Review of Frieren: Beyond Journey's End

The problem of this anime is that it's not an anime. The anime fans would expect grandiose battles all the time, slap stick comedy, big eyes, power levelling, exposition dumps, crazy imaginary world. And this show is too grounded for their liking (at least for most animeniacs) which will MP draw them away. The problem of this show is that its not a show. The standard normies would see it and decide at first glance that this is an anime with big eyes, expecting hyperbolic reactions, massive battles and will not even try to watch it. But the fact is Frieren is a tale. Its all-rounded perfectcinematic tale.

When I review something I always start from the elements which more or less can be proven from objective point of view. This means that I look for consistency in character writing, development, decision making. I look for the same factors in world building. If a show does not rely on luck, conveniences for event to happen and keeps consistent to its narrative and who the characters are - this show is objectively well written.

But Frieren is even more than that. The characters, from the main ones to the one we see for few episodes are meticulously developed. Behing every decision they make, or even a small piece of dialog they stay consistent within who they are and what they have experienced so far. I can go so far to say that the character development is so consistent that it is at the level of Walter White (Breaking Bad), Saul Goodman (Better call Saul), or the heroes from Arcane. Or Rust Cohle (True Detectives s1). It is so consistent that even the gimmick with the mimic has sense in what Frieren as a character is - she is excited from finding little magical things in life as shown in several scenes. Also, she is acting like emotional baby which further boosts the consistency with her character’s willingness to open mimic chests. Even the KYS scene with Aura show how consistent Frieren’s character is - no flashiness just cold ruthlessness towards demons because she said several times how much she hates them. Also, her teacher thought her this way.
And this level of writing consistency is displayed in almost every character we are introduced to. Everything from why certain people use certain type of magic, or why they react in certain moment like they do has reasoning behind it. Every bit of characteristic is built and tenderly allowed to grow until it reaches its conclusion. This is also valid for the world building.

The main theme of the tale is Time and how it affects us all. In the heart of this frame is a love story like no other. And to fill this story frame the tale writers introduce timeless themes of loss, grief, self-sacrifice, second chance, how intertwined our lives are, how little gestures can change us or start major events, how to enjoy the little moments with your loved ones.

The building of the themes stays consistent throughout the whole tale. Using story telling elements like visual comparison, mirroring, foreshadowing, micro expressions the screenwriters build the world and the characters layer by layer. Nothing is spewed into your face. You have to pay attention and concentrate. Few such examples are the micro expression of Himmel when he found out about old man Voll’s reasoning behind staying in the village and the fact he is going senile. Through this story telling element we were shown that he loves Frieren so much that he does not want to entangle her in vows (also Milet sings about this in Everytime everywhere) so she can turn into Voll one day. And this stay coherent with the character of Himmel and with the theme of self-sacrifice.

Another example is Serie’s use of the world “whim” twice when discussing Flamme. When people start repeating themselves in an argument, they try to convince themselves and not the opposite side. This together with the fact she is suppressing her mana, and she keeps field of flowers without knowing why (it’s a tribute to her love towards Flamme and the elf is not aware of it) stay coherent with the theme of grief, loss and internal grow that comes with dealing with these feelings. With these small elements we are shown how much she cared about her former student and how much she is still making the journey towards understanding herself. Something mirrored against Frieren who already started this growth. This sequence of subtle story telling elements from one hand displays again how consistent is the character-building keeping Serie grounded to her persona of power-driven mage, but also show us how she slowly grows aware of her feelings. And this is compared to Frieren.

Throw into this the fact the story went full-circle - the flower field magic started the internal growing process inside Frieren, while the same spell connected Himmel and the elf which led to destroying the Demon Kind, and it started the internal journey of Serie with which she struggles at the end of this season. Which spell also stayed consistent with the theme of how little things changes course of history, just like Bilbo finding the Ring for example.

And I saw these elements only after the 2nd viewing of the series! This is how well written this tale is! Objectively this is high-level writing! Mrs. Kanehito Yamada you are already a legendary writer!

I see people complaining that Frieren does not invent anything new. But again, here we have to talk about consistency - The themes of this tale are old as the world. If the writers decided to go berserk with some insane world they will contradict with the main themes and with the idea behind Frieren - the internal journey to understanding humans. And introduction of such crazy world will ruin the consistency of the themes. Nothing flashy. Just showing us what growing as a human being is.

So, scene after scene, layer upon layer all components come together to build this perfectly complete beautiful, magnificent story which contemplate life and transcend time.

And now for the subjective part. This is how a person feels like when exposed to a certain type of media. I see a lot of reviewers mistaking “opinion” for “review”. Opinion is when you share your personal feelings without giving evidence towards what you are discussing. Review is when you try to provide full picture with examples and evidence why you think something is like what it is. Opinion is something personal. Review is like an analysis of the whole picture. Nothing wrong with both of them. I just want to draw a line between the two.

And in this subjective part of a review main role plays your personal feelings. Unfortunately, I could not find demographic split of the viewers for this tale, but I think this will affect the people with more life experience than the younger audience. Or will affect more the people who are more self-aware and who are not afraid of their feelings and are trying to incorporate them within themselves. Because to understand subjectively the themes of this tale you need to lose something in your life. This starts from understanding what you had, why you had it, how this affected you and how you outgrew the pain of losing it, how you incorporated it and become a better man. Now this comes with experience. I am such a person - I left my hometown 20 years ago. I estranged my self from all my childhood friends, from my classmates and some family members. I lost some friends due to OD or car accidences, most of my family members died. But I found new friends to share small and funny moments, who helped me grow as person, helped me shed a light over my shadow (Carl Jung) and become more complete self-aware being. And this is what Frieren is about - no matter how many people we lose during our journey we must try to keep moving forward. We must try to cherish the moments with our loved ones, expose our weaknesses, learn from past mistakes and to accept them within us as part of who we are. To be excited about life’s little moments of searching for magic (again the chest mimic displays this so strong) and to not shy away if we make mistakes. And this is why Frieren hit mi so hard.

Combining the two components - objective and subjective I can for certainty say that Frieren is a Masterpiece! And this is even without mentioning the insane battles sprinkled in measured manner in this tale. Or the insanely high level of animation.

This bitter-sweet tale does not preach. It teaches! It does not give you easy answers, but let you find your own ones! For me, subjectively, this tale is one of the greatest stories of humankind ever told! And for me, subjectively, it’s up there with Peter Jackson’s LOTR. Speaking about LOTR Even Call’s OST is outlandish! It can go hand to hand with head held up high next to Howard’s Shores LOTR masterpiece!

Frieren can be described in one sentence which I took from a very well made YouTube review - You don’t need a second life, or a second world to have a second chance.