Sousou no Frieren

The only positive thing I can think about while watching at it is the animation quality and the general "good vibes" that come from it. Otherwise: - The plot is bad (actually, really really bad, with a lot of flaws, non-senses, etc). - Characters have a charisma near the bedrock level in Minecraft. Bad reasoning from the main character, they all look "sleepy" and "tired". - There is some trial of jokes within, which turn to be as flat as the characters saying those. Definitively an anime to rank in those "To watch in background while doing something else" or during insomnia, might be working very well for the last one.

Frieren was a huge disappointment. I'm a huge fantasy fan and have read/watched a lot of it, and I'm a fan of the genre (unfortunately, since it's one of the genres with the highest amount of shoddy work out there, it's hard to find truly good series among the bad ones). I liked the first episodes; they were a good foundation, and I don't expect much from the beginning of a story... The problem came as I progressed. As soon as they introduced the demons, I started to notice how incredibly weak the writing in this series is, and how it seems to rely entirely on the visuals (which are undeniably excellent; the direction and animation are incredible). But I'm not a fantasy fan because I like bright lights, I'm a fantasy fan because I like good stories and characters, and there's not even a hint of that here. And as if that weren't enough, then comes the magic exam saga, incredibly long and completely pointless, and full of fights I didn't care about. Maybe it was also the high expectations, since I heard it had excellent world building (false, there isn't even world building in this series, every location is as anonymous and dead as a Hollywood set), excellent writing and character development (but where? The characters are identical from their first appearance to their last, with the exception of Frieren who has a minimum of evolution from episode 1 to 3, but that's not character development, it's the incipit of the story) and instead I found myself faced with a fantasy battle shonen full of aura farming (because for some authors and viewers not showing human emotions is cool, for me it's just a stupid trend). I consider the fact that this anime is at the top of the list yet another demonstration that people don't care about the content, but how beautiful the packaging is.

I initially planned to drop Frieren after the second episode, but considering its high rating, I decided to keep watching, hoping the "masterpiece" everyone praised would reveal itself—but it never did. The show started very slow, which I didn’t mind. However, Frieren's personality feels artificial, the group's dynamic comes across as shallow, and knowing that Frieren is an introvert, her tendency to think out loud and voice her monologues feels performative. Instead of giving us time to connect with the characters, the show merely showcases their adventures as fleeting flashes of memories. I could already predict where this was headed in the following episodes. I endured the shallow character interactions, only to find nothing that kept me invested in the characters.

Sousou no Frieren is being considered the best anime ever in this website. Personally, my own experience with Frieren was watching the very first episode when it released, thinking it was just fine, and then forgetting about it until I saw a lot of people over the internet praise it like it's the second coming of Christ. I ignored it at first, but eventually I got too curious and decided to go watch the rest of the anime. After binge watching it in like 3 days, my honest and objective opinion is...Frieren is extremely overrated. And anyone who actually believes this is the best anime ever, or that it even belongs in a top 50th, clearly have not watched more than 5 anime. It is by no means horrible, but it's one of the most "okay" anime I've ever watched. And I know exactly why it is so popular with normies. The anime panders HARD to your emotions. What I mean by that is that almost every episode tries to make you cry and feel sad about characters that you barely know anything about. In the very first episode they give us a funeral scene, of a character you know nothing about, and we see Frieren crying. I mean I get what the scene is representing, but there was not enough buildup for me to care. And pretty much every episode tries to pull on your heartstrings, so yeah I can see why it was so impactful for some people, especially women. Personally I find it hard to cry over sad scenes that are build up through short flashbacks. Every time it happened it made me wish that this anime was like a season 2, and that Frieren's first adventure was season 1. That would had definitely made me care way more. In fact, the flashbacks made the first adventure way more interesting than what we actually get to watch. The plot is by far the weakest part of this anime, and I can easily explain everything that happens in the 28 episodes. Frieren finishes her first adventure, then she goes on her own adventure with a new disciple, then they meet the disciple of Frieren's friend, and all three of them travel together to defeat the demon lord or whatever, and during the journey Frieren keeps going through places she has been with her previous party, and every time Frieren has sad flashbacks, then sometimes you get some world building, and eventually the anime gets to the "competition arc" and that's pretty much it for the rest of the season. It is a very slow anime, and season 1 feels like it was 20% of what the complete story is, which makes it even funnier that people are already praising it so hard. Maybe if this was season 3, but so far nothing really that amazing happened to consider this story even close to decent, and it's not even unique or anything. In all honesty I did not hate the anime, cuz otherwise I wouldn't have finished it. There's a couple good moments and characters that made me wish there was already second season to watch, because as it is the story is just unfinished, and what I have seen so far isn't enough for me to recommend this anime over all the actually great series out there.

Pros : 1. Frequent wholesome candid scenes with peaceful artwork + great music melodies. 2. Funny female main characters 3. Feels like you are in the journey with the characters strolling nature and making memories 4. Unique fight animations/scenes at times Cons : 1. Too slow/monotone frequently all throughout the series. 2. Weak Male characters (No personality,forgettable,generic,looks bad too) 3. Series felt dragged on (too long) , it was ramping up nicely in the middle but crashed towards the end in my opinion in terms of satisfaction. Just felt too repetitive and boring , how many times can you do the uwu face emoji on Freiren? The show should have been only about 15-16 episodes in my opinion.... felt like filler often towards the end , 28 episodes was way too much.

Lame, lame, and ultra lame. I have never seen a more boring anime with such unremarkable characters. In this story, the supporting characters are more interesting than the main ones. I understand that a character who is foreign to human emotions can be amusing, but making all of them like that is extremely boring. The story doesn't stand out in any way, just like everything else in this anime. All the action seems to be inspired by the anime Violet Evergarden, with Frieren even having a suitcase she travels with, identical to Violet's, and the narrative follows the same intrigue, namely the male character they both cared for deeply who is no longer present, and each of them discovers a part of their feelings through their new adventures. As I said above, there is nothing original except for the fact that the author created all the characters to be extremely boring and without personality. I watched this anime because of its high rating, but now that I’ve finished it, I don't understand how it became so well-liked, more liked than many anime that truly deserve to be at the top. Anyway, a disappointing experience, I wouldn't recommend it unless you have insomnia and want to sleep.

After squinting really hard for a very long time I have determined that Sousou no Frieren is most likely not an isekai. Sousou no Frieren is about a cute elf coming to terms with her autism as all her friends die. I've always been fascinated with the concept of a story taking place after the "main" story has concluded. In this case an elf named Frieren and her companions set out to defeat the demon king with the story picking up long after their victory. With the villain defeated and the world in an age of relative peace the story shifts focus- all of Frieren's mortal friends are dying of old age. Regretting having taken her time with them for granted, she sets off on an adventure so she can know them better. She starts her journey by unwillingly taking on a young apprentice named Fern as they set out together to reach Aureole, a place rumored connect the living world with the afterlife. Conveniently, Aureole lies just past the demon king's old castle so Frieren and Fern can retrace the steps she took all those years ago. This creates a setup where in each episode Frieren can relive some of those memories and tell Fern about them. What a beautiful and restrained premise, I sure hope it won't get bogged down with arbitrary bullshit. It's not long before Sousou no Frieren sabotages itself and becomes a tonally inconsistent mess by adding conflicting shounen tropes. It really starts with the introduction of the demon characters around episode 8. They are basically throw away villains just to show how strong the three main characters are. A dramatic battle ensues with the heroes looking down and out before the power of anime and friendship gives them the resolve to pull through to no one's surprise. There's even a point where Fern has one of the demons cornered dead to rights and lets them get away because there's "not enough time" or some other very contrived reason. All of this is to convey that hiding your power level is important because demons are dumb, and I guess I'm dumb to since the writers dedicated several episodes to explain this. In the later half of the season we get the Chuunin Exam arc but with magic at Hogwartz. Frieren and Fern enter a trial to become 1st class mages, but it's essentially a tournament arc where every character shouts their Bankai's name and proceed to explain to how it works in painstaking detail to their opponent. Ignoring these are the same tropes that have been done to death, and ignoring they aren't particularly done well, why even have them in an otherwise slow-paced calming story about appreciating the people close to you? I enjoy when everything in a show- story, themes, atmosphere, aesthetics, etc. work towards a singular goal. I feel this is something most anime have forgotten how to do. I mean I get it, from a writer's or studio's perspective mixing multiple popular genre elements together, regardless of whether they fit, is probably what checks the most boxes to appeal to the largest demographic. I suppose it's hard to trust the audience will pay attention without action, fan service, or some other kind of unnecessary hook but I really wish they'd give us the benefit of the doubt sometimes. There's a handful of other issues I had throughout Sousou no Frieren. Sometimes the slice of life antics, while not as conflicting as the shounen elements, can be just as predictable, the world building is your typical fantasy fare, and the fan service, while minimal by today's standards, isn't as seamlessly integrated as I'd like. The art, while well done when it comes to the "moe" aspect of the show, conflicts with the action and darker elements, tying back to the tonal issues. In particular the demon designs don't come across as menacing nor are they very inspired. They are not scary and some I actively want to stick my dick inside of. Compare that to the demons in Berserk, where only one of those things is true. The characters are certainly what elevated Sousou no Frieren for me, and arguably worth the price of admission alone with most of the show's strengths revolving around their strong characterization. Frieren is perfectly depicted as an unmotivated and aloof genius mage. Likewise, Fern is perfectly depicted as the serious, responsible, but kindhearted prodigal student. The same goes for the rest of colorful cast which consists of a degenerate priest, a stern warrior dwarf, and many more, all of which I found to be endearing and charming. If I had to pick a weak link it would be Stark. Whether that's because I found his brash young warrior persona to be too trope-y or because he's not cute like Frieren and Fern I'm not entirely sure. Even then, he's not that bad and has his moments. For example, the romance between him and Fern is a fun dynamic. At times Sousou no Frieren is a thoughtful look at the passage of time and the nature of relationships. Too often however it's the same shounen and slice of life shenanigans we've seen a hundred times. Admittedly it takes a lot skill and nuanced writing to make a story where action is not the centerpiece while still having enough of a satisfying overarching plot so that it doesn't come off as a meandering waste of time. Maybe there's no one in the industry with the talent to pull that off, maybe that's just me wishing the show was something it's not, or maybe I'm in the minority for wanting that to begin with. In the end, Sousou no Frieren is much like a sunrise- it's very pretty but not worth waking up early for.

Waited until it was over and people stopped hyping it up so I can judge it as objectively as I can for myself, but even so, my expectations were huge because of what people said about it. For me, this anime is the embodiment of true mid, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Most anime do great things and bad things, which results in an average between 2 extremes when it comes to the score. But not Frieren. This show minimizes both extremes. Did it do bad things? No. Very minor nitpicky things only which can be ignored. Did it do great things like ppl hyped it up? Absolutely not. Was the story lacking in relevant detail or have asspulls? No, just very minor things which could well be cut content from the manga Did the story have mind-bending plot-twists or something that no other anime has done before? No. Overall it's a solid slice of life story set in a fantasy world, based on the passage of time with some comedy and fights sprinkled here and there. If this was a no-name show in which I would've gone in blind, then I would probably rate it higher, but people put it up there with the most legendary anime I ever saw like FMA, Steins;Gate, Monster, Madoka, Oshi no Ko and other 20 titles. The fact that it didn't live up to the hype is a huge disappointment, so I can only say that she show is good, but nothing extraordinary like ppl claim. So, do you want a chill slice of life fantasy based story about the passage of time? Go for it. Is it as good as other titles ppl compare it to? Absolutely not.

Frieren is the textbook example of overhyped mediocrity dressed up as brilliance. Its sky-high rating on MAL, sitting at 9.3+, makes it clear the fanbase is mostly people who are either new to storytelling or have never experienced genuinely well-crafted narratives. The show attracts an audience that mistakes repetition and cheap sentimentality for real depth and emotional weight. The premise isn’t bad. Frieren is an immortal elf who spent ten years adventuring with humans but never really understood the value of time or the bonds she formed. For her, those years pass in a blink, while her companions age, live their lives, and eventually die. The story is about her realizing too late how much those relationships mattered and how little she appreciated them. That could have been powerful if it weren’t handled so clumsily. The problem is execution. The writing feels like it doesn’t trust the audience to get the point without being spoon-fed the same idea over and over. Frieren will say something like, “Ten years is nothing to me,” and a human character will respond, “That’s a long time for us.” This happens constantly, to the point of parody. The writers keep hammering the exact same message as if the viewers are too stupid to notice otherwise. It’s lazy, repetitive, and honestly insulting. Then there’s the pacing. Yes, the show is going for a slow, reflective tone, but slow isn’t the same as boring. Frieren and the rest of the cast are so emotionally flat that it’s hard to care about anything happening on screen. She is detached to the point of being unrelatable, and the side characters aren’t any better. Their supposed growth is so minimal and stretched out that it barely registers. The story wanders through low-stakes situations, endlessly recycling the same themes without offering anything truly engaging. Fans gush about how “beautiful” and “deep” it all is, but most of that comes down to surface-level polish. Sure, the animations are decent, but that doesn’t hide the fact that the writing is hollow. It’s style over substance, and the hype machine on MAL turns it into something it isn’t. Ultimately, Frieren feels like a dumb person’s idea of a smart anime. It’s repetitive, predictable, and empty, and the fact that people hold it up as one of the best anime ever made says more about the decline of popular taste than the quality of the show itself.

Time is a precious thing. The most valuable resource in life. We never know how much of it we have, and we can never get more of it. So, what would you do if you had all the time in the world? Sousou no Frieren explores this concept in a way never before seen in the medium, all the while having generational production values, loveable characters, realistic life lessons and a proper grand fantasy premise. It’s not hard to see why this is one of the biggest anime in recent memory and it’s well deserved. I know there can be a general trepidation to accept the hype of series like Frieren. It’s everywhere, everyone’s talking about it and you’ve probably seen the characters on social media. But I promise it’s warranted in this case. Frieren’s appeal for most people, myself included, will be the themes of loss and regret. As we get older we really begin to feel the impermanence of life. Whether it’s losing family members or friends, or just drifting apart from people we were once close with. Time changes everything and that’s scary. But, that doesn’t mean that we should shut ourselves off from the world. While life and relationships will come to an end, they have meaning. In fact, it’s because they end that they do have meaning. The good days we experience won’t be here forever, so we have to cherish them. Frieren as a character is a nigh immortal elf, who after millennia of shutting herself off from the world, has begun to open up and embrace the world. All thanks to the journey and experiences she had as part of the hero’s party. The story uses both the past and present to illustrate Frieren’s growth, often bouncing back and forth between her days as a member of the hero’s party, and her current time with her students Fern and Stark. Often something will come up and remind her of the days now long past that she spent with Hero Himmel. Offering a sort of window into her slowly “melting” heart. Speaking of melting, “Frieren” means cold in German, more on that later though. Through these flashbacks, we see Frieren gradually realise that she valued her time with her friends much more than she could have ever imagined. She goes from thinking that a human lifetime is insignificant to her, to realising it’s not the length of time, but the quality of it. Even now, nearly a century on from their meeting, Himmel and her other friends are front and centre on her mind. For me, that’s what makes this one so special. Pieces of media that I can take lessons from and apply to my own life always resonate the most, and I’m sure I’m not alone. While we may not have the lifespan of Frieren, there’s moments that all of us wish we could get back, people we wish we could talk to and tell how much we love them, etc. Though, perhaps the biggest takeaway is that while we can’t get time back from the past and we can’t undo our mistakes, we can learn from them. We can be better for the future and for those around us now. Frieren embraces this idea by taking on her former party members’ students, Fern and Stark, and going on a traditional grand fantasy adventure with them. Earlier I referenced the importance of Frieren’s name to the story, that’s a recurring theme for the entire cast as they all have German names corresponding to their character traits. Some, like “Übel” and “stark” are a little too on the money, but others like “Fern” are subtle and reflect the character’s purpose in the story. I found them to be nice nods and really enjoyed seeing how characters evolved with their names. The other big thing to talk about is the character interactions. Other than the life lessons, I think most people will really enjoy how the characters bounce off one another in the show. The dialogue doesn’t feel cringe or forced, the seiyuus talk in realistic every day voices for the most part, and it truly feels like you’re on a journey with a group of friends. There may be fights and disagreements, *cough cough* Fern and Stark, but at the end of the day everyone realises how important their friends are and make up. I could go on and on about the story and characters, but I’ll spare you on that. Suffice to say it’s good. It’s simple, well paced and no arc overstays its welcome. Episodes don’t harp on one thing too long either like a lot of modern anime. Characters talk out their issues instead of hiding them and letting them explode. It feels about as real as a high fantasy setting can, and I think that’s some of the highest praise possible. Frieren just manages to do all the simple things really really well and as a result, it’s become one of the biggest anime. The other massive component of the situation is studio MADHOUSE. After their bankruptcy, they’ve been kind of hit or miss with anime projects, but dare I say it this is the best thing they’ve ever done. It truly feels like they’ve risen from the ashes and not just returned to former glory, but exceeded it. Thanks in no small part to the director, Saito Keiichiro. Saito-Sensei himself proposed the idea of a Frieren anime after reading the first volume of the manga and falling in love with it. It shows. From the art to the character designs to action scenes, this world has been meticulously crafted with so much love and care and stands as a shining example of what a director with a clear vision and a supportive production committee can do. Something we don’t get nearly enough of these days. While Frieren is a slower paced story at times, there is definitely action and when it pops up it’s incredible. The animation during fights is among the best I’ve ever seen, and if we’re counting TV anime only, surely has to be top 3. If we’re talking production we also can’t forget about the work Evan Call did on the series. Adding so much emotional weight to scenes and heightening the experience. He was amazing in Violet Evergarden and even better here. The show would certainly not be the same without him. In conclusion, Sousou no Frieren is a riveting and enchanting fantasy story that we can all stand to learn a thing or two from. Even those who are not traditional fantasy or slice of life fans will find something to love here, even if it’s just Frieren getting trapped in a mimic chest. It’s a must watch. Frieren gets a very easy 10, out of 10

There's just nothing special to it. The cast is average (elf is cute tho), the world is classic fantasy, the magic system is the only thing that I became invested in, cause of all the wrong reasons: I liked Serie, the mages institution, the demons, the difference between elves' long lives and humans' short ones. But sadly, these moments (which from now on I will refer to as "the plot") are sparse; instead, you're supposed to understand that connections and people are what make magic, well... "magical" (Frieren favorite spell yada yada) and that demons are just "evil", and then stuff yourself with 15+ episodes of generic quests for nameless npcs, the main trio being a bit to much between neurodivergent and outright ChatGPT, and tons of flashbacks (it gets really old real fast, plus I now know more about Himmel the Hero than about my own mother). I liked Flame tho, Flame is cool. Look, I know treasuring people and their short time on this earth is important, I can get behind it as a motive (why), but I'm not going to cry over and over about it, nor can I accept that as a substitute for a plot (what). I recently watched Houseki no Kuni; it shares similar themes (long lives, treasuring others), but what a different experience it was. There was an actual plot there, and a way to develop it. WHY IS IT BORING? - It relies too much on sentimental predisposition (I'm not as sad as I'm bored, give me something to pay attention to !!) - It's absolute good vs absolute evil (ok I get it, demons are bad, it's just they look so cool and seem very interesting :c !!) - Nothing tragic is ever going to happen (death, and I don't count generic pj introduced and killed in the same flashback as tragedy !! ) - Basically, there is little to no plot. WHY DID I WATCH IT? - To see if they would give us more of "the plot". They didn't.

I kind of understand the excitement because it is very different to most anime, but generally i couldn't bring myself to care about any character, Frieren and Fern don’t really have much personality and Stark is different to them but isn’t very interesting either. I liked Serie the most and Übel kinda, especially the b plot with the clone guy. The first episodes were very good and made me emotional, but the rest of the show seemed to lean too much on the same emotional factor by showing flashbacks, I got extremely tired of Himmel specially and it almost erased any emotion I had felt in the beginning just because of how many flashbacks are shown. Not for me

Frieren is a series that can be exhilarating at times but also downright boring. The series is about an elf in a fantasy setting that has completed her journey with her companions to defeat the demon king. Since she is an elf, the concept of time is different for her than to her companions that have a much smaller lifespan. When her human friend dies she starts to realize that she barely knew him and regrets that she didn't spend more time with him. At the recommendations of one of her other companions she will travel once more towards the demon king's castle to speak to the soul of her deceased friend. Meanwhile she takes on the mantle of mentor and trains a human girl in her way of wielding magic and mana and eventually she also adds a beta male warrior in the mix. There are some points in the anime that are really exciting. Good action combined with good animation but often the anime is quite slow and nothing of note really happens. They even have a priest among them for a episode or 3 but he does nothing of value. Some arcs also take up a lot of time and considering a second season is underway it's no spoiler to say that there is no resolution to this whole thing. I do have to say I enjoy Frieren's character. She never understood that her human companion was completely smitten with her. Her perception of time is also different as she already lived over a thousand years by now, making her sometimes cold towards other races which lifespans don't even come close to hers. Fortunately she does open up more and more as the show goes on and it's clear the has a playful and cute side to her. It's clear she is the star of her own series as there are tons of flashbacks of her journey to fight against the Demon King. Her current companions are less notable though. Her apprentice barely has any personality aside from pouting and the warrior is a beta male with the strength of an armada for some reason. That joke gets old very quick. I know this anime is very loved and is still one of the highest rated anime on MAL. Unfortunately I think the series is quite flawed and commits the worst sin of all: being boring more often than not. Still there is a good foundation to build upon with a second season so I hope it has more impactful action like the demon arc in the first season.

Stunningly overrated. Sousou no Frieren drags its slow, melancholic pacing like a badge of honor, mistaking stillness for depth. The emotional moments feel hollow, stretched over long silences that lead nowhere. It’s a show that desperately wants to be profound—but lacks the narrative weight to actually be profound. The artwork is undeniably clean, but almost too pristine, like a museum exhibit you're not allowed to touch. There’s little soul in the animation beyond a few well-composed frames. The music, though nice, is overused to prop up scenes that lack genuine tension or emotion. Frieren herself, despite being the centerpiece, feels less like a character and more like a symbol. Her interactions rarely evolve beyond soft monologues and tired reflections. The supporting cast exists mostly to highlight her detachment rather than grow independently. The story’s structure—monster-of-the-week meets vague life lessons—wears thin quickly. It preaches the value of time and memory while giving you little to remember. When everything moves at a crawl, even the rare good moments get buried under the weight of tedium. If you like watching paint dry on a very pretty wall, maybe this is for you. For everyone else, there are far better slow-burns out there.

Why this is above a 7 is beyond me. Starts off strong with a theme of mortality and the passage of time, and loses sight of that and devolves into standard fantasy schlock with nothing new about it. I assume fellow zoomers think it's a masterpiece because the characters don't have cartoonish overreactions and expressions. People praise the character development, but I saw Frieren and Fern devolve into trope characters with their entire backstories disregarded and only reused when relevant to plot progression - they do not feel like real characters, but instead like caricatures,"hehe Fern likes food", "hehe Frieren is so silly", which increased as the show progressed, though I think straight up calling it Flanderization is too much. I didn't mention Stark because calling him a main character would be disingenuous given the fact of how he's not in half of the show. I understand that modern anime is shit and it is indeed great in comparison to some of its contemporaries, but you are probably not viewing this anime in the vaccuum of solely modern releases, there are other, older stuff to compare it to, and in which case this is nothing special. Its lackluster plot is a shame, considering how gorgeous the animation, character designs, and soundtracks are.

I love all the scenes with Himmel in it and the message behind the series, but the pacing of the show is really slow. I like the story but I sometimes fall asleep watching it. The first episode really grabs you, and it's an interesting twist to the common fantasy genre. The world building and magic system is unique as well. The characters are likable, but they aren't energetic. The whole show has a really slow feeling to it. Like a leisure stroll in the park or baking a cake for 3 hours. A slice of life fantasy with hints of nostalgia. I think it's slow pacing fits the main character Frieren who is elf with a long life span. It really depends on your taste if you'll enjoy this show. Personally I would prefer watching Frieren's original journey with Himmel, which is why I knocked off a point.

The plot if you can even call it that moves at a snail's pace. The characters are sort of bland. 2 introverted stoic characters who look bored most of the time. They face no real challenges. They're just the best at everything because they've mastered the old basic style. They can just stat check anyone and everyone. They don't even take damage during fights. The third character has confidence issues for an episode or two and then he's amazing as well. The animation is actually pretty good in some areas but since the plot is slow, you rarely get to see it outside of a few fights. Some people commented that the music is great but I honestly didn't search for the soundtracks once I was done. It didn't stand out in any way and it didn't feel bad either. So about average in that dept. I don't get the hype at all. It doesn't have any fan service and is a one size fits all anime, hence the popularity. If you think this is the best thing ever made, I'd wager you have not been exposed to anything else.

I know Frieren: Beyond Journey's End is getting a lot of praise for its melancholic tone and slow, reflective storytelling, but honestly, I just find it boring. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the beautiful animation and the concept of exploring what happens after the hero's journey, but the pacing is just so slow that it feels like nothing is really happening. Every episode drags on with minimal character development or plot progression. I get that it’s supposed to be more about the journey and the introspective moments, but it feels like it’s just stretching out small, simple ideas over an entire episode (or more). I keep waiting for something exciting or unexpected to happen, but it never does. Maybe I’m just not the target audience, or maybe I’m too used to more action-oriented or fast-paced series, but I can’t help feeling like Frieren is more of a chore to watch than a pleasure.

Frieren is one of the many overrated shounen anime out there and I can summarize my review with one sentence: „If you became kinda interested in frieren, because you have heard it’s so much more than just a isekai, don’t believe it, because it is exactly that, just another isekai." Now I’m not a fan of isekai, and if you read this review you will find out why, so this anime is not made for me, but just for more diversity in views I will analyze this anime a bit closer. Frieren is one of those anime where you can literally see the quality dropping, with the earlier episodes being made nicely and at the end it has one of the longest pacings I have ever seen. Since the artstlye isn’t in any form detailed and costly they can’t tell me they ran out of money. I assume they just wanted to milk the cashcow to the end and stretched it out as much as possible. Like I said before the start of the show was quite nice. It had a few things which didn’t really make any sense, especially the riddles, but it had a nice build up and a good pacing. It seemed to me as if the start also really wanted to surprise the viewers with something unexpected, regardless of how illogical it was. It also didn’t do much good in terms of atmosphere, in some cases it even destroys the atmosphere it built up just for surprise reasons. The main characters are also unexplained overpowered, sure there are a few stronger but that alone doesn’t justify a little kid being physically stronger than a well-trained grown up demon, just because he “grew up in the woods”, which is btw contradicted later on. But besides a few negative things to say, the start (first 1-3 episodes maybe) was ok. It had a goal and set motivation from the character side, the main story kinda made sense (more than the rest of the show) and they had some kind of, what the fans claim as “tactics in fighting”. In the second arc the terror already begins. Motivations from the characters were completely forgotten and not even mentioned in order to have a little conflict for the goal of this arc. The reason for the first arc and what they have achieved was completely pointless and even contradictory as explained in the later arcs. The following arcs shine with, not knowing what to call somethings. For the show a mage is someone who is physically strong and can endure much pain instead of being stealthy and deadly, the so called “demons” are a bunch of unorganized idiots who apparently have a lot of power (they at least have a lot of mana) which is contradictory in every way and let me question the whole world building of this anime and we still don't know what a demon is and does. The writers have no idea of how mana works, which wouldn’t be a problem if they hadn’t dedicated a whole arc just for training mana purposes, which later on is also completely useless. Not to forget the story is full of convenience, which goes beyond the acceptable amount. Some of the arcs are complete filler since they either are pointless or have nothing to do with the final goal (the motivation of the main protagonist). There is even one arc were the main protagonist is inside a video game and literally the first thing she hears there is that being here is completely pointless, but she doesn’t care and goes on anyway, which makes the whole arc pointless and questions the existence of the build up to it. This show becomes less endurable from arc to arc, with the village barrier arc being an exception but still not good. It’s like comparing a pile of shit with a pile of shit which has a cherry on top of it. Seeing the later arcs lets you remember the earlier ones as if they were in any way good, that’s how horrible this show gets. Frieren also likes to copy or include everything that was or is popular it seems. That goes from character design (Vinland saga) even to whole story arcs (the bird catching arc). A thing that really bothers me as well is the fact that this show has no scale what so ever. The abilities and the strength of every character are so completely random and out of order. It even shifts during the whole anime, making character who should be strong considering their rank utterly weak and character who should be weak unnecessary strong. Its like as if one writer wrote the hierarchy of all the characters and their relationship and then another decided, because how much he liked their appearance how strong they are. All of the above was pretty much the first half of the show. The show was like I said very bad but had at least some arcs which were watchable and had a decent pacing. The bird catching arc is the worst thing I have seen in a long time in terms of writing. You can’t take anything they say and do seriously, since the character design is so freaking retarded. They say they are birds but then Fern and Mr Stark is sitting there with them. The writers wanted to make this arc dark and mature but only present it in such a childish way. In this arc Frieren really shows how little time they spend with thinking through the whole thing. Where villains came from and what their motivation is was never a thing Frieren spends any time in but in this case it makes absolutely no sense that some demon-people who just came into existence are able to be as strong as one of the strongest person in the whole anime. So again.. no scale existend. And with no time spend with motivation and personification the writers now believe they can put drama in the show when the demons die. Are you freaking kidding me? Yeah the demon just killed hundreds if not thousands of people and now I should feel sorry for them? The drama in this whole anime is the worst sort of melodrama, forced and reliable so much on double standarts. In the last arc the tactics really shine, in terms of sucking. At the rock clone arc episodes there is only a handful of fights anyways, so there is not much to talk about, but the tactics there is so utterly idiotic. There is so much bullshit that happened during this arc, there was not 1 episode where I wasn’t facepalming. But all of the above would have been minor points if it wasn’t for how boring this whole arc was. The reason I criticize their “tactics” is only because they spend so much time with talking and every fan thinks the tactics are so great. 90% of the time they talk about irrelevant stuff and when it comes to real tactics they are utterly bullshit, convenient or deus ex machina. Characters of this show are not in any terms special. Have you seen either Naruto, One Piece, Bleach you know the personality of the main character. Add a bunch of extra typical side characters and you got them all. It’s just the typical teenager character who is strong enough to change the world stuff. In Frieren they at least didnt go full overpowered with the main character, but considering the age of the protagonist and the enemies she is fighting later on I would say its pretty unrealistic (also there are some moments later on were our MC goes into deus ex machina overpowered mode for some reason). She is a very wish-fulfilling character and not that much of a role model (so instead of giving her realistic trades she is super positive all the time and strong etc.). I think there is nothing really wrong with this wish-fulfilling kind of anime, but they just feel very childish. So saying this is more than a shounen is really wrong. Music is also pretty bad. All the good songs were copies of famous classical songs, such as Lacrimosa from Mozart’s Requiem, the rest is rather forgettable boring background music. Artstyle is simple and character design in the WHOLE show is the worst I have ever seen, but that’s ofc only my opinion. I found it to be nice to see no cgi, if I remember correctly. So overall: This show is not more than a isekai shounen and I might add the worst written shonen I have ever seen, but I am not into that genre so I only saw a few of them. If you are a person who likes more mature stuff and think there is so…

Frieren is an anime that is good at what it wants to be good at It is the best-looking anime of its season, Frieren is a solid character with a strong dynamic with Fern+; you watch it and you care about her because its core conceit of playing with time and the attachments that transcend it is a good hook. Also Sein is a goat, should've kept him around. It just lacks a story worthy of all that. This show absolutely should have just been an OVA, it has about ~6 episodes of plot in actuality. But its not 1991 so they stretch that out and add a ton of padding instead. They could have made it a slice of life thing where there is no plot intentionally and I think that could have really worked with its tone and lush worldbuilding? But they chose shounen battle academy arcs (the worst part, filled with irrelevant characters) and demon army battles (those are okay but wear out their welcome, the demons are boring) instead. Unless this is your specific genre, or you love beautiful animation for the sake of it, or one of the characters just really triggers your lust meter, I don't recommend it - the effort will not pay off. But if this is your niche then it will scratch it fine.