Review of Frieren: Beyond Journey's End

Frieren's overwhelmingly positive reception is mostly due to the hype and the memes associated with it rather than its own merits, as is evidenced by how discourse about the series completely fell off of a cliff shortly after its conclusion. Compare this to other shows in this site - FMA, Steins;Gate, Attack on Titan, Death Note, Higurashi, and so on, which still have people consistently talking and watching them to this day. Once you put aside the whole hype train, Frieren on its own is simply a standard (if not generic) fantasy show carried by its production quality and art, and it's quite apparent. Whichmakes me believe most people (willingly? unwillingly?) imposed into this show a version of itself that does not exist. (though the discourse will come back once the second season airs, but it will inevitably be more muted)

The supposed themes this show carries are at best vestigial. The themes of mortality, the passage of time, and "learning how to live" are only really present in the first two or three episodes, and from then onwards the show loses its philosophical depth. That's not inherently a bad thing, but tons of people pretend as if this is the anime version of Subahibi. It's not, and all the backstory and supposed depth given to the characters are eventually tossed aside for simplified versions made for audience appeal. It doesn't last a single episode - you learn their backstory and it's back to antics as usual. Frieren does le silly face! Fern is le pouting! Stark is getting le hit! Everything you learn about the main cast seems to be cosmetic, and (so far) does not really play into anything in a grander scale. The show appears unsure of what it wants to be, whether it be something deeper or something made for mass appeal, placing it in a weird limbo.

This is not a bad show, but it's also not a *great* show. The things it tries to do have been done better elsewhere, and this series' popularity and framing makes me believe it will not have a conclusion anytime soon as it's in the best interests of the upper management to keep the ball running for as long as possible until revenue runs out, which can only really be bad for the story itself. My heart can only go out to Abe Tsukasa and Yamada Kanehito if this is really the case and not just me being a pessimistic cunt.

Overall, I give this a "mixed feelings" because, at least for me, this is not what is advertised - which is not inherently a bad thing but when it's on the level of being rated far higher than so many actual greats, it kinda *has* to live up to these expectations. A decent to good show at best, which somehow ended up with people collectively imposing into it a masterpiece that does not exist.