Oct 20, 2023
Not for everyone, not even SOL enjoyers.
This was probably the most hyped show of the season, and probably my biggest disappointment. Don't get me wrong, depending on what you are looking for in an anime, Sousou no Frieren has the potential to meet all your expectations, and you may come to enjoy it thoroughly. Here, I will try to explain why this show may not be for everyone and implore users to give it a chance and the decide whether they want to continue with it.
This story is about an elf named Frieren who lives an insanely long life. After her ten year journey
...
with the hero's party, they are lauded as heros for defeating the demon king. However, those ten years which would be considered a long time to most other life forms are a drop in the bucket for her. The story progresses from here as we see Frieren's perception of the world differs from those around her, and we see her have regrets about not making closer connections to those around her. By the end of the fourth episode, the premise of the show is set up as Frieren wanting to make the journey back to the demon lord's castle, which will take her another ten years.
First, I'll attempt to explain why this show doesn't really work for me. In essence, this show has no conflict. There is nothing in the way of Frieren making it back to the castle besides the time it takes to get there(which is negligible for her). She faces no major opposition from anyone, and no other characters have any major conflicts with her at all.
Your mileage will vary with the characters, but so far in at least the first four episodes, nothing really stands out about them to me. With Frieren in particular, we see that she want s to make more connections with the people around her, but we only see her struggle with this in once scene, and then it feels like she just gets over it and her character goes back to having no problems.
People who find this show boring are often portrayed as shonen lovers who can only enjoy a show with tons of action and violence. However, I think this perception is a tad unfair. Even by slice-of-life standards, this show is particularly uneventful and directionless. The main characters have a goal they are striving for, but there is pretty much nothing in their way besides the time it takes to get there. Even the most simple slice of life shows have the "struggle" of characters going through the trials and tribulations of learning new skills, or showing the comedy that can come with just hanging out with friends. But at least through these four episodes, Frieren faces very little challenge with anything at all, and even her regrets about not getting to know her teammates barely lasted a full scene before the show seemed to move on from it.
Now let me discuss some reasons why you might decide to watch this show. Essentially, this is a slice of life in a fantasy world. If you are particularly drawn to the characters, world building, or art this show may have an appeal to you as a relaxing escape. But if you want to see the characters struggle with and overcome emotional problems, ideological conflicts with others, or engage in self-improvement, then this probably isn't the show for you.
As an SOL enjoyer, I wanted to like this show too, but to me it just didn't seem to have anything that made it stand out. The characters didn't seem too special, they didn't face any actual conflict, and anything that they did actually struggle with seemed to be forgotten by the next scene.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
