The director’s various choices in adaption are worth pondering - there are no right or wrong choices, only trade-offs.
Frieren’s story had a grand worldbuilding beyond the journey itself: horizontally there’s intertwined relationship among human, demons, and elves, while vertically there’s continuous pursuit and inheritance of magic among all species. The anime did hint some of those (e.g. through Frieren’s memories with Flamme), but most of the time it focused on depicting interpersonal relationships and slice of life during the journey. The director chose to create a chill, comfortable space for audience with low information density; the trade-off, of course, was loss of depth (to some degree) in the story. Was it a bad decision? Probably not - Judging from the wide acceptance of the anime today, it was a actually nice decision meeting the needs of most audience.
In storytelling, viewers could easily feel a deliberately crafted calmness ,and an extreme focus on details. It distinguished _Frieren_ from other traditional TV anime, and made it more akin to a movie. It’s not uncommon for animes to get more “cinematic” in recent years, but it often gets overdone (e.g. _Chainsaw Man_). Fortunately, Frieren happened to be a story well-suited for this. Instead of exaggerated actions that keep viewers hyped and occupied, audience really needed ample space to feel and resonate with the story. The director’s choice was proven to be effective.
Lastly, Evan Call's outstanding music has to be mentioned. Melodious and classical, it complemented the visual perfectly. Overall it’s an impressive piece of work.
