Ep. 01: Frieren

Frieren is the kind of anime that has a reputation that precedes it. It has reached the top of the My Anime List charts, had its praises sung by many anime commentators, and gained widespread popularity and fame. I likely would have watched this and covered it if my channel had been running when it was coming out. But this was before my time. And going in, I was not sure how I was going to feel about this. Because one of the side effects of wide spread popularity is the reality that there will be some who praise a thing for qualities that don’t sit right with another person. I will openly admit that happened here, and is largely what has kept me from watching this any sooner.

I’m a romantic at heart, and I’m also someone who values the idea that we should treasure the time we have with others. Whether that’s family, friends, a partner, or anyone else really. A life should be lived accompanied by simple joys. But life should also be lived with purpose. That doesn’t just entail work. It means living the time you have in a way that makes it count. And being present in the things you engage in.

When I was first looking into this show, there were a slew of videos which popped up stating that Frieren proves that a story is ‘always’ better when it centers on a female character. And that the missing link in the shonen ‘formula’ is that there wasn’t a woman at the center of it. Which makes me wonder if individuals making those statements actually know what shonen is and who it’s actually for? But the real nail in the coffin. The comment that has held me back from watching this for over a year now, was: “The best thing about Frieren is that her love interest dies in the first episode.”

I had heard that Frieren is a very stoic and unmoving character. So when I paired that perception with this kind of talk from viewers, I wasn’t sure whether the character, or the show, would connect with me. But as often happens, it’s best to go and check the source of something for oneself. I’m glad I waited. I’m glad I put some space between my annoyance at this perception and me sitting down to watch this show.

Because that I can say is that Frieren may never have noticed Himmel in life, but she is more then slightly effected by his death. As an ancient elf, who has been alive longer than humans can imagine, I would imagine that Frieren’s concept of life and death is vastly different than what your average person experiences. Imagine the lifespan of your dog or cat, in comparison to your own. That’s the closest thing I can think of. I don’t think that Frieren’s indifference came out of some girlboss mentality. I think that many encounters with people, for her, are like one of us trying to remember being three years old as an adult. As time marches on, memories of our lives begin to dull and fade unless we work very hard to keep them.

Add to this the reality that Frieren and her allies were on an important quest with lasting consequences not only for them, but for everyone around them. Sometimes you’re taking a drive to the apple orchard. Sometimes you have to get to a doctor’s appointment. The mentality of these things is never going to be the same. The world needed saving, and Frieren and her friends saved it.

This, in part, is what made their last journey together, to go and see the meteor shower together fifty years later, so moving to me. To the point that I was actually weeping as I watched them make their way, and then witnessed their grief at Himmel’s death. As the lyric goes, “Don’t it always seem to go / that you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone?”

Frieren has taken centuries for this simple lesson to smack her square in the face, but if I understand the concept of the show properly, fully grasping and living with that really is the purpose and quest of the story I’ve just started to watch. Not strictly for Himmel’s sake, to be clear. But to ensure that this kind of gut punch will not take Frieren by surprise again. As she says herself, “Ten years wasn’t long enough to know him.”

What Frieren cannot change about the past, she can learn to do better in the future. And in the introduction of Fern, we catch a first glimpse of a way that this can happen. An orphan one of Frieren’s former allies took in, she is proficient in magic and now that former party member would like Frieren to take her on as an apprentice.

While Frieren is opposed to this–claiming that apprentices often die, which is another indicator of how much more she has become of humans mortality–she does agree to give Fern some introduction here and there when she can. I think that this pairing works nicely because Frieren is not a story about slaying a dragon or a girl finding her true love. But rather the tale of an ancient creature becoming aware of all the great and subtle ways the world changes around them.

After one episode, I’m interested enough to continue. I like the flow of the storytelling. I can see, clearly, that the people who made this are capable of drawing out a great deal of emotion. And I’m curious to find out what will happen next. Have you watched Frieren? What did you think of it? I’d love to know, so feel free to leave a comment below.