Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Frieren: Beyond Journey's End
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tintor2
 Posts: 1824 |
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Nice ending to the series. Still, my disappointment stands. The first cour managed to tell dozens of stories per episode and see character interact a lot while the exam arc just focused on some typical action scenes with the clone enemy lasting three episodes. It doesn't help they downright removed Stark out of nowhere for the entire arc with the exception of one or two episodes just to make some joke scenes.
Ironically, the only exam I liked was the last one since it avoided the typical action focus and instead more of psychological analysis of what makes a mage fiting to be more skilled. I've been reading the manga and at least the next arcs at least focus on the main characters rather than some guys who we barely just met. |
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Covnam
 Posts: 3651 |
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I'm surprised that cleaning spell is so rare. I guess it's either just really high level or there's no type of "everyday" magic in this world.
What a great show. I'm surprised that a second season wasn't announced already (that seems to have happened a lot this season), but maybe things were unexpectedly successful. They've only covered about half the chapters released, so there should be plenty of content. Hopefully we get another half of a year of Frieren sometime soon =D
Yes, it's rare that there is more than one series I'm anticipating all week to watch, let alone for half a year 
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18192 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Unless you're actually being sarcastic, I'm preeety sure that was a Frieren-style joke. |
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Dr. Wily
Posts: 261 |
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I don't know, Frieren's whole schtick is finding "everyday" magic. To her, that probably is a legendary spell. You can only get so many variants of fireball, but laundry? That one she's never seen and it's practical!
While I agree that it's a shame Stark got sidelined (everybody loves Stark, even random townies in every place they visit!), I still really like the exam arc because we learn so much about the world through it and all the characters we meet. My favorite tidbit is in the last episode when Wirbel says that demon activity increased (leading to his village's destruction) after Himmel died. It's half hilarious and half badass that even into his old age just the threat of Himmel (and his party) was enough of a boogeyman to keep a lot of demons at bay. Though yes I suppose you do have to have a tolerance for fights and fight scenes. And so I ultimately get that it can be too much tonal whiplash for some people (you're not the only one I've seen express some disappointment in this arc). |
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MFrontier
Posts: 11224 |
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Madhouse delivered on all fronts. What a terrific and stellar adaption, taking what was great about the manga and absolutely enhancing with great direction, voice acting, and character animation.
Only Denken would pass because his first instinct was to throw hands with Serie. Ubel passed because she's Ubel. Wirbel definitely seems like Serie's type of mage. Methode passed with her onee-san vibes. I love how Ubel has been flirting with a clone the whole time and the real Land never even set foot in the testing ground. Denken's story about his wife explains a lot about how he is in old age, especially how he's basically adopted everyone as the children/grandchildren he was never able to have. Serie is just a massive elf tsundere and cares far more than she's willing to admit.Then again, her type of mages are just awkward people. Totally forgot Lernen was Ehre's grandfather. I love how there was one last Fern pout, Stark is still a popular guy, Serie is massively petty, and it's not about the length of the goodby but the promise to see each other again. As with Frieren still trying to see Himmel. Also I guess that face is genetic to all elves. Sein! Could that woman in a parasol be an onee-san!? |
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Errinundra
Moderator
 Posts: 6525 Location: Melbourne, Oz |
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Loved the show, and appreciated your reviews, Richard. You provided insights into things I occasionally missed.
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Jabootu
Posts: 68 |
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There doesn't seem to be a common tome of magic. Each spell must be created by somebody, and for all we know creating a clothes cleaning spell would take years to accomplish and few among the small number of people who could do such a thing would actually devote their time to actually do so. And even for those that did, you'd write it in a grimoire that then would sit on the shelf in your (in many case) little village where probably only a small number of people could read. In other words, as indicated by the fact that Frieren's primary activity is to travel and unearth largely forgotten spells, magical knowledge is not well disseminated in this world. And now the central magic authority is run by an immortal being and probably the world's greatest mage who's entirely opposed to making magic commonplace. I suspect the way Frieren might most turn upside down the World of Magic in the long run is by aiding in the creation of the magical world analog of the printing press, just as she was instrumental to humans learning how to master (if not understand) Zoltraak. The strength of humans is cooperation, and right now the larger battle seems to be between Serie's contention that magic is for a few elites and Frieren's belief that "Magic should be free." The Era of Humans is at hand, and it seems overwhelmingly likely that Freiren's view will win out. |
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igloo15
Posts: 2 |
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I understand your criticism but we have to remember that every character starts as someone we just barely met. The author I believe did this arc because it needed these characters in other places in the story. So instead of talking about and describing those characters as the interactions occur they created a situation to characterize them all at once. Some may say they should have done it as they appeared but that has two problems. First is that the other situations might be more pressing and important and there is not enough time to properly describe them. Second not enough time will have passed before meeting that person for our main cast to form an opinion about them. This limits what the author can do with said character. During this arc we got fairly in depth view of magic in this world that will help shape the readers understanding of things to come. It would be quite difficult to do that in other situations. Given the nature of this being an exam arc some exposition is expected and not out of the ordinary. In other situations it would be very strange for characters to explain these things. I always hate when characters start explaining stuff in the middle of battle to folks that should already know those things. Here though we are given plenty of situations where it makes sense for these things to be talked about. Using an exam arc to setup several characters and world build for the sake of the future story makes sense to me. I also believe there was enough of the stuff that makes Frieren Frieren in these episodes. I did miss Stark but I don't see how they could have accomplished the goals above in a better way. |
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Jabootu
Posts: 68 |
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Also...doesn't a certain amount of meandering and such, with plot cul de sacs like the Magic Exams, just in its own way reflect Frieren's style of journeying? You travel, then stop in a village for a month or two to clean up the local beach. Then you hit the road again. I think mixing things up will help keep the show vital in the long run rather than causing it to lose focus.
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Covnam
Posts: 3651 |
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Nope. If that was a joke, then it definitely didn't land for me 
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