Review of Frieren: Beyond Journey's End

*Contains very minor spoilers* It took me a while to understand what this show was actually about and what it was trying to be. Frieren is not a show that has an intricate plot and complex themes or anything like that at all, which is sort of what I was expecting going into this. It's actually much more akin to a slice of life. Frieren is a show where the journey matters more than the destination. It does have an overarching plot and some small story arcs, but the majority of the show is very episodic in nature. Frieren and her companions Fern and Stark generallytravel from town to town, getting into small adventures along the way. It's more or less about appreciating the small moments and memories you make with the people close to you.

I was slightly disappointed when I realized this because I'm personally not the biggest fan of episodic style shows, or slice of life for the most part, so I guess to anyone reading this that's considering watching, just make sure you know what to expect going forward. But I kept watching because I actually do think it's quite good at being a slice of life when it attempts to be one. This show has a very charming and cozy atmosphere, captured by some truly beautiful art, animation, and music. It's a pretty pleasant experience and even poignant experience for the most part. It evokes a nice feeling of nostalgia and appreciation for the small and slow moments of life. The author has a good sense of humor too, I found myself laughing at a lot of the comedic moments.

My issues with this show crop up with everything that falls outside of this slice of life scope. The more I watched this show, the more I felt that the world that the author created, while very pretty, is kind of underdeveloped, by which I mean that you could tell the author was coming up with things as he went along. This was especially prevalent in the last arc of this season, which is more or less the Hunter exam from Hunter x Hunter but with wizards. Spells pop up that are perfectly convenient for the situations at hand, the magic system gets random new mechanics out of nowhere to give certain characters plot armor. And then the characters do that really annoying thing where they spend like five minutes in the middle of a fight explaining how their ability works and how they're going to finally kill their opponent, until someone steps in and stops them just before they're able to.

This ties into another complaint I have about the show that became really prominent in the later episodes. There is SO much talking and exposition. Characters will spend an entire episode standing around and talking about their plan to deal with a problem, and then it shows them dealing with that problem within five minutes in the next episode. What was the point of all that talking in the first place? And then characters that are just introduced that you don't really care about need to spend even more time in an episode explaining their background and motivations, and then Frieren has another flashback to her past that's almost the same thing each time, and then there are random lore dumps here and there... There is just so much talking about nothing important. It dramatically slows the pacing down and you really just want to get on with it at a certain point.

While we're on the point of characters, this is a more minor complaint that I have, but a lot of them feel very, I don't know, flat? I feel like very few of them have any actual personality. They're all very emotionless or stoic, and they have very predictable reactions to things that they encounter. I do like Frieren as a character, she's fun and interesting, but Stark and Fern feel like exactly the same characters by the time the season is over.

If you like episodic shows, slice of life, or thoughtful stories, then there is a lot you can enjoy here. You can tell that the author earnestly tried to say something meaningful and do something unique, which I can absolutely appreciate. It was definitely growing on me until that final arc, which just wasn't very well done in my honest opinion. Maybe it's just my personal tastes, and maybe there are a lot of improvements in regard to the criticisms I had down the line, but for now, I really just don't see what makes this the number one ranked show on this site.