For the winter anime season 2025, Solo Leveling got its second season. This was a year after the first part’s release, so it is pretty popular as an anime. The popularity of the manhwa helped the fans watch its adaptation, regardless of its changes to the story. In this second part, Sung Jinwoo faces even more complications in keeping his true power a secret. Also, some characters, such as Lee Minsung, are more present in the second season of Solo Leveling.
In the first season, Sung Jinwoo, the “weakest hunter,” is usually left behind in any party or guild. For this reason, the E-ranked hunter does not interact with more powerful or relevant characters at the beginning. It is not until Sung gets his Reawakening and becomes a “Player” that we, the viewers, get to know the essential cast members of this universe. However, shortly before Sung Jinwoo returns to measure his rank, there is a lot of commotion in the Hunters’ Association because someone famous got his Awakening. All the commotion was due to the renowned actor Lee Minsung becoming an A-Rank hunter. Yet, for those who only watch Solo Leveling anime, Minsung only appeared briefly at the end of episode 6 of the second season.
Lee Minsung Is Not Who He Appears to Be
There will be several spoilers for the manhwa from here on, so proceed at your own risk. Minsung takes a more supporting role, as his story focuses on how his fame as an actor helps him become a very popular hunter. Also, the story shows how this actor has great charm, but this is only for the cameras, as Lee becomes a hunter purely for strategy. In Solo Leveling, as in South Korea, the men have mandatory military service. However, with his Awakening, Lee Minsung avoided it in exchange for helping with the portals and giving up acting for a while. This was also a move to take advantage of the fact that people received him very well as a hunter and to give more fame to his guild in exchange for a lot of money.
Lee takes a more active role during the Jeju Island arc, where he participates in the battle against the flying ants. Despite being quite powerful as an A-Rank hunter and skilled with the sword, Lee Minsung shows great inexperience in battle. He could have trained more before the mission, but he became the victim of panic when facing his enemies.
Lee Minsung becomes a more proactive character during Solo Leveling: Ragnarok, the sequel to Solo Leveling. Minsung becomes an antagonist, though not the main one, after joining forces with Tiel to create a strong drug to increase the hunters’ mana for a while. Lee Minsung is an essential part of Ragnarok, but in this sequel, he is still a secondary character as there are many more powerful enemies than this hunter. Although with many of the changes that Solo Leveling has between the anime and the manhwa, who knows what direction Lee Minsung’s story will take?
