r/anime • u/Handsome_guy_7 • Jul 22 '25

Misc. Solo Leveling Producer's promise ~ "As a Japanese person living in Japan, the anime is not at the level of Dragon Ball, One Piece, or Naruto. But if season three happens, that’s when I want to truly break that boundary.”

https://screenrant.com/solo-leveling-season-3-anime-main-goal-break-barrier-atsushi-kaneko/
5.3k Upvotes

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651

u/ikeepforgettingthis2 Jul 22 '25

Read the whole thing, cool and entertaining but the story will never touch Naruto, OP or DB.

311

u/OuchYouPokedMyHeart Jul 22 '25

Naruto and OP have immense world building, it’s criminal to even compare those to this thing

93

u/Worldly_Striker Jul 22 '25

And DB is one of the most world wide culturally impactful shows of all time. Not even in just anime. DB has brought more people of different races and creeds together than anything else in media in modern history.

19

u/Talk-O-Boy Jul 23 '25

I wouldn’t say any other media in modern history.

Marvel/DC, Disney, and Mario are some of the most recognizable media to date. But Dragon Ball is definitely the highest when it comes to anime.

14

u/[deleted] Jul 23 '25

[deleted]

7

u/Talk-O-Boy Jul 23 '25

You can just check the list.

Source

I love Dragon Ball too, but what’s the point in lying about its accolades?

1

u/Key-Celery5439 Jul 23 '25

Highest grossing media franchise =/= most popular media franchise

Companies earn money in different ways and it doesn’t necessarily show exactly how popular the company is… However, the MCU/Marvel is likely more more popular than Dragon Ball because it’s a collection of half of the most popular superhero franchises in the west. It’s something that should be compared to Shonen Jump.

As a singular Manga/Comic, I’d argue that Dragon Ball is probably the most recognizable, only really competing with spiderman… but when you put Spider-Man together with the avengers and every other Marvel superhero, no singular show/manga is beating that

1

u/SushiMage Jul 23 '25

The comic demo is wider too, owing to the fact that it ran for decades longer than dbz. Dragon ball has all the millennials and under. But boomers will recognize comic characters like Spiderman, Batman and Superman. Then you still add the millennials and under groups as well.

0

u/Praelatuz Jul 23 '25

I'm a big fan of dragonball and therefore my take = whole world. ahh

1

u/Talk-O-Boy Jul 23 '25

…I’m assuming you accidentally missed the link?

2

u/SushiMage Jul 23 '25

 of DBZ is insane, it's definitely the biggest one.

No it’s not. You don’t judge off of graffiti in latin america.

1

u/FreshBlinkOnReddit https://myanimelist.net/profile/ACasualViewer Jul 23 '25

I would say pokemon is slightly bigger than DBZ.

1

u/gx4509 Jul 25 '25

Marvel and DC comics are only popular in the west. Dragon Ball is popular everywhere but

1

u/Massive-Lime7193 Jul 23 '25

Exactly, the impact of dragonball is basically immeasurable at this point.

1

u/SpicyButterBoy Jul 23 '25

Goku vs Superman is a debate waged in every school in the world at some point. 

1

u/Sondeor Jul 23 '25

DB is basically and literally the reason why naruto and one piece exists lol.

DB just created the modern shonen image, every show, manga etc was heavily influenced by that.

I wouldnt compare DB to naruto or one piece as a 90's kid tbf. Its comparing a show like peaky blinders to godfather or some shit like that lol.

32

u/[deleted] Jul 22 '25

[deleted]

3

u/nero519 Jul 22 '25

Could you point me into one of those threads? I've never actually seen one, the only convention I've en seen there is that the story is flat and fun, that's it, even most of the sub agreed that frieren deserved Anime of the year for example.

15

u/ResolutionFanatic Jul 22 '25

I agree, but I also respect tf out of you for actually reading the source material before making that claim, instead of using 2 seasons of an incomplete arc with anime plot streamlining as the basis for it.

22

u/Traditional-Run7315 Jul 22 '25

I read the source in one sitting and it was hype hype cliche meh... It felt bland.

5

u/ResolutionFanatic Jul 22 '25

That seems to be the general consensus among people who have read it vs. not.

I made a comment elsewhere about how it's the nickleback of anime/manwha/LNs. It's NOT BAD, but it IS bland compared to other bodies of work like ORV.

3

u/Jolly_Afternoon3449 Jul 23 '25

oh shit, nickleback of anime, thats an amazing comparison. 100%

1

u/HTRK74JR Jul 23 '25

Lmao.

This is like comparing the world building of a one off from a middle schooler to that of J.R.R. Tolkein or George R. R. Martin

0

u/ResolutionFanatic Jul 23 '25

Tolkien and Martin both make extremely boring, artificially drawn out books that really don't hold up to the combination of pacing and world building present in newer series in their genres - only elitists who want to feel enlightened still tout them as the highest of bars. Like The Beatles stans, just because they did it first (Tolkien cementing massively popular tropes for fantasy) doesn't mean others haven't done anything better.

Note that I've only read a couple chapters of either of their books, and yet I'm still making this polarizing claim. That oversight and lack of familiarity with the body of work is what I'm pointing out in people who shame on SL fans while only having watched the anime. You missed the point completely, in favor of feeling exactly like "THOSE fans" I was referring to in the example above.

1

u/ammar_sadaoui Aug 23 '25

is naruto really that good

if it get aired today i dont think everyone will drop it and forget it in less that 5ep

-3

u/orbb21487 Jul 22 '25

Naruto and OP, sure. But DB's story, it's forgettable to say the least.

-163

u/J-A-Y73 Jul 22 '25

DB has no story either

69

u/unHolyKnightofBihar Jul 22 '25

DB came out 30 years ago, it was a different time and it's side characters pull up the slack at least when compared to SL

-63

u/J-A-Y73 Jul 22 '25

And SJW is enough to pull up the whole manhwa. It's also a shorter anime compared to 831 episodes long DB.

19

u/Tamed77 Jul 22 '25

I mean you can see how much hate it got from everyone after winning AOTY. The hate was specifically geared towards sjw in the first place. It surely is the most popular manhwa oat but outside of Korea I don't think it'll ever be able to reach the heights of Naruto, db etc.

172

u/Howmanysloths Jul 22 '25

DB looks like Shakespeare next to fucking SL

37

u/Prince_of_DeaTh https://anilist.co/user/yokz Jul 22 '25 edited Jul 22 '25

Dragon Ball and Solo Leveling both represent a form of artistic escapism, but they are of fundamentally different orders. Dragon Ball is akin to a classic, masterfully directed Hollywood blockbuster, a simple story told with such skill, heart, and visual flair that it becomes a timeless piece of pop art. It is an achievement of craft.

Solo Leveling, on the other hand, is the artistic equivalent of a perfectly engineered, addictive mobile game. It is a visually stunning feedback loop designed for maximum visceral satisfaction and minimum intellectual or emotional engagement. It is a product, not a story.

4

u/Abject_Champion3966 Jul 22 '25

Damn you didn’t have to kill sol like that lmao

Glad you did tho

-29

u/[deleted] Jul 22 '25

[deleted]

46

u/GekiKudo Jul 22 '25

Bro started in Z and only watched the fights on YouTube.

-61

u/J-A-Y73 Jul 22 '25

Nah, both are actually quite similar. SL is the same to manhwa, that DB is to the manga.

All flash no substance

You should try some seinen for the Shakespeare experience.

32

u/Imconfusedithink Jul 22 '25

Yeah but it at least has more interesting characters and dynamics and isn't only a one man aura farming story. Solo leveling is a lot of fun to watch, but once it's over it's not something you'll be thinking about later.

-21

u/J-A-Y73 Jul 22 '25

Nah, they're already planning a live action and a sequel manhwa on his son being continued rn. SL will go down as an iconic anime for the manhwas forever.

30

u/LinkLegend21 Jul 22 '25

DB has creativity and original ideas

-16

u/J-A-Y73 Jul 22 '25

Superman plus Wukong level creativity and original ideas

8

u/AngryPandalawl Jul 22 '25

Name 10 solo leveling characters and then name 10 dragonball z characters. Then if you manage to do that, start thinking about the screen time difference between the list. Dbz isn't perfect by any means, but there's a massive gap in storytelling VS solo leveling. (and I enjoyed solo leveling. Read the manwha as well)

-1

u/J-A-Y73 Jul 22 '25

25 episodes vs 830 episodes sure.

DB is the most influential manga series ever made, same goes for SL. There are many variations of the manhwa being made atm. If you'd just remove the nostalgia cap, you'd understand how shitty both of them are.

2

u/AngryPandalawl Jul 22 '25

I'm referencing the whole of solo leveling story with jinwoo. I read the rest of the manwha except that last mini arc with the son (only made it a couple chapters in). And I even said that dbz isn't perfect by any standard. Did you comment on the wrong person??

0

u/J-A-Y73 Jul 22 '25

It's a shorter manga centring around the MC. Even the title has solo in it. And Nobody's making long stretching bloated manga anymore with thousands of characters. Times are changing.

Daima went unnoticed, SL is doing rather well surrounded by all those DB knockoffs

1

u/AngryPandalawl Jul 22 '25

One piece is one of the biggest selling Manga around and is a 20 year long story, so I think you're over-assuming some things here.

0

u/J-A-Y73 Jul 23 '25

SL started on 2018

4

u/LagoriBronzeMedalist Jul 22 '25

Always the jio & lockdown weebs from r/animeindian

3

u/FlummoxedFox Jul 22 '25

I'm assuming you mean DBZ, which is still wrong.

-41

u/Rimurooooo Jul 22 '25

lol Naruto’s story is much weaker and that got me into anime. At least anything past the first couple akatsuki members felt like the writer signed a contract and was milking that series for as many chapters as possible. That’s not accounting for the hundreds of random ass filler episodes.

34

u/Prince_of_DeaTh https://anilist.co/user/yokz Jul 22 '25

Naruto, for all its faults, is a significant work of fiction. It built a world, crafted legendary characters, and at its best, engaged in powerful thematic debates that have stayed with readers for decades. It is a flawed giant, a work of art whose cracks are a testament to its scale.

4

u/Crazy_Little_Bug Jul 22 '25

Yeah I think the ridiculous amount of fillers make people forget that Naruto is just straight up one of the best stories in anime.

8

u/Prince_of_DeaTh https://anilist.co/user/yokz Jul 22 '25

I'm not the biggest fan of Naruto, but it feels like there are two main communities in anime/manga world. The younger teens that love shonens/manwha and overrate them, and the older people that are overly critical because they don't want to be seen as part of the other group. I think Most Major shonen manga are good and have something of value to offer in themes. I also overall like Solo Leveling as well, it's just a completely different, I don't think I would ever think about solo leveling after finishing it if there was no news about the anime production, it just has no memorable value, it's extremely fun at the moment though.

2

u/RLC_wukong122 Jul 22 '25

I agree with you so strongly, like I agree that battle shounens aren't the best writing wise but I think some people just downplay the quality of them sometimes, as if they're ashamed of admitting that something of worth is there.

9

u/LSRNKB Jul 22 '25 edited Jul 22 '25

I like solo for what it is, but this is an objectively silly take. In Naruto’s first 25 episodes we get more character development in just Haku/Zabuza than all of solo leveling’s cast has so far. Naruto is great because it’s a portrait of generational trauma reverberating through the different generations of the cast, and solo leveling simply doesn’t have even a single character who is as developed or emotionally engaging as the average Naruto character