How One Anime Fixed Isekai's Main Issue

[Music] for over 10 years Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood remained uncontested as the highest rated show on my anime list this is understandable few anime Excel so consistently across the board some contenders appeared every other season but the hype eventually died down and in time FMA reclaims its spot until now a year or so ago I bought a fantasy manga from a store I don't know what I expected but I know that I did not expect much Not only was I taken completely by surprise but I fell in love with it and when I heard from Metal Alchemist was dethroned I had a feeling that frein had had taken the spot and trust me it's here to [Music] stay [Music] over the course of the last decade no genre of anime has exploded in popularity as much as fantasy to the point that you could say frein has entered an oversaturated market and amidst the ever growing catalog of fantasy anime there is a boogeyman a subgenre whose growth clearly stands Head and Shoulders Above the Rest isekai or Another World hinges on the idea of a character usually from our own world in Era being taken to a different realm this is not a new idea in fantasy there are many examples of such Journeys in Western media and fantasy anime has been foring into this genre since the '90s with titles such as the vision of Escalon or inasa the protagonists of these stories were often children or teenagers living through a Fantastical Journey meant to evoke amazement and wander in the viewers while also signifying growth and change for the characters very often the journey into another world is the last that they will ever make as growing up means leaving the lands of fantasy behind and returning to the real world but over the course of the last few years the nature of the genre has changed for starters the characters being taken to another world are often adults now dis illusioned Japanese salary men bullied shut-ins or otherwise ostracized people who feel like they missed their chance at life unlike the isekai of the past this is almost always a one-way trip a second life following a premature death the worlds of fantasy that these characters go to have also begun to all look suspiciously similar with classic Dungeons and Dragons fantasy tropes such as elves dwarves and demons but then there is frean with also has a relatively traditional take on fantasy and yet now stands as one of the highest rated anime of all time how did it not get lost in the crowd what makes it stand apart in a way I think it has isekai to thank for its success so the thing about isekai protagonists is that they usually have it suspiciously easy regardless of whether they maintain their body are reborn or transformed into another race these characters are often unreasonably favored by their new world or find a way to cheat its rules this means that they usually find themselves provided with advantages that allow them to overcome any challenges they encounter it also does not hurt that a colorful cast of characters is often waiting to receive them With Arms Wide Open and offer them all of the Friendship affection and loyalty that they never had in their previous life hey wow I don't think I've been in one of these alone with a girl situation since I was in gr school as most of these stories inevitably become power fantasies the side effect is that they lose depth this is not held by the fact that protagonists are almost always a blank canvas designed for self-insertion by the reader so they cannot have much of a personality or a backstory to begin [Music] with ultimately the worlds of isekai anime become superficial amusement parks for viewers to engage in wild and unrestrained wish fulfillment I need more power there are exceptions which try to compensate for the failings of the formula by making the world more interesting or that attempt to subvert it by turning protagonists into actual characters despite this the idea is so systematically misused that he has obfuscated the potential of this approach to storytelling not to mention that it cheapens the quality of its fantasy failure is disheartening loneliness is difficult but they do not justify the hopelessness lack of accountability and self-pity that have seemingly become typical of isekai protagonists who often act like they are old a second chance this despite the fact that their previous life is abandoned like a ruptured cocoon once they are reincarnated into a better idealized version of themselves this is not necessarily bad but it feels like a rather empty Triumph success has no worth if it is achieved without acknowledging and learning from one's past failings a lot of iseki seem to avoid the idea that misery is the result of a culmination of bad decisions in someone's life and that they should take steps to mend this instead the reasoning is that it's not their fault and that they have simply been born into the wrong world and therefore need a new one where they can be better so why compare isekai to traditional fantasy why put fan on the spot when these two genres can coexist and be enjoyed separately well I believe that it's an interesting comparison because Fan's message is the exact opposite it's a breath fresh air to these settings a reminder that high fantasy is not dead but simply misused more than anything it is a manifest against the morally dubious and self-indulgent values that most isekai to put forward and I will explain why I think [Music] this frein is a story that starts at the end of another the main antagonist The Demon King has already been defeated by the hero Himel and his companions is a Dwarven Warrior the priest heer and freerun an Elvin Mage who lived a life of isolation for thousands of years before joining the hero's party as the heroes go their separate ways we are left following freerun to what we can only imagine will be a happily ever after but it turns out to not be as happy as we could have hoped given that our main character has to see her companion's age and ultimately pass away knowing that she will remain behind again this is nothing new to Fantasy the genre as we know it was born from JRR tolkin Lord of the Rings and even he had already started thinking about the philosophical implications of relationships between longlived races like elves and Mortal [Music] humans the natural intuition is that this is going to be a sad story about the tragic nature of immortality and of losing those you love to the inexorable passing of time but this is where frein is different as a [Music] story The Elven Mage realizes that she made a terrible mistake had she tried harder to keep in touch had she visited more she would have gotten to know himl better but she didn't and there is no magic in the world that can give her back the time she wasted so what does she do she vanishes for another 20 years falling back into the same old habits she had before she went on the journey but she is not the same as she was before the journey changed her [Music] eventually chance has it so that she visits heer who on his deathbed entrusts her with his adoptive daughter and frean accepts this is where the tone of the story changes and where the journey truly begins as she becomes responsible for a human life frean can no longer live in the way that she used to this story is not an Epic Fantasy it's about traveling and seeing what's around the next corner while the action May pick up eventually there is no promise of it it just kind of happens could be that they have to fight a dragon could be that they have to pick up produce at times the way in which frean chooses to travel the quest she takes and the reward she accepts seem downright foolish at least that's how it appears at first to her new companions Fern and Stark who are both pupils of her former comrades what this show does brilliantly is that the two humans that fan takes under her Wing are learning things about their elf companion alongside the viewer frein is an a one for over a thousand years she has woken up and not been a morning person she buys seemingly useless unnecessary junk on impulse she often tries acting like she's a mature Beauty even though she still looks like a young girl through these quirks and other little things what becomes clear is that frian is not bothered by her nature as an elf her very long lifespan is not something that she resents and if anything she seems to be quite comfortable with herself she exudes this sense of inner peace and self assuredness which is very unlike what you would see in a human who has given immortality but there is also a silly aloofness to her that makes us understand that despite the differences that she has with humans she is still a person with feelings desires and memories and she has a lot of [Music] them one of the perks of having an elf protest onist is that she has seen a great many things but also that she has a very long memory frein is a repository of knowledge and as a mage she has aass a veritable panoply of spells but most of them are extremely specific a spell that makes ice shavings without serum a spell that removes rust from St statues a spell that turns sweet grapes sour you get the gist okay so the premise of the show is that frean drags Fern and Stark along in these Adventures to get wacky grimoire on the surface it may seem like a simple fun Slice of Life Adventure but there is more to it Village to Village fight by fight season after season we see as they learn to understand each other more through every experience the many themes of the show become intertwined with every narrative decision and every character that is encountered has a little something to add to their meaning characters like graph granat old man V and even demons like qu all help continue Reflections that were started in previous episodes and set up new ideas they will continue to be expanded on organically as the show continues most importantly living characters share the screen with individuals who remain only in Fan's memory like her master flam and of course HL that's how the story remains compelling at every step frein is reliving the journey she made with her original party it does not matter that we did not get to experience their Journey directly through Stark we understand is's true strength and the power that he drew from humility through Fern we understand hater's casual Grace and the kindness that he hid behind cynicism through frean we understand himl we understand the fundamental qualities that made him into someone fit to be a hero but also into a good friend through all of them we understand the point of the journey here is a being that is literally thousands of years old who has seen entire civilizations collapse into dust and killed some of the most powerful demons in existence and yet all it takes is spending 10 years in the company of good friends for her to become willing to change it doesn't happen overnight change is a slow process frean had to lose before she learned the value of having rather by losing it she finally started thinking about what she had it's fine to be afraid that's how you become Brave it's fine to enjoy the things that you enjoy that's how you become your own person it's fine to make mistakes that's how we learn and you can make a mistake alone but it's always better to make mistakes together it's seems that it was always short-lived Mortals who left the mark on frein even if from her perspective they were only together for a short time and we understand why these mortals stuck around with her despite knowing that she would outlive them they simply liked her and wanted to be remembered by [Music] her and whether she knows it or not through magic frean has decided to do the same for others because because if a spell exists it means that someone created it it is the culmination of someone's toil of their frustration and research of their dedication and passion even after their body has withered away and their name has been forgotten the spell remains like a song or a story as long as it is learned and passed on it will forever bear the mark of its creator and it doesn't hurt if by learning the spell you can make the S grapes that your friend likes this is Fan's philosophy you do not need a second life or a second world in order to have a second chance because it's never too late for you to change and it's fine for you to rely on others to help you become who you want to [Music] be frein is about carrying the people you have met in your life with you carrying their lessons their silly quirks their kindness and paying it all forward the beauty of the series is that although it all starts with tragic loss Lo grief and regret it is not a condemnation of eternal life but rather an Ode to the beauty of things that are ephemeral and of how sharing their memory can make them truly Immortal thanks for watching our video if you're a fantasy fan I really do recommend that you give freerun a try even if anime is not your thing it's leading the charge in a Resurgence of the genre that I am very excited for and I for one cannot wait for later parts of the manga to be adapted because because I think it only gets better with time if you enjoyed the video please consider subscribing liking and commenting it does help us tremendously I would also like to thank our patrons for supporting us in these projects I really do hope we can continue to make these videos for a very long [Music] time

Channel: Beghast

Views: 286,169

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Id: HrTKzAlZ3Q4

Length: 18min 3sec (1083 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 07 2024