The anime industry is currently at its peak this year, and one of the main reasons behind it is the second season of Solo Leveling. The series has taken the world by storm and is gaining a lot of fame and recognition, but it looks like this fame might be short-lived as the creators of the series might have compromised the quality of the series.
This compromise was seen in the English dub of the Solo Leveling series, where one of the characters of the series was voiced by Colombian singer, José Álvaro Osorio Balvin, also known as J Balvin. Although it was a piece of good news for the series and fans were excited about his role as Kargalgan, his performance might not have been up to the mark, and thus it has affected the series.
Fans of the series who prefer to watch Solo Leveling’s English dub version were disappointed with Balvin’s voice acting as Kargalgan, and they were quick to voice their dismay towards the Colombian singer. Not only that, they even went to the lengths of pointing out how his inclusion affects the English voice-acting industry in a big way.
J Balvin’s addition to Solo Leveling’s English voice-acting cast
A few days ago, Crunchyroll announced that the Grammy Award-nominated artist J Balvin will voice the character Kargalgan, who was later turned into a shadow soldier and was given the name Tusk. He was going to feature in Episode 5 of Season 2, which included the enticing battle between Sung Jinwoo and Kargalgan, as he was the dungeon boss.
The English dub of the episode was officially released on February 22, 2025, and it was a big deal for the series considering the fact that a global icon like J Balvin showed his excitement within the project. This step was taken to shed more light on the overall growth of Solo Leveling as a series and the anime world as an industry.
After voicing the character of Kargalgan in Solo Leveling, Balvin was featured in a special interview with The Warp, where he talked about the difficulty of voicing an anime character. He even explained the difference between recording music and recording a character who is as terrifying and dangerous as Kargalgan.
Solo Leveling fans are not happy with J Balvin’s performance
While Balvin’s inclusion in the Solo Leveling English dub cast was indeed a big deal, fans lost all their excitement after watching his performance. He was supposed to honor the role of a major villain and give a hint of his intensity as the strongest high orc shaman and the boss of the Hunters Guild Gate.
However, after the episode was released, his performance did not live up to the expectations and thus was criticized by the cutthroat fanbase of the Solo Leveling anime series.
Fans took to Reddit and decided to express their frustration about Balvin being a part of the Solo Leveling franchise and hurting the overall development of Kargalgan as a character.
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Although Balvin could not live up to the expectations of Solo Leveling fans, he did indeed help in spreading the name of the series, and it was more than enough. Hopefully, the creators will understand the issues with Balvin’s performance and take the necessary steps, which will not affect the series’ fame and recognition.
Solo Leveling is available to watch on Crunchyroll.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
