It’s a breath of fresh air. The characters feel like real people and it’s a fantasy anime that isn’t an Isekai. Also it has good action.
I found it boring to be honest. The gimmick is that Frieren is old, and that’s supposed to make us have deep thoughts about life and the nature of time, right? Well, other fantasy media has been playing with the “Elves live long” trope ever since Tolkien, so it’s nothing new to be honest.
It might not be generic anime, but it is generic fantasy for sure.
Frieren is a fine anime, but both it and FMA are wildly overrated. They’re both popular shonen anime with cool action sequences and are both mainstream enough to not be offputting for general audiences. They’re pretty much designed to be popular and accessible, but that degree of accessibility also makes them somewhat bland.
FMA??? BLAND??? Did you even watch it???
I saw both FMA and Brotherhood when they were airing. They’re both fine. Just not particularly complex or notable. I dunno what to tell you. I like Princess Tutu and Monster. Those are examples of “not bland” anime.
You know I haven’t seen a whole lot of anime, so sue me, but I’ll kind of agree with this take. They’re both pretty good anime, and probably even great, and an easy recommendation, right. At the same time, they really don’t inspire me in any way, or bring up like, interesting philosophical subject matter really at all, which are things that are value in media more than like. Cool fight scenes, and an accessible story.
Also, an aside, but these shows don’t have that great of fight scenes. They have pretty good “action”, I guess, pretty good animation, but fight scenes? I wouldn’t say they’re well written or choreographed, they’re about as basic as you can get. FMAB gets some points for having inventive solutions that crop up occasionally as a result of the setting’s alchemy and real chemical reactions and stuff, but that’s about it. Otherwise both of these shows are kind of extremely basic when it comes to their action. Both in the way that it’s conventionally written, but also in their direction and choreography. I think stylistically I might be opposed to anime generally, in this regard, as a medium that has, almost inherently, no limitations (being animation, right), and as a kind of, general style, that tends to place the setup basically right before the payoff happens. Rather than sort of gradually building up to more well-founded action scenes. In action choreography, maybe I just have kind of, infamously high standards for this stuff, or have different tastes from the norm, cause every time I’ve seen “great anime action” it’s always like, the most incomprehensible, stiffly animated, impact frame yutapon cube sakuga nonsense you could ever imagine.
I dunno, am I insane for the take the the vast majority of action choreography is better done when it’s grounded into an actual physicality, and implicit physical ruleset, rather than like, appreciating the tradeoff that comes with not doing that, the tradeoff of spectacle and absurdity?
Idk, I think Frieren isn’t about the action, and all the stuff about elves and maturing, and what is really important etc is a breath of fresh air to me. And has just been interesting and different to me.
I think early Trigger has some great examples of anime as a visual medium - things like Gurren Lagann and Kill La Kill have such a distinct visual style that would be impossible to replicate using live action or CGI. FMA and Frieren could, however, just as easily be in a different visual medium and be more or less the same. And you’re right that the fight scenes in each are fairly forgettable. I think the only one that stands out to me in FMA: Brotherhood is the one towards the end with Wrath. And I say this as someone who has seen a lot of anime - literally hundreds of series.
If ever an anime deserved the praise, it’s this one. Frieren has been fantastic
The FMA review bombers should have been IP blocked from voting years ago. Every list is a joke until that happens.
One of the best I have seen, if not the best. Especialy the first half, second half is more action heavy which doesn’t interest me as it used to. I could use a lot more reminiscing about past adventures, lost years and old friends. I cried couple of times…like full on tears. It is made marvelously. When there is no music and people only talk in complete silence… you can feel those unspoken regrets and hopes.
I don’t have account on mal and I don’t use it. Serialized is my go to website/app for tracking and rating of shows and anime. The biggest reason? It is not full of anime fanatics. And not owned by Amazon like IMDb.
This is the sort of anime you show to your friends who aren’t anime fans. It’s wonderfully paced with nuanced characters, has an excellent English dub, has a heartfelt beginning, and occasionally reminds us that this is a Studio Madhouse production with some great action scenes.
And best of all, it’s not ridiculously horny like a ton of other anime. It’s not merely a great anime, it’s just a great show, period.
I read a lot of (western) fantasy and I rank it as one of my favorite fantasy stories, period. Tbf, I have a preference towards good character development. And I think there is something beautiful and bittersweet about a long-lived elf coming to terms with the death of her human friends.
Looks nice, thanks.
As much as I like Frieren, I don’t like the attitudes surrounding it. The whole “it’s not just a good anime, it’s a good show IN GENERAL!”, “this is better than (insert all other anime I hate)!”, etc.
Whoa has that ever happened before?
Happens all the time. FMA fans notoriously review bomb any anime that passes their decade old show.
I might be wrong but I think only Frieren managed to keep #1 spot for this long.
Briefly, I believe.
On MAL and temporarily, yes. From memory, I can think of two anime that were temporarily ahead of FMA:B.
Kaguya-sama’s third season was ahead of FMA:B when it was airing in 2022. It now sits on 12th with a score of 9.02.
Pingu in the City was memed to #1 shortly before its first episode aired in 2017. It now chills in the mid-tier with a score of 6.52 on 6596th.
However, I think Kaguya was only barely ahead of FMA:B at its peak. Meanwhile Frieren is at 9.18 currently while FMA:B in 2nd place is on 9.09. That is a full 0.09 lead, which is over 10% of the way from FMA:B to a theoretical clean 10.0.
Another way to put the lead into context is by doing the next 0.09 step down from FMA:B, which lands us cleanly at 9.00. An anime with a score of 9.00 would be at 13th, between Kaguya-sama 3 (9.02) and Fruits Basket: The Final (8.98).
Not for long probably. There have been a few other anime that did the same and after the initial hype died down, they dropped below again
Time to milk it out with terrible spin offs and horny OVAs! Also need the obligatory terrible anime fighter.
You know, it’s been pretty good so far, I’d even say, really good, probably, and it has an advantage over FMA:B in that I don’t find the comedy kind of, grating and annoying, and I find it actually funny sometimes, even if it’s mostly just weird and kind of pervy or whatever. Not like, fanservicey, but it does feel like the comedy is just, sex-based, or something? I dunno. I might just be like overblowing it in my brain.
With all that being said, FMA:B is definitely better still. Frieren has specific arcs, FMA:B just straight up has an overarching story that basically never stops and never really falls into, like, specific sections. I dunno, I guess that’s mostly a pacing thing, but if you were to ask me which one I liked more on that basis, I would say FMA:B every time. There are some other anime that can match that pacing, right, but most of the time they end up being kind of older more adult-oriented animation, and they don’t really have as broad of appeal as FMA:B, so I think it still takes the GOAT position.
Frieren is really good though, I will give it that.
Didn’t Interspecies Reviewers also do that?
This is one show i finished recently. Its increadibly well done. Story telling is great, character development is awesome. I have also watched FMAB, these 2 are completely different in that FMAB is a greater volume of development among many charcter, which isnt a fair comparison by the amount of seasons availalble compared to Frieren. Hopefully Frieren expands so that i can see how it ends, because that is my favorite part of FMAB, its got a great ending.
