So, Frieren. If you've been paying attention to seasonal shows at all in the past few months, you'll know that Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End has made quite the splash. At time of writing, it's the highest rated show on MyAnimeList, and by a significant margin. And unlike others that have touched that spot, it's stayed there for nearly its entire 28 episode run. And it's not particularly hard to see why, it's gorgeously animated, it's got a strong emotional theme, and the action is first rate.
The premise is also fresh, and helps it stand out, despite its apparent generic fantasy basis. The show opens with the legendary party of heroes, Himmel the swordsman, Heiter the priest, Eisen the warrior, and the titular Frieren the mage, returning to the capital city to celebrate their defeat of the Demon King. They spend some time together celebrating their victory, but Frieren is somewhat standoffish, in her elven eyes their ten-year adventure was just a flash in the pan. She takes her leave early, but promises to return in 50 years. When she does, she's surprised to find everyone else has become significantly older, and after spending some time together, Himmel passes on. Motivated by how much she didn't know about him, she recruits a new party and resolves to appreciate those around her on a quest to a place where legends say you can speak to the dead, in order to reunite with Himmel.
And for a good while, the show executes on this extremely well. Frieren and her new party members, Stark and Fern, spend a relatively relaxed time traveling, occasionally having to confront relatively low stakes dangers or helping others along the way, all while reinforcing the core idea of cherishing the small moments you spend with your friends. I was entirely won over by Frieren, and was incredibly impressed. Unfortunately, that is a “was”. As the show goes on, the focus drifts from being about the party as people and their interactions, in favor of bigger and flashier action sequences that seem to lose the thematic thread. But in order to explain myself, I'll have to discuss events later in the show, so it's time to dig into spoilers.
To start, it's probably best to look at all the things Frieren does right. And there are a lot! Clips of the beautiful animation have been circulating for as long as the show has been running, and for good reason. Character designs are colorful and distinctive without being overdone, every bit of action is lovingly rendered, and the magic that forms the centerpiece of the show is as mystical and impactful as you could want.
But the real thing that brought my eye to Frieren in the first place was the tone and pacing. As I mentioned above, the start of the show is notably absent of any significant conflicts. This continues through at least the first third of the runtime, with time that you'd expect to be spent on huge conflicts spent on things like cleaning up a beach, or helping clear a landslide, or the occasional brief fight that serves just to cement how capable these characters are. A lot of people leveled the accusation of this making the show boring, but I agree with the apparent majority here. The slower pace and somber tone allows the themes of memory and treasuring the little moments with the people around you to really sing. The entire body of the show is filled with the warm comfort of spending time with friends who, even if they won't tell you directly, would do anything for you. Things like having someone who will help you clean up a beach, and then drag you out of bed in the morning, all because they know that seeing the sunrise over the newly clear waters is something worth experiencing together. And not only between the party, but the recontextualization of Frieren’s relationship with Himmel is handled extremely well. While some might argue it's a bit over reliant on flashbacks, and I wouldn't necessarily disagree, the little details coming together to form a bigger picture just works for me. The memory of Himmel telling Frieren he wants to show her the flower of his homeland, leading to an episode about Frieren tracking it down later to plant it around a memorial of him; or the realization of how significant the ring he gave her is, they all play perfectly into the wistful tone and themes of holding on to the small moments. This is what Frieren was about to me, and it was executing on it well enough to nearly move me to tears.
So, imagine my surprise when I find out that the climactic finale of the first season consists almost entirely of the show settling down for a stereotypical battle shonen tournament arc, dangerously close to a carbon copy of Naruto's Chunin Exams.
I have two major issues with the direction the show ended up taking, even if they're heavily related. The first, as I've alluded to, is the increased action focus as the show progresses. Now, I'm not disagreeing with the inclusion of action on principle. I understand that it's a needed raising of the stakes and presentation of a larger conflict that the characters need to deal with. My issue is how much it crowds out what I thought as the point of the show. This is much less present during the fight with the demons earlier on, as it does go out of its way to characterize and to some degree humanize the demons, as well as providing some of the defining moments for both Stark and Fern. It establishes Stark facing his perceived inadequacy and troubled relationship with Eisen, and shows that Fern’s quiet nature extends beyond her personality and into her relationship with magic. But at the same time, it feels like a missed opportunity for Frieren herself, because despite the established history between her and Aura, all it seems interested in illustrating is that demons are haughty. Again.
But the real offender here is the First Class Mage Exams. The excuse that travel is banned through a specific area without a first class mage is contrived even on its face, even more so when they spend the entire exams hyping up how rare and elite these first class mages are. You need one to accompany you just to travel, but there's only a handful of them in existence? But then it goes on to drag its heels, spending multiple episodes each on two tests that essentially amount to round robins of duels, with only the barest effort made to even try to relate them to any past experience or the emotional core of the show. Fern and Frieren spend the first test separated, and Stark is all but entirely absent. And it does bare repeating, these fights are good. The magic on display is flashy and imaginative, and the animation brings it to life, but I can't shake the feeling that the show sacrificed the very emotional core that made it unique in the first place to fit them in.
The second may be something of a personal bugaboo more so than anything else. I can't stand the constant exposition of the mechanics of people's powers. Much effort is spent describing magic as a “world of visual imagination”, where being able to conceptualize the outcome of a spell is arguably the most important part. Why, then, do we have to spend an entire fight relaying the inner monologue of how a certain spell can only reach specifically five meters, or how the restraining spell only works if the caster can see the entire body of the target? There's a particularly egregious scene in the second test of the exam, where the main party is discussing the potential to use hypnosis magic. It then cuts away to a character who is an expert in the subject, currently embroiled in a fight where it could be usable. She spends the entire multiple minute long scene talking about the mechanics of hypnosis magic, how she needs an opening of a few seconds to use it at all, how it won't last very long, how she needs to make eye contact, how it only works if the target has a mind, and on and on. All for a three second moment where she tries it, it fails because the target “doesn't have a mind, it just perfectly mimics the function of one”, and she leaves. Neither hypnosis magic or this character are brought up again.
The combination of these issues left the entire back half of the show feeling odd and hollow. I wish I could heap praise on Frieren, in fact, I did for a lot of its runtime. But the way it's set up leads to a strange instance where the show is at its best when it's not trying to do anything. The episodes about Stark’s birthday, or the ring from Himmel, or the old Dwarf guarding a town, will stick with me for much, much longer than even the flashiest and most exciting fights the show has on offer. And it's a tragedy that it doesn't seem to recognize that.
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