The Solo Leveling anime made a popular debut in Winter 2024 featuring an amazing protagonist on the adventure of becoming the strongest. Even though the series is mostly surrounded around the protagonist, it has featured a number of strong antagonists despite some of them only being featured for a few panels. Among them, Baruka has stood out even more, and before his debut in the anime, here is what you need to know about the character.
Who Is Baruka From Solo Leveling?
Baruka from Solo Leveling is the main antagonist of the Red Gate arc in the series, putting an amazing fight against Sung Jin Woo and proving to be one of the most formidable foes that Jin Woo will ever encounter. The character was just an obstacle for Jin Woo to become strong as is the premise of the series.
Baruka first appears in chapter 52nd of Solo Leveling Manhwa when a gate near Jin Woo’s house forms. He is introduced as an ice elf warlord who is the boss of the Red Gate Dungeon. Since Baruka is an elf from the ice region, his appearance matches his theme.
He has long ears and white hair like you would usually expect from a typical elf but with a blue skin color to support the theme of his tribe being from the ice-based region. His attire also supports the fact he is from the icy region with parkas and large coats with fur.
To make him stand out from his tribe and the other fellow ice elves, Barka has a purple flower-type pattern on his forehead that befits him as the leader of the ice elves. As for his personality, Baruka is a villainous character who enjoys killing other species from his own (mostly humans), has high intelligence, and can also speak human languages.
In addition to enjoying killing and being cruel, Baruka also likes to hunt and it is evident that the tactics he uses against his enemies come from his skills as a hunter.
Baruka Is The First Significant Antagonist
The significance of Baruka’s presence as the antagonist is highlighted in his fight against the Jin Woo. As most fight goes, Baruka initially had the protagonist overpowered and the only reason why Jin Woo was even able to win against Baruka is thanks to the help from his shadow companions, Igris and Iron.
In this fight, Baruka held on his own against Jin Woo who is almost an S-Rank hunter at this point with shadow companions who are at least at B-Ranks. Despite this, Baruka proved to be a formidable foe standing all on his own thanks to his agility.
However, Baruka eventually met his end in this fight with the Shadows taking him down. The reason why one might forget about Baruka is the fact that he is the only enemy that Jin Woo couldn’t revive as his Shadow.
As of this writing, Solo Leveling has 9 episodes out and it is rumored that the anime is going to have 12 episodes in the first season. Considering the pacing the anime is at, the best we can get is a teaser for Baruka in this season if any.
