Solo Leveling: Arise from the Shadows S2 Ep 5 Review
If there’s a candidate for the best girl in Solo Leveling, then the anime makes a strong case for the strongest female Hunter in Korea, Cha Hae-in. Despite not making as hint her debut until the series was well underway, the anime has gone out of its way to add original scenes featuring Hae-in. When an anime does that, that means they will be important in the future. And now that the anime’s caught up to her actual debut, Cha Hae-in is about to become even more important.
But first, time for some backstory.
Cha Hae-in’s unique condition
As hinted at in the anime, before she became a Hunter, Hae-in was a talented track athlete. Sadly, she pushed herself too hard, leading to an injury that cut her career short. Then, two years ago, she awakened as one of Korea’s handful of S-Ranked Hunters. Now she’s the second-in-command of the strongest Hunters guild in the country. Between that and her beauty, one could call her the Korean equivalent of Asuna from Sword Art Online and very fortunate.
Here’s the thing: she doesn’t see it that way. As shown in the series premiere, she’s not comfortable with how famous she is, something that the Arise gacha game expands upon. Not helping matters is her unique condition: she can smell mana. According to her, it smells horrible, and her job makes her work around people with that smell every day.
Which explains why, after formally meeting Jin-woo, her first impulse…is to smell him.
I can die happy now … pic.twitter.com/WfCNwAGGxA
— Ren I Aired arc I (@KingAired) February 1, 2025 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Who else is shipping them?
The how and why of why Jin-woo doesn’t smell bad to Hae-in aren’t made clear. Even in the WEBTOON, the best Jin-woo can come up with is due to being the Player. However, none of that matters, because this marks the beginning of Hae-in’s relationship with Jin-woo, one that will come to be of great importance to both.
…yes, the series is shipping them. It helps that she shows up looking for Jin-woo after he heads into the Dungeon on her day off. And thinks of him as she’s trying to fall asleep.
When you have to wait another week for the next episode pic.twitter.com/DHdUnlXyCM
— Solo Leveling (@SoloLevelAnime) February 2, 2025 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Jin-woo the miner
So, the real meat of the episode. While Jin-woo is waiting for his updated license to go through, he’s been killing time playing miner. Even without his army, his gains are enough to do ten people’s work. But when the B-team makes an offer to have him be their porter, he takes it.
It’s a good thing, too, because their raid quickly goes sideways.
It was interesting to see just how strong the upper-ranked Hunters can be. More importantly, Jin-woo’s stealthy intervention proves just how strong he’s gotten in comparison to most Hunters. At this point, it’s accurate to say that only a few S-Rank Hunters could scrap with him. However, that becomes a moot point when a horde of High Orcs (Orcs on steroids) show up and give them a choice: go with them or die.
The ending was fucking epic. The OST and Cinematography was something else! #SoloLeveling pic.twitter.com/HNge4aRbG4
— Fallen_Core (@Fallen__Core) February 1, 2025 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Jin-woo could take them, but since he’s trying not to draw too much attention to himself, he lets the party leader decide. Having read the manwha, I can tell you that he will step up when things go sideways. And what follows will be one of the first public demonstrations of what Jin-woo is capable of. And if Hae-in manages to see it…let’s just say her interest in Jin-woo is going to be very justified.
smell great for the true shadow monarch #SoloLeveling pic.twitter.com/qG7gfQ2CnN
— AXE (@AXE) January 28, 2025 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
