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 5, 2024

morethansenpai

Recommended

A warm hug of an anime - Frieren was such a pleasant surprise, standing out amongst the endless waves of fantasy that drops every season. Frieren is all about the real and quiet moments and watching all 28 episodes felt like comfort food for me.

One of the best new entries to anime that I've seen in YEARS.

Great pacing, great characters, great animation (Madhouse crushed it), great soundtrack and just a great experience overall.

Do yourselves a favourite and check this one out, it's special.

Also, for anyone curious, I also host a podcast we were do a deep dive on the first episode of an anime, ... unpacking the story, characters and more, determining if it's an anime worth your time. The episode about Frieren just dropped and it's a 2 hour banger.

There's no barrier to entry for the podcast and it's perfect for both old and new fans of anime.

Feel free to give it a listen here: https://more-than-hentai.captivate.fm/listen

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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May 31, 2024

MizunoWaveRider

Mixed Feelings

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

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Jun 3, 2024

Cyrose

Not Recommended

Funny

Why is Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is so highly recognised?

“In this review we will examine it under a magnifying glass, in the task of learning and uncover the mystery behind its remarkable success and to settle all query.”

So don’t judge by a closed book just yet, let’s turn a leaf of what now is an ideal fantasy into actual reality.

Usually, I don’t judge this seriously, although Frieren looks casual, it is far away from being usual.

The methaporic themes and symbolism’s. The significance of existence. Is an important part of Frieren’s story and one major aspect behind its enchanting appeal.

Why is it called ... the journeys end? Even though the humans she met along her journey was just a portion of her life. They stayed with her until the end of their life’s as for them she was their whole life. Regardless of whether their time amongst the living has come to an end, their journey of remembrance has never actually faded to stay with her. As long as there is someone who remembers us, our journey never really ends.

As we structuring its premise by following a close to 2000 years old elf, Frieren. We slowly learn that time isn’t all that differs between humans and Elfs. Time is indeed precious, the important part of how we use it, what we spend it on and who we share it with. For an Elf, a human life is just months. Elves usually lives ten-times longer as humans do. Which also largely depends on their life conduct and breed. In Frieren case, she was born in a long-lived race which means they can live for close to eternity. What we set to learn from this little tale is to cherish life as much as we can. As Frieren slowly understands that humans from the reason of our short lifespan. We not just do things more quicker and more preplanned, but in the process we approach it with great empathy, giving the time to learn and understand the beauty of even the smallest things. Hereby forming bonds with them in this short period of time. Elves on the other hand are much more slower and their task has no deadline. Frieren learns these things beyond of her former companions journeys end. Reflecting that we only realize how valuable something is, when we can no longer have it.

The Story

The climax of Frieren isn't that extraordinary as many likes to believe. Even though it has 28 episodes, this story could be done in just 12 or else could have reached 600 episodes. As its story is basically just about walking, take a few months or years breaks collecting useless stuff in between. While spending a few episodes riddling on some deep life changing enlightenments on how you should appreciate the most obvious things like time and connections, then continue walking. For this reason it was quite difficult to catch up with this anime as it was airing. Even watching one episode in a month was abundant. It wasn’t the most boring anime, but I never really felt that it was made me want to see them walking again. There wasn’t really anything going around the main cast. Despite that they got into a few fights, just to make it more entertaining. It just made it more confusing, querying its purpose what this show wants to be and what it set to accomplish by forcefully mixing other themes.

Frieren just do things that other titles did in a much more interesting and versatile format, but maybe more people would settle for less in (character personalities), (basic soundtracks), (simple lore), (basic magic), (incomplex plot). I have to agree that there are times when we need outbreeding and anime can be just simple and realistic. Yet, while it does being simple and realistic it can’t forget to be what an anime is all about. Being one.

There are anime like Yuru Camp and Non Non Biyori. Which titles, without having excellent animation or epic fights are able to convey a lot of messages to the viewer. About life and about time. Frieren is confusing, because it cannot decide what it really wants to be other than it wants to be superior. You can make anything to be interesting, travelling can be interesting, like “Somali to Mori no Kamisama” or “Made in Abyss”. Characters interactions for 80% of the episodes, it can be interesting there are “The Monogatari Series” for example. For historical lore centered stories there is the “Fate Series”.

The most interesting thing about this anime is that it made me think about an even more terrifying story concept. About a Maylfy. You can also do a story about a Mayfly which said to not live further than a single day. And it could potentially have the same amount of life experiences as an elf that lives thousands of years. Even before we could realise that we have gone loafer. Shortly after the sun left the horizon and when the first star started twinkle, that little fly, was long gone. This just shows us how mysterious and how beautiful this world truly is.

Story part II

Fantasy genre is probably the safest genre that you cannot go wrong with. In the same way that the current most popular games are fantasy and open world, makes it a very popular choice in anime nowadays by its nature of being Adventure and Fantasy. As based on the fact that this genre is quite rarely seen, a good example for the veterans would be "Kino no Tabi: The Beautiful Word", and for a fairly recent example to this is "Musho no Tensei" which was highly recognized, mainly due to be part of this unique and rare genre. In addition to the fact that Frieren isn’t an Isekai just makes it even more perfect as we know Isekai doesn’t really famous of their reputation.

So why it is working so well? Could it be the reason that it wasn’t Isekai? Would be that simple? Or rather, it was the result of its captivating fantasy setting and its delightful adventures theme? Maybe it is given to its maturity and realistic expositions and sentimental messages? Things doesn’t have to be realistic or mature, an anime isn’t about that. For me, it is about to give something special. Just because it imitates a realistic and mature setting. It doesn’t implies superlative verdict nor provides incomparable entertainment. Similarly just because it’s manifesting sentimental themes and seemingly valuable messages it doesn’t mean it’s suddenly dealing with more nor providing innovative content.

This series is just really smart. First let me mention one positive aspect that really impressed me and caught my attention. I am talking about the Demons nature and their way of thinking. It was quite surprising that the series treated this so earnestly and also involved the antagonists into its sentimental value of its main themes. That was quite unique and interesting. For us humans communication is key to the hart. As a Naruto fan, I know the power of talk no jutsu. Its effectiveness is quite impressive. In Freiern the Demons have used words to convey humans. Although they don’t understand the reason behind the power of communication; Why are Humans weakness is communication? Their weaknesses are not the words though, Humans weaknesses that they have associated words with emotions. That’s the difference between humans and Demons in Frieren which is a positive concept in its story.

This gave a more mature look on the demons and also makes them more unique and matured perception. These things not used to get this amount of recognition due to the lack of their attention and connection to the main plot. It also provided a better understanding of their race and thus made the demons much more than just a stereotype antagonists. In Frieren this was well structured into its main story, which resulted to be noteworthy.

The Story Verdict (5/10)

Frieren on the outside looks nice, seems genuine and smart, acts like an original concept, but in the inside it is barley enjoyable and unoriginal. It’s repetitive and for any erudite individual that wasn’t living under a rock for the past 20 years, I genuinely don’t believe that this series can show or let alone teach something that they haven’t already knew or seen.

It ACTS original, because it is smart. It LOOKS good, compared to all the “trash” coming out nowadays. It tries its hardest to outsmart its audience by giving everyone what they want to see. It plays the role of a celestial being, above everything and everyone, like it has no weaknesses. The key to its success is to keep the audience in the belief that it is what it pretends to be and it “pretends” to be the greatest adventure sol-shounen.

Every anime has weaknesses, and for the case of Frieren weaknesses, is simply my existence.

In its actuality, regarding of the key behind its flawless performance, it lies in what its story symbolize; Time and life. These unheard and extraordinary themes are so egocentrically human-centered that we are mad hooked and enchanted about it. So much so, that I can also use the phrase that we are just mentally distracted from everything. As it is about us and not something or someone else. It’s neither complicated philosophy nor impartial mythology, but self-explanatory. From the reason that we are so selfish, we naturally grasps the “virtues” of these themes.

It is really interesting that all these sentimental themes slowly converted into random epic fights. The mimic’s evolved into epic slay faces.. just to be more “enjoyable“. - Zzz

Fights

It really pulls out all the psychological cards that a starter watcher would likely fall into extrapolating it as a sleek move. Howbeit, for a veteran viewer it is known as a common trick. To make us think that the opponents are way stronger, the author consciously holds back the main cast full potential. To make the viewer believe that they have no chance coming out this situation alive. The author makes the antoganists act like they are unbeatable, and right before they could finish off the main characters, the main cast takes off their fake masks and pulls out their trump-cards for the late win. Then gave the enemies the chance to process their mistakes of underestimating their opponent’s abilities. To make it look more compelling, allowing them to die in a hard-fought battle. It seems more entertaining this way, but in reality it is just exaggerated and dull, especially when the anime plays it out three times in a single episode.

The fight between Frieren vs Frieren is a great final fight for this anime, because it manifests how overweeningly self-satisfied with itself. They are gods compared to anything in their verse, so how would you make it even more satisfying to the viewer? Let the undefeatable face the undefeatable.

Although the fights were animated quite well, it separated the whole anime into two fragments; Slow slice of life and fast paced action which was way too afar from each other. Resulting confusion on what this series genres exactly.

The Animation (8/10)

Giving credits where credits due, in spite of what Frieren’s animation first seemed nothing more than mid-range level, it ultimately established close to par-excellence in its quality. This wouldn’t surprise those who are familiar with its studio in charge of its production, as they should know that they were in for a treat.

Madhouse is a warhorse studio as their production quality is well known to be consistent and well executed. Their art are colorful and vibrant along with their smooth and meticulous animation values. This studio has been producing gold after gold. Their work are extraordinary and much deserved to be recognized. For the early stages of this project, I was really impressed by the background art having a touch of oil-paint brush which wasn’t about being too detailed, but made it more elegant and unique in my eyes. When it comes to the fight scenes, they are also just as amazing, but people now started to compare it to fate animation which is quite embarrassing. It certainly looks good compared to all the trash that comes out nowadays, but anime ten years ago possessed just the same or not better animation qualities.

Overall, its animation is pretty and faithfully represented the anime atmosphere and its historical themes.

Characters (5/10)

Characters personalities felt flat and uninspired. Although they were cute, they weren’t possessed the most vibrant personalities. Snobby personalities sometimes good and can be interesting if there is someone next to them that has the opposite personality traits. Although they had some random personality traits for the jokes, like frieren tends to trap inside chests and act sleepy, or the famous mimic face impressions. She sometimes even pull cat faces..

However, for the most part we have set with 90% of the same low-demanding-emotionless-boring dispositions. Fern and Frieren are like mirrors. Before someone says it’s obvious that Fern got her attitude and personality by growing up next to Frieren. She was always been like this, and not just her. That demon girl, or all the demons factually they all got this low interest look or full narcissistic personality. Which made the show quite repetitive pretty quickly.

From this reason Stark character was a game changer and his appearance made this anime much more entertaining for me personally. As he wasn’t a loner and dull like the rest of the cast. If you would just take a look at the casting pictures , 90% of them are the same natural faces with no smile, no anger, no emotions.

Moreover, the funny expressions and the characters funny sides were became cliche so early. Frieren wasn’t trapped in chests, but she was looking for to be trapped in all sort of things..

It felt forced rather than being natural. In addition this really showed how one dimensional and shallow the cast of this series actually are.

Frieren cast being praised by their development and natural expressions is really strange. As I haven’t noticed any significant development on their characters. It was more of a clishe how they all were just a copy of their teachers. They had the exact same characteristics..

Soundtracks (5/10)

Maybe it is little harsh to compare it to larger titles OST like for example Violet Evergarden that had opera house level of scores. I mean multiple albums that are just incredible. Frieren in its actuality is also hold a pretty decent albums and has some novelty notes that fits its historical themes. The opening and the ending is nice, but I always felt something mandatory about them.

Nothing extraordinary or outstanding which is quite surprising considering the main score of this series. As in my opinion music is one major factor in emotional attraction to the story which in this series wasn’t able to make a profound impression.

Enjoyment (4/10)

Frieren is an easily likeable anime for those people who prefers a slow and simple anime. At the same time it can be found monotonous for people who prefers fast paced and more complex stories. However even if you belongs to this group, after epsiode 6 it gets slightly better. So that’s going to be the bare minimum recommended amount of episode to invest into it.

The thing is that Frieren on its whole 28 course of episodes gave me the same feeling that other titles did in just one scene alone. I have watched it without a single reaction. It couldn’t made me smile or wow a single time. it wasn’t able to make me exited nor produced anything remarkable or unexpected. All these sentimental themes can be found in other titles that have handled them better without being this forcefully and fundamentally obsessed with them. Although there are things which made it look unique like how the demons were portrayed, but that alone wasn’t on par nor executed anything that I have already seen.

We read books and watching anime, because this world is boring. Our reality doesn’t offer the level of exiting things than a fantasy story can. However, this isn’t true to Frieren. I feel that if I would have spent the same time outside or took a book from your shelf would have been much more worthwhile than watching this.

A massage for the lost generation

To answer the first question on why is Frieren so highly recognized.

There was a interesting experiment which tells us what lies within this myth.

In a vine sampling, three different kind of vines were sampled to a group of people. One glass of vine was labeled as 2£ another as 4£ and the third one labeled as 12£. After they’ve tasted each vine samples and gettered all the votes. 85% chose the third one labeled as 12£ as the most delicious vine.

In reality, the most expensive vine was 2£ the middle priced was standard and the expensive 12£ vine was just a cheap store vine.

People are like ants and only a few can act true to itself without being blindly manipulated by circumstances. We are afraid of doing against numbers because we are weak and simple.

“Most people don’t really want the truth. They are just looking for answers that confirm their prejudices. “ - Jim Wilhelmsen

“The human eye is a wonderful device. With a little effort, it can fail to see even the most glaring injustice.” -Richard K Morgan

“It's only because of their ignorance that they're able to be so sure of themselves.”
- Franz Kafka

Epitome

There is no such a thing as flawless anime, even those that are considered masterpieces are not perfect in every inch. Which is completely fine as being perfect in everything isn’t what really makes an anime special. As the real good anime aren’t built to be special or perfect. They makes the viewer feel special and awakens something magical inside them. That conquers all boundaries, by fulfilling our soul with warmth satisfaction and as it merges with cold harrowing nerves recollections that riddles through bones. By the time this mixture of emotions reconciles and reaches our heart, an enlightened sense of peace possesses our mind.

Only a few titles can reach this level of absolute exhilaration and pureness.

“You cannot truly feel the enlightening warmth of the summer without living through the darkling coldness of winter’s.”

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End didn’t even came close to this feeling. Which not surprising considering and truly comprehending its core values. As Frieren has took itself way too seriously and self-persuaded that it is above all things considered. While it is smart and cleverly written. It couldn’t possessed nor was able to show anything remarkable or refreshing that other titles haven’t already did without being so sentimentally intrigued nor had to included even a single fight scene. Neither had to show a millions of flashbacks just to make us feel something.

While people acting like Frieren invented a whole new level of the Sol-Adventure. In reality, it just used the same old formula in a super safe and smartly manner. It presented itself as a superior etiquette while it basically just copied straight away from Violet Evergarden cover picture.

Conclusion

At the end, judging this anime without looking neither of its backgrounds nor its cover and strictly what it provides. I genuinely don’t see the appeal behind its generic and monotonous concept. Perhaps it can be enjoyed by a few individuals, but not for its characters and neither for its story.

It’s impressive that this show was able to convinces the viewer that they’re watching something new, something unique while in reality they are just watched another cliched themes utilized smartly. Because Frieren is indeed cleverly written and executed. Proportionally contains slice of life, sentimental messages and action that visualize a flowing harmony on its surface.

In my view however, I sense great confidence surrounding over it on the outside, overlaying the unfenced emptiness on its inside.

Therefore in my eyes, Frieren is just as close to masterpiece as it is close to pathetic.

TLDR; Frieren is the most shallow, empty and simple anime ever to engross the number 1 spot and officially became the harbinger of an end to an era. The fact that this is going to be the face of the anime is just pure madness.

Final Score 5/10 ⭐️

Thank you for taking the time to read my review!

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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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)

	Frieren is now the TOP RANKED anime in ALL major western anime ranking websites (MAL, Anilist, LiveChart, Anime-Planet, Kitsu, aniDB, and ANN). Unprecedented achievement! ( 1 2 3 ) kanarazukarasu - Jun 4	127 replies	by Dumb »» 7 minutes ago
	Poll: is fanservice the reason why this is highly rated? FruitPunchBaka - Jun 6	16 replies	by Btsrajan »» 11 minutes ago
	The person who helped stop a knife attack on the Taichung Metro in Taiwan said he helped because "Himmel would have done the same". ( 1 2 ) StevieRara - Jun 4	79 replies	by Blaze567 »» 55 minutes ago
	Poll: Sousou no Frieren Episode 17 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) Stark700 - Jan 5	249 replies	by SenseiSempai-san »» 1 hour ago
	fukushi the animation producer of frieren will show up on anime expo 2024 this july 5 deg - Jun 5	8 replies	by past_feelings »» 5 hours ago