In the Solo Leveling manhwa, Sung Jinwoo’s character isn’t as straight as an arrow. He is a morally conflicting character who makes decisions that aren’t always befitting a hero. However, the anime intends to change him to a morally white character.
The battle between Sung Jinwoo and Goto Ryuji is one of the best examples of how the anime is whitewashing its protagonists. These deliberate actions are taking away from the complexity of the anime.
Solo Leveling anime made a huge change in the Goto Vs Jinwoo fight that changed Jinwoo’s character

The Solo Leveling anime made the Goto vs Jinwoo fight much more toned down than what is present in the manhwa. In the manhwa, Goto Ryuji is more disrespectful to the protagonist. In addition, the story also changes how powerful Goto actually is. The anime made Goto look just a tad bit less powerful than Jinwoo, but the manhwa shows that he was not even close to the MC.
In the manhwa, Goto changes his mind mid-fight and decides to end Jinwoo once and for all. Thus, the system shows Jinwoo an alert about the murderous intent of the character. This is why Jinwoo starts to get serious in the battle because otherwise, the system would have given him the order to kill the S-Rank hunter. And if that had happened, Sung Jinwoo would have killed Goto without any doubt.

But in the anime, Jinwoo never gets any notification. He doesn’t use all his powers and only fights as much as he needs to. This scene changes Jinwoo’s character, as he is suddenly a morally white guy than he actually is. The anime also changed the part in which Goto feared for his own life. Since the scene would have made anime-only fans question Jinwoo’s character.
Solo Leveling toned down Sung Jinwoo’s bloodthirstiness before as well

In the Red Gate dungeon arc, Jinwoo killed Kim Chul. However, the manhwa and the anime portrayed it pretty differently. In the manhwa, Jinwoo had always wanted to end Kim Chul and make him into a shadow. But the anime made it look like Jinwoo had no other option and only acted out of self-defense.
In the manhwa, Jinwoo kicked the sword towards Kim Chul, knowing that the guy’s ego would overwhelm his critical thinking. Lo and behold, Kim Chul took the sword and attacked Jinwoo, giving him an excuse to murder the hunter and extract his shadow.
However, in the anime, the part where Jinwoo planted the sword was omitted. It was only shown that Kim Chul was furious and took a randomly lying sword to attack Jinwoo. This scene was one of the first that attempted to portray Jinwoo as a morally straight guy instead of the moral grayness that lies within him.
Solo Leveling anime is available to stream on Crunchyroll.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire