Review of Frieren: Beyond Journey's End

This shows pretty good. Starting from a ridiculous premise of following the life of an elf who has lost all of her loved ones through the passage of time the story is not an action filled adventure. Animation in this series is fantastic, the fight scenes are the best I've ever seen (in my opinion) but the fights are not what make Frieren so good. I'll organize the rest of my review into thoughts on the story and animation. Story: "Frieren's" story isn't a huge arc focused on violence or some great tragedy, but a focus on the interpersonal relations of the characters and the mundane scenarios thatthey work through. Every episode "Frieren" reminds the audience to take a step back from the categorization of certain realities that we exist in to have a fuller and more enjoyable experience. All of Frieren's (human) old companions are dead by the fifth episodes, but I think "Frieren" helps resolve our greatest tragedy.

(Spoilers)
Though she may by traveling to the mystical island of the afterlife to see her lost friends the journey is not tragic. She continues to live, even though she very literally marches toward death. She takes joy in the everyday actions that she engages in, helping towns with their harvest or enjoying the meals cooked by a friend, and even overcomes the "curse' of her eternal life. At the beginning of the series we see her in tears as she loses the one man in her life that seemed like he was trying to date her. But, she continues and with a little help from her friends she again enjoys life and creates new relationships. Now, I don't think this is a perfectly correct analysis of Frieren's character, but I am trying to emphasize the simple point that this story is making.

The cleche "it's not about the destinations its about the journey" nearly encapsulates the show's message. In the final episodes of the first season we encounter the character Serie, who was teased with the Title Sequence. Serie is Frieren's near opposite. She has sought power and control all of her life while Frieren has just kinda vibed. Serie amassed a collection of Magical Text greater than any library while Frieren has gone from town to town trading favors for whatever spells she can find. Normally a show would moralize and deride Serie's way of life. Someone seeking power at nearly all cost and who comes of as condescending is usually framed as some great evil, unresovable and uncontrallable; a verifiable threat to society. I expected at every scene that this is what the show would do.

They do not. Instead Frieren the show refuses this paltry moralization and Frieren the person resolves this conflict inherent to thier characters through her acceptance and ambivalent attitude toward it. Frieren reveals to one of Serie's students who is having self-image issues due to Serie's condescending tone that Serie cares about him. Serie, is not a bad person. Serie is not evil. Serie is not even miserable, in fact she seems to be enjoying herself. Serie cares about every single one of her students, remembering them far past the time their names are forgotten. Even the banning of Frieren from the guild that Serie controls is resolved in a "non-violent" fashion. Frieren instead of acting violently in reaction to her ban, accepts it and simply walks out of the guild hall. Frieren even seems to enjoy this ban in a way. She overcomes her taught or built distaste for such an antagonistic action and simply enjoys herself, even with a threat to her life in the mix. Showing Serie's happiness adds to this point, the show refusing to make her a villain, something I was excited for from the Title Sequence. Instead a more complex and sincere message is developed. The show doesn't deride a particular way of life but instead glorifies both Frieren and Serie even though their "ways" are so incongruous that one bans the other from seeing them. This is what I personally think the "main" message of "Frieren" is, we see it in her acceptance of her friends death, in her acceptance of changing styles of cuisine, her acceptance of the need for growth in Stark, in her friends helping her accept an apprentice, and in her reaction to Serie's hostility. Frieren goes beyond the categorizations that are normal to us; she enjoys life as she experiences it.

That being said, this is an Anime and I am probably reading to much into it. The show has its issues, the biggest being the inclusion of demons. Instead of denoting people as bad; categorizing some life experiences as bad that real humans have the author instead uses demons as the placeholder. I'm personally not going to criticize it too much for this, because it is an anime (and yes the character Ubel kind of goes against this but I think that is more of a result of having a fun anime character not an exploration of morality in that sense, and yes I also think the attitude to Serie's immense power is in conflict with this but I think the exploration of Serie's character was better and perhaps not as influenced by fantasy tropes).

With all this justification for my own enjoyment of the show out of the way, I found this show fun. Every time I sat down to watch an Episode of "Frieren" I was excited, and every single time the credits rolled I was happy. This show is enjoyable, the cast is fun the characters are cute. How can you not love the adorable Stark, the :3 Frieren, the circular Fern. I enjoy Frieren, I like Serie, Fern's funny. My reasoning for why this show is good pales in comparison to the simple fun that I had watching. Every single episode I liked, and the more touching ones made me cry.

Animation:

What more needs to be said, look at the Title Sequence and the Closing Credits. The animators display that they don't need to adhere to a specific style to make things beautiful. You want etchings, they've got you, you want stop-motion they've got it covered. They don't miss. From the facial expressions to the fight scenes, they create such specific actions. Fern is not just angry, she is specifically ridiculing you for causing her a minor inconvenience. Frieren isn't just casting a spell, she's breaking the world. I've already written enough for this review so I'm not going to say much more, but the animation in this series is perfect. The final thing I'll say is that the pastel color pallet is amazing, I wish more series used such a comforting animation style.

10/10, perfect Television.