Frieren is one of the most popular anime shows of the moment and was a recommendation from our cinephile friend a while back. We were feeling burned out by the general lack of seriousness in anime and so passed on it. I do rather like the premise of it being about an immortal mage who lives on long after everyone else she has known has died. Watching this now, I loved the early episodes with their theme of loss and time passing. This feels like a markedly more mature anime with less need to resort to dumb gags or provide fanservice. Unfortunately it does drag on too much and risks degenerating into the more usual fare.

The story proper begins after the so-called party of heroes of whom the elven mage Frieren is a member, has already defeated the Demon King after a ten-year adventure. The party breaks up after witnessing a meteor shower and Frieren promises to return to watch the next one fifty years later. She departs to travel the world and discover new magic. A half-century passes and Frieren remains virtually unchanged as a near-immortal elf. But the leader of the party the hero Himmel is a mere human and so has aged until she no longer recognizes him. Some years after Himmel passes away, another companion the priest Heiter tricks Frieren into taking on an orphan girl Fern as her apprentice before also dying of old age. Feeling regretful that she didn’t make the effort to get to know her friends better when they were still alive, she decides to journey north to the castle of the Demon King once more where it is said that the living may commune with the souls of the dead. She is joined in her quest by Fern and Stark, the apprentice of Eisen, the dwarven warrior who is the only other surviving member of the party of heroes.

This is pretty enough as an anime but it’s a little lacking in wow factor in terms of both visuals and music. That turns out to be an astute creative choice as this isn’t a battle anime. It works best as a sentimental story about the passing of time and loss. I like that as an ancient and immensely powerful mage, Frieren walks over almost all enemies almost effortlessly. As such most of the scenes are instead slice-of-life ones that capture the relationships between Frieren and her new companions in the present as well as the original party of heroes as fl;ashbacks. The best moments of the show manage to portray the alien perspective of a near-immortal who perceives time very differently from the mortals. There is a tremendous sense of loss in the realization that time wears away at all things as even the heroic feats of the party of heroes will inevitably be forgotten one day. Even so, there are valuable lessons in here about valuing the present for as long as it lasts and making the most of your time. This is what marks this particular anime out as being distinctive from the rest.

Unfortunately the series doesn’t quite manage to stay on theme all the time and ends up with plenty of less interesting filler material. That’s understandable as there are only so many stories that they can tell about an eternally unaging Frieren. For me, the solution would be to be content with a shorter, more focused show. However that would not be milking a successful property enough so as it goes on it becomes more a conventional anime with the usual focus on fights. The last arc of the first season for example is an extended dungeon raid which is fine in of itself, but not really on theme. I’m especially irritated by the lazy worldbuilding. The only reason Frieren is participating in these trials is to get certified so that she can continue on her journey. In other words, she’s being stymied by bureaucracy. I get that this takes place in an age of peace as the Demon King has already been defeated but surely the writer could still come up with more interesting obstacles for the new party to overcome? It’s also disappointing that the exploration of the theme of loss and the passage of time is so shallow. There are deeper stories that could be told about the relationship between Frieren and the temporal powers of the day, or the descendants of the people she once knew. It seems the show only wants to be superficially sentimental and shies away from anything too touchy.

I really like the premise and the show does indeed get off to a good start. It’s a unique and insightful take on the usual fantasy stories and Frieren is a great character. Unfortunately now that it’s a success and more seasons are coming, I’m not confident that it’s not going to turn into just another battle anime like all the rest.