Sung Jinwoo’s biggest scene in Solo Leveling was written the night before it was performed

Solo Leveling’s first season finished on a true high note, as Sung Jinwoo uttered his iconic call, ‘Arise’. The scene was perfectly executed, but preparation was down to the wire on the vocal performance.

Comfortably one of the best anime of the year, Solo Leveling wowed viewers from the jump when it premiered in January. Already a massively successful manwha, the adaptation from A-1 Pictures swiftly found a global audience through the season.

Those who knew the source material were really waiting for one of Jinwoo’s first big moments, where he gains the ability to bring monsters back from the dead by uttering the term “Arise”. Aleks Le took us behind-the-scenes of that moment at Anime Expo 2024, revealing they were planning the execution right up to recording.

“In Episode 12, the speech before the ‘Arise’ moment, I spent like four hours the night beforehand writing that speech and just trying to find those words. It was really difficult,” he tells Dexerto.

Le portrays Sung Jinwoo in the dubbed version, and he’s been vocal about creative changes he’s made to the anime show. Several memorable moments stem from his approach and understanding of the translated script, and he mentions a close working relationship with ADR director Caitlin Glass.

“We just understood each other’s workflow, so she allowed me a lot of creative freedom in interpreting a lot of the lines for myself and writing my own dialogue,” he explains. “So, a lot of the speeches that are in this show are actually my words that I was able to pitch and review, making sure it fits the scene and adds all the original intentions in both the Japanese and the webtoon it came from.”

Anime Expo gave us a new trailer for Solo Leveling Season 2, but we’re still waiting on a release window. Have a look at our list of the best anime like Solo Leveling for alternatives to keep you occupied.