Review of Frieren: Beyond Journey's End

All that hype for a mediocre fantasy show. Please note that Frieren Beyond Journey’s End is NOT an action-fantasy Shonen. It’s a slow-paced slice-of-life (SoL) anime in a fantasy setting. Certain episodes you do get actual battles, but most of the time you’re just following along Frieren’s own melancholy and nostalgia. The show takes place eighty years after Frieren’s journey has ended, and it re-tells that story through constant flashbacks and character references. Because this is “beyond journeys end,” a majority of the episodes have very low stakes, very little action, and not a lot of story progression. Each episode mostly reminisces on that adventureFrieren had eighty years ago. It's like hearing your grandmother daydream about the “good old days“ while she constantly mentions quotes by her dead friends. Do not believe all the hype you see on social media. This show is mainly carried by its production quality and visuals, not because it has "profound writing."

Every location Frieren visits are so unmemorable they all look the same. Each episode would display something like, “In the town of X, West of…” or “In the city of Y, North of…” briefly shown on the screen. However, they never flesh these locations out. The towns and cities in this anime are mainly used as placeholders so that the party has somewhere to go. The first six episodes is just Frieren and Fern travelling between towns A, B, and C doing mundane tasks like helping villagers, grocery shopping, and finding gimmicky non-combat spells. Sometimes Frieren can be adorable when she actually shows emotion, or when she geeks over useless grimoires. But because of her apathetic nature, her constant self-loathing, and her placid poker-faced expression, she just comes off as an overall bland and boring MC. “I’m an immortal elf that lived for a thousand years. I don’t care. I remember when Himmel the Hero said…” That’s the whole premise of this show. She's just an immortal and extremely powerful elf mage with a waifu face, an aloof personality, and poor social skills. When it comes to Fern, she's just as static and aloof as Frieren. If Fern had a bubblier and energetic personality it would have complemented Frieren’s apathetic nature. Unfortunately, both of them are apathetic so their whole dynamic can be very dull to sit through across 28 episodes. In fact, Fern didn’t do much character growth either. Between the four years she travelled with Frieren, she wore the same outfit, wore the same haircut, and spoke the same voice. Fern at 18 years old is the exact same person she was at 14. I genuinely do not understand what Frieren saw in Fern that made her go, “Okay maybe I’ll change.” Even Anya from Spy x Family would be a better substitute for Fern. I swear, everyone in this show talks in a very soft-spoken voice with a face that always looks like this: 😐. It’s almost robotic and devoid of any charisma.

All the positive reviews here will say the exact same thing: "the slow-pacing is intentional, the lack of character development is intentional, and the show was never meant to be a Shonen." Then WHYYY are there Shonen elements in it? You're saying it's a 10/10 but you also agree that the pacing is slow, the characters lack depth, and that it might not be for everyone. Look, the reason why there are so many flashbacks is because the anime wants you to experience Frieren's regret. She "regrets" not connecting with people. However, it's kinda hard to empathize with someone who had a thousand years to address that issue. She spends ten years with Himmel, ignores him, then realizes he was flirting 80-years later. She spends 50-years travelling by herself, then she visits Himmel when he's about to croak. Frieren only visits her friends when they're about to die. She attends their funeral, then she complains about not getting to know them better. It is ridiculous. It treats the audience like children with zero critical thinking skills. There is nothing deep or complex about Frieren's character. If you had a hundred years to catch up with someone, and you sat on it, that's on you.

Overall, this whole season is just a nostalgia train that constantly talks about Frieren's past. It recycles cliché RPG tropes and power systems that other anime did better. Flashbacks, gift-shopping, and cheesy life-quotes all make up this very slow-paced SoL title where each episode feels like a filler. The fights are well-animated but the power system is poorly explained. A lot of the "fights" boil down to an eighteen-minute backstory and a five-second battle. A full episode would be a philosophical flashback explaining WHY Frieren can beat the enemy, then the remaining fifteen seconds is the actual fight. There is no actual plot, there is no story progression, and there is no character development. The “plot” is Frieren adopting Fern as an apprentice because it was her friend’s dying wish. The “plot” is Frieren recruiting Stark because it was a request from another friend. All three of them have some sort of objective to head North. But throughout all nineteen episodes, they just wandered around no-name towns doing absolutely nothing. NOTHING. There is no urgency to head North, and there are no real dangers blocking their way. The stakes are non-existent. I get that the story is about "the passage of time" and outliving your friends. But if you stretch that same premise across 28 episodes, it just becomes very boring and repetitive. This anime did not need 28 episodes. This entire season could have just been an email. The only positive aspects about this show are its OST and visuals. Everything else is just boring dialogue, flashbacks, and slice-of-life elements. It’s a very mid 5/10 slow-burner SoL title. It’s also overhyped and overrated across every inch of the internet.