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PaperclipPerfector
11hr ago
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So what's up with Frieren: Beyond Journey's End? It's the number one show on MAL with an average rating of 9.24 after almost a million reviews. However, it doesn't really fall into traditional categories of top anime. For example, the rest of the top 10 is:
While some of the list is made up of actually good shows, a lot of it is the final season/bonus content for a popular anime. Basically the only people who watch this stuff have already seen everything in the show up to this point, so they are rather predisposed to like the ultimate content. Longer anime (like FMA:B and HxH) also have some of this effect because if you watched (e.g.) 150 episodes of something you'd better like it (not to say that they're bad anime, just that this helps push them into the top 10). But Frieren is the first season of a new show and only has 24 episodes so it doesn't really fall into this category.
It's also not exactly a groundbreaking anime. It's heavily trope-y and mostly uninterested in examining the assumptions of its world, except of course for the ramifications of having effectively-immortal beings. This latter aspect is explored in depth (especially through Frieren's interpersonal relationships) and this is done reasonably well. Narratively, the show is incomplete, and doesn't even end on a particularly dramatic note (with the last 8 episodes or so spent on a mostly-self-contained subplot). None of the ongoing hooks were resolved at the end of the season. The art/music/VA are neither exceptionally good nor bad. Overall, I would say it's a fine anime. I talked with someone else I know IRL who likes anime, and he agreed that it's good, but not greatest of all time.
So why is it rated so highly? Perhaps it's the second season, but (as discussed above) in that case the second season should be rated higher than the first, but it currently sits at 8.84. Maybe because it's widely available on streaming platforms? Paging @Lewyn @vorpa-glavo who have recommended this in the past.
I'll say I'm a bit surprised to see Frieren on top right now; I wonder how long the FMA:B mafia will allow that to stand. I don't have a problem with it being there though, it is a great show. I think anyone without terminal shonen brain (what is the anime equivalent term for Ball and Gun Gamer?) can appreciate it.
Frieren is a show that's more about the destination than the journey. I don't think anyone minds that the longstanding plot wasn't wrapped up in the first season when the ending feels emotionally complete and the entire journey up until that point has been so beautiful and refreshing. I'll have to dispute the claim that the art and music are not exceptional; the show is beautifully animated and every shot is gorgeous, and Evan Call's score elevates the show to another level. It's wonderful to just take in the beauty and atmosphere of the show and its idyllic world.
The second season was also good, but it is held back by its disappointing length of only 10 episodes, which doesn't give you as much time to get immersed in the world.
Is it tropey? Maybe. The show affords a lot of emotional exploration and understanding of its characters, even the bit parts, and it is hard to reduce anyone to being a simple villain (except the demons, ha). I'll ask when was the last time you saw such an earnest, heartfelt, sincere sendup of European fantasy at this level of production quality. I can't think of anything else recently — cynical and subversive is in, the monsters are misunderstood and humans are the real bad guys. The church is corrupt and evil, the knights and nobility are twisted and cowardly bullies, the heroes are morally compromised and humiliated. Seeing a show where the 'tropes' are played straight is a genuine breath of fresh air.
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The rest of them definitely lean adventure-action-fantasy, which is what Frieren is. All of them are Westernized which is important I think. So Westernized in fact that they straight up take place in fantasy Europe most of the time and not fantasy Japan. For example I am pretty sure the bottom 51% of anime contain many scenes at a Japanese secondary school and maybe 1 or 2 of the ones on that list feature that, so you can see how it skews based off of this.
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It's certainly a strange inclusion when you look at the rest of the anime list, but if you look at top X lists for media in general it doesn't stand out.
Every publicly voted top list is always a mix of "reddit picks" with actually good content, typically biased towards the former. You need the right set of circumstances for the good stuff to break through, which most properties miss out on. To use a few examples of Anime which are far superior to anything in that list:
Frieren manages to be recent, high quality in every aspect*, and not too off-putting for a more general audience. Maybe it doesn't trouble your personal top 10, but then none of MALs list would trouble the top 10 of a discerning viewer.
A unique factor for MAL in particular is the tendency for some shows to blow up in popularity and fall off just as quickly - though in part due to competitive voting from different fandoms. The FMA fandom is notorious for voting down anything which threatens its position at the top of MAL (at least until Frieren broke through). I recall shows like Oshi no ko suddenly claiming the top spot, before a combination of a mediocre follow-up with agressive down voting took it off. For this reason, I would be stunned if Re:zero managed to cling on
*I haven't actually watched the anime, I have only read the manga. The manga is excellent, and I understand that the anime is a well done adaptation
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Frieren is probably my favorite anime, not even considering the second season, so I’ll try to answer. I would say combination of a few things is why it has a high rating. The characters, they feel more real and are much more well developed than typical anime. Isekai fantasy has been huge for a few years now, and this is just fantasy, but a lot of the elements are there and done in a very high quality way; the fight scenes were very well done, and done in a grounded and realistic manner for fantasy. That feeling of nostalgia, and comparing the past adventure to current adventure, is a good hook, and gives a certain weight to the world in the story, you get a sense the world has history, etc. I think the characters themselves are really popular but I’m not too familiar with that.
It’s a slice of life fantasy anime with tons of great fight scenes and memorable characters, high quality animation, what’s not to love.
Also these types of anime pretty much never end and so there is not an expectation of climax or conclusion at the end of the first season.
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