter of this entire anime series. It’s all about the action as far as Solo Leveling is concerned. Fortunately, while that is the case, A-1 Pictures animates that action remarkably well. The action sequences are all highly detailed and incredibly fluid. You can very clearly follow the action, giving it a logical flow to it that’s aesthetically quite pleasing. It’s almost feature-length anime film levels of quality, really. That’s how much time, effort, and money they have put into that animation.

Since this is the finale episode, I can safely say that the anime music is pretty good as well. I have to give props here especially to the ending theme music. Krage did a great job with that particular piece. Not only am I fan of the music and vocals, but the accompanying imagery is fascinating as well. There’s a bunch of real-life footage mixed with the animation, perhaps echoing the themes of the story as well. That is, what little of it there is.

Solo Leveling Ep. 12 “Arise”: The Bad

Solo Leveling season 2 teaser thumb.
One big bad part: waiting for season 2 to finally show up.

Honestly, my complaint about Solo Leveling Ep. 12 “Arise” extends to the anime as a whole. That complaint is that Jin-woo is the only main character in the entire story. No one else seems to matter. It’s just Jin-woo and no one but. Granted, he’s not a bad main character. Quite decent, actually. It’s just that when you’re used to stories with multiple main characters interacting with each other, having only a single one present can make Solo Leveling seem a bit stale.

The story also feels a bit on the simplistic side so far. Maybe it’s because it’s still very early on in the story, but I’m getting the feeling that Jin-woo’s story is the only one that matters too. Everything else just feels like background filler. I can forgive okay animation if it has a good story, but not so much the other way around. Maybe the upcoming season 2 might solve this issue…hopefully.

Honestly, I feel like if you want this kind of animation quality paired with great story, then Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Bleach, and Chainsaw Man might be more your thing.