Highlights
- The Jeju Island Arc in Solo Leveling features powerful giant ants that render the island uninhabitable, similar to the Chimera Ant Arc in Hunter x Hunter.
- Both arcs depict the main antagonists as species of intelligent ants, with the ants in Solo Leveling evolving wings and flying towards human settlements for food.
- The Ant Arcs in both series drive the protagonists to reveal their true power, resulting in intense battles and major casualties, ultimately shaping the course of their respective stories.
The following contains spoilers for Solo Leveling, available for streaming on Crunchyroll.
One of the most significant events in the Solo Leveling universe is the Jeju Island Arc, which presented some of the most powerful monsters humanity has ever faced. About four years prior to the events of the story, an S-Rank Gate opened on the island of Jeju, Korea, and a dungeon break occurred. Countless giant ants came sprawling forth, causing thousands of deaths, and Jeju remains uninhabited four years later.
The series’ presentation of powerful adventurers called “Hunters” is reminiscent of the basic premise of Yoshihiro Togashi’s Hunter x Hunter, but the two diverge when it comes to magic and power systems. Despite their fundamental differences, Solo Leveling and Hunter x Hunter find common ground once more, with the Jeju Island Arc sharing various elements with the Chimera Ant Arc. Here’s how.
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The Major Antagonist is a Species of Intelligent Ants
In Hunter x Hunter, the Chimera Ants were a major threat due to the fact that the Chimera Ant queen reproduced through phagogenesis – reproduction through the consumption of other organisms, and it imparted characteristics from whatever it devoured to the next generation of Chimera Ants. These ants were incredibly voracious and picky eaters, so whenever they found something they liked to eat, they often drove it to extinction. Humans were considered highly nutritious for a queen, particularly those who has the power of Nen, as they were considered to be worth the nutritious value of 10,000 humans.
Naturally, these ants began attacking people and became stronger as more Nen-users were killed and used as fodder, with the queen eventually eating enough to give birth to four particularly nasty Chimera Ants – the King, Meruem, and his three officers, Shaiapouf, Neferpitou and Menthuthuyoupi, who were some of the most powerful Nen-users the Hunter Association has ever dealt with. The war against the Chimera Ants even led to the death of Hunter Association Chairman Netero, who was one of the most powerful characters in the series at that point.
In Solo Leveling, the giant ants that spawned from the S-Rank Gate on Jeju Island rendered the entire island uninhabitable as the Korean S-Rank Hunters were too weak to beat the dungeon boss within seven days, so a dungeon break occurred and thousands of giant ants overran Jeju, killing thousands of civilians. Since the Gate’s appearance four years ago, the Korean government has made several attempts to take back Jeju Island; however, after the death of Korean S-Rank Hunter Eunseok in the third Jeju Island Raid, the government gave up on ever being able to take back the island. Solo Leveling references this event in the very first scene of the anime, giving a glimpse at the situation on Jeju Island as a nod to the significance of the upcoming arc.
The ants live on the island without an issue until their food source runs low, prompting them to begin evolving wings and flying towards human settlements. The dungeon Boss in the Gate was the Ant Queen, a ridiculously powerful magic beast with immense power. Like with regular ants, these magic beasts live in colonies and spawn from a Queen, with the Ant King being the most powerful of the Queen’s children. As revealed during the 4th Jeju Island Raid, which takes place during the Jeju Island Arc of Solo Leveling, the Ant King is a magic beast so powerful, it kills several S-Rank Hunters in an instant.
Both Ant Arcs Drove The Series Protagonist to Reveal Their True Might
Hunter x Hunter put all of its characters through the wringer over the course of the Chimera Ant arc; however, the amount of strain and trauma experienced by series protagonist Gon Freecss was particularly significant. The gruesomeness of the death of his friend and mentor, Kite, at the hands of Pitou, as well as the strain of the various tragedies that had taken place over the course of the arc, had severely affected Gon, and his usual cheery demeanour was replaced with something profoundly grim and cynical. When Pitou could not use her technique to reverse the damage she’d done, Gon’s anger led to one of his most important moments in Hunter x Hunter: the Limitation Transformation. The resulting battle between Gon and Pitou led to the former to use a Nen Contract, giving up all the Nen he could accumulate over his lifetime in exchange for an unfathomable increase in power that temporarily made him one of the most powerful Hunters in the entire series.
The 4th Jeju Island Raid is an event that takes place in the later stages of Solo Leveling, and it had many major casualties. In an intense mega-raid on the main colony of the ants, various global powers sent their best in the belief that multiple S-Rank Hunters would be able to beat the Boss; however, eight of sixteen S-Rank Hunters wound up losing their lives against the Ant King, and the remainder would have been completely decimated had it not been for Jin-Woo. After an epic brawl with the Ant King, Jin-Woo’s immense strength made it realize that it could not win, and it tried to flee. In death, the Ant King became Beru, one of Jin-Woo’s most important Shadows, and the victory made Jin-Woo into a Korean national hero, effectively changing his life forever. In both scenarios, the main character reveals an incredible, plot-shaking amount of power that has profound consequences for them both, not to mention the fact that they both also completely decimated their opponents in that display. Overall, the similarities between the “Ant Arcs” of both Solo Leveling and Hunter x Hunter lie in the depiction of giant ants as the antagonist species; as well as the immense strength of a single ant in particular, as well as the significance of these arcs to their respective stories.
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