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Feb 1, 2025
Once again a find myself watching a show that I can tell is hitting me harder because of my age. It's not an appreciation, but more of a sense of comradery in the show, that makes you put your own life and experiences into perspective better than you could. But even more so, just nod along and say "yup" as the emotions hit you.
There are many great elements of this show you can pick out, from the novelty of starting after the big boss is defeated and everyone has moved on with their lives, the beautiful painterly quality to the art that's sometimes
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juxtaposed by intense and striking action scenes, to avoiding a lot of generic tropes that can plague a series.
But where I most appreciate Frieren is for the small, short, simple and sweet feelings of remembrance you get with Frieren as she continues a seemingly endless journey. While that's what I appreciate the most, the part that makes me stop and say I'm watching something great is how all of the strongest points that make Frieren stand out come from a relationship that we never actually got to see take place. Frieren's and Himmel's relationship I find to be one of the best and most touching in anime. It's equal parts understandable, relatable and heart warming all at once. And that's where it really hit me. Dealing with feelings of people who have passed and how we see them, how they saw us and the impact they had on us, perhaps leading us to change without even realizing it.
I do find it quite a feet that we can have a sense of knowing Himmel, Frieren and their relationship despite never actually seeing it as it's happening. Only through bits and pieces of flashback. The show is a masterclass in conveying what it's trying to get across. We know exactly how relationships, friends, lovers, life, time, death, all these things are for Frieren despite just getting off hand comments, facial gestures or quick flashbacks. So seeing as she's going on another journey, just how much she thinks back on her last and how it's made her change in certain ways is incredibly moving.
I'm not saying this show will give you a whole new outlook on life and death, but it did give me a feeling of being empathized with. Like the show knows what we've been through as well and it's here to tell you it gets it. It's a friend that can relate to our own journey.
So while I'll sit here and praise the emotions, relationships, art and characters of this show, there's reasons I stopped my score at an 8. The biggest being I felt the last 1/3 of the series started to lose it's magic (pun actually not intended). Personally for me, the more slice of life, self contained episodic nature of the first 2/3 of the show was when it was at it's peak. One to two episode mini stories, all great, all giving beautiful insight and backstory into our lead, all filled with emotion. I felt this was when Frieren shinned brightest. When it became a more "standard plot" of going through trials for a magic exam I felt like the show lost it's way. Typical trials, tests and challenges for passing a test just didn't fit what this show was about to me. And this leads into my other negative, a cast that became way too bloated in way too short of a time. We've been getting wonderful insight into a handful of characters and then for the final run we get more characters thrown at us then in all the previous episodes combined. I mentioned Frieren's and Himmel's story with their party is where the vast majority of my love for this series comes, I didn't want to be bogged down with numerous other stories getting in the way. Unfortunately this probably also comes from the fact that it's still an ongoing manga and the story just kinda cuts off, it's a problem that season 1's often face.
I don't think Frieren is a show about the past, or future or present. It's about everything that's made up our life and will make it up. We should remember and cherish what experiences and people have mattered to us, we should appreciate who we're with now and we should be willing to change and aim for things in the future. A show about a elf mage who will seemingly be around forever gets us thinking about our time here and now.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Sep 5, 2021
Just one of the most likeable main casts in any anime in years. That right there should be the reason you watch this show. I could end the review there and 90% of my entire point will be reached. But I'll flesh things out a bit.
The plot, honestly isn't important. It's about a struggling high school classical music club and their dreams to reach nations. But honestly, even though this is the story we follow throughout the two seasons, it's not why you're watching and not what truly matters. It all comes down to a genuine, pure, lovable group
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of characters that all have their struggles, be it big or small, and how they overcome them together. They believe in, support and care about one another in such an honest way that you can't help, but feel the same towards them. So you rout for them. Again it could be any reason, it just happens to be music. You want them to succeed and find their places. And watching this happen was simply awesome.
I feel like when people talk about anime casts they love they will often say, "you want to be their friends". Honestly I don't find that to be the highest form of praise. I feel it's when you genuinely care about them and what happens to them and in this show, I full heartedly did. Yes, the premise of reviving a struggling club and bringing them to glory was interesting and fun and proved a great backdrop, but that was just the canvas that held the beautiful painting. And that painting is made up of the incredible main cast.
The reasons I couldn't rate it higher was partly it's own doing as well as something that wasn't the shows fault. I'll start with that. Expectations can really be unfair and they were here. Straight up, this isn't a romance anime. Romance is listed as a genre, but it isn't. Don't expect any. If two scenes of beating hearts and red faces equals romance, than your standards are quite different then mine and perhaps this will be fine. I don't call every show that has a character throw a punch an action show or where someone has a dream psychological. So I went in expecting something that wasn't there in the first place. Perhaps your views on this will differ, but I feel this must be mentioned.
The other two issues are on the show. First there are no less than half a dozen cartoonishly evil characters (I get calling drawings "cartoonishly" weird, but hear me out). After a point just let the struggles and drama come more naturally, organic. It reaches the point of absurdity when every new character introduced is portrayed so evil and towards a simple high school club.
The second issue also deals with the large extended cast. I mentioned how this show is like a beautiful painting. Well the secondary cast almost acts like too much clutter taking away from a masterpiece. It's good to know about the revival schools and their members, but I don't need episodes worth of backstory for characters who I've met once before. Leave the beautiful painting as is and focus on what truly brings it out. This proved to really slow the show down towards the end.
I'll end with something I wrote early because it's the most true statement about this show. "You want the characters to succeed and find their places. And watching this happen was simply awesome."
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jun 27, 2021
Josee to Tora to Sakana-tachi is an enjoyable, sweet and well-crafted movie that ends up getting dragged down a bit by having to manufacture it's major conflict and side tracking itself despite its already limited run time. However the premise, look, themes and style all seemed like they were right for me. And for the most part they were.
With any romance the backbone is the two leads and their relationship. And in Josee that’s where you get its brightest moments. I enjoyed the relationship and the growth you see, but unfortunately you don’t really get a smooth buildup. Instead of
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steady progress, it leap frogs along. We go from step 1 to step 5 and while it doesn’t feel forced, it also isn’t fleshed out. Again it’s believable and charming and that’s the problem, because I wanted to see more of them together and growing.
Related to this, but it could of benefited from another 20 or 30 minutes. It wasn’t very long so more time just spent with our two leads would have made everything feel more satisfying and real. They are fun and charming together and it’s them being together when this movie is at its best.
What ends up being the biggest problem for me is the conflict in the last 2/3 of the movie. We go from an endearing romance to a straight melodrama that doesn't land as well. A problem with the male lead is he basically has no problems. So if the movie wanted to ramp up the tension it would need to do something big and it certainly does. Oh and also absurdly cliché. I would of much rather preferred if the tension came more organically between the two leads and struggles with their relationship, but instead the movie goes for bombast and shock. It had me thinking that this time could have been better spent fleshing out characters and relationships.
You get a good conclusion for each character. But, and this is a personal preference, I hate the style of ending they went for. The all too common separation, followed by a time skip, then coming back together. Perhaps my most hated ending style. After all the trials and tribulation, I want these two characters together. This is where this movie shines and it's a shame that it gets off track at times.
The movie is beautiful, the art is wonderful and at times when needed the animation can be great. The character designs, especially Josee, are nice. It has a few nice, catchy Jpop songs to flesh out a good soundtrack. The side characters are just… there. Again a 90 minute movie, so don’t expect a great fleshed out cast of characters, but it’s a group of likeable architypes.
What would be the main love rival is almost singularly just there to help advance the plot a few times.
Overall it's a great movie that's very easy to recommend to anyone and especially romance fan, made by its great couple that's easy to fall in love with. You only wish that the movie loved them more since they carry it and the only time it suffers is when it forgets that.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jul 27, 2016
Anime... we need to talk. Honestly though it's me, not you, I've changed and I realize that now. The unfortunate collateral though is Toradora, which by all rights is fine. Toradora you're not the problem either, you're not even bad, it's just me. A decade and a half plus of anime watching and being an adult will do that to you. So Toradora, don't feel bad about my score, you're still OK, but it's just not want I want now and perhaps for others like me which is why I've decided to write this.
In a different time and place, perhaps
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10 years ago or maybe back in college this might of been a show I feel in love with and it could be for you. I feel that I need to say that this show probably will be (and heck, clearly is) loved by many. For me though, I just can't do it anymore.
Toradora has some truly awesome moments, probably about 3 or 4 really stand out scenes that make you think "OK, this is why we're here, this is what we've signed up for", but than just kinda continues and as lame of a description as I know this is, that's Toradora. It just continues. It plods along, gives you a great moment than just continues for many episodes, shows you something special and than... continues for episode after episode and... well you get it. Toradora isn't slow, there aren't pacing problems, it just moves smoothly along at 5 below the speed limit as to not get a ticket. When all you really want is for it to just pick it up to 10 over because no one will ticket you for that and we can get to the destination sooner.
Again going back to this being my problem I hopped on this show way after the fact. So basically I've been inundated with threads, scores and youtube videos saying how great the romance is. This is where my years of anime and age will hurt you Toradora because well... that isn't really what I think of when I think romance. Man if lets say episode 26 was actually episode 20, that would be been amazing. That's what I wanted. I wasn't really looking for the weirdly rushed and out of place moments in the conclusion.
I want to see love, I want to see couples, I don't want to see dozens of episodes of the main characters "friends" saying they want to help and be their for the couple, but well, they aren't really or people leading others on with no intention of doing anything. Or episode after episode of two characters clearly knowing what they want, but neither doing anything about it. These aren't the helpful friends the show says they are or the great characters I hope to see.
What's the main romance wasn't even bad, it wasn't cheap, it wasn't rushed or any of the multitude of ways you can describe romances you didn't like, it was, well, wishy washy. I don't want to see that kind of stuff in real life let alone 26 episodes of wishy washy behavior. You can't even give it the classic "will they or won't they" description since it's more "they should be, just what is taking so long". Dragging it out and making things take too long doesn't make a payoff all the more grand, it almost makes the payoff just a sigh of relief, when you can say "finally, it's about time" and that's not a good thing.
And that brings me back to my main point. Toradora, it's me, you're just not for me anymore. You might of been, heck you most likely really were right in my wheel house, but now I just can't put up with it. You can't give me 3 awesome moments, ignore them, give me 10 minutes of great in the last episode and than insult your own ending by being all anime. Obviously I'm in a minority and this show is loved by many. I mentioned early it's not bad, this is purely a personal preference which I can clearly see. So this goes out to people like me, if you could imagine yourself saying these words than Toradora isn't for you because it will leave you disappointed and frustrated in the end.
Oh and lets see... show looks fine with satisfactory character designs, but I'm also done with little girl looking characters, but for some reason it didn't make me stop watching so good on you Toradora. I honestly can't remember music so it couldn't of been that good. Basically it was as by the book, fine as you can get from production values. Though there are a few moments when characters scream at each other or fight where things get all serious like you're about to watch some absurd fight in an action/adventure that stood out in an odd way.
Before I close this way too long review I just want to mention the supporting characters one more time because for the most part they were ehh... they kinda grated on me, I mention about how everyone's outlook is just frustrating and it seems like they aren't really great friends. Hearing someone say "but I just wanted you to be happy", but not actually helping the couple get together isn't helping that person be happy. Anime needs to learn this, that one is on you anime, that's not my problem, that's one of the few problems that's yours.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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