Why all the hype for Freiren
After seeing so many people say how amazing this show is, I decided to try it out. After six episodes im truly struggling to watch it. Its incredibely boring to watch an elf that seems like autism personified collect useless spells while she wanders aimlessly around the world and randomly realizes she might have had feelings for some dude a hundred years ago. Am I missing some huge aspect of this show that makes it really good? Or is this just one of those shows you suffer through in the hopes a good magical fight scene happens?
Commentaires
This show isn't for you. Better just move on.
Also, the first 4 episode are actually the first episode. They basically aired a movie as the start of the show (a trend I hope dies soon)
It's wild, though not unthinkable on here, to posit that there is such a thing as objectively boring/not boring. (I found this series absurdly boring, but not because nothing happens. It's because I keep getting told and shown the same theme over and over, without subversions or additions, and the show treats me like I'm two years old and cannot extrapolate meaning from scene/story on my own. Does that make Frieren objectively boring for anyone over the age of three?)
Not every story needs big bombastic fights (though Freiren does have some great ones) its a character driven story about a long journey, its meant to be a slow burn.
Go watch MHA or something with big fights every 5 minutes if thats the kind of show you're looking for.
If you like good writing, you'll get bored fast.
The anime literally spells out in dialogue every single thing they want the viewer to take from every single impactful moment. Nothing in this show breathes. I keep getting told that this is a journey that patiently and slowly unfolds, but the writers exercise no patience and do not let anything quietly unfold. They spell everything out in the dialogues and monologues and incessantly impose the show's themes on the viewer. There's nothing about this show that's for a mature audience.
But I will say that if you watched the first 6 episodes, and that's your take away from it, you have absolutely missed the vibes check of that show. There is good action in the show later on, but that's not why you watch Frieren. It's a show about appreciating the journey and everyday life while you can, because said times can pass by you before you know it.
As for the hype, most people do find the characters and world building on another level. It's a beautifully told story that many are emotionally invested in.
It goes both directions. I don't really care if someone doesn't like the show. I am not sure why people are so defensive about things they like, it's an issue that has been around forever that the social media has just made worse.
If you can't appreciate a slow show, skip it.
Months later, after seeing so many posts and comments, some made by people whose taste I relate with, I resumed watching and was rapidly hooked and proceeded to binge the whole season. In the end : I loved it.
I think there is a very slow start, and a bit inconsequential + the surprising narrative mode comparing things with past events with hints of nostalgia which I didn't echo with in the beginning (this bit did grow on me and totally made sense in the end). I usually don't mind slow (to the contrary) but I could not really relate to Frieren herself. But retrospectively, I think it is intentional and relates to her own backstory and the timeline of her existence.
In short, I'd encourage you to try to keep watching (directly or after a pause), it becomes very rewarding.... or so I and lots of others thought.
Of course, in the end, it might not be for you : we all know of anime that people raved about that we don't click with.
I am just posting this because your post reminded me of my initial reaction.
The big difference is perhaps that I don't care much about fights or things being actions packed.
In the end it is a complex story of high quality, with rich world building, interesting characters establishing meaningful relationships, and you will absolutely get a few fights of mythical proportion if that is what you are after.
TLDR: this type of show doesnt seem like it is for you, but it does have many of these «moments» you talk about if you want to experience them.
You should just drop it if it's boring to u
In the human experience frieren has eternal life. The slowness that you're experiencing is because we're mainly experiencing her from the persepective of her human companions. That's why it is hard to get into her head and why the pacing of the show can be hard; because her human companions complain about it all the time.
This is exactly what the show wants you to think about. Why are you in a hurry to get to the end of the story. While the human companions learn from frieren, she learns to live fully. Because in her experience of time, she feels like her life is a normal duration, and 10 years (or maybe even 100) is simply what a day is to us. She can't connect with humans, because all humans she meets die within what we experience as a matter of days, and she slowly learns to relate to the human experience over time. It's not her being autistic, it is that we're seeing her try to relate to the experience of time that a fruit fly has in comparison to us. As you get further in the show you're supposed to learn to understand her perspective while she learns the human perspective.
Maybe you don't need that kind of experience, and just want to see some cool fight scenes. That's fine. This is not the right show for you then. Fairy tail is probably a better fit in that case. It's about combat mages, but does have too much fan service for my liking.
However, many of us, myself included, enjoy the slow pace. I struggle slowing down in real life and this helps me a lot.
I think it's a masterpiece, but it does not have to be for everyone. You don't have to like it simply because it is considered by most to be one of the best shows currently running. I don't like one piece for example. That's fine.
Most of Frieren I found inoffensively boring and the worst thing those flaws do is make Frieren a somewhat graceless MAL #1 anime, but the one *offensively* bad thing that I am personally affronted by is the shittiness of the storytelling in the anime adaptation. It is storytelling not even for five year olds, because I remember reading more subtle, less repetitive children's books. Almost every book I read as a child offered more subtlety and less thematic repetition than the first half of the first season of Frieren. It gets better when the journey comes to a standstill in the mage exams, but the element of handholding and having to spell out the fact that "she's immortal, time passes, she's changed, eh," never goes away. The show never, ever gives the viewer the chance to experience the lessons through show, not tell. Everything is told--in flashbacks, in crude dialogue, in handhold exchanges. If being beaten on the head with very trite philosophies that make The Alchemist feel like profound literature is brilliant writing, Frieren has it, I guess.
Natsume Yuuiinchou and Mushishi are both shows where absolutely nothing of consequence happens (most of the time) but are incredibly mature in the way they allow the episodic and serial stories to unfold. The monologues, when there are monologues, are beautiful and literary. The concepts are unique each time, and touch upon *different aspects of the human experience every time*, rather than retreading the same theme across an entire season.
Frieren is not a shitty show because it's slice of life and slow-paced. It's a shitty show because it doesn't understand basic storytelling principles and beats its viewers over the head with "lessons," and repetitive lessons at that. It's like watching a bad gacha game storyline as anime.
Yes you are, but that's OK. A major theme in the show is the significance of personal connections in a long life filled with quiet moments. Personal connections between Frieren and other short-lived species are extremely brief from her perspective, which one of the reasons why Frieren finds it so difficult to see their value. The reason why she values grimoires and learning new spells over personal relationships isn't that she is autistic - it's because the spells and grimoires last, and most of the people tend to die almost immediately (from her perspective). Her major arc in the first season is learning that even fleeting things can be valuable. The quiet moments in the show are part of the point.
This is a powerful and resonant theme for a lot of viewers. It is a theme that is primarily explored in the quiet moments of the show, not the fights. In effect, the fights are not the point. Given that you are primarily watching this and presumably other anime for the action, the primary project of the show is something that you are likely to not enjoy.
There is beautifully animated action in Frieren, but it is spaced farther apart than in the standard shounen anime, and the fights are sometime brief when they do occur. The second half of the first season has a lot more action than the first. So should your tastes change, the show isn't going anywhere.