Frieren is an enigma to me. It lacks the humor and jokes of a comedy, it lacks the drama and tension of a tragedy, it lacks the warmth and affection of a slice of life, and it lacks the majesty and wonder of a fantasy epic. It spends too much time on repetitive, formulaic Monster of the Week chapters to take seriously, and too much time in overcomplicated Shonen battle arcs to snuggle up to. It's distant, transient, and vacant.
The heady premise, the characters, the world, the themes, the slice of life moments, the dramatic battle moments, all these things work individually, but the whole is somehow worth less than the sum of its parts.
I'm annoyed by how it invents flashback scenes for the sole purpose of solving this week's mini-crisis. Someone says a keyword, Frieren "remembers" Himmel saying the same keyword, and then repeating his conclusion verbatim in the present. That's not clever story telling, that's just retconning with style. I've counted no less than 4-5 chapters where the answer to their question "why are we helping these people?" is "that's what Himmel would have done." Why do they constantly ask this question? What did we learn about them, or about Himmel, by repeating this shtick?
I want to like this thing. I like high concept premises, I like fantasy, I like SOL... but Frieren frustrates me.
Add comment