Frieren Deserves It's Acclaim
Frieren got a lot of positive reputation recently for being the highest-rated anime of all time in its time of airing during the 2nd cour. This isn’t like your typical boosted score from the season, as it’s 23 episodes in and still has a really high rating, so I started it to see why. Boy, was I blown away by the first episode. I knew Madhouse was a powerhouse of anime, and this anime finally showed the studio’s true colors. Now at first, I thought this anime would have been a generic RPG fantasy world anime, but it’s far from that. An elf that is basically immortal or ages very slowly has a party of humans and a dwarf. A few years to her seems like decades, and she goes through the loss of human life through aging; it’s kind of like Maquia, where it’s about mortality, but as a two-cour length anime. Not hitting hard but keeping the sentiment of what it is to be human with beautiful visuals, sound, and animation, with an ending song that hits you right in the heart as well. It just became one of my favourite anime of recent times. Frieren probably has one of the greatest first episode of any anime, modern or new, with the clear goal of continuing on others' wishes because they died.
As I watched more of this, the more it got better. By episode 6, the anime was already a 9/10, and not a whole lot happened in terms of action because of how amazingly they portrayed each part of this anime. By the latter half of each episode, you'll be impressed and want to watch more. Frieren throughout the anime recalls times with her past teammates that relate to herself in the future, like when the cowardly hero tried to save a village, and it connected to the dwarf who taught him. I love how they use these methods to strengthen the story and also be reminiscent of the days she can't get back. By reason, this makes the audience also be involved with Frieren, and you're actually going through her memories. It pulls it off super seamlessly and in a genius way that makes the anime so interesting that you can’t put it down. Not one part of this anime I can point to or critically think of that is bad about this anime; just everything it does, it’s better and better with consistency in quality that not even mappa could pull off.
The anime, I feel, is like a life lesson to the audience as well; each one is about some quarrel that others go through, like when they meet Stark and he deals with being a coward. Which makes him fearful of beating the dragon, then it coincides with the backstory saying “it’s because of my fear that got me this far”, which can really hit home as a lot of the audience could be introverts, and like Vinland Saga having teachings as well, is just perfect and makes it a masterpiece in the making. It’s great that it can make a fight with a dragon, let's say, into a whole monologue and amp up the intensity that will leave you on the edge of your seat, and a flashy visual lightshow hasn't even occurred yet. Now, that's what you call good storytelling. Having an elf character who is unfamiliar with things that are important to mortals and tries to learn them is in the same vein as Dororo or Maquia; where the character experiences a glimpse of sentimental feelings, grief, or trying to make each day important. It’s something that is like a cheat code to us, as when done right, it can hit the bullseye each time, but just that alone wouldn’t make an anime a masterpiece. Freiren’s uniqueness is unlike any anime, and none come close to it. Each factor of the production in this show gets 100% correct, and her journey keeps progressing so that there’s never a boring episode, which feels like you are watching something worthwhile. The sad scenes, for example, in episode 1 come back when you listen to the first ending song when it says, “I’m whispering a lullaby for you to come back” and sounds off can make anyone get struck in the feels.
The soundtrack is a big factor in making any anime from a 6 to an 8, as music is our bones; it’s something that has stuck with humanity since before we learned anything, going back to primitive times. Which is what this anime takes into account, as throughout there’s orchestral music that will set the tone, uniformly in the backstories or intense music for action scenes, which shows they actually took time and effort into this anime to compose complex compositions around scenes so they feel dynamic and in tune with or on par with what’s happening. That makes you so highly invested in and enveloped in the anime that your eyes are glued to the scene, enjoying everything. Not only is the anime sentimental with action scenes, great visuals, and fluid animation, but it also has comic relief as well, which will make you cry one episode and get a few laughs the next. This anime truly has everything tied inside of it waiting to be unpacked for your enjoyment. The interactions with Fern and Stark are funny at times, as are the funny faces—one of my favourite examples is when they are trying to wake up Frieren. This creates some lighthearted episodes interwoven to not be super serious all the time. Which causes the anime to not be overwhelming to watch and helps with the pacing so you can binge it easier or watch it casually and still be a masterpiece.
Thanks for reading!
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