Given the popularity of the original series, which ended almost three years ago, fans of Solo Leveling have been eagerly awaiting the release of its exciting new sequel, Solo Leveling: Ragnarök, which has been licensed in English at last. However, the delay in its localization draws attention to a major problem within the manhwa industry that is holding the medium back from succeeding.
Despite the immense popularity of the franchise, Solo Leveling Ragnarök has only been licensed in English by Tapas three whole months after the original. This highlights a larger running issue with manhwa, where many series are often not officially licensed even until the original is a hundred chapters ahead, pushing readers desperate for more content to turn to illegal scans and fan translations, even if they may be of poor quality. As a result, any attempts to battle piracy are all but futile with late localizations being a major part of the problem.
Solo Leveling Ragnarök Was Licensed in English Too Late
A Simultaneous Release Would Have Greatly Benefitted the Franchise
Initially set up in the epilogue of Solo Leveling, fans of the series were beyond excited to learn that Sung Suho's journey would be expanded into a sequel series of its own. Solo Leveling: Ragnarök's web novel was first released in April 2023, with the Korean webtoon making its debut on August 1, 2024, on KakaoPage, just short of a year and a half later.
While this turnaround is unconventionally quick by manhwa standards, the delay in licensing the series has led many international fans to turn to fan translations of the series instead. In the case of most manhwa, it makes sense to scope the reception of the series before dedicating resources to licensing it in English and other languages, but this was never quite the case with Solo Leveling: Ragnarök, whose success was all but guaranteed.
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With the release of Solo Leveling's anime, the franchise's fandom was bigger than ever and was still gaining new fans by the day, all of whom were eager to read Ragnarök but simply could not. More importantly, Solo Leveling: Ragnarök also already has almost 30 chapters in Korean, creating quite a wide gap between the fansubs and the original English version, which will likely debut with no more than three chapters at best.
Solo Leveling: Ragnarök releases on Tapas on November 11, 2024.
As a result, while the higher quality, official translation will surely be appreciated, the series will continue to lose out on readership unless the gap between the two is bridged as fans will simply keep going back to the fansubs to keep up with the latest developments in the story. Solo Leveling: Ragnarök was easily big enough to merit a simultaneous release, which needs to be implemented if manhwa ever intend to seriously combat the ongoing rampant piracy.
Why Webtoons Suffer From Piracy Even More Than Manga
Manhwa and Webtoons Need to Improve Their Reading Services
At the end of August 2024, Naver Webtoon filed a DMCA subpoena against over 170 piracy websites, though it is yet to be seen whether this will yield any long-lasting results. Japanese manga have been trying to fight piracy in vain for years and manhwa's digital format makes this even more of a losing battle. With every illegal website that gets taken down, another two pop up in its place much like a hydra and the only way to control the problem would be to provide better services, pricing, and most importantly, better accessibility.
Webtoons and manhwa continue to gain popularity across the globe, even competing with Japanese manga in that regard. However, while manga publishers have been quick to adapt to this global demand, manhwa and webtoons continue to lag behind despite their digital format. It isn't that fans want to read low-quality scans with poor translations, but simply that they often have no other choice when a series hasn't been licensed yet or when the official translation simply isn't up to par.
Overall, manhwa certainly possesses the potential to overtake manga or at least compete with it on even ground, but poor accessibility and services are greatly holding back the medium. While Solo Leveling: Ragnarök will undoubtedly do well given the popularity of its predecessor, the series will continue to suffer from piracy issues unless the industry itself begins to change.
Solo Leveling is available to read from Pocket Comics, Tapas, and TappyToon.
Based on a webtoon series, Solo Leveling is an action-adventure fantasy anime originally created by Chugong. When Sung Jinwoo is slain in the depths of a high-level dungeon, he is reborn - but this time with a plan. Utilizing a unique program that only he can, Jinwoo levels up remarkably fast - and he intends to use his newfound strength to reach the heart of the dungeon and uncover its secrets.
Release Date January 7, 2024
Writers Noboru Kimura
Directors Shunsuke Nakashige
Creator(s) Chugong
English (US) ·