Review of Frieren: Beyond Journey's End

Small spoilers for what our friends Frieren and Fern are faced with on their journey. A line of text from the first PV: “Beginning with true tears…” …and ending with shounen shiz. I’m 15 episodes in, thinking “Man, this is some of the greatest seasonal shit I’ve experienced. Overrated? Hell nah.” Because in all honesty, Sousou no Frieren was a near-perfect, strong, and impactful anime that captured my heart straight from the beginning. A captivating theme around the perception of time, thought-provoking moments, and a lingering bittersweet feel to it. I legitimately was thinking nothing could take down such a titan and what it had already builtfor itself, and for damn good reason. I mean, these 15 episodes had shown me so much perfect in the action, the worldbuilding, the character development, the… EVERYTHING! From exciting battles with demons and even a giant flower, to venturing through a massive, beautiful world, all while our characters learned and grew—it was like nothing could stand in the way of Sousou no Frieren.

Upon seeing the inexplicably terrifying praise showered over this anime, I was ready to board yet another hype train that lead to nowhere. Ready to be hit with the fact that, after a great, promising debut, what people were going borderline psycho over would lose control of the joyride and crash down into some run-of-the-mill plot. And I’m glad I threw away all those suspicions and jumped right in, because, for once, I actually agreed with the obsessive fans. For over half the anime, I was on cloud nine, thinking Sousou no Frieren was a perfect gem amongst the piles of dirt, that not even the sharpest blade could scratch its surface.

But then, out of nowhere, something went incredibly wrong. That cloud nine I was having the time of my life on? Yeah, well, it shrunk all the way down to cloud five.

Somehow, my suspicions were somewhat validated! The bitter conjectures I’d so long ago thrown aside—they came back not only to bite me, but this seemingly impenetrable beast of an anime in the ass, too. In a tragic turn of events, someone flipped the wrong switch on the plane’s control panel and there it all went, diving down, gaining speed by the second and burning up in the atmosphere, until we reached episode 28, where it kissed the ground and crashed. It wasn’t a very satisfying downfall, to be real with you, because I really, really, really, really clung onto hope that this would remain one of the best things to come out in some three years. I didn’t want to give up hope easily—I didn’t want to crash down with the plane, but I had to give in, one way or another. Sousou no Frieren had practically set its own course to perfection from start to finish, but somewhere along the way, it strayed off in a pretty bad direction. I would have asked, “Where did we go wrong, my boy!?!?” Because that would sound cool and emotional and whatnot, but I know exactly where. Exactly what was the culprit.

What episode did the mage exam start? I cannot for the love of me recall (and frankly I’m too lazy to recheck), because I was so awestruck by just how powerful Sousou no Frieren could be at times that I was barely paying attention to the change. I was just there, my mind racing with Frieren this, Frieren that. So fixated on so many aspects of this wondrous media that graced us from above, that I didn’t realize that very wondrous media was growing dull. It took me a good three or four episodes to finally squint my starry eyes, shake my head left to right, give my brain a tumult, and realize that this mage exam arc thing that was happening not only dulled the specialness that Frieren had, but flat-out took most of it away.

Now, don’t get me wrong—there’s plenty amazing that’s still present in the mage exam bit, namely the more frequent, striking animation that felt like it was dialed up to 11 compared to before, and in general, on its own, this part isn't too bad. But… while that’s all fine and dandy itself, we’re talking about Frieren here. Why such a drastic change from an adventure and slice of life-ish mood to an action-fantasy? Why was something so perfect changed out for something not-so-perfect? Where are the deep undertones? What happened to the impeccable character development? Why is there no sentimentality? Why are they doing this battle game thing? Why are they capturing a tiny ass bird in rivalry of characters we’ve had no time to familiarize ourselves with? Why are they battling against stone replicas of themselves? —The only character development here is learning how to kill themselves! (This really could be put in a less ridiculous way but shut up.)

When I think of the anime Sousou no Frieren, the first thing I think of is the adventures of Frieren, Fern, Stark and others, through gorgeous, lively environments—lands vast and wide; forests quiet yet dangerous; small villages housing friendly residents; entire towns teeming with people, with accommodation and shops for all their needs. I think of Frieren’s time long ago, how she and her party of Himmel, Heiter and Eisen, defeated the demon king and became known as the party that slew it. Of her party’s fun memories shared together that she reminisces of every once in a while. I think about the oddly emotional, hard-hitting moments, especially of the first four episodes—they really hit the feels for me, y’know. What I don’t think about as much when I think of the anime Sousou no Frieren is its exciting, adrenaline-pumping action scenes against our characters’ own stone-made adversaries that, while would be able to rival some of the greater shounen out there, don’t reflect Frieren well enough, or its battle games that, while test our beloved characters’ combat skills and bring out their maximum potential, don’t continue proper character development or familiarize us with new characters well enough. I definitely don’t think about Frieren and her teammates’ quest to capture a bird, nor do I even sometimes remember that this mage exam they’re taking is for them to become first-class mages. And if you ask me why they want to become first-class mages… well, don’t.

Speaking of the characters, yes, we’ve got Frieren with her impossible-to-break stoic demeanor masking her true emotions. We’ve got Fern and Stark (who, just saying, should REALLY board the ship), and Himmel and the rest of his party. They’re all given a good layer of depth as the anime continues (which sadly stops), and that helps to immerse the viewer, to feel more connected to both the world and characters. Cool. Now guess what I’m going to bring in next? Correct! The mage exam, as well as its characters! “They’re strangers and weren’t introduced at the start, that’s why you don’t understand them!!” No. Well, yes. And no. What I mean is: if they were introduced at the start, and weren’t too stranger, that definitely would’ve worked out better, since they’re given zero time to develop in the hectic mage exam that is almost nonstop challenge, action, battle, and whatever else falls into those categories. We don’t even know what they’re supposed to develop from—we barely know anything about them besides the fact that they’re here to become first-class mages. Having them as strong characters in this part of the anime creates such an imbalance between our Frieren and Fern we know and love, and say, characters like Übel and Denken, that they’re hardly given a chance to be expanded upon, save for Übel being known for her murderous vibe and Denken… I honestly don’t remember if they gave Denken any defining traits anymore, if there was any.

One thing I thought that Sousou no Frieren did amazingly was its flashbacks that revealed Frierens past with Himmel and the others. Each flashback felt meaningful, like they had something great to convey and tell the viewer. They weren’t just ordinary flashbacks telling us, “Hey, look, Frieren had great friends and this and that, blah-blah.” These were flashbacks that not only held importance in the anime, but flashbacks that felt like genuine lessons or simply just increased the powerfulness the anime had… That is until the poison that kills—the mage exam. Thereon, in just the flick of a switch, most flashbacks shown turned into unnecessary and boring bits of the anime that almost felt like interruptions. I didn’t used to wait for Frieren and her party’s antics to end before—they were never so purposeless. Frieren and her friends of old didn’t used to have absolutely nothing to share before—their activities were never so flat. Yet there I was, staring at the screen like an idiot, at what once was fun, light, and intelligent, swapped out for dull and drab.

But! But, but, but—as I’ve expressed previously, Frieren didn’t lose ALL of what it had before. Not at all. The unprecedented genre change was a sizeable tank downwards, sure, but you cannot at all mention the anime without mentioning just how beautiful studio Madhouse’s obligatorily abrupt spikes in animation quality are. It’s especially strong during the mage exam’s adrenaline-pumping action scenes, which was a big supplement to an otherwise huge loss—shit, do they look stunning or breathtaking!? Outside of the action stuff, though, the animation handling is still actually really good: fluid character movement, some wacky perspectives were handled quite well, and in general it’s really easy to watch. Though, unfortunately, some of the action scenes suffer from being nightmarishly hard to keep up with. Their really well-animated segments and coordination make my eyebrows already shoot through the roof, but hooolyyyy, my eyes trying to keep up with everything going on shoots them every-fucking-where. The scenes are amazing, but it’s kind of a ‘cool! What the hell is happening?? :D’ amazing.

The animation, though, is always well-complemented by the artstyle. While whatever messy action might be playing out on screen, at least the artstyle keeps the small little tidy feel to everything. It doesn’t feel overblown by using a million filters, or so well-made it’s kind of overwhelming—it’s just simple and honest. And add unique to that. The soft, roundness of a lot of the character designs and their linework, the minimal shading, and the restrained color palette aren’t a combination you see too often, and it’s quite easy and refreshing to look at. Usually what you get these days is an overbearing amount of filters slapped onto generic character designs to pose as a cool ‘artstyle’, so upon watching the first few episodes, I was pleasantly surprised.

Another supplement that almost, ALMOST, helped fill in the void was the music. Evan Call is a goddamn genius, and I cannot thank him enough for composing such beautiful music. Enthralling, exciting, calming, emotional—you’ll hear it all in this wonderful soundtrack. There are few soundtracks that really grasp my attention beyond being just unique, and this is one of the few. The action scenes’ music I especially find absolutely jaw-dropping, as they make the scenes about a hundred times stronger, and it genuinely almost made me forgive that anything had changed about the anime at all. I’m definitely listening to this soundtrack in my free time.

Right now, I’m basically walking on the thin, thin tightrope that is the verge between marking this review as ‘recommended’ and ‘mixed feelings’. I’m off-balance and flailing my arms, about to fall towards the ‘recommended’ side, but something is blowing me backwards to the other side of ‘mixed feelings’. That is, the change the anime underwent with the advent of the mage exam sucked the life out of almost everything the anime had built up before—you could even say it destroyed most of it—and thereby it left a giant, lifeless void in what would’ve otherwise been a near-perfect anime. Sousou no Frieren lost sight of itself and became something it wasn’t, and while it kept some of its defining aspects like its striking animation handling done by our lovely Madhouse, and its compelling music by Evan Call that gets the heart racing and the ears soaring, it didn’t take away the fact that what I was watching wasn’t the Frieren that nearly had me shed tears, that made me feel bittersweet, that struck a chord in my heart, that intrigued me to no end, or that practically stole my heart right from the start with its sheer beauty, but the Frieren that turned the ‘meaningful’, the ‘heart-rending’ and ‘thought-provoking’, that it carried, all into shabby ‘challenge’, ‘action’ and ‘epic’. Frieren wasn’t special back then because of this shounen-esque theming, and I think many of you see the same way and can collectively agree on that.

But damn, S.S. Stark ‘n’ Fern was really sailing, bruh... Did they HAVE to omit Stark from the exam?

Thank you for reading my review.