Review of Frieren: Beyond Journey's End

Frieren is a show of extremes. Throughout its runtime coexist both extreme excitement and extreme boredom, occasionally in back-to-back episodes. Frieren is a show that assumes the watcher is into it before it can do anything interesting with its own premise and its appeal will rely a lot on how much pre-existing thoughtfulness it can get away with. Perhaps this phrasing is too generous, giving away the impression that it can be some sort of "acquired taste", however in many respects the show misses the mark that would elevate it to a truly wondrous show, instead falling to that weird, awkward position where it's nothigh-art enough to stimulate much thought at all long after finishing an episode like anime's classics and not junk-foody enough to glue you to the screen throughout its runtime like a lot of seasonal slop is able to. Frieren has incredible background art wasted on a shallow world, a boring magic system that creates heart-pumping battles, interesting antagonistic forces thrown away once quickly squeezed and a fresh idea of calm characters depicted in the most lifeless way possible.

Frieren as a show attempts to evoke melancholy first and foremost, from the emphasis on a deep blue sky, to a generally quiet tone in its dialogue, the show's constant use of flashbacks and its general structure of occasionally intertwining a long-past adventure with its present-time parallel constantly screams at the viewer asking "are you feeling melancholic yet?", however it lacks any sort of punch to justify most of its intended emotiveness, especially given how much the characters lack it.

In its attempts to diverge from most anime characters' well-known exaggerated, occasionally off-putting loudness, Frieren, Fern and the other dude barely ever express so much as a hint of a smile, frown or any other facial expression that would indicate human emotion, only reserved for the occasional gag that packs no punch. By itself this type of character is fine. Archetypes like the kuudere are endearing more often than not. But an entire cast built around such perfect, calculated coldness doesn't lend itself to much interesting interaction, and it shows. The first five or so episodes do only the bare minimum character-wise so it can set up an interesting journey. There's a lot of groundwork to lay at the beginning with the promise that gritting your teeth and following along will reward you with an engaging story. This promise, however, remains unfulfilled, disappointing only after it shows a taste of what could have been.

The brief demon arc is by far the highlight of the show and by itself it would be deserving of a larger spotlight than what it got. An exciting combination of a disturbing idea —the depiction of demons as Skinwalkers— with tense buildup and satisfying payoff. Had Frieren been just this, it would've been a much better show. Close to a 10/10, even. The promised great show starts here!

But it doesn't. Immediately after that we're treated to episodes 11 through 17: some of the most mind-numbing, torturously boring "Slice of Life" in this entire medium. Far from the pensive atmosphere of SoL masterpieces like Girls' Last Tour, Super Cub, and Yuru Camp, the uneventfulness is more reminiscent of Haruhi Suzumiya's infamous "Endless Eight", and at least that was an interesting artistic exercise.

The show then evens out with the magic exam arc. A moderately engaging pseudo-tournament arc of a not-so-colorful cast of characters competing with disproportionate brutality to get the magic equivalent of a black belt. Here's where the show levels out and wouldn't be out of place amongst your slightly above average seasonal darling. It is engaging enough at this point all the way to the end if taken at face value, but there's not much beyond that. Frieren tries to build up an "imaginative" magic system that, while beautifully animated, is as undercooked as your average isekai's Dragon Quest rip-off minus the videogame terminology. Those flashbacks intertwined within the story? Not any more interesting than the present events. There's not enough of an emotional connection built up from that original adventure for them to pack any punch. Frieren (show) wants to pretend that these past events are having a "deep and profound" effect on Frieren (character) and while there are tiny glimpses of that, the idea far surpasses the execution.

Frieren is a show of extremes. Some moments it had my heart pumping for reasons I didn't even understand, some others I was wondering why I was even bothering to watch this, not dropping it only so I could understand the prestige. The gorgeous magic effects might trick you into thinking there is more to this world than there actually is. The core idea behind the story might make you convince yourself that it has more to say than it does. It has fantastic production values that amount to almost nothing of interest. Sum all of its parts together and Frieren is…

…just kind of okay, I guess.

Breakdown by episode chunks:

Eps. 1-6 = 6/10
Eps. 7-10 = 10/10
Eps. 11-17 = 3/10
Eps. 18-26 = 7/10
Ep. 27 = 9/10
Ep. 28 = 5/10

All resulting in a weighted score of 5.96, rounded up to 6/10, which were my honest feelings even without the math.