BFG

The SL hate really needs to stop. Frieren was great, and Solo Leveling season 1 was better. Even hinting at season 2 being the reason SL won is egregious. It went viral at the end of season 1 when the English voice actor said "Arise". It was a whole big thing. I was already a fan before then (still haven't read the manwa), but all of a sudden, everyone I knew was asking about the anime I was already watching. My feeds blew up with posts about the voice actor telling people to chill out about it or he would change the word "Arise" to something foolish. That's why it blew up, not season 2. Season 2 was arguably even better, but it only increased the popularity of the already popular series. It's like saying that the only reason people like fnaf is because of fnaf 2. Fnaf 1 was a game changer in the world of video games, even if 2 ended up being more popular.

As far as story, I still really enjoy SL's story. The side characters could be a little more fleshed out, but everything else is great. I was hooked from the first episode. Frieren was great too. Its story was certainly an interesting take on the concept of near immortality. But the claims about SL being unoriginal is also true of Frieren. It's very clearly inspired by the concept of vampires who've lost their humanity over the centuries, not much different than Lestat in the Interview with a Vampire series. Toss in some robot seeking to find their humanity like in Star Trek: TNG, a fantasy setting, and make the main character female and you have a great concept for a story. They even made some great back stories for most of the characters. They're both made of ideas from other things, like books, movies, TV shows, etc. I just used the first examples that came to mind. I think both stories are great in their own way.

I had more to add but I hit the character limit. Either way, I'm certainly excited to see more of both series. As long as writers stop being butthurt at SL for winning. They are both outstanding.