Review of Frieren: Beyond Journey's End
TL:DR - A decent show ruined by poor writing and strong plot convenience like no other. Whew this is a rough one. Usually when I see something popular that I don't end up liking I can at least understand *why* it's liked. This one eludes me, but we'll get what's NOT wrong with it out of the way first. The overall animation is pretty solid and consistent. It does dip down here and there with some cheaper shots, but mostly it's pretty good. Another decent point is the music. Outside of the first OP being probably one of the most mismatched intros to a show i've ever heard, therest is pretty solid mostly. I'm not a huge fan of the scottish almost medieval feel for half of it, but i'll just say that's a matter of taste.
That pretty much immediately ends the good.
Tragically the characters and plot really bring down any potential the show could have.
The plot is touted as something new and special, but my lord does it quickly fall into the same types of things we see on literally every other fantasy show with a demon king. The only difference is there's no demon king. The whole point of the show is to see these types of things from a different perspective, but it just never goes out of it's way to give you a new perspective. Instead it's all mainly used to give you similarities between Frieren's old party and the new one. It could be interesting, but most of the show spends it's time on incredibly tropey situations that run off some of the hardest plot convenience i've seen in ages.
About to lose? Pure evil genocidal demons let you go, only for you to beat them because "jk they're weak".
Lose something? "here's the reward! i'm about to give you is the spell of not losing that."
Need money? Nobles popping out right on time as you complain about being poor with the literal most convenient thing possible giving you the opportunity to bag money said money.
Being tested? Make a plan that ends with "and now I just need to be the luckiest person ever to use the single worst designed spell ever made"
On top of all THAT we get these situations where the main cast decides they want to be more immature than elementary schoolers. The show is trying to tell this supposedly emotional story while linking it to Frieren's past, but it feels like it's self sabotaging itself constantly with the most frustrating situations and predictable writing i've seen in awhile.
At some point you get a hint that we're gonna get another arc we've seen in other anime a 100 times. After the terrible "everyone is incompetent" Arc for ep 8-10 seeing that it makes you worry. What hurts more is knowing from the moment they start it, it lasts ALL the way to the end so they really drag it out.
Throughout it all there really isn't any high stakes despite the show trying to act like there is despite the obvious outcome of "OP Frieren is OP". Even when the show finally decides to have a single moment where there's real danger, the reason it's dangerous just takes you out of it.
Sigh...
I'll finish by talking about some of the characters, which honestly aren't too much better. They do have some high points, but tragically the best characters have the least screen time while instead we just see the same garbage from Fern and Frieren most the episodes. Most the cast also feels pretty monotone. Some people say it's realistic, but honestly there's more emotion in day to day conversation with real people than most of frieren.
Both Priests - Pretty solid overall and actually feels like characters. Tragically all priests are hard limited on screen time. Can't have the better characters too long. You might get spoiled having a real character around.
Stark - Zenitsu from Demon Slayer, but not creepy. Also nowhere near as cool so it balances out. Solid character, but again we limit his screen time. Is in the middle ground a bit since he's also constantly involved in some of Frieren and Fern's childish personalities. A pretty standard character type with not much new to offer, but still solid despite that. Is a "coward" but not really.
Fern - Lives off cute pout energy, but transitions to insufferable at times. Like if Taiga from Toradora was robbed of her depth and charm. If not pouting she's probably blank faced and monotone. Typically characters like these are an easy win for me but my god she's terrible at times.
Frieren - Oldest of the group, somehow the dumbest. Apparently thinks jumping into mimics is the only option. OP to the point of being boring and even more monotone than Fern somehow. Just like Fern she thrives off cute energy. Acts like she's 5 until she has to act like she's older because the other characters are acting like they are 5.
As a SoL/Romance fan, I am pretty weak to the cute energy the emanates from some of the scenes, but it's ruined so often that it makes it not worth it.
There's also some real cool stuff scattered around in the show, but again it's just constantly ruined by terrible writing or characters. The deeper you look into each episode the worst most of the end up feeling as the cracks start to show.
I usually don't write reviews for these type of overhyped/overrated shows, but this one just boggles me on why it's so popular so I figured i'd drop my opinion for the Frieren cult to never read but mark as funny.