Review of Frieren: Beyond Journey's End
Here are my thoughts and feelings on Frieren. Unfortunately, I couldn't find much to truly enjoy with the series, despite reading the manga to the latest release and watching the entire anime. I've watched many other classic and equivalent shows already that express these themes better, but I can tell the show is competently made. Honestly, I learnt about this show from people calling it incredible, knowing it is the top rated anime, so I was just constantly disappointed with this series. I know that this voting is not the most objective, but I've found MAL very helpful, so I really tried to give it ashot. Frieren is unusually slow even for slice of life standards.
The main characters are literally emotionally stunted teenagers and an eternal adolescent, they're really bland and basic for what they are. A lot of it is vague backstories and myths that we don't get to see. The dialogue is here basically written, and it's almost comical that every past section spells things out in simple clear terms like a children's moral. It's so slow it's almost as like you have to wait years in real time for them to emotionally mature and have a personality. Frieren isn't a show for deep engagement, so being bored is a common sentiment for most people who don't vibe with it. You could skip a bunch of the slow parts if you aren't engaging with the unusually slow pace and get the gist. It really feels like an adolescent "anime" show, teaching about the beauty of life.
THE SHOW IN GENERAL
To be honest Frieren is one of the most visually beautiful shows I've ever seen, but it's still really basic and bland, like the point is that it's very subdued in mood and has really simple and quiet personalities. It seems like a beginner's show with cliché anime tropes, light fan service, and no realistic characters or detailed themes. I just can't get into it despite enduring the first season and manga. I am amazed by how everything was drawn and coloured, the physicality and detail of the animation, but it's frustrating that this was used on such a divertive western fantasy story. Frieren's action scenes and production values are great. Main characters are mostly teenagers and an eternal young adult. It literally a standard anime shounen.
It could be relaxing to watch, and the characters are mildly nice to each other, but they still butt heads in a frustrating way. The characters are mostly emotionally stunted, and that's the mood of most of the show. It would be difficult to be with people like that in normal life. It is not as nuanced or intriguing as other high rated shows in it's genre and style, it's just the most popular and accessible, but that is an extremely valuable thing to be. It's not inspired or creative in any way, to a fault. It's defined by simple tropes, but the animation is great and there's lots of polish. The designs, composition, color palette, music and background art are all very great.
If it's nostalgia for a past we barely get to see with Himmel, and Frieren making an effort to develop connections and appreciate the short time we have together, then it's about nothing but a failure of Frieren's perspective. Are we supposed to wait a hundred years for her and her group to develop a personality in real time? It's absurd and impossible for these characters this unique to be so subdued and bland in a fantasy world. I love slice of life shows about characters and vibes, which is why I know this is really lacking. The themes of appreciation of life is story 101, literally every story is this, so this is impressively stock and minimalist. I just expected more because how great the visual are and how superficially it matches my taste. It's all vague grand allusions.
It is generic and appealing designed as a show and franchise, and easy to understand. It's good how this show uses patience, but it gets quite boring and it drags with how shallow the events are. The show takes itself so seriously and grandly but it is about so little, and I know where the manga goes too. It's really hypocritical and wasteful of people's time. It's like how the color grey is universal and utilitarian, but I can't imagine how person could relate or enjoy it.
Frieren is a show that actually appeals easily to non-anime and non-fantasy fans for being laid back and more Western. It's easy going and simple, mostly episodic events in 20 min episodes. It's easy to drop in and try it out, so it has perfected this format and has a big audience in the age of lengthy, continuous, seasonal epics.
CHARACTERS AND WORLD
Most of the important characters are unchanging or move at a glacial pace on purpose, literal hundreds of years with little progression. What's the point of an amazing power fantasy and world of danger if the main characters are just mildly affected by things? Do they feel the beauty of life just by going through the basic motions? They feel a little disconnected and calm when using incredible magical powers. Characters don't really emote or express themselves often. These are the most simple bad guys possible, despite the scale of the characters and world, but they do make for convenient devices for the action scenes which are the most spectacular parts.
The characters barely emote and don't express themselves very much. Just being stoic with faces like blank slates. The disadvantage of this very polished art style is that they move in a restrained way. The dialogue is basic and repetitive, but the themes of grief and moving on are well done. These impressive and awe-inspiring characters should not be acting and talking this simply, it seems like a first draft. The story has long arcs in a comfortable deliberate pace, but it's shallow. There isn't any kind of deep story or truly complex characters, it just likes to take lots of time.
The mood of peace broken by tension and the melancholy of loss and nostalgia is a great way to combine the world building and character's experiences, with Frieren being living history. She is an intriguing main character, something like a great elf mage that is very experienced yet learning how to live her best life with new companions, and also silly a marketable anime character.
It doesn't have really thought provoking themes or very relatable human stories. I got some enjoyment from it. There are several reviewers I like to read that are more intellectual and perceptive about anime, so I understand conceptually that this show is well crafted for the themes it conveys. It's great that it explores actual themes of living in a realistic way, and it appreciates peace. It's not really a show for engaging deeply with, and it's not very adult in the character development and themes. The main characters are literally an eternal adolescent and some teenagers, so it gets kinda shallow about the basic life moments and lessons. It's understandable why most people who don't vibe with calm in Frieren would say that it's boring.
From the presentation and reputation, I expected it to at least be on par with other anime in terms of story and pacing, and I wouldn't watch this if there weren't reviews calling it a masterpiece. The production values are amazing, but it does feel artificial. It never really affected me emotionally and didn't really get it's artistic merit. It feels like a template for something better.
CONCLUSION
There are more mature and artful shows out there that deserve attention more than this show or should be praised more, that are genuinely engaging about the human experience, fantasy, slice of life, etc.
Stories that are introspective about war and healing like Vinland Saga, or with even an emotionally stunted main character like Violet Evergarden. Deeply human and tragic stories like Orb: Movements of the Earth. Mushishi has a far more intriguing knowledgeable wanderer character and magical creature world. Dungeon Meshi has more fun complex character dynamics with the groups of adventurers and has an actual philosophical statement about hunger. Made in Abyss has an incredibly fascinating and visceral (if disgusting) fantasy world. Anne of Green Gables does living life, nature and the passage of time in a lovely way. Ikoku Nikki is also great about human adult characters and an orphan getting to know each other as they live.
I heard the online discourse is quite hostile, but this happens with every popular bandwagon, the reputation creates massive bias. It's not contrarian to dislike something that has flaws, but it's frustrating that some people are very hateful with arguing and outrage about liking or hating the show, so I hope they can learn to accept other people's opinions.
Judging Frieren on story alone makes it kinda mediocre. The outstanding thing it has going for it is western fantasy, the action scenes and chill vibes in the amazing production values. Real western epics like Lord of the Rings make Frieren look quaint. It's a bit confusing why it is so highly rated, feels like an indication on who watches anime and their mentality.
I stuck with it for a long time, but I got so bored I eventually gave up on the series.