Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.
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It uneasily aligns itself with a genre (bittersweet to downright melancholic slice of life; perhaps a more cliché-friendly weeb would want to name-drop mono no aware) that used to be much more abundant in anime and manga, and had its own contingent of devoted fans who consumed everything in the genre and little outside of it. (I would list Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou as the defining example; Ashinano Hitoshi's later Kabu no Isaki; The Sky Crawlers; Haibane Renmei; Mushi-shi; ...) Not only have those fans been hanging around the periphery of anime culture and starved for content (all of the above are pre-2010), but the predisposed demographic itself also went nowhere. The only bone that was thrown to them in recent years is Girls' Last Tour/Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou, and that one was condemned to remain more niche because of the artstyle and because of the author being a bit too far in the corner of depressive behaviour patterns where you deflect with inappropriate humour. So it makes sense that this audience came out in force when they finally got a high-production-value work that they can admit to liking in public.
(If you liked Frieren, especially for everything other than the exciting battle scenes, consider every other thing I mentioned above a recommendation.)
(edit: I shouldn't have forgotten Fumetsu no anata e as another bone thrown recently, but that work went downhill too quickly after a strong first few arcs, and also put too many stat points into action battle.)
I have nothing to add, just that I always love seeing any mention of it.
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Would you consider Kino's Journey also in this genre? "Character goes around from place to place encountering the people there and then moves on without much actually happening."
(I would say that Frieren does a much better job at this than both of those anime in terms of tying individual episodes into a larger narrative)
It's adjacent, but much more of it is essentially Le Petit Prince: main character encounters a sequence of individuals or societies who are a caricature of some idea taken to an extreme, and the reader gets a Teachable Moment (mediated through the eyes of the protagonist, who by way of detachment or naivety presents themselves as a neutral observer). Pure travelogue-styled slice of life, including Frieren, is less transparently preachy, as conveying the author's expansive opinions on society is not the intent.
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