Review of Frieren: Beyond Journey's End

Proof that good production can carry anything to the finish line So, I'll admit ahead of time, I would have never checked this out if it didn't catch fire. I don't have much interest in fantasy, nor the type of "introspective" anime or whatever, you know, this stuff. It's not my scene and I acknowledge that there are shows that just aren't my type of show. And that's fine. But this is a boring show with painfully slow pacing, unfunny comedy, unlikeable characters (with the exception of Land and Ubel in the Mage Exam, although Stark is okay), and bad action. I guess I'll start with the action.I do enjoy a battle shonen or two but I'd like to think I'm a bit more cultured than that, at least enough to appreciate shows that aren't the equivalent of flashing lights in my face.

The action here, however, is in like two minute bursts and only one of the characters does anything beyond a simple Avada Kedavra kinda spell. Who decided it was smart to have BOTH Frieren and Fern do just a basic shield and a basic killing spell? There's a fight later on in the season where this isn't the case and, like, why were you holding out? It's not like they were using forbidden techniques or anything, they just decide that only using fundamental spells is the Correct Way. That fight was pretty good, why are most of them based on FuNdAmEnTaLs? Stark, for what it's worth, is better since he's not a mage and can do Warrior Things, but if Frieren or Fern are at the helm, it's not very good. Not to mention it tends to shove flashbacks in the middle of fights, ruining the pacing even more.

Frieren as a character is... fine. I don't like her but I don't dislike her per se. Fern's really the one I have the biggest issue with. She's sort of the team mom but she's too much of a stick in the mud to be enjoyable. There's a few instances where she's mad at someone and they have to go out of their way to placate her and that's just not fun to watch.

I watched this, like, a month back and I honestly couldn't tell you what happens with a gun to my head. For some reason, Frieren attaches to Himmel's party specifically and it makes her want to get in touch with her feelings and stuff, right? And then between then and Not Johan Liebert (I honestly forget his name, I think the girl in the party was named Linne?), it's all just ~exploring~ and ~growing as people~ and ~expanding the party~ and there's a Takehito Koyasu elf and a priest with an older woman fetish and, like, I don't care about any of you people.

That also goes for Himmel's party. You basically get Family Guy cutaway flashbacks to learn how Frieren's bond with Himmel's party was formed because by the end of the first episode, the party is already disbanded. And by the end of the season, I just never felt that much of a spark with the party.

I will say this, Madhouse put their Madhoussy in this show. The OST is pretty good and it looks nice. There's not really much else Madhouse could do to make this show better without, well, just making something that wasn't Frieren.

It does have ~themes~ that someone more interested in the show than I could explain to you but, like, I don't give a shit. Not because I'm not interested in the themes of a show or analyzing the literary value of a show but because this show was boring. If it wasn't through sunk cost fallacy and inertia, I would've dropped this at literally any point in the show. The only thing that was running through my mind was "this is what ultimately took down Fullmetal Alchemist?" (for the record, I have never seen FMA: Brotherhood [or 2003 for that matter], so this isn't me being a salty FMA fanboy. Yes, I know, I'll get to it, it's actually next on my list.).

Honestly, me giving it a 3 is nice. It was devoid of value to me. The only thing that has left an impact on me is the sense that I wasted my time watching it.

For comparison, I saw Hokkaido Gals are Super Adorable like 3 months before watching this. Some throwaway harem show where the harem winner is about as obvious as it could be (for what it's worth, they could totally surprise me, I don't actually KNOW who wins, it's just an assumption based on what I saw in the anime) without it going "x girl wins: a Hokkaido Story" as the title or something, right? I enjoyed the show but it's not really something that'd stick in your mind.

And yet I can remember more about that show than this one.

I'm sure Frieren appeals to a certain crowd. I am not that certain crowd.

If you enjoy shows where it's more about ~themes~ and characters meandering around, doing grunt work while ~learning about themselves~, this might be more your speed?