Solo Leveling took a brief break recently with a recap episode that left fans frustrated, not least of whom was prolific YouTube creator, James ‘MrBeast’ Donaldson.
A breakout hit of the current anime season,Solo Levelinghas garnered millions of fans worldwide thanks to a creative merging of fantasy and sci-fi, and an intriguing protagonist in Sung Jinwoo.
Starting out as an E-class hero, Sung goes through numerous trials in theanime showto ascend the ranks, an ability he gains after surviving a horrific super-powered dungeon in the first episode.
Recently, after Episode 7, we got a recap – a summation of events thus far, with some narration. This isn’t unusual in the industry, and A-1 Pictures probably needed to do one in order to give more runway to the animators. However, the audience wasn’t thrilled, including MrBeast.
MrBeast was “depressed” after seeing the Solo Leveling recap episode
On X, formerly Twitter, MrBeast responded to Dexerto about Solo Leveling Episode 7.5, revealing he really wasn’t happy with it. “This show is amazing and when I saw the new episode was filler it actually made me depressed for a few minutes,” hesaid, replying to news that the recap is the worst rated anime episode on Crunchyroll.
Such stats show he’s not alone. Introducing filler so early can be irritating, but it’s important to remember these shows are made on a pretty intense schedule, with crew working on them only days ahead of their release. Recaps allow necessary breathing room, even if they can bum us out from time to time.
Solo Leveling is now back on track, and so far there are no filler episodes scheduled. If one should come up, keep our list of thebest anime like Solo Levelinghandy. Likewise, if you’re hoping to avoid needless episodes for more franchises, we have a guide to theOne Piece fillers.
Anthony McGlynn is a Senior Anime Writer on Dexerto’s UK team. An expert on animes like Demon Slayer, Solo Leveling and My Hero Academia, he also has over 10 years experience covering games and pop culture for outlets such as Variety, IGN, Den of Geek, PCGamesN, PCGamer, The Digital Fix, and many more. You can contact him at: anthony.mcglynn@dexerto.com
