Aura farming refers to when a character can generate hype just from standing around, and few modern anime characters are better at it than Jinwoo ofSolo Leveling. The stronger Jinwoo gets, the more scenes he gets of him flexing on everyone without even trying, and even after a year, it has yet to get old.
Jinwoo is easily one ofanime’s biggest aura farmers, but that doesn’t make him the absolute biggest. As easy as it would be to give Jinwoo that honor, aura farming has been a thing in anime from well beforeSolo Levelingwas even created, and sure enough, there are plenty of characters who are just as good at it as Jinwoo, if not better. Going even further,one of anime’s best villains makes Jinwoo’s aura farming look downright pathetic, and overall, it’s plenty easy to see why.
Jinwoo’s Aura Farming Has Nothing On Bleach’s Biggest Villain
Why Aizen Is Anime’s True Aura Farmer
Of all the aura farmers to surpass Jinwoo, none do it so clearly and thoroughly asBleach’s biggest villain, Sosuke Aizen. From the moment Aizen is revealed as a villain,every scene with Aizen has him asserting his dominance physically and verbally through his raw power and charisma, and sure enough, it puts him at the center of some ofBleach’s most iconic moments.
EvenBleach: Thousand-Year Blood Warhas done nothing to dull Aizen’s abilities as an aura farmer. Not only has Aizen somehow gotten stronger than he was in the original anime, but while Soul Society was scrambling to deal with Yhwach’s latest attack, Aizen effortlessly dealt with things while bound to a chair.Even inBleach: Thousand-Year Blood War, Aizen finds a way to dominate every scene he’s in while bound to a chair, and overall, the coolness of Aizen’s character is always great to watch.
All of that creates a clear contrast to Jinwoo’s attempts at aura farming. Jinwoo is certainly powerful, but as many fans will attest to, power is pretty much all he has going for him, as he gradually becomes a more stoic person with very few moments that allow that to shine. Add in how Jinwoo’s action scenes often boil down to just beating someone up, andJinwoo’s aura farming never comes close to what made Aizen’s so iconic.
Jinwoo is still a great protagonist, of course. Every scene where Jinwoo gets to cut loose is fun to watch because of how much the animation and direction sell Jinwoo’s immense power, but at the end of the day,Jinwoo andSolo Leveling, as a whole, as good as they are for aura farming, only capture it on a surface level, and the same can’t be said for Aizen or other notable aura farmers in anime.
Why Aura Farming Is Such A Big Part Of Modern Anime
What Makes Aura Farming Such A Big Deal
All of the discussion of aura farming, of course, invites the question of why it’s become such a big part of modern anime. In the grand scheme of things, there isn’t that much to it; anime is no stranger to meme culture, and as it stands,aura farming is simply the latest meme to take anime and fandom culture, in general, by storm.
Aura farming has stuck around longer than other memes have, though, and that’s probably because of how fun it is. No one needs to be told that their favorite characters are cool and intimidating, butlabeling all forms of badassery in anime as aura farming creates a sense of unity within the culture that didn’t exist before, and if anything, it ultimately makes it funnier.
It’s easy to compare Jinwoo’s aura farming to Aizen’s or other characters’, but at the end of the day,Solo Levelinggetting as big as it is perfectly shows how big of a meme aura farming has become in modern pop culture. Even ifSolo Levelingisn’t the best at it, it still more than deserves its reputation for using it, and ifSolo Levelingseason 3 does happen, that’s only going to become more apparent.
