Imagine a locked room with all windows and doors closed and filled with old, dusty air. Now think of the room as the genre of fantasy and those old airs as Isekai. What I am trying to say is that, in the past decade, Isekai has oversaturated the fantasy genre. While a small percentage of them are trying new things, most of them are just lazy structural copy-paste, repeating the same formula over and over again. In a time when the industry is suffering from the shortness of fresh air, Studio Madhouse releases Freiren, which smashes the room's windows and comes in with a gust of new air.

The central character of the story is an elven mage named Freiren. As elves are nigh immortal, she has seen countless deaths and wars, the extinction of many royal families, and the rise and fall of great civilizations, making an average human's lifespan just a mere moment to her. Thus reasonably making her incapable of understanding humans and their emotions. At one point, she joins the party of heroes to defeat the demon king. Throughout the expedition of 10 years, their travelling together left a mark on Freiren, especially Himmel The Hero. After his heartfelt funeral, Freiren embarks on a journey to understand Himmel and his deeds. She takes on Fren and Shtark as companions who were students of her previous confidants. Their grand journey begins to unfold the tales of human feelings. It sheds light on the purpose and the meaning behind human life and the value of someone's existence in the grand scope of time. Through immortality, it evaluates mortal accomplishments and identifies what it means to live. After watching Freiren, I began to appreciate the simplest things and learned to find joy in doing the silliest tasks even more.

Freiren will remain one of the awe-inspiring achievements of Studio Madhouse. It must have been a challenge to create something both grand and simple. But under the talented Mr. Keiichirou Saitou, the team handled everything masterfully. From brilliant water-coloured slushy background art to crisp fighting animation that can easily rival any battle shonen. The animation team put care and love into every frame, from important character expressions to the silliest bit of cloth and hair movement. All these visually pleasing ambiences were accompanied by brilliant musical scores that encapsulated every frame to its fullest and evoked raw emotion within me. Studio Madhouse's astonishing audio-visual execution made Frieren my favourite mood poem of this decade.

I started my review by saying Freiren is a gust of new air, but in a sense, Freiren is not a gust of new air; rather, it can be comparable to the serene breeze of a green grizzled valley, a reminiscence of the past, reminding me of the carefree days of my life, my childhood. Back when I used to read the stories of kings and queens, stories of Captain Sindbad navigating through treacherous oceans, and stories of princes journeying through a vast desert to save their princesses, Freiren furnished me with the same feelings as those; it is fantasy in its purest form.