A Frieren Video: Magic and Mundanity

in the final episode of what is currently the first season of freerun Beyond Journey's End a minor character named webble is having a conversation with the titular main character in it webble says a line to the effect of how his inspiration was not the tales of himl the heroes epic battles against demons dragons and other fearsome villains but rather himl helping out his village and his Dennison with their Bland ordinary ways of life this is a very important moment in the anime to me because it perfectly reflects how I feel about the anime A freein is at its best when it's doing nothing obviously nothing isn't actually nothing but rather when the enime is happily indulging in mundane activities and interacting with the most plain of people not in any rush to get anywhere frein's extremely warped view on both time and emotions being framed around a human context creates by far the most interesting and thought-provoking moments in the anime by contrast while nothing isn't actually nothing it's very clear when the anime is is trying to do something when there's a very clear Arc of events the anime wants to get through with a distinct start and end point these are easily the least engaging parts of the anime despite it being the most involved because of the Breakaway from its unique framework that the nothing is built around while none of it is outright bad these parts of Free Run are as serviceable as they are unremarkable from here on out this video will contain spoilers for the first season of frein Beyond Journey's End consider this to be your spoiler warning the emotions of nostalgia longing and regret are things that I find to be particularly powerful in the best episodes of freerun lean really hard into these emotions in fact the first handful of episodes are the most prominent example of this episode one really hammers in the fact that time just kind of flies by for a free R simply due to the fact that she's an elf elves are one of the long living species of this land so an hour month or year for them is so much more minuscule than it is for a human frein's worldview is extremely warped as a result of this she's seen so many things so many times that they simply fly past her frean might remember a lot of different things but very few if any of those could truly be called memorable defeating the demon king with a party and becoming some of the most legendary heroes of the land fails to make this cut too 50 years goes by in no time and himl goes from a Dashing Young hero to a bearded old man during the first of two meteor showers fan casually mentions that she'll take the whole party to a nice Vista in 50 years and nobody bats an eye at this the rest of the party understands how frean views time and takes it for granted it's not until him's burial that fan realizes the value of time and the unique perspective she retains over her human companions a blink of an eye for her adds up to a significant defining chunk of somebody else's life the heroic adventure of defeating the Demon King that frin put very little thought into was the highlight of himmel's comparatively short life one thing of note for both episodes one and two are the montages I'm usually a montage hater especially when paired with some kind of sappy or exciting music because it feels like I'm being told exactly how to feel without the Montage itself wanting to put in any effort to achieve this feeling through any more natural series of events Elemental sucks by the way but in freerun anytime these montages appear anywhere from months to years just go by the biggest time skip was the Montage in episode one that skipped 50 years going from one meteor shower to another it really puts into perspective the blink of an eye theme that the anime wants to hammer home and I'd say It's very effective since these montages are very lowkey and the enemy doesn't make a big deal out of them they're just a simple collection of shots with nothing impressive about their presentation yet time still passes by it's exactly how frean would view these events the thing that stood out to be the most about haider's last moments was when he tells frean to leave the house with Fern on the day of his death so that fern does not have to experience losing somebody again in this scene the part that sticks out to me the most is the fact that he's sending her away with frein since frein will outlive Fern on the basis of being an elf therefore Fern will never ever have to see frein die and never lose another person it's almost like Haider tried to play on Fan's tendency to take time for granted and not really think about this fact and to his credit she doesn't because she's instead been focused on the fact that Fern is readying herself for This Moment by trying to become someone that could support herself so that haer's efforts weren't for not when it comes to restoring the statue of himl and searching for the Blue Moon weed there's a kind of irony here where frein in an attempt to honor a single fleeting memory with himl that took only minutes to embed itself in frein's mind forever loses months in trying to accomplish this task the herbalist that frean and fer stay with talks about how himl rescued the village a long time ago but nobody cares about the hero anymore and that the statue's condition has gotten pretty bad as a result of it it sounds sad but can you really blame anyone for not caring anymore at a minimum this event happened over 70 years ago with the time skip in episode 1 being 50 years and a note in episode two marking the time of this event as being 20 odd years after the death of himl very few people that were alive to see himl rescue The Village are still going to be alive today so it's logical for these people to simply not care about a person that they've only only read about a books or heard about in stories and you can kind of see this in action because Fern just doesn't give a [ __ ] about himl maybe that's a little too dismissive but she doesn't understand why frein is so obsessed with getting this specific blue flower for this statue that nobody cares about when you could just cast a spell to create a field of flowers on demand losing months of time just wandering through the forest in search of a single flower that supposedly died up many years ago frein doesn't give a straight answer either because I genuinely believe she does it know her very warped perspective on time and a still incomplete understanding of human perception of time molded by her goal of wanting to understand humans better leads her into falling into the same trap as before here without realizing this fact she has all the Time in the World to try and understand those who don't the first half of episode 4 involves the duo of Mages going to a quite coastal town to help with cleaning up the beach of assorted debris in time for the town's New Year's Festival which involves watching the sunrise over the beach this part of the episode ends with frean realizing that who you spend time with is just as if not more important than what you're spending time on that there is a special kind of enjoyment to be had for watching others you care about enjoy themselves to absolutely no one surprise frean had passed through this town decades ago with her party of Heroes everybody besides frean went to the sunrise and reved about how good it was and himl had told her that she would have loved it had she seen it in person it's not so much about frean coming to realize this brand new thing that never occurred to her but rather a small moment of her life that didn't make sense before finally clicking into place in a thoughtful but unex expected way Himel isn't wrong frean did enjoy your time with the sunrise but the sunrise alone wasn't the reason why going through every single example of frean learning about the complexities of time and human emotions would be a horrendously tedious task due to the fact that there's so many cases of it both tiny and gargantuan sprinkled into every nook and cranny throughout the anime however there are just two more examples that I like to mention before we move on in episode 16 frein visits V an old dwarf friend V confesses that he can no longer remember what his life looks like and it very much seems like his memory is failing him as one of the other villagers mentions how he struggles to carry conversations V can't even properly remember the person who he's carrying with in his memories but knowing that the person is in there is more than enough for him to carry on with his purpose when he asks frein if she remembers what himl looks and sounds like frein almost seems kind of offended by this question but I think V was being entirely genuine here in his question the entirety of fren's quest to get to know people better is fueled by her memory of himl so I do think V story here is a statement to how powerful memories can be given that even minute scraps of it are enough to keep somebody going in the second half of episode 14 the party is hitching a ride on a carriage when a bird monster swoops it up frein kills the monster and the carriage crashes back down during which frein loses a ring that she got as a gift from himl after spending many nights searching for it frean is ready to give up on it but with some help from Fern and the merchant she's able to find it the part of this sequence that stood out to me the most is the fact that the ring comes out of Fan's entirely disorganized suitcase full of all sorts of junk the ring feels like a representation of a tiny bit of France's past lost in all of the countless years she's lived in and in this way I really like the symbolism another part that I liked was that while freerun outwardly seems unbothered by the idea of losing the ring Fern is bothered by it and so she immediately sets out to help it's like Fern understands frein's own relationship with their past and the party of Heroes and doesn't want to turn this moment into one that she knows frein will silently regret in the future if it was just some random ring that frean looted in a dungeon with no emotional specifics side to it then perhaps Fern would have let it slide and the whole party would have moved on right away one thing that is subtle but still noticeable about the enemy are the little bits of World building thrown in from time to time whether it's the Short History lesson about this specific spefic spell of Zol Tru or the definition of demons and how they are unique from every other type of monster it consistently adds to the feeling that this world we are exploring is a massive Place little bits of information about the various monsters and magical things in the world from things as little as a species of a bird to more controversial stuff like how grimoires attributed to flam cannot be trusted despite flam being a genuinely important figure in the history of magic this feeling of a wide expansive World adds a lot to the sense that freen in the Casual century that have slipped past her has wasted away her time wandering through a truly large place it's not just time that is lost but also freerun losing herself in this world going from one spell to the next always looking forward but never behind and at this point there's a character I'd like to mention known as s he shows up in episode 13 joins the main crew for a bit before piecing out in episode 17 s is stuck in a rot as he has been regretting his decision of not becoming an adventurer by following his friend's offer from 10 years ago the most intriguing part about this was when SE comments about how his friend hasn't returned in 10 years and that it's too late to go chasing after him now frein hits back by saying that it's only been 10 years and that he'll regret it in the near future if he doesn't obviously interesting that someone with a warped perspective of time like frean says that it's only been 10 years because 10 years for her is barely a blink of an eye but since the beginning of the anime she's gained an understanding of how meaningful these years can be if you let them slip by you she's aware of the bitter regret that come packaged with it as seen by her reaction at him's burial I like that freerun is the one that's the most invested in trying to win sign over seemingly for this reason given that she doesn't want him to make the same mistakes that she did the episode is titled aversion to one's own kind and frein even says a line similar to this during the episode The Cheeky way to interpret this would be to take the mention of SE being a genius and Link that up to frein being a genius according to lugner it's not lugner but I don't think it's lugner either from a few episodes ago the other and I think intended interpretation is that freein has unresolved regrets from her past she's seeking to do away with and that se is about to become someone following in fren's Footsteps in this way s is my favorite character in the anime and it's a little sad that he only shows up briefly even if the brevity of his appearance is the point of his character episode 13 is great because it honestly feels like a test for frean to have an opportunity to impart some of the lessons she's learned over the years on to someone sign for the most part is just some dude he's just some [ __ ] guy they pick up and he spends most of his time in the spotlight chilling he fits in perfectly with the nothing episodes by virtue of sign being in no rush to move any kind of story along he does have his own goals but we never see him actively pushing around other people for the pursuit of it as a result he slots in nicely with fre and Stark and fern just encountering random things as they head north one particular moment with the sign episodes that sticks out to me is in the second half of episode 16 when the party visits a village that signs childhood friend and known by the moner of gorilla Warrior had passed through here the party does a whole bunch of chores and learns that even people outside of this Village remembered him well because his unique name left quite an impact the final chore is to polish up a statue of ancient Heroes whose names have been forgotten which turns out to be an identical statue if not the exact same one as one that se saw as a kid this statue inspired se's friend to take on an iconic name to ensure that he would never be forgotten by anybody the inevitability of time is a very important theme in this anime as seen by how time wears away at even the greatest legends and heroes and how time will take things away from you if you take them for granted with it being up to the individual to decide upon how they will honor these things before time rips it away from them this feels like another way but a very impactful way to hammer home this theme once again by showcasing one person's attempt to combat this and find a way to establish a memory this one one being an establishment of a memory of themselves in another I find it to be weirdly powerful because of the sheer innocence with which it's portrayed which adds a kind of sadness to it all in between the tests of the final and longest Arc of the anime there's brief interludes of reprieve which I liked a lot the first Mage class exam introduces a bunch of new characters and while I can't say that I find all of them to be interesting the ones that I do find interesting are characters that I like quite a bit dinkin and RoR stand at top of this list for me but LA and Kan are also pretty good in these interludes after the first and second exams we get to just see these characters Mill about and interact with one another there's nothing that special about these interactions they're just people being people and that's what's so great about them there's a lot of magic flying around during the first two exams so when the anime decides to take a second to slow down back to the pace in some of its nothing episodes there's a very relaxing vibe that comes with these scenes which sets a really nice contrast with the tension of the exams the tests do a good job at establishing the beastling personalities for all of these characters and how they interact with other people and it's just a light extension of that under a different code of paint my favorite moment from these interludes and probably my favorite moment in the entire anime comes after the second exam RoR is sulking in his shop after having failed the second exam and denin decides to come by for a visit RoR is unabashedly bitter about the results of the second exam and comments about how maybe it's a good thing that he failed and think and past because who knows if dinkin will still be alive by the time the next set of tests are held because you know he's old when dinkin agrees with this nonchalantly rtor immediately fires back by telling denin to stop agreeing with him this little back and forth is so insubstantial and fleeting yet it somehow carries so much emotion with it so effortlessly RoR wants a minute to vent and understandably doesn't want to see the people who passed the test floating around in front of him so he tosses out this bitter half joke half truth of a line but immediately resends it when somebody sinks to the same level of petty bitterness as himself because RoR didn't really mean it think can understands both his own mortality and how RoR feels I like how Petty RoR gets I like how dingin is as cool as a cucumber this entire time I like how mundane utterly inconsequential and fundamentally human this entire interaction is I I don't know man I just adore this moment and that leaves us with the other half of this video entire premise the something to our nothing when something happens the laidback side of the enemy that's content with watching not much going on at a Rel liked Pace needs to be set aside for a more traditional story arc that definitively begins and ends after all you can't have a demon Army attempting to Siege a city and then suddenly in the second half of an episode frean starts doing her taxes then gets reminded of how him all used to do his taxes too the two cases of this in the anime are that of the demon Army in episodes 7 through through 11 and then the first class Mage exams in episodes 18 through 28 as I said at the top of this video while none of it is outright bad these parts of freerun are as serviceable as they are unremarkable I feel this more strongly for the demon attack than I do about the Mage exams since a regular shift in scenery and a much wider cast of characters in the exams helps keep things a touch more fresh but during these more focused and committed story arcs it feels like freerun becomes a standard High fantasy Affair that loses the special voice it's been using to tell an ancient Elf's Story the demon attack episodes are pretty markedly my least favorite of the 28 freerun has to offer I actually don't have a whole lot to say about these episodes which I think is the problem there just isn't much here that stuck with me I thought the fight between Stark and the demon girl was pretty cool mostly due to the fact that the Demon's power lets her read the movements of others and memorize them perfectly in order to imitate others and quickly switch between various fighting styles and conjur weapons on the Fly it's a idea and I think the anime uses it well frein facing off against Aura the guillotine was thoroughly whelming like sure lower elf telling Aura to keep yourself safe is pretty iconic but very little here left any impression on me if anything might bigest takeaway from their face off is when Aura comments about frein's choice to use dispelling magic to cleanse Ora soldiers rather than an offensive spell to just blast them away Fen responds by saying that himl scolded her for doing so last time and Ora says that there's no reason to listen to him all now since he's been dead for a long time this struck me as interesting because frein in the past probably would have agreed with aura since frein didn't concern herself with learning about how humans think and feel until very recently in elf years but even if she doesn't understand humans perfectly fan does still know enough to understand the process of honoring someone's wishes and that honoring him's wishes is personally very important to her and I think that little bit as a whole encapsulates the best parts about frein while also showing why the demon attack feels so lacking this little back and forth between Aura and frein is minute and inconsequential in the grand scheme of things the outcome of events is going to be hardly impacted by frein using dispelling magic instead of offensive magic but that's the beauty of it there is a small yet thoughtful takeaway from this minute and utterly inconsequential moment that reflects upon human emotions and the changes that frein has gone through that feels distinctly grounded within its high fantasy context most of the demon attack is just that high fantasy context without those distinct and grounded moments and I just can't find much here that separates itself from the rest of the high fantasy background noise the first class Mage exam is a definitely more Curious Case to crack it's a much more substantially realized story arc compared to the demon attack with the Mage exams taking up around the third of the anime's runtime I've already spoken a little about these Mage exams in regards to the interludes that happen between the exams and also about how the shifting scenery and The Wider cast of characters keeps the story Archy a bit more refreshed the premise is fundamentally more interesting to me than that of the demon attack as well but that still doesn't take away from the issue I have with these more focused and committed story arcs staing the loss of the enemy special storytelling voice watching the interactions within different parties and the various strategies they come up with to capture a magical bird in the first test is fun seeing the Mages with their unique magical skill sets explore a dungeon and fight replicas of each other in the second test is also fun but there's a creeping sense of disappointment that permeated throughout these episodes as I watched them as the first two tests went on episode after episode I found myself becoming less and less engaged with them and simply losing interest length is probably the culprit here the exams go on for too long the actual content within these exams isn't the issue as I've said they are fun to watch but only for so long because after a little bit in both exams it just feels like I'm watching an adequate version of something else rather than what freen does best the demon attack suffers from this too but not as badly because when the demon attack is over it's over the first and second exam combined is technically Nine episodes long but I'd really say it's Eight Episodes since episode 22 is an interl between these two exams where the participants are just going about their day the second exam loses its luster quicker than the first since the first exam has the benefits of being able to introduce all of the new characters as well as being the beginning of this Arc so the disinterest had yet to settle in while the start of the second exam provides a soft reset for this Arc thanks to the change in scenery and the break provided by episode 22 this doesn't last long and I was disengaged from that material pretty quickly the reveal of the freerun replica was cool though even if the fight was just whatever I think the presence of episode 22 helps mask this issue with the first two exams by being a good episode in general but also showing up at a critically important time if this episode was to be removed and the two exams were chained back to back then maybe the first Mage exams would be my least favorite part of the anime Similar to the demon attack there are good bits scattered throughout the first two exams I like the dynamic of freen suddenly having to babysit lav and Khan without having signed to push this responsibility onto Fern says that she likes watching frein be happy when questioned by sense and there's a barebone Simplicity to this answer that I like which reminded me of frein watching the sunrise in episode 4 it's everything surrounding these moments that I lost interest in the third exam is the odd one out because it seems like the anime is taking the opportunity to return to its roots and take a more grounded approach with these exams being an interview instead of a practical test in isolation I think some of the interviews like denkin and LS are good but all of them happening back to back really diminishes the impact of becoming a first class Mage this thing we've been spending 10 episodes see someone become like it really just feels like anybody can become one when the interviews aren't fleshed out very well the lady at the very end is the real back breaker for me because we know very little about this character and her interview is pretty much meaningless yet she gets to become a first class Mage just because the Vibes are right we didn't get to see anything really impressive out of her during the exams either so it's not like we've properly witnessed her potential and the whole point is that Siri is such a powerful individual that she's able to pretty much instantly detect whether or not someone has what it takes to become a first class Mage but Siri is honestly too good at her job and cutting these interview so short that from a viewer experience there's a serious lack of gravity in this achievement if they cut out some of the instantly ped or failed interviews and then had fewer but more substantial ones for both passing and failing candidates than wrapped it all up in the end by just showing who passed it might make the weight of becoming a first class Mage feel more substantial since we'd be given much more context to back up these passes and fails so many episodes were dedicated for this exact task yet I think the final step is glossed over so much that it really stifles the achievement the ending to this video is a bit of a bummer since we dumped out all of the positives at the start before burying It Away by pouring the negatives over it at its best frein is a genuinely thoughtful and human anime I don't want people to walk away from this video with just the negatives embedded into their minds while I don't buy into it as hard as a lot of other people seem to do I think free rent does deserve the hype it's received over its runtime especially compared to some of the other seasonally spiking enemies I've seen here and there and that about does it for this video thank you for watching this video uh if you enjoyed it then please consider liking it and maybe even subscribing to the channel every little bit goes a long way normally I have a bunch of crap that I like to throw at the end of the video that couldn't uh make it in anywhere but I don't have anything here for that today I also don't know what video I'm making this so I can't plug that in here either so yeah that's it uh so once again thank you so much for watching and and I'll see you in the next video whatever that may be

Channel: Moony

Views: 1,171

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Id: SRcuOSt3i6o

Length: 24min 33sec (1473 seconds)

Published: Sun May 12 2024