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Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow- Ep. 22 “We Need a Hero” tries to make up for the terrible plot of the previous episodes with action. As well as an attempt at story. It kind of succeeds in the latter, but at least there’s enough of the former that you can switch your brain off and enjoy the show. Mostly. As long as you can withstand the fact that much of the episode’s action is just Jin-woo showing off to the other Hunters for…no reason that I can see.
Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow- Ep. 22 “We Need a Hero”: Details
Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow- Ep. 22 “We Need a Hero” is the 10th episode (you can read my review of the anime film containing Ep. 13-14, and then Ep. 15, Ep. 16, Ep. 17, Ep. 18, Ep. 19, Ep. 20, and Ep. 21 here) of the second season of this dark urban fantasy and portal fantasy action anime, and the 22nd episode overall. You can read my reviews of all 12 episodes of the first season here.
Said anime series is the anime adaptation of the South Korean web novel and webtoon of the same name by writer Chugong and featuring illustrations by Jang Sung-rak (aka DUBU), with h-goon adapting it into a manhwa form later. A-1 Pictures (Black Butler, Sword Art Online, Lycoris Recoil) is the animation studio behind this anime film. Crunchyroll is the company licensing this anime film for its global release. Save for in SEA region, where Medialink is the company licensing this anime film there.
Production Cast
Hirotaka Tokuda is the director, storyboarder, and chief animation director behind Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow- Ep. 22 “We Need a Hero”, with Fūka Ishii as the writer. As for Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow- as a whole, Shunsuke Nakashige is still the director, and Noboru Kimura is still the screenwriter. Yasuhiro Okumura is the background art director, Yuji Kondo is the editor, Tomoko Sudo is the character designer, Hirotaka Tokuda is the monster designer, Toshitaka Morioka is the CG director, Naomi Nakano is the color designer, Ryo Tanaka is the sound director, Daichi Iseki is the VFX director, Sotaro Shiriaishi is the prop designer, Hiromu Oshiro is responsible for motion graphics, and Hiroyuki Sawano composes all the music we hear in the anime film.
Speaking of that music: the opening theme song for this second season is “Reawaker” by Lisa (feat. Felix of Stray Kids). Meanwhile, “Un-Apex” by TK from Ling Tosite Sigure is the ending theme song.
Voice Cast
Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow- Ep. 22 “We Need a Hero” features the voice of Taito Ban (Aleks Le in English dub) as Sung Jinwoo.
Other notable voice roles in this episode include Hiroki Tōchi (Christopher R. Sabat in English dub) as Baek Yoon-ho, Reina Ueda (Michelle Rojas in English dub) as Cha Hae-in, Banjō Ginga (Kent Williams in English dub) as Go Gun-hee, Satoshi Mikami (English voice unknown) as Goto Ryuji, Daisuke Hirakawa (Ian Sinclair in English dub) as Choi Jong-in, Haruna Mikawa (Rebecca Wang as Sung Jin-ah, and Yuri Amano (English voice unknown) as Park Kyung-hye.
When and Where to Watch
Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow- Ep. 22 “We Need a Hero” made its airing and streaming (aka. simulcast) debut on March 8, 2025. You can watch this episode only on Crunchyroll. In fact, you can watch this entire anime series only on Crunchyroll due to it being an exclusive there.
Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow- Ep. 22 “We Need a Hero”: Synopsis
Alas, Solo Leveling is an ongoing anime series. In fact, Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow- Ep. 22 “We Need a Hero” only just made its debut four days ago as of this writing. Thus, I shall give you the official synopsis from Crunchyroll in place of a spoiler-filled plot summary. You can check synopsis that out below:
“Sparks fly as the S-Rank hunters spar in preparation for the Jeju Island raid.”
Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow- Ep. 22 “We Need a Hero”: The Good
Honestly, I feel like the only good thing about Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow- Ep. 22 “We Need a Hero” is the action. A-1 Pictures and their animation team do continue to animate some pretty good action scenes for this episode. With action scenes that feature some highly fluid and complex animation, along with a very noticeable jump in animation quality during Jin-woo’s fight with Goto Ryuji.
There is also another notable jump in animation quality when the Hunters are actually conducting their raid on Jeju Island. Specifically, again, during the actual action scenes. The scenes outside of actual combat though is where it gets a bit…murky.
Oh, and we even get to see a bunch of old side characters make their reappearance for the raid. This includes some of Jin-woo’s old band and others. They don’t really get to do anything in this episode, but it’s nice to see them again regardless.
Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow- Ep. 22 “We Need a Hero”: The Bad
Alas, while A-1 Pictures does normally do a decent job with the animation even outside of the non-combat scenes, there is a notable exception in Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow- Ep. 22 “We Need a Hero”. That exception is the ships the Hunters use to blockade and get to the island. They appear to be loosely inspired by modern day Republic of Korea Navy warships, and I emphasize “loosely”. They’re so badly drawn that I can’t tell exactly what class of ship they’re meant to be. One ship has a gun over twice as long as the other ships, and appears to hang far over the bow. Another ship has a main gun that’s pointing backwards, with the gun extending out the back of the turret. It’s like these ships were drawn by people who have no idea what modern warships look like. It’s a pet peeve of mine here, but it’s all the more noticeable due to how prominent the ships are in that scene.
Another pet peeve of mine in this episode is the subtly blatant misogyny going on in this episode during the sparring match. There is a tacit agreement among the Hunters that their female members are universally weaker than the male members, with the male members ganging up on other male members due to perception that men are stronger, and female member being left to fight female members because…it’s fair?!
And then there was Jin-woo just blatantly preventing Cha Hae-in from fighting that one Japanese Hunter by intercepting a blow. There was no indication that she was in any trouble or danger. He just automatically assumed that she was, and this is something everyone just accepts? Honestly, the story of this anime has been grinding my gears here in regards to its subtle misogyny, and it feels like it’s getting worse and worse as that story progresses.
Fortunately, there is a solution: watch another anime. I would recommend watching Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Kaiju No. 8, DDDD, DAN DA DAN, Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online II, Zenshu, and/or Blue Box. Those other anime are just as action-packed, and have good stories and characters on top of that.
What do you all think about this episode and Solo Leveling in general? Do you agree or disagree with my assessment of the story and its misogyny? Leave your replies below in the comments section.
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