Frieren, Tropes and the concept of love

There are very little shows out there that give me the same kind of satisfaction that I get, when a piece of media manages to not only gloriously shine, but also completely encapsulate an audience simply by being the truest on most honest version of itself it can be. Frieren is one of those shows, and I will know spend the following paragraphs explaining what I mean by that.

In recent times, when it comes to anime, the Fantasy Genre has been in kind of an awkward position. While we are still getting a number of high quality Fantasy Shows every year, it just hasnt really felt like that to me. Personally, Fantasy in anime has felt incredibly stale and oversaturated for actually quite some time now.
And finishing that sentence, many might already have a particular Genre in Anime in mind, that might be part of this resoaning.

And the reason for that lies in both: The Isekai Genre and its older brother, the Fantasy Genre itself. It uses established tropes we are familiar with as a substitude for worldbuilding elements.

We dont need an explanation for its magic system, its like an RPG, ok? We dont need an explanation of the world, its races, politics or geography. Have you ever played Dragon Quest? Many authors use our established knowledge of common Fantasy Elements, in order to more easily flesh out the story they actually want to tell.
The author of Goblin Slayer reaaaally wants to write about killing Goblins. He doesnt need to come up with his own Fantasy Monster, that acts and looks completely identical to Goblins and then explain them to us over the course of the story. And frankly he doesnt have to. We got no time, there are Goblins to be killed.

This isnt actually supposed to come off as dismissive as it actually sounds. Hell, especially in recent times, many authors just simply dont feel like they have the time to properly flesh out the world surrounding their story. It has become increasingly more tough to both maintain interest in your story or even to spark interest in the first place.
So why not help yourself a little bit with a Genre that we associate with a number of well known concepts.

But while that explains Isekais and Fantasys insane quantity in recent times, I just think its a shame so many of these archetypes arent used to tell compelling stories, but just to fill in the gaps of a pre existing one. And this too me is one of the reasons for this current feeling of saturation. If so many shows use common Fantasy Elements in such ways, then we wont see them in any new variations.
The entire point of why they are here in the first place is because they wont get further exploration. We are getting a large variety of new stories, just not particularly Fantasy ones.

And thats where a particular anime about an awkward Elf Mage Girl manages to shine.

What Frieren does so right

My god, while I was already sold on the show upon just hearing the synopsis years ago, I wasnt prepared for how much I would grow to enjoy it. Every aspect of this show and its story about a practically immortal elf grieving her deceased party members and going on a journey to learn more about humanity and herself just captivated me.

The reason for why I think it works so well, lies in the two most important aspects, this show had to nail for its premise:
The mood correctly coming across and making us care about these characters.

Regarding the tone, this show gets easy A Grades. Animation, direction, sound design. Everything works together perfectly to capsulate the current feelings of a scene. It can feel somber and relaxed without losing momentum. Its action can make you feel excited, without seeming out of place. It can feel sad, without being melodramatic.
It gave me kind of a similar feeling like playing Breath of The Wild for the first time and just being perfectly enraptured by this mood it wants to convey to you.

However, the reason I actually wanted to make this video lies in the second point.
Do we care about these characters? And this is where the genius of this show shines through.
The entire premise of the show hinges on one single aspect. Elves posess are longer livespan than most other races. Meaning: They will outlive the majority of most if not all their companions over the course of their life. This is a fact that holds true in practically every show with conventional elf characters, but we ususally dont get to see that, because thats not the story they want to tell.

And thats the reason why Frieren works so well. Its the logical, earnest route for this character to head to. A being with such a long lifespan obviously would have a different perception of time, of relationships, of simply life. How does the way her internal logic work matter when interacting with the world? How does it affect its other characters? Are her views ever challenged? Which events or conversations could change parts of her viewpoints?
And most importantly, what can an audience get out of her story, what parallels do we begin to see while following her journey?
Frieren does not feel fresh because it came up with a new premise, it felt fresh because it felt so sincere in its premise.

format(webp))

Almost every aspect of this show has its roots in a well known, established trope, either Fantasy or just in Anime in General. These tropes are then being played completely straight and this is where they become interesting.

One of the greatest examples for that has to be its magic system. The way magic works in this show is only briefly and very vaguely explained but it often comes down to one very vital fact. Visual Imagination. A mage can only conjure what they are able to imagine.
The rules are incredibly simple, yet are able to be used in an endless variety of interesting ways. Take a mage that can cut anything she believes she is able to. The simpler and more warped her worldview is, the more terrifying her abilities become.
Or take Serie, the most powerful character introduced so far. She may have been stronger than the demon King, yet didnt fight him, because she wouldnt have been able to win, simply for the fact that she wouldnt be able to invision an era of peace.

This way of earnest exploration actually works in two ways. A character like Land for instance comes of at very cliché at first. The character that wears glasses, shows little emotion and everything goes according to his plan. But due to the good will and trust the audience already has at this point of the show, this played out trope becomes interesting again.
While we would barely question his behaviour in a different show, here it is being adressed directly by one of its characters. What life has he led to be the way he is? What happened to become so distant to each and everyone around him? Figuratively and literally.

And the thing that gets me is that you are able to reapeat this song and dance with every characte in this show that at first might seem to just be a trope.

And this again is where the genius lies. Frieren uses tropes not as a substitude for storytelling. It uses them in service of it.

And the story the show manages to tell with this is nothing short but beautiful.

Its about love

To me the last stretch of episodes perfectly underlines my believe that Frieren is a show about compassion and the way it is being preserved.
Beforehand we learned that Flammes favourite spell of all is the one that makes a field of flowers and that she is the one that taught Frieren the very same. This same spell later one becomes the reason Himmel would become fond of her and eventually invite her on his journey to defeat the Demon King, which is how she ends up becoming friends with and ultimately joining the Hero Party. And later on, the bonds she made with them become the reason she meets Fern, Stark and to an extent everyone else in the series.

From my point of view the Flower Spell represents Flammes love and compassion, a small part of the kind of things she holds dear, her humanity. And its by entrusting this to Frieren, this little symbol of compassion, that it manages to be the spark that continues to burn, the flame that just continues to grow.... wait a second.

(My god, this is show is good.)

But whats even more interesting is that the person that taught Flamme about magic was Serie. A person that, at least to her own words, had very little interest in Flamme and only taught her on a whim.
Serie always felt like a mirror to Frieren to me. A version she could become or already to an extent has. Distant, still figuring out her feelings towards companions long past.
And even so, she still managed to give Flamme this gift that would later on become a gift to so mayn other characters as well.
From my viewpoint this is a message about love. It is about how love can spring from everyone and from everything and about how it will always find a way to perservere throughout any stretch of time, and how people manage to pass it on to each other, even if they are gone.

And what really gets me is that again, this message was able to be conveyed this way by using long established tropes. It all comes down full circle.

Anyways, this was all just supposed to be a simple review about how I thought Frieren was great and a 9/10 but I might have lost the plot at some point. Oh well, good show.