12 Anime Like Solo Leveling to Watch Next
You watched the weakest hunter alive rip a shadow out of a dead body and turn it into a soldier, and now every other show feels like decaf. That withdrawal is real, so we hunted down 12 anime like Solo Leveling that punch just as hard.
Solo Leveling started life as a Korean web novel by Chugong back in 2016, exploded into a record-smashing manhwa, and then A-1 Pictures adapted it into one of the biggest anime debuts of 2024. Season 2, Arise from the Shadow, ran from January to March 2025 and somehow looked even more unhinged than the first. If you need that exact rush again, we lined up the best shows like Solo Leveling to fill the Sung Jinwoo shaped hole in your heart. Let’s go!
Set the tone with the official Solo Leveling anime trailer from Crunchyroll:
Why We All Want More Shows Like Solo Leveling
Before we hand you the list, let’s break down what actually makes Solo Leveling so addictive. It nails a handful of very specific things, and the best shows like Solo Leveling hit at least a couple of them hard.
First, the power fantasy. Jinwoo is ranked E, the literal bottom of the barrel, mocked as “the weakest hunter of all mankind.” Then he unlocks the System and starts climbing toward monster-god status. Watching a total underdog claw his way up is pure serotonin. Second, the game mechanics. Daily quests, stat windows, sudden level-ups, item drops, penalty zones. It turns raw growth into something you can literally watch happen on screen. Third, the dungeons and monsters. Those moody blue gates, the ranked raids, the boss fights that crank the danger every single arc.
The picks below deliver on those pillars. Some are pure dungeon anime, some are all about an op MC steamrolling entire armies, and a couple came straight from Korean webtoons just like Jinwoo did. We spread the love across genres on purpose, so whatever hooked you in Solo Leveling has a match down below. A few lean cozy, a few lean brutal, and every one of them has a hero worth screaming for. Pick your poison.
The Best Dungeon Anime for Solo Leveling Fans
If gates, guilds, and monster-stuffed labyrinths are your favorite part of Solo Leveling, park yourself right here. These are the dungeon anime that feel closest to raiding a red gate with your squad and praying nobody dies.
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? (DanMachi) is the obvious first stop. Bell Cranel is a rookie adventurer in the sprawling city of Orario, where everyone pledges to a Familia led by an actual god and dives into a massive multi-floor dungeon for loot and glory. Bell starts as the laughingstock of the whole town, then levels up faster than any adventurer in recorded history, all because a crush on a top-tier swordswoman lights a fire under him. That absurd growth curve is peak Solo Leveling energy, just with a heavy scoop of romance and comedy on top. Four seasons deep and still going strong.
Sword Art Online is the granddaddy of the trapped-in-a-game vibe, and honestly the blueprint a lot of these shows copy from. Kirito gets locked inside the VRMMO Aincrad, where dying in the game means your brain gets fried in real life, and the only exit is clearing all 100 floors. He fights solo, soloes bosses whole guilds can’t scratch, and earns the nickname the Black Swordsman. The health bars, floating menus, and floor-by-floor grind will feel instantly familiar to any Jinwoo fan.
Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest might be the most Jinwoo-coded pick on this entire list. Hajime Nagumo gets betrayed by a classmate and plummets into the deepest pit of a monster dungeon, left for dead. He survives by eating raw monster meat, crawls out with shocking white hair, a mangled arm rebuilt into a weapon, and a cold, do-not-test-me attitude. He forges guns. He stops caring about being the nice guy. If you fell for ruthless late-game Jinwoo, Hajime is absolutely your man.
Goblin Slayer goes straight for the grim, blood-under-the-fingernails side of dungeon crawling. There is an Adventurer’s Guild with ranked plates from porcelain to platinum, quests pinned to a board, and a man whose entire existence is descending into caves to exterminate goblins nobody else will bother with. It is dark, it is brutal, and it treats a dungeon run like the genuinely lethal job it would actually be. That guild-and-rank ladder mirrors the hunter association Jinwoo grinds through.
Anime With an OP MC Like Sung Jinwoo
Sometimes you do not want tension, you just want to watch someone be stupidly, gloriously overpowered while the room panics around them. These op MC anime are built for exactly that feeling.
Overlord is the gold standard for pure dominance. Ainz Ooal Gown is a skeletal overlord stranded inside a game world with his entire guild tomb, Nazarick, and its loyal floor guardians standing behind him. He rules in a scary, calculating, always-three-steps-ahead way, and half the joy is watching enemies realize way too late that they never stood a chance. If you loved Jinwoo commanding a shadow army, Ainz commanding Nazarick will feel like coming home.
The Eminence in Shadow is the perfect fusion of overpowered and hilarious. Cid Kagenou is obsessed with being the mysterious mastermind pulling strings from the dark, so he invents a fake evil cult called Shadow Garden purely for the roleplay. The twist? Every single thing he made up turns out to be real, and Cid is genuinely one of the strongest beings alive without ever clocking it. Massive power gaps, unhinged chuunibyou energy, and fight scenes that go completely off the rails. It rules.
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime takes the leveling system and cranks it to eleven. Rimuru Tempest starts as a literal blue slime and, through skills, evolution, and swallowing enemies whole, grows into a nation-founding demon lord. The Great Sage skill basically functions like Jinwoo’s System, feeding Rimuru intel and unlocking new abilities on the fly. It runs cozier and warmer than Solo Leveling, but the progression payoff is every bit as satisfying.
One Punch Man flips the whole formula on its head. Saitama is already the strongest thing alive, so the comedy comes from him being crushingly bored by it. There is a full Hero Association ranking heroes from Class C up to S, which will scratch that hunter-grade itch, and the animation on the marquee fights is straight-up legendary. If you want an op MC anime that also lovingly roasts the entire genre, this one is required viewing.
Korean Webtoon Anime Similar to Solo Leveling
Solo Leveling was born from a Korean webtoon, so it tracks that the anime similar to Solo Leveling with the most shared DNA also started as manhwa. These two are non-negotiable watches.
Tower of God follows a boy called Bam who steps into a colossal, mysterious tower to chase the one girl who means everything to him. Every floor is a savage test, and climbing higher means beating challenges designed to kill you. Based on the legendary webtoon by S.I.U., it carries that same climb-and-conquer skeleton plus a world that keeps peeling back new layers the deeper you go. The first season adaptation by Telecom Animation Film put it on the map, and season 2 arrived in July 2024 with the tower cracked wide open.
The God of High School is pure liquid adrenaline. Jin Mori enters what looks like a normal martial arts tournament, only to find it is a front for something far bigger and stranger, complete with god-borrowed powers called charyeok. MAPPA handled the animation, so the fights genuinely detonate on screen. Based on Yongje Park’s smash-hit webtoon, it shares that flashy, kinetic Korean action style that made Solo Leveling look so ridiculously slick.
Modern Monster-Hunting Anime Like Solo Leveling
Want the specific fantasy of ordinary people suiting up to fight things that should not exist? These recent hits bring monsters, hard ranks, and awakening powers that any Jinwoo fan will recognize on sight.
Kaiju No. 8 is a near-perfect modern match. Kafka Hibino spent his whole life dreaming of joining the Defense Force that fights the giant kaiju leveling Japan, but he got stuck on cleanup duty scrubbing monster corpses instead. Then a tiny kaiju flies into his mouth, he transforms into a monster himself, and he has to hide his power while somehow passing the entry exam and making the squad. A hidden power, a ranked military of monster hunters, and gorgeous Production I.G animation from 2024. Anyone who loved Jinwoo masking his real strength will devour this.
Watch the official Kaiju No. 8 trailer from Crunchyroll:
Jujutsu Kaisen swaps dungeons for cursed spirits, but the skeleton underneath is identical. Yuji Itadori eats a cursed finger, becomes the vessel for Sukuna the King of Curses, and gets pulled into a hidden society of jujutsu sorcerers ranked from grade 4 up to special grade. The monsters are nightmare fuel, the powers are wildly inventive, and MAPPA delivers some of the best fight animation in the entire medium. If you want dark, modern, monster-slaying action with a body count, JJK hits like a truck.
How to Watch These Anime Like Solo Leveling
Good news, most of these are easy to track down. Crunchyroll carries the biggest chunk, including Solo Leveling itself, Jujutsu Kaisen, Kaiju No. 8, The God of High School, Tower of God, and DanMachi. Netflix and other services grab several of the isekai titles like Overlord and That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, depending on your region.
Our advice? Start with whichever pillar you’re missing the most. If you crave the dungeon grind, boot up DanMachi or Arifureta. If you just want raw, room-clearing power, Overlord and One Punch Man have your back. And if you specifically loved that Korean webtoon flavor, Tower of God is basically calling your name.
By the way, if you also live on the streaming side of anime culture, a ton of these shows are beloved by creators too. We put together a rundown of our top 10 white and silver-haired VTubers for anyone who clocked how hard Hajime and Jinwoo lean into that icy hero look. New to the VTuber scene entirely? Our guide on what a VTuber actually is breaks it all down, and you can meet the biggest names in the space in our Hololive Productions rundown.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most similar anime to Solo Leveling?
Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest is usually crowned the closest match. A weak hero gets betrayed, falls into a deadly dungeon, survives by eating monsters, and comes back with white hair and a ruthless edge. That is basically the Jinwoo glow-up transplanted into a different world. The Eminence in Shadow and DanMachi are the next runners-up if you want variety.
Are there other Korean webtoon anime like Solo Leveling?
Yes! Tower of God and The God of High School are the two big ones. Both started as smash-hit Korean webtoons, just like Solo Leveling, and both bring that fast, flashy action style. Tower of God leans into a climb-and-conquer structure with a mystery that keeps deepening, while The God of High School is all about over-the-top tournament brawls powered by borrowed god magic.
Do I need to watch shows with a leveling system to enjoy these picks?
Not at all. Some lean hard into game mechanics, like Sword Art Online and That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, while others focus on raw power or monster hunting instead. If the stat screens and quest logs were your favorite part of Solo Leveling, prioritize the isekai and dungeon anime on this list. If you just want a strong hero wrecking bad guys, jump to the op MC section.
What is the best op MC anime for Solo Leveling fans?
Overlord is the top shout for pure dominance, with Ainz commanding a loyal undead army the same way Jinwoo commands his shadows. One Punch Man is the pick if you want an overpowered hero plus sharp comedy, and The Eminence in Shadow blends the OP power fantasy with genuinely funny writing and huge payoff fights.
Is Solo Leveling getting more seasons?
Solo Leveling has already delivered two seasons through A-1 Pictures, with season 2, Arise from the Shadow, wrapping up in March 2025. The story is far from finished. The production team has confirmed the franchise is continuing, and the manhwa still has a mountain of arcs left to adapt, so Jinwoo’s rise is nowhere near over. While you wait for the next chapter, the 12 shows above are the best way to fill the gap.
