Hear me out.
I’ve been reading the Sousou no Frieren manga for a long while now. I like it. So when the anime got announced, I was hyped. A series I already enjoyed, animated by Madhouse? Cool!
Then the adaptation aired and the entire internet lost its mind. Masterpiece. Anime of the decade. Top 5 of all time. And I’m just sitting here like… are we watching the same show?
Good, but not that good
Frieren is good. I’m not saying it’s bad. But the hype around it lives in a completely different universe from the show I’m actually watching.
The premise is a nice little twist on the usual fantasy formula, and I genuinely like the quiet, reflective vibe the show is giving. But “interesting premise” and “masterpiece of the decade” are pretty far apart, and a lot of the discussion online seems to live in the latter camp. The plot, for me, is fine. Pleasant, even. Just not the kind of thing that sticks with me long after I’ve closed the tab.
The animation, though
I’ll give it this much: the animation is unreal. Madhouse cooked. Every frame looks like a screensaver, the fight scenes go stupidly hard, and the small character moments hit way harder than they have any right to.
But once I set the visuals aside, I’m left with a show I’d call “quietly nice” instead of “all-time great.” And I think a lot of the hype is people reacting to the animation and calling it a story thing.
Maybe I’m missing whatever everyone else picked up on. Maybe it just didn’t land for me the way it landed for the rest of the internet. Either way, that’s where I’m at.