This review contains spoilers.

"Frieren: Here we are, two $1.50 hot dogs.

Fern: Just a $1.50? How can Costco possibly make a profit off of that?

Frieren: It's the same price as back then.

Fern: Wouldn't inflation cause the price to chan-

Frieren: I remember when Himmel the Hero bought a hot dog here for the same price. Costco is unchanged, even now... Back then, Himmel...

[cut to flashback]

Himmel: You know Frieren, a hot dog is like a metaphor for life--we ketchup with old friends and make new ones. When I'm gone, please never forget... that life's too short not to relish every moment..."

(thanks to Letterboxd user SupremeLemon for this)

The utter lack of identity this show exhibits is absolutely bewildering, and perhaps I was expecting this to improve within the second half, but I was ultimately wrong; there is a severe lack of any substance whatsoever in every single pore of this anime and it is completely forgettable. Something can be simple yet still be distinctive, yet Frieren is basic and it doesn't have any soul or substance; there is nothing to grasp in this anime that evokes even a semblance of interest. This show doesn't take into account just how complicated humanity can be especially in a fantasy world like this, all of the people Frieren meets throughout her path have one-dimensional motivations and are always up to help Frieren and her group, which is just absolutely ridiculous—except demons, who are big bad evil guys of course. Demons are bland antagonists for which genocide is the only counter of course; the author really went out of their way to lazily write such boring characters, they are DND evil-personified royalty scumbags who trick other species and then BETRAY them! So fun and thought provoking, "why are they evil" well duh its in their nature as a predator... ok.

The story is a bland tale where we see Frieren being "changed" by "da friends wuh made along da way!!" (like, actually) with happy-go-lucky messages and many apparitions of the all-mighty Himmel, the emotional messiah, who gives Frieren the convenient feedback in the convenient scene so she can advance to the next segment of the show; no proper efforts are done by Frieren, everything comes from a figure of authority who tells her how to feel, what to do, what to think, etc. There is no charisma in Sousou no Frieren, there is no intrigue to each character, dialogue, action, expression; there's no nuance, nothing, it is the vessel of nothingness. The relationship between Frieren and Himmel annoys me to my core, it is an idealized gallant prince and damsel in distress relationship where Frieren cannot realize anything without having it spoonfed by Himmel thru endless flashbacks and hacky storywriting... and then, Frieren will have an EPIPHANY!! Where... holy shit, that spoon was the same spoon that Himmel used back then... eating with him was so... nice.... *soundtrack blasts through the headphones*

Their connection is rotten to the core and consists on a savior complex from Himmel, he MUST be the one who teaches Frieren emotion, he MUST be Frieren's love interest, he MUST be the one to streamline Frieren towards certain situations and actions; it feels so dumb and forced, the rest of the group are just spectators of this degenerate link between this dude and his therapy elfmoeblob patient. Frieren meeting kid Himmel for the first time is so absurdly convenient its cheesy; of ALL the forests in the fucking world, in THIS specific moment, in THIS specific night AND day of the year was where Frieren met Himmel for the first time. Anyways. The secondary cast isnt interesting either, and usually is wasted away. Characters like Wirbel arent used properly and just brushed off quickly after a few flashbacks (surprise!) are delivered, or Ubel's character being wasted. But does this even matter? Seriously. NOBODY in this anime has an OUNCE of charm or charisma, Ubel comes close, but even her crazy ass is washed down by this anime's tendency to moai-ze everything, I am not asking Frieren to be a raved-up shonen protagonist in steroids, I'm just asking for... something. anything. just a bit of spice. Frieren lacks any engagement and makes no attempts in genuinely tackling its ideas with concern.

The combat isn't frantic, bone-chilling or notable so it cannot be a battle shounen either, Sousou no Frieren does not exhibit an intriguing fantasy world full of mysteries, and instead it dabbles on tropes and fantasy clichés, so it cannot exactly be an exploration show about the value of a long journey and adventures, where the viewer learns about a world of wonders; Frieren doesn't have witty dialogue or particularly great humour—beyond repeating the same gag (Frieren in le chest!!! Fern le mad pout!!) a thousand times without any variation—so it can't be an effective comedy show. The romance between Frieren and Himmel is bland as fuck and I absolutely despise that he essentially works as an emotional deus ex machina or emotional messiah and that Frieren is basically the receiver who needs emotional guidance throughout this entire show, so it doesn't work as romance or drama either. So with that being said: What is Sousou no Frieren's identity? What does this anime want?

I do not know, I really don't, this is one of the biggest problems with Sousou no Frieren: it doesn't know what it wants, this anime has no identity. It goes from being a World of Warcraft secondary mission simulator to a cheap copy of the Hunter Exam arc to budget Violet Evergarden 2 to moeblob comedy; meanwhile, in this schizophrenic mixture of genres, no valuable progress is done for the characters' identity, Sousou no Frieren isnt driven by anything at all. Can ANY of these characters express any emotion beyond a boring emotionless face? Can ANY of them express any emotion or any SPICE on their dialogue? Or say anything that I can minimally care about? It tastes so much like air, like HOLY SHIT please. This show is completely inoffensive and riskless, completely devoid of any identity and inherently soulless. It can't be an emotional journey where we watch Frieren learn, either way, as Frieren's progress feels artificial when it is purely fed by flashbacks, cliché quotes and plot conveniences. This anime feels directionless, philosophically devoid and empty, so this show can't be an anime with profound messages either.

This last arc a la Hunter Exam only serves a purpose for the people who, understandably enough, were bored of the absolute slog this series is, this part of the story tries to tell a human-based struggle... which fails, considering just how devoid of emotion and humanity this entire show is, and how even the characters seem like they dont wanna be there. Dialogue in Frieren is sloggy and useless, oftentimes it will feel like you're listening to two brick walls talking to each other or characters exposing or monologing about a topic that has been explained already, or just narrating the story and going from Point A to Point B; it lacks any insight or interest that might come with good and valuable communication. If there isn't a strong-enough emotional basis in Frieren to grow sympathy and become a slow-burner, dramatic character development show, what is the identity of this anime?

Every battle is fought by pokerfaced nobodies with not even an inch of personality, they fail completely at even evoking a semblance of emotion in me when it just looks like even THEY dont wanna be here. Watching Frieren characters fight looks like when you were going to do a class presentation in a topic you absolutely didn't care about. How can I care if they don't seem to care? Where's the emotion in these expresionless androids? Where's the emotion in their ChatGPT dialogue and fights? Where's the emotion that is so praised about this anime? Wait, before delivering flashbacks, BOOM LAZER, MAGICAL BULLSHIT; now, let's haphazardly introduce the flashback. These characters are supposed to be humans, of complicated thoughts and intricate morality yet they seem to lack anything of sorts, instead looking like a reptilian trying to replicate superficial philosophy, feeliings and humanity; it's tough when a show that's supposed to feel human and emotional instead feels like E.T trying to make a personal story. Frieren and Fern vs Frieren clone in the last arc is supposed to be a huge climax yet it feels like nothing, there are no stakes I already know they are going to wreck the shit out of it; especially if you slap a fucking flashback on me where it essentially praises humanity and their advancement towards dominating magic, soon to be equal or even surpass elves—of course, it refers to Fern—just like that stakes are completely gone.

They have to explain E V E R Y S I N G L E T H I N G—even irrelevant details—before actually doing it, they have to E X P L A I N C A R E F U L L Y elements such as history of magic in the middle of an intense moment such as a battle, which completely breaks the pace; oftentimes in the form of a flashback, of course, because these hacks do not know how to express their story in any other way. We have to see these random ass dudes running for their lifes in the middle of an important scene where they are strategizing, why?? I literally do not care about them. I already know Frieren is smiling because this whole thing reminds her of the skirmishes she did with her group on a dungeon, you don't need to slap a flashback or unnecessary sequence and completely break the scene. Exposition and the use of flashbacks can work in complex topics or when cleverly-used, but here it completely ruins the pace and feels out of place; let ME deduce why Frieren is smiling based on my experience on watching the show, not YOU showing me what I have to remember. This is a constant pattern that is repeated throughout all of Sousou no Frieren:

Frieren sees something. anything.
Boring ass dialogue ensues
Flashback!!! This actually relates in some way to her original party group!!!
2sad4me melodrama

A cross-eyed Frieren is lying on the ground, drooling and having an epileptic attack; her eyes haphazardly inspecting the sky
"Is Frieren alright?" asked Sein, worried that his companion could've been going through a tough time
"Yeah, she's on Himmel's flashback, she'll be back in a minute." assured Fern, she was already used to this.

Do you like comedy? I do, sometimes; comedy is subjective, thus it might be funny to some but holy shit I believe the author doesn't know anything beyond the same comedy-gag ad nauseam. There isn't anything witty, to deduce or interesting about this show's humour; it is "haha shes in the mimic again lulz" for ten-thousand times or Fern throwing a pouting tantrum and punching our shounen boi. I guess it gets slapped in for fanservice motives or to accelerate the pace of this absolute snail of an anime to acceptable amounts; same with the action, I feel like the author recognized that this was absolutely horrific and decided to put some action and yuribait in the last arc, which I honestly appreciate, I don't know if I could stand 12 more episodes about World of Warcraft secondary quests and nothingburger characters peppered with melodrama. Watching these bland archetypes talk with nobodies constantly was drawn out to absurdity. It truly becomes a nothing-fiesta when every dialogue sounds like it was AI-generated. When Frieren had to deal with the two girls on her group and it was ALWAYSSSS the same comedy gag.

I still haven't talked enough shit about the character cast, which oftentimes turns into one-dimensional archetypes, devoid of any charisma and very lackluster identities, which is a huge problem in a show such as Frieren. Twenty-eight episodes yet Fern is still absolutely insufferable and a Frieren copy & PASTE, Stark has no personality traits beyond being a shounen boy & Fern's love interest and tsundere boxing-bag, Sein appears to have been absolutely thanos'd from reality, Übel is your crazy girl archetype—who is the only one that thankfully puts some spice in this slog—and Himmel... oh, fuck Himmel. I really cannot describe just how much I dislike him honestly; he's the core on my main disdain towards this show. He's a Gary Stu and annoying douchebag who's entire personality traits are being Frieren's would-be love interest and a hero. Yeah thats about it, he's a blue-haired Ken with no interesting traits whatsoever; the worst thing by far is his discount-ass motivational phrases which do nothing but artificially inflate Frieren's emotional points, oftentimes through flashbacks ad nauseam, something that feels cheap, frequently pace-breaking and bland; he's essentially an emotional deus ex machina, whenever you feel like Frieren is having a hard emotive situation Himmel will pop-up out of nowhere to spit some motivational stock phrases so Frieren has a huge epiphany and the show will be like "See? They were truly one for the other!" It feels so forced and disgusting. Have you ever read these classic happy-go-lucky phrases like a la "Living is good! Keep living!"? That's what Himmel constantly slaps in your face in every scene he appears in.

Frieren sees something, ANYTHING
Boring ass dialogue ensues (that is a constant within this show. nothingburger dialogue)
She relates it back to her old party
Mr. Gary "Himmel" Stu tells her everything she needs to hear and everything that is perfect for that specific situation!! He is really wise and definitely isnt just an emotional Macguffin for Frieren to grow in cheap emotion points.
Himmel dicksuckery shenanigans ensues. he's the worst "character" on the entire show btw

Heiter is "haha le drunk guy XD" comedy relief in the heroes' group who occasionally pukes motivational slop a la Himmel. Eisen is strong dwarf who teaches shounen boy and theres not much more about him. Who in the fuck is Methode? Oh, that one girl in the exam; okay I don't care, who even cares? Who are all these people? Why are they so completely plain? Fern is still absolutely insufferable, a complete brat and a Frieren copy—and being cared for under Frieren's bosom isn't a good excuse—having both Frieren and Fern talk to each other is like clashing two rocks with each other. It is STILL the same shit after 25 episodes and hasnt changed a thing. The main trio is lazily conformed and their thoughts are vaguely explored; without a semblance of interesting dynamics or substantial thoughts. Relationships tend to be notoriously complex, depending on endless layers of emotions, interests and more; Sousou no Frieren simplifies the essence of human relationships and the author only dares to make straightforward, boring interactions and links between characters.

This show is oftentimes praised by its emotionality yet the characters are barely cognisant and convincing. Many excuse Fern's absolute nothingburger identity through being cared by Frieren's teachings; however, this is no excuse, I still fail to comprehend why shes completely devoid of any notable traits beyond being Frieren 2. You can be teached by someone your entire life and STILL derail from their ideas, morality, teachings, etcetera; hearing Frieren and Fern talk might as well be two Frierens talking to each other, just lame as fuck. There's also the vague and plain worldbuilding which doesn't get better:

Welcome to village numba 1 Frieren-sama, thank you for staying; here's my sad story for you to hear. FLASHBACKS ENSUES BOOM
Welcome to village numba 2 Frieren-sama, thank you for staying; here's my sad story for you to hear. FLASHBACKS ENSUES BOOM
Welcome to village numba 3 Frieren-sama, thank you for staying; here's my sad story for you to hear. FLASHBACKS ENSUES BOOM

ad nauseam

Thank you for hearing my sad story and helping me, I will help you.
Thank you for hearing my sad story and helping me, I will help you.
Thank you for hearing my sad story and helping me, I will help you.

ad nauseam

Welcome to magic city. As you can see it is full of magic; betcha didn't expect that. Is there anything beyond this? Nope, it's magic city, why in the fuck would you expect something more?

The soundtrack of the anime is honestly just... fine, I don't know, I have the same complaints as I did in Kusuriya no Hitorigoto, they try to hide their laziness in building scenes, emotion or proper storytelling by slapping generic melodrama music or fantasy aventure™ OSTs with no substance. It fits, but its absolutely not memorable because the accompanying scenes are not memorable either, same thing with the overall direction of the show. The character designs are lazy and very forgettable, with many of them just appealing to the specific (unexplored) trope which that character is supposed to cover, and nothing else, with the worldbuilding following a similar line—just the minimum common denominator for everything. Sousou no Frieren might be the most ambitionless anime I've seen in a long time, only carried by the talents in Madhouse, who I applaud for shooting this blandfest and master of none into the heavens with an absurd budget.