You could say this about any other anime. I was gnashing my teeth every week for Apothecary Diaries. It is subjective yes, but I think most anime that isn’t shonen is seen as boring for the majority of people. And, a majority of people don’t like anime. You could say the same thing about any marvel movie. Just because it’s insanely popular doesn’t mean it’s good.
Feel free to debate; at the end of the day, they already won. And if you’re going to say “But Apothecary!! But Frieren!!” Shows are entertainment. And if that entertainment can’t keep the majority of the population entertained, then it was not deserving of AOTY. They were both great shows, just not infinitely entertaining. Even Solo Leveling’s slow moments were entertaining.
Except I’m not, never did I say the quality was better; I stated the entertainment is, for the mass amount of people, everyone knew that on an entertainment level, solo leveling goes past Frieren and Apothecary diaries. It doesn’t matter if the majority of viewers didn’t watch all three. EVEN if every viewer watched all three, Solo Leveling would still have the highest ratings. That alone is the facts, other than that; EVEN the viewers of Apothecary Diaries AND Frieren, didn’t rate it higher.
“OG manhwa reader” I’ve read over 20000 Manga’s and Manhwas, I’ve watched every single anime that came out in every single season for the last 25 years. I have no life; and I can genuinely say, Apothecary Diaries is not the hype y’all say it is. It’s just your averagely good anime. Standing at a solid 7.8, And that’s the truth.