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While Sung Jinwoo is unquestionablyamong the strongest of S-rank huntersfor much ofSolo Leveling, there is some debate to be had about how the hunters under him could be ranked. S-rank hunters are so strong that they fall outside the typical hunter-ranking spectrum in Korea, and as such, there is a vast amount of power difference among individual members despite holding the same rank.
This raises an interesting question: which of the hunters we have seen so far could be the weakest yet still be counted among the world’s strongest group of hunters? This article will examine the narrative implications, source material statements, and displayed powers of various hunters to try to determine the weakest S-rank hunter we have seen so far in the anime.
Tough to Determine
The Unreliability of Mana Readings
InSolo Leveling, it can be extremely difficult to gauge the power of other characters because of the story’s laser focus on Sung Jinwoo’s growth. This issue becomes even more pronounced for S-rank hunters, since their defining characteristic is being unable to be measured by a mana reading.
Another issue that makes S-rank hunters hard to rank is that they all possess different classes and powers, which makes them more suited for various roles. For example, one could make the case that Min Byung-Gyu is the weakest S-rank hunter simply because he is a healer and has limited combat skills for his rank. However, I would argue that while he might not fare well in a one-on-one fight, we see how powerful his healing is inthe fight against the Ant King. Byung-Gu was able to keep his entire team of S-rank hunters in the fight against this vastly superior opponent with only his power. Without Byung-Gu, the hunters would likely have been slaughteredbefore Jinwoo could even have shown up. With such a potentially tide-turning power, it wouldn’t seem fair to rank him as the weakest S-rank hunter we have seen, even though, in physical combat, he might be among the worst.
There is also the issue that many S-class hunters, like the Japanese hunters, are not seen fighting at their full power on screen. It may be truly impossible to determine exactly how strong or weak these hunters are, sowhen looking for the weakest hunter,it makes more sense only to choose ones we have actually seen fight at their full strength.
Why It Might Be Choi Jongin
One Light Novel Passage May Hold the Key
While there are differences between the anime, manhwa, and web novel that inevitably would make the answer to this question somewhat different, it is worth noting that in the web novel, Choi Jongin is implied to be among the weakest S-ranks.
“Go Gunhee and Cha Haein. Those two certainly felt stronger than the other S-rankers he had seen. However, other than those two, the S-rank Hunters like Baek Yoonho, Choi Jongin, and Lim Taegyu didn’t feel particularly strong to Jinwoo. Especially Choi Jongin. It seems that the man’s title of the Strongest Soldier was an exaggeration due to his status as the Guildmaster of the nation’s number one Guild." -The narrator describes Jinwoo’s thoughts on S-rank hunters in the web novel.
This idea seems to track in the anime as well. While Choi Jongin possesses anamazing mastery of fire magicand destroys many ants in the anime, he does seem to turn in the weakest performance against the Ant King. He lacks the speed and durability to do anything but get one shot in that fight. However, other hunters like Baek Yoonhoo, who are supposedly comparable to him, fared much better. This means that against the strongest threats, he possesses even less utility in a fight than a healer like Byung-Gu, making Choi Jongin possibly the weakest hunter we have seen fight in the series so far.
Solo Leveling
Cast
A-1 Pictures' Solo Leveling is an anime based on Chugong’s popular web novel. Set in an unforgiving fantasy world where hunters explore dungeons filled with monsters, the vulnerable Sung Jinwoo gains a significant power boost after he is picked to be a solo player by the System.
