Review of Frieren: Beyond Journey's End

Ok I'm going to confirm right now, this show is NOT the best anime ever made and at the time of writing, is strangely at number 1. Number 1 belongs to the likes of FMA:B, Steins Gate, AoT season 3 etc. This show has had an obscene amount of hype and I feel this has really coloured any form of objective viewing. That being said, it's still a very good show, with excellent moments. Firstly the music and sound design. Arguably it's weakest part. It has its moments, but for the most part, tends to stay safely in the cliche fantasy style rather thantrying to do something different. It's fine, not horrible or offensive, just stays safe not adding too much to the show, filling the silence and doing no more than the minimum needed. I would give the music a 6/10.

Secondly, the animation. This type of show doesn't need overly complicated animation. It just needs great quality animations with solid character designs and be consistent for the full show. Frierens animation does exactly that. The world is well animated and the characters arnt obvious looking like most animes do nowadays. There are to many shows now that have Ill thought character designs and this isnt one of them. There is also some action sequences which are animated very nicely indeed, in particular, the last of these sequences towards the end of the show. For me the animation is a solid 8/10

And finally the best part, the story. As well as them being well animated, the characters have wonderful character progression. It's nothing dramatic, just very subtle and very good writing. The most redeeming feature this show has is the pacing is literally perfect. Nothing lingers too long, conclusions are drawn in good time and the episodes seem to fly by. I'm a bit of a sucker for fantasy so this story is right up my street and reminds me somewhat of Name of the Wind. It's also refreshing for the show NOT to be about the great quest but rather, what happens after. The only thing stopping me from giving the story a 10/10 is the first maybe 7 episodes. Although they are still well paced, it's not that interesting. From around the 8 episode mark to the end I would say it's perfect. So for me, the story is a 9/10.

This gives us an average score of 7.6/10. I also normally round down however, I feel a 7 would actually be unfair here so for the first time, I'm rounding up to an 8/10. If you like fantasy, this will be perfect for you. If you like anime in general and have no preference, it will be a journey you won't regret in the slightest. I really liked this show and you will too.