[Analysis] The final episode of the second season of “Only I Level Up” was too crazy | What fate did Shun Mizushino choose as the “Lord of the Shadows”?
(C)Solo Leveling Animation Partners
In March 2025, the second season of the anime “Only I Level Up” finally came to an end.
The final episode, episode 24, depicted an overwhelming battle and the transformation of the world due to “true awakening,” and many people said, “This is already a movie…” This time, we will look back on the developments in the final episode and consider the meaning of Mizushino Shun’s decision and the nature of the war with the monarchs.
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※This article contains spoilers up to the final episode (episode 24) of the second season of the anime.
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A rough summary of the flow of the final episode
In the second half of the second season, the battle between “monarch vs. ruler” intensifies, and Shun fully awakens as the “shadow monarch.”
In the final episode, he leads the shadow army in a spectacular battle to fight against the monarch’s army attacking Asia. The action scenes are on a level that will go down in anime history, and the decision to “go back in time” in the last few minutes is depicted.
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Consideration 1: Is Mizushino Shun’s “time travel” a victory or an escape?
The biggest shock of the final episode was when Shun chose to go back to the past.
After winning the battle against the monarchs, he returns to the time before it all began – before the gate opened – to protect the people he loves.
At first glance, this action seems like a “happy ending,” but in fact it is a choice that comes with intense loneliness.
• Only he remembers everything
• Letting go of the shadow army and the bonds he built with his comrades during the battle
In exchange, he lives in a “world where no one remembers him”
This is not a symbol of “going back because he won,” but of his resolve to “take everything on his shoulders and finish it all by himself.”
Rather than a hero, Shun has become something like a “world administrator.”
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Consideration 2: The Shadow Monarch = the shadow itself. Has Mizushino Shun become “one who lives in the shadows”?
At the heart of this story is the conflict between “light and shadow” and “ruler and monarch.”
In this, Shun made a choice to be a “shadow monarch” and to sink even his own existence into the shadows, making it unremembered by anyone.
This depicts the loneliness of a hero.
A man who was once the weakest becomes the strongest and at the same time becomes “an unknown entity” — this is the greatest irony of this work, and also a highly accomplished theme.
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Consideration 3: Was the “monarch” a “symbol of desire”?
Several monarchs appear in the second season, but each one has an aspect based on the fundamental negative emotions of humanity, such as “destruction,” “violence,” “domination,” and “fear.”
On the other hand, Shun chose the “power to protect,” a will that involves sacrifice.
This contrast seems to question what the “essence of power” is.
• Monarchs: power for oneself
• Shun: power for others
This structure is probably the reason why Shun was recognized as the “true shadow monarch” in the final episode. ⸻
Consideration 4: Was the world really saved?
By going back in time, humanity has moved to a future where they will not experience the “gate” or the “war with the monarch”.
However, this is merely a “memory alteration” rather than an “eradication of the problem”.
Furthermore, the fact that only Shun’s consciousness knows everything suggests that he will continue to exist in this world as the “ultimate weapon” for when the same crisis occurs again in the future.
In other words, Mizushino Shun has become a being that will continue to watch over humanity as a “shadow”.
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The hidden meaning behind the smile at the end
The last scene shows Shun smiling in his peaceful daily life.
In my opinion, it was not a sense of satisfaction at the “world he has protected”, but rather a slightly lonely smile of a man who has accepted the fact that he will live quietly without being noticed by anyone, the memories of all the battles, and the determination to live quietly.
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Summary: What the final episode of the second season wanted to convey
• Mizushino Shun became a being close to a “god” and saved the world in solitude
• The battle with the monarch questions the meaning of “power”
• A worldview in which the winner is not necessarily rewarded
• And he lives as a “shadow” of a new peace
The anime carefully depicted the “time reversal arc” at the end of the original work, and ended with overwhelming perfection and a lingering impression. It was a work that closed the curtains as a work that approached the essence of heroism, not just a “merely OP story”.
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To those who read this article
If you cried or there was a scene that left a lasting impression on you, please let me know in the comments.
I feel like it will help you feel a little closer to the feeling of “I’m the only one who remembers”.
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