Review of Frieren: Beyond Journey's End

A refreshing lesson about life and a well-written story. The story is slow-paced, character-driven, and most importantly, takes its time. And that is the whole point of the message behind the journey we are following : time is valuable, you should enjoy every second of it for it will come to an end one day. The character of Frieren basically never ages and was born so long ago other characters don't even know what these times were about. And when we meet her she is just breezing through time, without much care for the people she meet since she knows she will outlast them. But whenher adventure companions pass away, she realize she missed the opportunity to know them better, and we can see in every episode onward how she tries to understand Fern, Stark, Sein or even the people she barely meet, because she knows what it is to have missed the opportunity to know someone.

The music and animation are top-tier, and if the show is taking its time to let us see each character grow and understand them just like Frieren is trying to understand them, the anime can also take the time to deliver when the action kicks in. Fights are well orchestrated, spells and FX are gorgeous and the whole is packed in with great soundtracks.

Overall, I think Frieren is masterpiece of animation and narration, and I do not think this word to be excessive, for the anime is really well crafted, with attention to the details and depth within the plot, character and philosophical reflection.

I would definitely recommend it to anyone, but I'm not sure any anime fan would appreciate it for its true value, for it is really high above the standard one might be looking for.