I found it boring to be honest. The gimmick is that Frieren is old, and that’s supposed to make us have deep thoughts about life and the nature of time, right? Well, other fantasy media has been playing with the “Elves live long” trope ever since Tolkien, so it’s nothing new to be honest.
It might not be generic anime, but it is generic fantasy for sure.
It’s a breath of fresh air. The characters feel like real people and it’s a fantasy anime that isn’t an Isekai. Also it has good action.
As much as I like Frieren, I don’t like the attitudes surrounding it. The whole “it’s not just a good anime, it’s a good show IN GENERAL!”, “this is better than (insert all other anime I hate)!”, etc.
You know, it’s been pretty good so far, I’d even say, really good, probably, and it has an advantage over FMA:B in that I don’t find the comedy kind of, grating and annoying, and I find it actually funny sometimes, even if it’s mostly just weird and kind of pervy or whatever. Not like, fanservicey, but it does feel like the comedy is just, sex-based, or something? I dunno. I might just be like overblowing it in my brain.
With all that being said, FMA:B is definitely better still. Frieren has specific arcs, FMA:B just straight up has an overarching story that basically never stops and never really falls into, like, specific sections. I dunno, I guess that’s mostly a pacing thing, but if you were to ask me which one I liked more on that basis, I would say FMA:B every time. There are some other anime that can match that pacing, right, but most of the time they end up being kind of older more adult-oriented animation, and they don’t really have as broad of appeal as FMA:B, so I think it still takes the GOAT position.
Frieren is really good though, I will give it that.
Frieren is a fine anime, but both it and FMA are wildly overrated. They’re both popular shonen anime with cool action sequences and are both mainstream enough to not be offputting for general audiences. They’re pretty much designed to be popular and accessible, but that degree of accessibility also makes them somewhat bland.
FMA??? BLAND??? Did you even watch it???
You know I haven’t seen a whole lot of anime, so sue me, but I’ll kind of agree with this take. They’re both pretty good anime, and probably even great, and an easy recommendation, right. At the same time, they really don’t inspire me in any way, or bring up like, interesting philosophical subject matter really at all, which are things that are value in media more than like. Cool fight scenes, and an accessible story.
Also, an aside, but these shows don’t have that great of fight scenes. They have pretty good “action”, I guess, pretty good animation, but fight scenes? I wouldn’t say they’re well written or choreographed, they’re about as basic as you can get. FMAB gets some points for having inventive solutions that crop up occasionally as a result of the setting’s alchemy and real chemical reactions and stuff, but that’s about it. Otherwise both of these shows are kind of extremely basic when it comes to their action. Both in the way that it’s conventionally written, but also in their direction and choreography. I think stylistically I might be opposed to anime generally, in this regard, as a medium that has, almost inherently, no limitations (being animation, right), and as a kind of, general style, that tends to place the setup basically right before the payoff happens. Rather than sort of gradually building up to more well-founded action scenes. In action choreography, maybe I just have kind of, infamously high standards for this stuff, or have different tastes from the norm, cause every time I’ve seen “great anime action” it’s always like, the most incomprehensible, stiffly animated, impact frame yutapon cube sakuga nonsense you could ever imagine.
I dunno, am I insane for the take the the vast majority of action choreography is better done when it’s grounded into an actual physicality, and implicit physical ruleset, rather than like, appreciating the tradeoff that comes with not doing that, the tradeoff of spectacle and absurdity?
Idk, I think Frieren isn’t about the action, and all the stuff about elves and maturing, and what is really important etc is a breath of fresh air to me. And has just been interesting and different to me.
The FMA review bombers should have been IP blocked from voting years ago. Every list is a joke until that happens.
