FRIEREN!!
Finally got around to watching/reading Frieren:Beyond Journey's End (Sousou no Frieren/Frieren the Slayer). And It's so! Good!
Female protagonist!!! Without romance involved!! Thats so rare! (Yes I know Himmel is supposed to be her love interest but like he's dead! It's not a traditional romance!)
The character writing is done so well too! Sterotypical personalities but they aren't pushed into the sterotype? There's realistic character growth? They learn from their mistakes and change accordingly?
The action animation should not be this good for a Slice-Of-Life Fantasy anime. Stark's fight scene with the solar dragon looked so good!
Slowburn Romance between Stark and Fern. And it's not a priority! Its not romance for romance's sake! Its 2 individually realized characters with their own story arc that happen to fall in love, not a character and their one-dimensional love interest!
Stark! He's a 'coward' but he's not snively and annoying in the way most cowards are written. His fear is real! It makes sense in the context, and its also addressed and overcome!
Fern! That's it! Fern!
The way Frieren is portrayed is so good too ! She seems aloof and uncaring, but she's not. They've balanced the caring side of her with the part that doesn't really understand humans and their urgency and sense of time.
Himmel is shown to be so kind and helpful, but also shown to be quite vain, and caring about his image and how people will see and remember him. But that's never shown as a bad thing. But rather as something that just is. There are negatives (the waste of time when he's choosing a pose for his statue) but also positives (he says one of the reasons he makes sure there are so many statues of him is so that Frieren won't have to feel alone in the future).
The story is the embodiment of the phrase- The Journey is more important than the Destination. Sure they're going to Aureole in the present, and they went to slay the demon king in the past. But the big moments aren't really treated like that. It's the smaller moments- the character interactions - the errands and side quests that are elaborated on. There are practically no extreme fights at the start since Frieren is so OP. Low stakes most of the time - whether that me in action or the romance
Hieter and Eisen and how they love and care for their childeren and Frieren in the same regards.
It's not a life-changing or intese anime, but its quite relatable in the emotions. - the fear, the loss, the nostalgia, the happiness. The loss isn't seen as tragic however - it is as a natural part of life, is accepted and learned from. The only main thing that seems to be regretable is not getting to know your loved ones enough. And that's what the whole story is about. Frieren trying to undersatnd her former party members by recollectiong their adventures and also through experiencing new ones with Fern and Stark.
-30.9.2024
