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Dragonlord’s Recommendation: FRIEREN: BEYOND JOURNEY’S END
Bottom Line: Displaying a high level of skillful and nuanced storytelling that goes beyond found in a standard animated series, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is a beautiful, cozy fantasy adventure anime with rich, lovable characters, outstanding action sequences and bittersweet poignant moments.
IN A NUTSHELL: Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End (or Sousou no Frieren) is simply amazing. It’s one of the greatest anime series I’ve ever watched. I am blown away by its masterful storytelling. The animation is top-notch and its high quality is consistent every episode. The characters are funny, wonderful and memorable. The musical score is just epic and cinematic. The show is fun and humorous but simultaneously profoundly poignant. The action scenes are superbly depicted and refreshing because it’s not overextended and can last just a few seconds.
WHAT TO EXPECT: The show is slow-paced but cozily entertaining to watch. Don’t expect a lot of action, the show is more contemplative and introspective. A lot of the early episodes focus on small, trivial tasks but they’re all meaningful in the end as everything ties up to its theme of nostalgia and regret. Stick with the show up to the third episode where you can see the series’ potential when they introduce us to the first demon character. And if you haven’t yet, you will likely be hooked after the seventh episode where the awesome demon arc starts.
WHAT SHOWS WILL IT REMIND YOU OF? Frieren is in the same vein as other D&D or fantasy adventure type shows out there but for me it’s more similar to 2005’s Avatar: The Last Airbender animated series – a fun, wholesome, deceptively deep show filled with fantastic characters, terrific art direction and outstanding writing. Avatar is considered by many as one of the greatest animated television series of all time. Frieren is likely the Avatar for the new generation.
FULL REVIEW: Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is a leisurely-paced but utterly delightful fantasy anime series that has an unconventional way of telling its stories. Normal fantasy shows start with the heroes banding together to start an epic quest to defeat the evil, powerful villain that will span for several seasons. Frieren atypically starts with the heroes party coming home from a 10-year journey after vanquishing the Demon King.
The heroes party consist of Himmel (a human hero), Heiter (a human priest), Eisen (a dwarf warrior) and Frieren (an elf mage). The show centers on Frieren who after her group disbands continues in her never-ending search to collect spells and learn or acquire more magic. Fifty years have passed and she is reunited with her adventuring party with some of its members significantly aged. Upon the death of her former teammate, Frieren vows to better understand humans and create real personal connections with them.
Frieren is a powerful mage who has lived hundreds of years. She’s a highly competent adventurer but socially awkward in most situations. Due to her long life span, she doesn’t value time the same as a normal human does and oftentimes pursue trivial matters that would take up months to years to finish. One of her biggest weakness is her penchant to dive headfirst to a mimic treasure chest for a slim chance of acquiring a new spell or artifact. All of Frieren’s flaws are presented in a humorous manner that makes her endearing to the viewers.
Joining in on the fun is Frieren’s current party members which includes her apprentice, Fern (a human mage) and their frontliner, Stark (a human warrior). Similar to Team Aang of Avatar, these three are just entertaining to watch together as they navigate through their own immaturity and childish conflicts that’s more cute and charming than annoying. The show introduces more characters later and they're just splendidly depicted the more you get to know them.
Having been exposed to a lot of anime where the action goes far too long or sometimes the battle stretches to even 2-3 episodes or just gratuitous display of destruction porn, it is so damn refreshing to see in Frieren where the action is restrained, believable, cerebral and brief. It’s also a chance for the show to flaunt its awesome animation.
The music by composer Evan Call is one of the best anime soundtracks I’ve heard. There’s a little LOTR/Hobbit flavor to some of the score which is just perfect for those cozy, laid-back scenes. But when it comes to the action or the build-up to it, the score is just gloriously epic.
What really made me fall in love with the series was the short demon arc (episodes 7 to 9). I love how the demons are depicted whom are man-eating demons that use human language to deceive their prey. We also get a chilling flashback on Frieren’s experience with a demon child and how badly it went down when it was shown mercy. And the way our heroes manage to overcome the powerful demons was just exhilarating. The show premiered Sept. 29, 2023 and I was ready to write a glowing review of the show after episode 9 but decided to finish the whole season to see if the quality remained consistent until the end. It did and so here we are.
FINAL WORD: I wholeheartedly recommend you watch this fantastic show. I guarantee you will love it or at the very least, like it enough. There’s only one season so far with 28 episodes. So if you're looking for something to binge watch in the next few weeks, try Frieren: Beyond Journey's End. Read the “What to Expect” portion of my review to manage your expectations.
RATING: 9.5 out of 10 (in anime standard)
(Please leave a Like if you appreciate my reviews. Thanks.)
Bottom Line: Displaying a high level of skillful and nuanced storytelling that goes beyond found in a standard animated series, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is a beautiful, cozy fantasy adventure anime with rich, lovable characters, outstanding action sequences and bittersweet poignant moments.
IN A NUTSHELL: Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End (or Sousou no Frieren) is simply amazing. It’s one of the greatest anime series I’ve ever watched. I am blown away by its masterful storytelling. The animation is top-notch and its high quality is consistent every episode. The characters are funny, wonderful and memorable. The musical score is just epic and cinematic. The show is fun and humorous but simultaneously profoundly poignant. The action scenes are superbly depicted and refreshing because it’s not overextended and can last just a few seconds.
WHAT TO EXPECT: The show is slow-paced but cozily entertaining to watch. Don’t expect a lot of action, the show is more contemplative and introspective. A lot of the early episodes focus on small, trivial tasks but they’re all meaningful in the end as everything ties up to its theme of nostalgia and regret. Stick with the show up to the third episode where you can see the series’ potential when they introduce us to the first demon character. And if you haven’t yet, you will likely be hooked after the seventh episode where the awesome demon arc starts.
WHAT SHOWS WILL IT REMIND YOU OF? Frieren is in the same vein as other D&D or fantasy adventure type shows out there but for me it’s more similar to 2005’s Avatar: The Last Airbender animated series – a fun, wholesome, deceptively deep show filled with fantastic characters, terrific art direction and outstanding writing. Avatar is considered by many as one of the greatest animated television series of all time. Frieren is likely the Avatar for the new generation.
FULL REVIEW: Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is a leisurely-paced but utterly delightful fantasy anime series that has an unconventional way of telling its stories. Normal fantasy shows start with the heroes banding together to start an epic quest to defeat the evil, powerful villain that will span for several seasons. Frieren atypically starts with the heroes party coming home from a 10-year journey after vanquishing the Demon King.
The heroes party consist of Himmel (a human hero), Heiter (a human priest), Eisen (a dwarf warrior) and Frieren (an elf mage). The show centers on Frieren who after her group disbands continues in her never-ending search to collect spells and learn or acquire more magic. Fifty years have passed and she is reunited with her adventuring party with some of its members significantly aged. Upon the death of her former teammate, Frieren vows to better understand humans and create real personal connections with them.
Frieren is a powerful mage who has lived hundreds of years. She’s a highly competent adventurer but socially awkward in most situations. Due to her long life span, she doesn’t value time the same as a normal human does and oftentimes pursue trivial matters that would take up months to years to finish. One of her biggest weakness is her penchant to dive headfirst to a mimic treasure chest for a slim chance of acquiring a new spell or artifact. All of Frieren’s flaws are presented in a humorous manner that makes her endearing to the viewers.
Joining in on the fun is Frieren’s current party members which includes her apprentice, Fern (a human mage) and their frontliner, Stark (a human warrior). Similar to Team Aang of Avatar, these three are just entertaining to watch together as they navigate through their own immaturity and childish conflicts that’s more cute and charming than annoying. The show introduces more characters later and they're just splendidly depicted the more you get to know them.
Having been exposed to a lot of anime where the action goes far too long or sometimes the battle stretches to even 2-3 episodes or just gratuitous display of destruction porn, it is so damn refreshing to see in Frieren where the action is restrained, believable, cerebral and brief. It’s also a chance for the show to flaunt its awesome animation.
The music by composer Evan Call is one of the best anime soundtracks I’ve heard. There’s a little LOTR/Hobbit flavor to some of the score which is just perfect for those cozy, laid-back scenes. But when it comes to the action or the build-up to it, the score is just gloriously epic.
What really made me fall in love with the series was the short demon arc (episodes 7 to 9). I love how the demons are depicted whom are man-eating demons that use human language to deceive their prey. We also get a chilling flashback on Frieren’s experience with a demon child and how badly it went down when it was shown mercy. And the way our heroes manage to overcome the powerful demons was just exhilarating. The show premiered Sept. 29, 2023 and I was ready to write a glowing review of the show after episode 9 but decided to finish the whole season to see if the quality remained consistent until the end. It did and so here we are.
FINAL WORD: I wholeheartedly recommend you watch this fantastic show. I guarantee you will love it or at the very least, like it enough. There’s only one season so far with 28 episodes. So if you're looking for something to binge watch in the next few weeks, try Frieren: Beyond Journey's End. Read the “What to Expect” portion of my review to manage your expectations.
RATING: 9.5 out of 10 (in anime standard)
(Please leave a Like if you appreciate my reviews. Thanks.)
