Review of Frieren: Beyond Journey's End

Frieren is iyashikei in disguise. Fantastic and incredible for what it is, but overhyped to a cosmic scale for things it doesn't actually have. First of all, the entire selling point of the show is an illusion, or even a manipulative lie if you're negative. It's not an "after the journey" story, it's just a regular journey, just with a different purpose. Also, the fact that the main character lives much longer than ordinary people and this creates certain psychological challenges for her is not a new concept and not unique either. The plot is as simple as possible - Frieren has a goal to reacha certain place and she slowly walks towards it, and on the way she and her companions have some various adventures. The classic semi-episode structure allows for a constant change in the tone of the anime. This makes it more unpredictable and therefore more interesting. One episode can be more dynamic, another calmer, one more action-oriented, another more dramatic, and yet another more comedic or romantic. But overall tone remains chill, calm, and safe - you know for sure that nothing terrible will happen to the main characters.

Three (four if you count Himmel) main characters are likable enough, but they lack some distinctive traits. There's also a bit of a lack of natural communication and interaction between them. They've been traveling for years but talk as if they'd met two days ago. All the secondary characters fulfill their roles, but they are realy forgettable.

The worldbuilding is the weakest element of the show. Everything is super standard as far as it's theoretically possible. I didn't notice any really interesting ideas or concepts. The world in general feels very strongly like a video game, rather than fully alive one.

The music is good, nothing more to say.

The visuals both animation and drawing - are top class. The character design, the fluidity of movements, the detail and quality of the backgrounds... - everything is very high-level from the first to the last second.

Conclusion:
Frieren is an anime for relaxing. Coming home after a hard day at work, making a warm tea, wrapping yourself in a blanket and watching one or more episodes - that's what it's perfect for. This is how its pluses are best manifested, and the minuses are almost invisible. A cool and chill anime with incredible visual quality, good music, likeable characters, and a simple but interesting enough plot. What else do you need from iyashikei? My personal rating is literally for this.

But if you look for what it doesn't have (uniqueness, deep philosophy, a full-fledged plot, a well-developed world, etc.) - you will probably be disappointed. There is some of this too, but very little.