Producers' latest stance on Solo Leveling season 3 might hamper the series' popularity

While Solo Leveling season 3 is currently one of the most anticipated anime, Aniplex Producer Sota Furuhashi's stance on its production might see the series' popularity plummet.

After Solo Leveling's second season was released a year after its debut season, fans wished for A-1 Pictures to produce its third season at a similar rate. However, as suggested by Sota Furuhashi, the anime's third season could be delayed till as late as 2028.

While die-hard fans of the franchise would be willing to wait three years or more, others could lose interest, causing its overall popularity to plummet.

What did Sota Furuhashi say about Solo Leveling season 3 anime?

Sung Jinwoo as seen in the Solo Leveling anime (Image via A-1 Pictures)

In a recent Solo Leveling panel discussion, Aniplex Producer Sota Furuhashi revealed his stance on Solo Leveling season 3.

While similar to the fans, the producer was also eagerly waiting for Solo Leveling season 3, the truth is that it could take some time before the animators work on the same. As revealed by Sota Furuhashi, the anime's first two seasons saw the animators create 220,000 frames. Given the huge workload, he wanted to give the animation team some breathing room before they work on the next season.

Cha Hae-in as seen in the Solo Leveling anime (Image via A-1 Pictures)

With that in mind, Sota Furuhashi asked fans to wait until the next Olympics to see any announcements on the anime's third season. Furuhashi added that the final decision on when the animation team would resume working on the anime was entirely up to Producer Atsushi Kaneko and animation studio A-1 Pictures.

How will Solo Leveling season 3's delayed release plummet the series' popularity?

As fans must have noticed, with the rise of new anime every three months, fans have a surplus of new series to watch. Amidst this, if an anime production studio fails to deliver a series' sequel seasons as quickly as possible, the audience tends to get occupied with other anime.

Hwang Dongsoo as seen in the Solo Leveling anime (Image via A-1 Pictures)

This phenomenon has been observed several times in the anime industry as anime studios hold out on animating a series' sequel seasons to work on other projects. During this, a good portion of the fans either move on from the series or start reading its source material to catch up on what they were waiting for. Such situations lead to a drop in the anime's popularity when it finally returns.

That said, this situation is nothing unique as several anime go through it. As fans must remember, Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War is also one such anime that released its first two cours very close to each other, but took its time with the third cour. While the anime's fans certainly watched the third cour, the hype around it was nowhere near what was seen when the first two cours were released.

Therefore, Solo Leveling season 3's delayed release could hamper the series' popularity.

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About the author

Gokul has been an anime writer in Pop Culture division at Sportskeeda since 2022. His love for watching anime and his interest in the ever-growing anime industry inspire Gokul to produce insightful content about the genre on a daily basis. He holds a Master's degree in Communication & Journalism, and has worked for close to 3.5 years in the field.

Gokul likes to thoroughly research about the anime he is writing about and only credits a source after verifying its credibility. He loves the popular Shonen anime, Black Clover, for its memorable characters and their development throughout the story.

When not racking his brain behind his next anime story, Gokul likes to play video games, read manga, and play football.

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Edited by Gokul Chettiyar