Review of Frieren: Beyond Journey's End

Frieren is a slice of life fantasy anime. Within slice of life, Frieren is a 9 or 10. However, Frieren does not take significant risks. It's a vignette story, each of which are carefully written and designed for character growth or exposition. Each character is consistent and includes both strengths and weaknesses. The animation is as great as any animation Madhouse produces. The show has a lot of cozy and relatable moments, allowing you to curl up with snacks and a drink to enjoy yourself. It's an excellent show to watch as a default with friends (or a partner) and everyone will be happy topop it on for an episode or two.

However, the writer did not write a long form story, where you risk making sequencing mistakes or providing too little/too much exposition. It is written in vignettes. As such, it makes me almost cringe to give it a score below 9, but vignettes are too easy to write for me to score it that high.

As an additional anecdote, even when I was in the middle of watching it, I did not find myself passionate about the show. When I told peers what I'm watching, they would light up when they recognize the name. I would say, "It's a good show. At least, I'm enjoying it. The writing's great and it touches on a lot of valuable topics." There was not any part of me that felt driven to enthuse about it. This is rare for me, as I am generally a bombastic person. It is just an anecdote, so take that as you will.