Solo Leveling's victory over Frieren was always on the cards (and it sums up modern anime fans' taste)

As anime fans must remember, Crunchyroll announced Solo Leveling as its Anime of the Year a few weeks back during its annual awards ceremony. While many fans were disappointed by this announcement, the A-1 Pictures anime's win was cemented the moment it was nominated for the same.

While the Crunchyroll Anime Awards is a prestigious annual award ceremony, it decides its winners through fan voting. The company uses this method to allow fans to be included in the decision-making. However, since its inception, the award ceremony has repeatedly turned into a popularity contest. The same was observed in the award ceremony's latest rendition.

Solo Leveling was always going to trump Frieren in a popularity contest

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Why is it that, if so many fans believe Frieren: Beyond Journey's End should have won the Anime of the Year Award, Solo Leveling grabbed the title? Simply put, the A-1 Pictures anime was far more popular than the Madhouse anime.

The Solo Leveling anime was more popular than Frieren: Beyond Journey's End because the A-1 Pictures anime was more enticing to the casual audience. Unlike the Frieren anime, which featured a slow-paced story, the A-1 Pictures anime featured great fights one after the other, leaving fans with cliffhanger endings and having them anticipate the events from the next episode.

Frieren as seen in Frieren: Beyond Journey's End (Image via Madhouse)

In retrospect, there is nothing wrong with an anime being carried by animation and fight choreography. However, in comparison to a series like Frieren, which had a great story, fights, and animation, it is only natural for long-time fans to feel rattled to see a power fantasy like Solo Leveling take the win at one of the grandest stages.

While Solo Leveling fans may think it is unjust for people to label their favorite anime a "power fantasy slop," it is impossible for them to deny that the show's plot about a lonely outcast getting strong and handsome is very basic in the manhwa community.

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

So, why does Solo Leveling get so much attention? One can blame this on the advent of short-form videos on social media platforms. After constantly being exposed to short-form videos, the modern anime fans' taste has slowly transformed from wanting a great story to craving dopamine hits.

Hence, rather than watching a slow-burner like Frieren, they would watch a power fantasy filled with hype moments. For them, as long as the protagonist looked cool and the animation team did a good job, they were hooked.

Maomao as seen in The Apothecary Diaries (Image via OLM, TOHO Animation Studios)

In fact, when the latest Anime of the Year award was announced, several Solo Leveling fans came forward, expressing that while they were happy to see the anime take the win, it seemed unjust. This is because they did not feel the story from the anime's first season was strong enough to win against series like The Apothecary Diaries and Frieren: Beyond Journey's End.

Therefore, they believed the fans must have voted the series based on seasons 1 and 2, which was unjust, as only the first season was to be considered.

Satoru Gojo as seen in Jujutsu Kaisen (Image via MAPPA)

However, this was not the first time something like this happened. In last year's Crunchyroll Anime Awards, Jujutsu Kaisen won countless awards for its Shibuya Incident Arc anime, even though only a few episodes from the arc fell under that year's criteria.

Therefore, as bad as it may seem, it was only natural for a popular anime like Solo Leveling to be named the Anime of the Year award against something far more profound and emotional like Frieren.