Summary
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It’s easy to assume there will besome sort of romance between a male and female character, especially when both are very caring and are at their top performance when fighting for the sake of others. Similar personalities do attract each other sometimes and can grow into something more intimate, but can also just form a strong friendship bond.
In the popular shonen seriesSolo Leveling, Jinwoo starts as a weak main character who later rises to power. He spends a lot of time with Joohee when he becomes a Hunter. Joohee was a top-class healer, and Jinwoo, being weak, constantly needed her assistance when he got injured. The relationship between these two in theSolo Levelingseries might have been made clear from the beginning.
Lee Joohee’s Personality
Kind and Caring
Understanding herself was one skill she showed to have, especially after deciding to retire as a Hunter. She is very caring and ready to go out of her way to protect those who can’t protect themselves. Her humility also makes her stand out, and she could easily warm up to people, making her a very friendly person.
Joohee playedthe perfect supporting character role for Jinwoo when he was still very weak.Other Hunters weren’t always willing to work with him, as he’d sometimes serve as filler for a dungeon raid when there weren’t enough Hunters for a mission. Joohee was always looking out for him when they were on the same team, he needed all the support he could get.
“I don’t want an apology. I’m worried about you.” ~ Lee Joo Hee
Strength in Knowing Her Limits
A B-rank healer who only goes in dungeons lower than her caliber, she is clearly a very fearful and cautious lady. She knew how powerful she was,being just two ranks away from S-rank.Joohee was too scared to put her abilities to better use.
These traits are what led to her relationship with Jinwoo; her fears slowed down her progress as a Hunter and made her go for lower-ranked dungeons, where she met Jinwoo and constantly crossed paths with him. It didn’t take long for her to start up a conversation with the guy who kept needing a healer more than anyone else in a dungeon party.
Jinwoo’s Feelings Towards Lee Joohee
Respect And Gratitiude
Jinwoo was well-cultured and had proper manners as a young Korean. His reason for becoming a Hunter was pure and genuine:supporting his sister and bedridden mother. Although Joohee is not aware, she takes a liking to him and makes him her responsibility during missions.
His urgent need for money is what pushed him to keep going on dungeon raid missions, missions where Hunters frequently die or are left disabled, but it was high-risk, high-return. Jinwoo was nothing short of grateful to Joohee, who constantly healed him and made it easy for him to keep going on these dangerous missions.
How He Showed It
During the double dungeon incident,where Jinwoo got the “system”which helped him level up, he prioritized her life over his when she was severely traumatized by what was happening and found it difficult to move or even use her abilities to heal.
Jinwoo was no coward, but being able to navigate his emotions in such a dire situation and choosing to save her, not knowing what would happen to him after, shows he had a soft spot for Joohee, in addition to the promise he made to her earlier on in the dungeon. When she healed him, she requested he take her out for a meal, and he tried his best to honor that promise.
Understanding Each Other
Both of these characters were shown to be very caring to themselves and others. Jinwoo, even though he had been hurt by other Hunters more times than he could count, saved as many as he could during the double dungeon incident when he was still weak, and saved many more Hunters when he became strong enough to do so all on his own.
Joohee was the same. Although she couldn’t always perform her best under pressure, she was willing to stay with Jinwoo in the double dungeon when everyone else alive was escaping. Jinwoo had another Hunter knock Joohee out and take her away so she could survive. This event pushed her to retire, but she ended up coming out of retirement tohelp out during the third raid mission on Jeju Island during the Jeju Island Arc.
What Made Them Different
Jinwoo, even while he was weak, didn’t know when to stop. He made the final deciding vote to go into the double dungeon, while Joohee was against it due to her being cautious and afraid. It was so early in the story to figure out the path that both Hunters would take, but this point in the story would help fans know the type of main character they were getting.
The “system” might have seemed to change Jinwoo’s personality, but what it did was more of amplifying it. His thirst for power starts to grow more and more as he completes mission after mission from the “system”—even if it involves killing another Hunter, it didn’t seem to bother him for long.
Joohee, on the other hand, knew her limit and prioritized her mental health over continuing her career as a Hunter. After the double dungeon incident, she meets a stronger Jinwoo, who saves her again in a D-rank dungeon. She speaks to him after the raid, pointing out the fact that he had changed and openly confessing her weakness to him and her decision to retire. She’s fully aware she didn’t have as much drive as Jinwoo did, even though he accepts and supports her decision to retire.
Their Beautiful Friendship
Jinwoo and Joohee had an amazing friendship that peaked when Jinwoo was still a weak Hunter. The care she showed him helped build his character when he found himself in a position to help and save the lives of regular people and Hunters in the story.
What they could have been if they were just regular people is left to the imagination, but the relationship they built through life-and-death experiences is something that even transcended the timeline. In the final chapter of the story, after Jinwoo resets the world to erase all the suffering, he becomes a stranger to everyone, but not entirely to Joohee. When she meets him again, she says he feels strangely familiar, as if some part of her remembers him. Even in a world where their shared past no longer exists, that unspoken connection remains. Their bond, though never romantic, was deep enough to leave an imprint beyond time.
Solo Leveling
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.
