Sousou no Frieren

During their decade-long quest to defeat the Demon King, the members of the hero's party—Himmel himself, the priest Heiter, the dwarf warrior Eisen, and the elven mage Frieren—forge bonds through adventures and battles, creating unforgettable precious memories for most of them.

However, the time that Frieren spends with her comrades is equivalent to merely a fraction of her life, which has lasted over a thousand years. When the party disbands after their victory, Frieren casually returns to her "usual" routine of collecting spells across the continent. Due to her different sense of time, she seemingly holds no strong feelings toward the experiences she went through.

As the years pass, Frieren gradually realizes how her days in the hero's party truly impacted her. Witnessing the deaths of two of her former companions, Frieren begins to regret having taken their presence for granted; she vows to better understand humans and create real personal connections. Although the story of that once memorable journey has long ended, a new tale is about to begin.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Frieren Main

Tanezaki, Atsumi Japanese

Fern Main

Ichinose, Kana Japanese

Stark Main

Kobayashi, Chiaki Japanese

Himmel Supporting

Okamoto, Nobuhiko Japanese

Übel Supporting

Hasegawa, Ikumi Japanese

Eisen Supporting

Ueda, Youji Japanese

Flamme Supporting

Tanaka, Atsuko Japanese

Heiter Supporting

Touchi, Hiroki Japanese

Sein Supporting

Nakamura, Yuuichi Japanese

Denken Supporting

Saitou, Jirou Japanese

Fukushi, Yuuichirou Producer

Taguchi, Shouichirou Producer

Aoki, Haruka Producer

Itou, Yuukou Producer

Reviews

Jun 2, 2024

Animarchy

Recommended

This series is spoken of all wrong, and in a manner entirely inappropriate to modern anime. Because the word "modern" is inappropriate for a series like Frieren, for "modern" is a stamp of a specific time frame. This does not meet that stamp. Frieren is a timeless work, the word "modern" should only be said if it is followed by "classic". It has dethroned the legendary Fullmetal Alchemist on MAL not because it is better than than FMA - such a thing is subjective - it has done so because it is in the same class as it. It's worldbuilding, it's emotional intelligence, it's stunning ... visuals, it's gorgeous music; This is the kind of quality not usually reserved for television. We must speak of it as a classic that is unfolding in front of our very eyes. A perfect score, without second thought.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by Animarchy (1)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

May 31, 2024

MizunoWaveRider

Mixed Feelings

Funny

Cute girls + isekai-esque fantasy setting. Heck, Frieren could take place in the same world as Mushoku Tensei, that's how similar they look.
As with all anime fantasies these days the main inhabitants of such worlds are same-faced lolis whose only distinguishing features are the body parts they are sexualized by, ie Fern has her big breasts, Übel has her armpits and Frieren has her... feet? I was baffled when I found out how much fans get off the feet animation of Frieren, but maybe this explains why the anime spent so much resources on animating them with such detail. The first thing you learn in ... animation is to focus on the great picture, so you usually simplify things like hands or feet to be able to work faster and more efficiently on the things people care about. But apparently times seem to have changed and now everybody cares about what the little toe is doing.

Anyway, the anime is not bad, it's very well-made with great production values. It's just very uneventful. Characters are just walking around without much aim and nearly every episode has Frieren reminiscence about the past and how things were so cool back then... why couldn't we see those adventures instead? They sound a hell of a lot more eventful than what's going on in the present.
The characters seem to be aware of how boring this show is and lack any sort of facial expressiveness. Emotions like surprise or fear are never seen, at best Fern will pout or Frieren will smirk. There is an arc where supposedly emotionless demons are introduced and they showed more emotions than the humans, what's up with that? So even the few moments of tension in this otherwise slice of life type fantasy adventure are underplayed by how little the characters themselves seem to care.

This also hurts the characters themselves due to how their personal journeys are undercut by them not really caring. Fern has a little mage exam arc going on but it's not like she does it because she cares, she just does it because why not. With Stark it's even worse, we see him train from time to time but it seems more as a way to get rid of him to focus on Fern and Frieren. Stark mainly seems to exist to be shipped with Fern, without her he has barely anything going on that justifies his main character status.
There is a priest who joins for a while who has the most personality of them all and even shows emotions from time to time, but then he leaves and we go back to pouting + smirking.

Fans say it's okay that the show is uneventful and lacks tension because of the theme, but that seems like a copout given how banal the theme really is. It's about cherishing your time with your friends as long as you have them and bla, aka the safest and most generic theme everyone can agree with and where nobody runs the risk of being challenged or let alone offended by it. It's not even as good as it could've been because the main character is virtually immortal. If she was on her dying bed and looked back regretting her life decisions it would be dramatic, but as it is she will just redo her mistake by spending more time with a new group of people.

Lets be honest here, it's not the story or the theme that's the main appeal, it's more so that Frieren is an anime equivalent of ASMR. The pretty colors, the detailed movements, the subtle noises and all that stuff that tickles the senses are the reason why people enjoy this show. It's a show where you can perfectly shut your brain off while watching and have your senses do all the work for you. Which is not the worst I suppose, but kinda weird seeing an ASMR anime at the top of MAL. Like is this really all it takes?

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by MizunoWaveRider (12)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

May 12, 2024

GentlePro

Not Recommended

Funny

If you don't understand the complex characters that elves are, then don't write a story about an elf protagonist.

People,
There's a reason why elves are portrayed as cold creatures devoid of emotions and empathy, it's because they've been around for hundreds to thousands of years. So while humans are slaves to their emotions which often compromises their decision making, elves on the other hand have lived for so long and have so much experience that they are able to see the bigger picture and remain objective no matter how seemingly cruel the situation requires them to be. Think of Avallac'h in the Witcher 3 for instance.

Frieren ... is a THOUSAND YEAR OLD ELF (estimates have her at around 1400-1500 years). Just to put things into perspective that's the equivalent of 14 full human lives at the very least. Think about how much you managed to do in the past 10 years of your life, now multiply that by 100 and maybe you start comprehending the scale we're talking about here. She's not a teenage girl who has just left her parents' house and is starting to discover the world around her for the first time. And yet that's precisely what the author wants you to believe. It's as though Frieren's time with Flamme, her decade-long adventure with the hero's party as well as the thousand years in between were all absolutely insignificant. During that time she gained no wisdom, learned nothing about humans, felt no emotions and didn't care about anyone or anything except for learning about magic. But when the anime starts, she does in the space of A FEW MONTHS what she failed to do throughout all her life! Can people really not see how utterly absurd this is?

Himmel on the other hand is a teenager but somehow he's wiser than the wisest elf. He knows exactly what to say especially to Frieren, he can do no wrong and does exactly what he's supposed to do every...single...time. Of course Frieren never noticed any of that during the decade they spent together, nor the fifty years afterwards, that would've made too much sense. Instead she noticed only after he died because that's when the anime begins of course, and set out on a journey to revisit all the places the party visited during their quest to defeat the Demon king. Hence the title.

The premise looked very promising at first, and the first few episodes were enjoyable. Sadly, what followed was a repetition of the same formula over and over again AD NAUSEAM: we visit a location, flashback to when the hero's party visited that same location, Himmel displays his all-knowing wisdom, Heiter is drunk, Fern pouts, Stark tries to cheer her up, and Frieren discovers something so basic about life that we wonder what she was doing the first 1500 years of her life.

Visuals are pretty good, animations are fine, and the sound track is forgettable. But if you think that such an anime is anywhere near worthy of being hailed as the best anime of all time then I have lost faith in this community. I can overlook the plot holes and the inconsistencies which I haven't even bothered addressing because, well, there's a much more serious issue at hand. The author doesn't understand basic concepts on which their whole story was based, and instead of being reprimanded they have been rewarded.

Do better guys, much better.

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by GentlePro (1)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Essential & Elite Anime

by ManicPixieTerror

50 Entries · 495 Restacks

Elitist Reviews

by n4ytcg

43 Entries · 10 Restacks

Meow II

by ellps

29 Entries · 27 Restacks

'Sousou no Frieren' Unveils Additional Cast, Opening Theme, Promo for Second Cours

The official website of the Sousou no Frieren (Frieren: Beyond Journey's End) television anime unveiled additional cast, the opening theme, a promotional video,...read more

Dec 22, 2023 9:44 AM by Hyperion_PS | Discuss (14 comments)

'Sousou no Frieren' Reveals Additional Pair of Cast

The official website of the Sousou no Frieren (Frieren: Beyond Journey's End) television anime revealed a pair of additional cast on Thursday. The anime premier...read more

Nov 23, 2023 6:40 AM by Nioxys | Discuss (2 comments)

	Is Himmel a Manic Pixie Dream Boy? Moonshine_cookie - Jun 1	14 replies	by Rhae »» 1 hour ago
	When will S2 happen ;__; FrierenSimpKing - May 29	34 replies	by stevejawbs »» 10 hours ago
	Poll: Sousou no Frieren Episode 14 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Stark700 - Dec 8, 2023	333 replies	by haminshamin »» Yesterday, 4:43 PM
	Poll: Sousou no Frieren Episode 21 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Stark700 - Feb 2	273 replies	by Arxanum »» Yesterday, 2:31 AM
	Poll: Sousou no Frieren Episode 13 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) Stark700 - Dec 1, 2023	232 replies	by Vindicater »» May 31, 11:05 PM