One thing I love about her duality is how you can SEE a switch flip whenever she encounters a demon. She goes cold, and doesn't hesitate, because she knows that hesitation costs lives.
its because she knows when to apply moral standards and when not to. people in the real world more often pretend to be moral when really they are making the world worse with their false sophistry
One of the under-appreciated aspects of the Aura fight was that it sets up exactly how powerful Serie is. Her fluctuating mana looks as big as frieren's mana let loose.
Just checked panels and screenshots for reference - Serie has a significantly smaller aura of magic relative to Frieren fully unleashed. The big thing Serie has though is her aura looks significantly more dense than anyone else's we have seen, and is larger than most humans could ever dream of reaching. Only to reveal with Fern and some other comments that Serie is *also* suppressing her mana - likely by a very considerable degree - despite the absolute bonfire she passively shows she has. I admit I absolutely love how it shows her truly learning from her first Student, and has found a balance she finds acceptable between her pride in announcing how powerful she is, and Flamme's tactic to deceive demons.
@@Skelethin Lernen said their mana (Series' supressed and Frieren's unleashed) are equal to each other. There's a chance he's wrong but for storytelling purposes I don't see why they'd include false information without debunking it 🤷♀
What if it's the other way around? That Serie is artificially inflating her mana in order to appear stronger, and her actual strength isn't mana but knowledge of magic?
@@Crossil It could be that except for the fact that Serie has been alive for probably thousands of years and the manga/anime very clearly states that you passively accumulate mana as you live, which is why Aura is so scary and why she's one of the few people who could use such a dangerous spell such as that Balance without fear, cause very few people alive have more mana than her
@@bbittercoffee I know. I just think some comments from Serie might indicate that that's what's happening. Or, alternatively, that her mana, as powerful as it is, is no longer sustainable, somehow.
Her timelessness imo is why she sleeps in. she's never in a hurry for anything, until she stars to travel w/Fern, so why would she be in a hurry to wake up? The show in so many ways does things right. Great writer great artists. Show was just a simple joy to watch, even in dub, which allowed me to enjoy the art even more.
I don't understand how she travels with 3 people for 10 years, but at Himmle funeral she says she didn't know anything about him. I get that tike doesn't matter for her, but 10 years still happened. We're supposed to believe she never had small talk with any of them?
@@ZeSgtSchultz she claims she doesn't know anything but with every flashback that happens later, it contradicts this and shows us, that she indeed knows a lot about her old companions. she knows Himmels favorit flowers, his favorite food, how he acts and goes about his day, how he tackles exploration and many more things. in this regard she is pretty much like serie, who also claims to waste her time training human studens but still holds every single one of them in high regard in her own way. at this point it is save to assume all elves are like that. maybe "knowing someone" has an entirely different meaning for them. this also goes in line with Kraft, who asked frieren, if she knows anything about him and what did frieren do in her life? when fern answered "she was the mage, who killed the demon king" he promps with a different question "yeah but before that?" so for elves, knowing about the last 10 years is like knowing what you did last month. it is enough time to learn something about another person but it is still just a tiny portion
@@ZeSgtSchultz She is over 1000 years old. She only spent a mere 10 years (less than one in a hundred) of her life with the hero party, and relative to the life of an elf that's essentially a month. How well do you think you get to know someone in only a month?
@@ZeSgtSchultzShe knows some things about him, obviously, but she didn't really try very hard to get to know him because she didn't think it was important at the time. She seems to be at least vaguely aware that Himmel liked her, but she never thought to actually respond.
God I love the scene where Stark is literally just putting on a coat but the animators decided that they should literally draw straight flames on the canvas.
she did mention that suppressing her mana became second nature, like an instinct. so maybe for the first few hundred years it was about discipline but now its on auto pilot.
@@supersquid1005 its not deep down i do think she makes it very obvius she hates them. take the demon "diplomats" for an example she saw them and the first thing she did was not ask or talk it was imediately attack them regardless of the fact an actual noble was near, futrther more when he asked her why she simple said he was a wild animal let loose on a city.
@@Dark_PeaceI can’t say how she does it, but I can probably explain it. I tend to sleep with a hand under my leg… my right hand. One day I burned my hand really bad, like blisters, deep burns.. bad. I had to retrain my brain to not sleep that way, and I would wake up with my bandaged hand held up the same way I fell asleep. I’d sleep for like 6 hours with my arm bent at the elbow with my hand held like 6 inches above the bed just hovering… because I didn’t want to squish it and raising it a little above my heart level made the pain less severe… So within a week or so I basically trained my body to hold a limb up while I slept. I’d wake up any time my hand would drop a bit and I’d adjust it, and fall back asleep… I imagine that’s how she did it too… just maintain the “position” she wants as she goes to sleep and let your subconscious take over for you and maintain it. It got to the point for me that when my hand was finally healed like 2-3 months later I had to retrain my hand to not hover like that… it would still happen on occasion for months.. my hand would just naturally try to return to the position it was in for 3 months of sleep. Our minds are pretty cool… capable of all kinds of weird stuff!
when saying "she is so capable but also falls prey to silly habits" you should have shown her being trapped in a mimic - even if is not yet known because it is in a later episode
Putting aside jokes and memes, I have seen far too many people and even video essays on RUclips (some of which claiming to be serious analysis types) thinking/saying that Frieren falls for mimics. However, the truth is; Frieren doesn't fall for mimics. She chooses to take the risk when it's safe to do so (ie, outside of battle situations) because she doesn't lose anything of value (and because the mimic-check spell is only 99% accurate). So, it's not even comparable to irl gacha addiction since those people are actually losing something of value (namely their money and maybe even time). Specifically, she loses a little time while in the mimic and then later when fixing her hair (but she doesn't care about that because she has practically infinite time), and suffers a little reputation damage (but she doesn't care about how others view her all that much). On the other hand, she may gain something (eg, maybe the shaved-ice spell shown in the flashback in S01E06). In summary, she loses nothing and may gain something so why not try them all?
My favorite thing is a protagonist who upends their world and gives people nightmares not because they’re evil, but because they are so god damn *insane* and *powerful* it shakes the world itself.
Being a bilingual in german and english I went down the rabbit whole after you mentioned frierens name being german, because I picked up on some many other names I didn't think about the same one. Just some names that were mentioned in the show: Stark = strong, Fern = distant, Flamme = fire, stolz = proud, himmel = heaven, Eisen = iron, Heiter = bright, Lawine = avalanche Denken = thinking (a smart character name) Richter = Judge Ubel = Evil (that's too bad) Laufen = running ( a character with speed) Kanne = Can (potentially saying her potential is there) Wirbel = turmoil/ whirlwind (a character caught between kindness and violence) Scharf = sharp (needle magic) Ehre = Honor Lugner = Liar Lernen = learning
Not quite right. Himmel can also just mean 'sky', though heaven is more fitting Übel skews more to bad instead of outright evil (which would be Böse) Kanne means can, but the literal can as in a watering can
Richter doesn't really strike me as "the judge" type, but more of a jaded nihilist who does have capacity for good, but has kinda given up on the world and to some extent on himself. Halfheartedly pursuing his goals while only having the energy to keep himself morally in check when it comes to truly heinous stuff, but killing some teenagers in the first class mage exam? Well, it's the exam for the most powerful and dangerous people, it's not against the rules and it is kinda expected to happen regularly. To him that's just another example of the world sucking rather than him.
The most amazing part of it for me is that all of the ''silly'' and ''charming'' elements of her personality complement very well the ''terrifying'' and ''badass'' elements of her personality because they're all because of the same things. She's very powerful and experienced as well as someone who constantly procrastinates and sleeps in for the exact same reason: she's nearly immortal. So she's had a lot of time to become a great mage but she's simply never in a hurry to do anything because, as Series said, elves can postpone important decisions even for a millennia if they want to without much trouble. She's cold and hates demons for the same reason that she's awkward and actually becomes deeply attached to her companions, her people were slaughtered by demons which led to her living in isolation for centuries. It's just perfect characterization.
I actually love that Freieren is soo sleepy in the morning, I mean if elves live thousands of years then their sleep cycle is probably a few days, her 8 hours is likely a small nap for an elf and not a full rest for her. She's been burning the candle at both ends for years and I can just imagine her takinga real elvish sleep for a week and the other character freaking out thinking she's in a coma.
(Not being sarcastic) the idea of a different sleep cycle is a really interesting thought. Did you come up with that on your own or is this some common trope that I just missed because I’m clueless?
@@H457ur Im pretty sure I read in some fantasy novel or other elves having super long sleep cycles due to long life, can't recall where but I'm certain it's not my own idea.
@@H457urThere's concepts like these in games like D&D. Undead characters sleep only for 4 hours a day and they feel completely rested. Some of them don't even sleep, they just stand in the corner to rest. Others, like dwarves, need to sleep in specific conditions (in this case, in total darkness) as it's basically in their genetics. Of course, D&D can't do much to change the time the characters spend sleeping for gameplay purposes, but I like how they at least took the time to think things like "This dude's dead, why would he need to sleep in the first place?"
I like the literal translation for Frieren's nickname and series title. Since the title denotes Frieren going to a funeral and her nicknames denotes Frieren the one that brings you to your funeral. (This is why I wished they just said Frieren the Undertaker but that will bring other issues) Its funny how perspectives work.
A literal translation of the Japanese title doesn't really work well in native English. It has the wrong feel and different connotations. Beyond Journey's End is a much better English title for the series.
@@blshouse I agree. While the Japanese wordplay is definitely interesting. I think far too many fans are stuck on literal or close-to-literal translations. Whereas the current translation manages to be more in line with the themes and all that. However, if the author didn't approve of it and prefers a specific translation, then I guess I would concede to their opinion.
I think I'd call her Frieren the Grave or Frieren of the Grave, even (or something to that effect). Perhaps not the most literal translation, but it works in the double-meaning that is kind of lost otherwise.
The Japanese title is wordplay. It's meaning changes with context and perspective...which fits the character very well. So she is Frieren the Mourner and Frieren the Slayer.
Her name is just the German word for freezing, every name for either character and place is just another German word. Which is quite funny sometimes, but there are even more “puns” (that sometimes work, sometimes they really don’t) like that
In the anime, Frieren often chooses not to fight at first if it is unnecessary, she is rarely the first to incite conflict. This also perfectly fits into the trope "fear the wrath of a kind man".
Frierens relationship with Zoltrac also embodies the saying “fear not the man that practiced 10000 punches once, but rather the man who practiced one punch 10000 times”
My favorite example of this is Rurouni Kenshin. The main character is (secretly) a legendary swordsman and REALLY SCARY. It’s never a question of him winning a fight, the conflict for him is maintaining his morals when (for him) killing people is the easier (if morally wrong) choice.
There are a few people on his level (and beyond like his teacher) later in the series like Saito, Aoshi or Shishio so fighting them poses the question of how far he's willing to revert to his old personality and if so whether he can return to being his usual goofy self.
I try to do this in D&D. Killing is trivially easy, but it's so hypocritical to brand yourself as a good guy while leaving a trail of carnage everywhere you go. It shows much more character to be merciful.
Kenshin was amazing. My favorite episode is when he draws a new sword he never saw the blade of, makes a killing blow, and just snaps into his own mind surfing the turmoil of violating his self imposed limitation for the sake of a good conscience.... Meanwhile, some girl is just screaming at him to look at the damn sword. That episode could have gotten so much darker if he just dropped the sword and walked away, deaf and blind to the world around him. Leaving him to wallow and delve deeper and deeper into dismay and despair. Fortunately , that's the real world of trauma, and not a cartoon about a plucky samurai with emotional baggage.
Internal to the story, it's worth noting she's probably still a adolescent elf meaning while she has experience, knowledge, and intelligence she's biologically rather young with all that entails.
Personally, I saw her more like someone in their early 20's, when you still have a lot of your youthful habits intact but come to realize you are not invincible and that things don't last forever and you need to accept change. To me, she feels heavily codded like a young adult that has to come to the realization that they might have a lot of time left, but it's meaningless if they don't start living the instant now (hence why I immensely relate to the character as this is exactly where I am at right now)
Frieren's relationship with Fern also showcases dualities that are very difficult to have play out in a story organically. The relationship of a Mother and Daughter. From when Fern was still young, through a large portion of the first season, Frieren was her surrogate/adoptive mother. While it isn't explicit, that relationship existed for much of Fern's early time with Frieren. As their journey continues, with Fern starting to come in to her own woman, the relationship flips for a bit; Fern takes on many of the roles of a mother herself in dealing with Frieren. A great way to show contrast for the characters, but also showcasing a duality for Fern as well. That of a girl who had to grow far too quickly, but is still well within her youth; still a child even. I'm a fan of Parent-Child stories and most are told from the Father-Daughter perspective. Frieren may not have been overtly about the subject, but it is, nevertheless one of these kinds of stories. That was one of the things that kept me coming back.
@@kaltaron1284 No. I haven't watched a lot of animated movies in a number of years, but I'll put that on the backlog to watch. The tiny, two sentence, summary looks promising.
I like story like that too. Most immersive one (not an anime but a game) is Yakuza series where you begin a hot head, and reckless young man to adopting a daughter and see her grow throughout the series. Made me tear up like a proud dad.
Something else that should probably be noted: duality, in order for it to be done well, needs to have some kind of switch. At least in the way Frieren does it. Her switch is "this is a threat that these hapless goobers can't handle." But having disconnected reasons why personalities shift results in a difficult to understand character, or a poorly written character. This is something I try to do in my DND characters, setting a point of no return. Unless I am playing an actual robot.
Love this video series! I think this arc also deepened Frieren's character by showing how much she hates demons. Even with Qual i don't think it was apparent how much this usually silly and aloof character is holding so much dark emotion. Of course it makes sense once you see more of her past, but this arc is where i feel it starts to show
Another great video in this series! Something I really like about how we as viewers experience the complexity of Frieren as a character is how carefully new aspects of her get revealed to us. Whether it's a new twist on something introduced previously or completely new information, it often feels like the story has been deliberately structured to reveal these things at specific times. This also dovetails with one of the central aspects of her character, which is how she experiences time. Of course it's going to take a long time to get to know her, because she's been alive for over a thousand years and she's still discovering new things about herself in the process of making this journey. Put those things together and you wind up with something really engaging.
Something that makes Frieren’s duality work is knowing that her long lifespan makes her maturity complicated. She succeeded in accomplishing tasks that require decades of experience, but in an elf’s eyes she’s barely an adult. She’s practically a child that has seen everything that the world has to offer, and that leads to her fluctuating between acting like an adult and acting like a child so much.
I appreciate this feedback. If you want to share the parts of this video you liked so I can factor that in in the future, I'd love to hear. Youve been around consistently, I'm glad you're enjoying the videos!
@@PeyTalksAnimeI think why this video spoke so well to me is that I feel that one of the strongest aspects of Frieren(the anime) is that it does things simply, but well. This video started talking about this. It then transitioned into something else I find consistently strong with Frieren, which is the use and subversion of commonly overused possibly dead horse tropes in a way that they feel fresh. This set up and flowed into explaining why Frieren feels a lot like action heros, which wasn't something I had seen articulated well prior to this. You then managed to take all of this and roll it up to support your video premise in an elegant fashion. That's my best effort to quantify what I found particularly excellent about this episode. And yeah, I look forward to watching your videos. I really appreciate the effort you put into them, so thank you 😊
Your videos analysing Frieren have made me realise its similarities to Trigun and your showing of all the nuances and all the great things about frieren have made me realise these things about Trigun that I’ve never seen before and I feel like it improved one of my favourite things. This video specifically brought me to this realisation because of Vash’s boogeyman like character but not just to the bad guys but the good guys and even himself. And he also has a lot of the charm and silliness that is shown all the time with many showings of his skill that would make him a boogeyman but it is shown very rarely the true mystical power that he has and the power that truly cemented him as this boogeyman.
Trigun is definitely a series I would recommend if your looking for something that might turn out to be as great as Frieren, and even if it’s not (it probably won’t be) it’s still a great story to experience. (Also I’m only talking about the 1998 anime because I haven’t read the manga which I know is different and the new anime tells the story in a completely different way)
Your comment reminded me of the last line in an anime rap cypher about Vash from a few years ago: I’m not just a fuking legend, I’m a dam act of god! Just thought I’d mention it to emphasize your point about him being a boogeyman for people.
Huh. Vash being terrifying and using that reputation to his advantage but hiding what he's really capable of really does compare well to Frieren's nature as an oncoming horror/slayer to demons, and how they dedicate themselves to protecting others.
I just got this recommended cause i be watchin lots of anime but then I was like that sounds like pey the musician then intro was like i'm pey talks anime and my mind was blown. I'm so impressed you can be such a musical god and have great literary insight many kudos to you.
The song you chose for the background music half way through is one of my favorite pieces of music. I almost started crying when i heard it outside my normal context for listening to it
I don't cognitively understand squat really when it comes to writing. I mostly understand stuff through feeling. Often using laymen's terms to vaguely express concepts because I frequently just use context clues to guess the definitions of writing jargon(aka synonyms new game plus, and actual writing jargon). All this to simply say that, I've been binging your exploratory series, and I find the way in which you end off your videos masterfully executed. I find myself replaying the ending of lots of these videos specifically because your execution of the end is so satisfying. So for what it's worth from my uneducated perspective(besides years of consuming media). Well fucking done, you're to be admired, and I look forward to seeing you reach hundreds of thousands.
I really wish these were longer. It almost feels like we're getting the thesis, but not any of ths supporting evidence at times. Duality is a fun thing to play with, especially in TTRPGs. It can lead to some really awesome character moments and scenes, and it wasn't until watching this that I realized I've been doing this almost since I started playing Pathfinder back in 2011 pretty much by accident. The first character I did this with was a half-orc based off of the Jaegermonsters from Girl Genius. He was, well is since I still play him when I get the chance, a goofy, flirtatious, hat-loving pretty-boy that spoke in a thick accent, but he is also a terrifyingly effective fighter and when his ire is roused, the silliness stops. He's hardly the only character I have played that toys with duality either. I play a lot of female fighters/martials that happen to be short, mainly because I find the idea of a 5 foot waif mopping the floor with just about any baddie they meet amusing. Sometimes they are charming and can be a bit silly or other times they can utterly hopeless in social situations, stuttering through a conversation and getting flustered, but then when things get serious, they take the gloves off and aren't afraid to get dirty and bloodied to protect those in need. But I think you are right, complexity isn't really needed to make an interesting and compelling character. Sometimes it can be as simple as looking at an archetype and asking yourself what's on the other side of that coin? Sometimes, it can be as simple as starting off with a simple set of traits and seeing how the character develops as they face hardships and trials. I'm playing through Curse of the Crimson Throne right now, and I have both the original 3.5e books and the anniversary edition. When I came up with my character, there were some things that I picked with malice aforethought for her background. With the GM's permission, I made her friends with an NPC that would be targeted by the BBEG as a scapegoat. I made her a bit of a worrywart, a kind and caring one, but still one that tends to get caught up in her own head. She asks her enemies to surrender, because she's a paladin that doesn't like fighting if it can be avoided, but she will not hesitate to defend the innocent or hand out a beat down on fiends or undead. At her core, she's a simple character, a cute and sweet paladin of the goddess of love, beauty, and the arts, but she's also one that is always in tension because of what is happening in the game. She could have been shallow and boring, a one note character, but as the game's gone on, she's developed into an interesting character. The plan has always been that she'd go through a hero's journey, becoming a champion of not just her faith but of the people of Korvosa, but along the way she's developed some interesting contrasts, some intentional like being very good at sneaking around even though she's the main frontliner, but others not so much, like wanting to rely on those around her, but also not wanting to put them in harm's way. Then again, I may just be talking nonsense here, so take it as you will.
As a fellow TTRPG player, I highly agree. My first character was a High Elf Ranger, a similar goof that's a competent combatant but also terrifyingly both ignorant (nomad backstory, explains why a newbie player doesn't understand some lore basics) and wisely eloquent (repeatedly was able to talk down antagonists with roleplay debate alone). My Necromancer and High Elf Sorcerer were more in the Frieren camps where they don't make a big deal of themselves unless they can ensure no witnesses, but the former is paranoid and distant while the latter is a picture of maternal kindness and fey emotions. My Warlock is a tall lady-warrior that flips between kowtowing to villains for party convenience and cashing in favors to surgically remove entire factions from the campaign, extremely amicable with a budding romance yet is a textbook sociopath that genuinely considered letting a devil kill a child to fulfil a contract. My Barbarian is an absolute sweetheart of a chef and doctor to contrast being a massive amazon that's literally eaten dragons to death and dunked angels in magma, but also she still has that tomboyish confidence and abrasiveness to contrast when she's magically cursed to be her "normal" height. My Warhammer Fantasy Scout is a smaller lady that's still a decent warrior and amateur healer that serves as the de facto party leader and noblebright moral core in the grimdark setting. Even my current Human Male Fighter™ is highly agile for what is otherwise a sword-and-board build, has a soft spot for kids despite being a pirate that will threaten the safety of a nobleman's loved ones, and despite being a captain through and through will delegate party members who have better expertise to lead them through the situation at hand. They also develop at different rates, if at all, with varying levels of complexity to them. Ranger is secretly a tryhard because his family are well-built adventurers while he came up a suboptimal statblock in a party that does everything he can do better than him, has a blue/orange morality that baffles players and NPCs alike when it remains both consistent and correct, and repeatedly struggles with both getting bodied in increasingly-difficult combats and being pressured to action by factions he doesn't much care for or respect. Necromancer is tormented by wanting to be a good person and avoiding drawing attention to herself by doing good. Sorcerer wants people to be their best and blames herself when things go wrong. Warlock is just evil for all 20 levels, full stop. Barbarian goes through a whole line of trust issues, orphan trauma, being incapable of solving things without violence, and accepting there are things you can't always influence. Scout gets worn down by the insanity surrounding her but still stays strong and never compromises on her morals. Fighter just wants to beat the bad guy so he can get back to his own quest for treasure, more an ally of justice rather than a proper hero.
@@kumokos7192 She is! I'm glad we got a chance to have some fun with her before the plot happened. The other thing from that game is that the GM took something I put in to explain why my character's fellow urchin/best friend/roommate wasn't there and didn't tag along on the first adventure to deal with a scumbag that had affected all of the PCs and ran with it. Now poor Audria's on the verge of a nervous break down worrying about her other friend who's now effectively a hostage of the BBEG. (Trying to avoid spoilers, hence why it's vague.)
I think this is fantastic. As an old dice roller, I often joke with my friends that this show should be called "After lvl 20." It was a joy to finish the first season, and I look forward to what happens next.
I love how Frieren fights. My favorite is between her and the Guillotine, that moment when she actually unleashes her mana from the tight control she maintains sent chills down my spine more than the first time I saw her fight in the anime. Her character is so perfectly refined at the start of the show and yet we see growth from her in small incriments. She is among the best characters to examine when a person is doing character building.
I stumbled upon this video randomly and when you explained the premise of the anime 3 minutes in I immediately started watching it on Crunchy Roll and so glad that I did. I'm loving the writing of this character so much
I am sort of leaning into writing now. I'm aware of contrasts in a character and have seen a video talking about it. But this video...somehow clears off a lot of clouds above my head. Thanks my man. That was a very coherent and eloquent analysis that shone some new light for me.
I love this essay series your doing, a Pey video comes and and my day gets better, while examining a great anime from a deeper or more nuanced way than i am capable of on my own so thank you 😊
Best editing style for videos like this ive ever seen, absolutely love how your videos are made and everything you have to say. I'm so happy ive found your YT at such an early time ur in career, gl bro
I think character drama's set in Japan's Meji era would be a fantastic place to explore this sort of duality. That bit about a warrior in a world of peace is what got me thinking about that.
I just realised soothing about this show that I find fascinating and a video about it could be cool. And that's how the narrator is silent what I mean by that is we never get to see the characters thoughts even if we see flashbacks this drove a sense of mystery and intrigue making me want watch more to get to know them. We only get glimpses of the their inner workings through their words and actions
Holy shit, I took a small pause after episode 4 and now I wanna dive right back in. The problem lies in what updated in my watch list and if I can be bothered to open my laptop again after shutting down.
You said it was the "Coldest scene in the show." I think its one of the coldest scene's in anime. The Guillotine didn't stand a change. Frieren is a murder elf when it comes to demons and I love how the show makes her title 'The Slayer' actually mean something. Too often do i find titles to be tropes in any media, and they have little impact to me, but in Frieren, I find that her title is REAL, so very very real, and for the first time in a long while, I felt it. And I don't think I could have felt it if they had just dumped us into a world with an all powerful Frieren blasting her way across the world. Seeing her living a chilled peaceful life and just bouncing around like a butterfly not with a care in the world makes her power more real when she chooses to employ it. And her ice cold emotionless stare when it comes to demons draws out that feeling that something very tragic has happened to her in the past when it comes to demons, and nothing will stop her from visiting that trauma back on them. Loved this show.
Minor nitpick: at 2:57 you show the circle of the hero's journey and say that the story of Frieren takes place after that. I'd argue that this is not correct in the sense of Campbell's monomyth, because Frieren does not change until after Himmel's funeral and she does not actually return back to being a hermit in the woods. I suspect/hope Frieren will become a great subversion of the monomyth!
A discussion on Frieren's dual nature has to take the demon kind POV. she is their anathema, yet they do not fear her on encounter. Quite the opposite, each one has displayed arrogance and disdain that their bogeyman is so underwhelming. Then they die. From my understanding, she's been lethal in near every encounter with demons. While exceptions exist and have defeated her, her victories are so complete that demonkind at large are unaware of how she kills. In part, it's demonstrative of how far ahead in actions she actually is in situations. Destroying Qual illustrates her methods. It wasn't a duel, this was an execution of a very dangerous monster. In order to achieve this she needed 1. An assistant 2. Powerful defenses 3. Sharpened battle senses 4. Sufficient killing power with magic 5. And a wild card. The ability to fly and catch Qual in a flank. An 80 year Odyssey for one demon defeated.
I love literary analysis and the theory behind how to write good stories, but I also love not getting spoiled for frieren :( Needless to say I'll be keeping your videos in the backlog until I watch it
Apologies for the spoilers! I tried indicating what id be talking about and excluding anything that would feel like a spoiler but sounds like I did a bad job. Sorry!
@@PeyTalksAnime oh no no don't worry I wasn't spoiled, I meant that I would get spoiled if I watched this! But the video looks really intresting so when I'll watch friren I'll check your videos out :3
Maybe im a little slow but i just realized that you were also peythemusician haha, i love your songs for Atrioc. Crazy how i found your channel through anime too.
I think another great example of duality is Seven from Scissor Seven. It's a bit more front and center with his character arc, but it's satisfying regardless
This video is very much reminding me of one of my fave anime Legend of the Legendary Heroes and how the day to day-ness of dunmeshi is partially why I enjoy watching it. You're convincing me to watch Frieren which nothing else has before.
After catching up to the manga, I am so excited for more seasons of the anime. You really see her appreciate the people around her more and more as their party journeys.
Ah yes Frieren, the ancient mage. Frieren, the giant toddler who fusses about waking up in the morning. Frieren, who is so good at killing she can do it nearly without thought. Frieren, who gets possessed by whimsy and wonder upon finding silly little scraps of magic. Frieren, "The Journey's End."
Kinda like the Doctor in Doctor Who. A adventurous, free hearted, and old traveler. It's only when their fury is shown that you are forced to remember that they're truly powerful. Makes me wanna re-watch both lol.
A good example of the main character who is the good guy in the story behaving like a horror movie character is Violent Night which kind of a John wick, Home alone and hallmark christmas film rolled into one.
i commented once on a different video of yours a suggestion to organize your text to be cleaner and more easily-read, but i think i have to retract that now. maybe it was just that you'd had a lot of text in that last video so it kept jumping out at me, but it really works here. it really, REALLY works. so i'd like to apologize for infringing on your artistic process. obviously you didn't take my advice, but you could have and that would've been terrible. it's not what i would do and that's okay- every creator has their own audience- i just forgot that before. got ahead of myself and thought i knew better than you for whatever reason. but what you're doing is deeply charming and i hope you never stray from the path you think is best. good luck; i enjoyed this video a lot
I've watched this show a dozen times and Frieren never feels like an over powered character. Even though I know how each fight ends, she just doesn't feel OP to me. I also love those little moments where we see just how much Frieren cares for Fern.
Thank you, as a kid I play Origins every day for all my years of elementary school, which is kinda bad I shouldn’t have been allowed, but you have made the perfect video to show my friends why I loved that game
Being older I always think to myself that many of the buzzwords the youth on the internet use today are truely eyeroll inducing. But I whole heartedly agreed when everybody described how the Frieren vs Aura fight went down as Savage.
It is savage, but so is Frieren....towards demons. She hates them for taking everything from her and wants to exterminate them all with prejudice. When she gives that unsettling grin (the largest most teeth showiest one in the entire series so far) she is talking about how she hates fighting stong opponents. It is at least partly because she knows Aura is not that (a strong opponent), and that she is going to get to eliminate her in what would be the most humiliating way possible for a demon (whose literal dignity is based on mana quantity). The whole idea of destroying Aura by annihiliating her at what she thinks she is best at, is what makes Frieren live up to her name, and, what makes that grin is so menacing.
Another piece of media that predates Frieren and originally introduced me to this concept was the original run of Ruoroni Kenshin. The 90s anime certainly shows its age in some areas, but the second season is near perfection in regards to bringing the manga to life. Kenshin is introduced to us in a very similar manner to Frieren, in which we learn he was a highly feared assassin known as Battosai the Manslayer during an era of revolution, which is then immediately juxtaposed by a scene in the modern day that showcases him as a lighthearted and goofy character. This trend continues as the next few episodes lean more towards a slice of life, and we forget the warrior Kenshin once was. Its not until his hand is forced do we get a glimpse of how much of a killer he really is, and that the only thing keeping any more corpses from gathering at his feet is the fact the blade of his sword is reversed and unable to kill. Further along in the series we get glimpses of his past and rivals from that time coming to haunt him, but before the prequel OVA (Trust & Betrayal) and the flashback sequence written in the manga, we never got a true, unfiltered look into what time Kenshin came from. Sorry for the long winded explanation 😢, if you can't tell Ruoroni Kenshin is one of my favorite series. It's a surprisingly deep dive into topics such as redemption, regret, and corruption. I keep seeing people praise Frieren so i think I'll go watch it now, but every time Ive heard of it I've always been reminded of my favorite character Kenshin. Cheers, keep up the good work.
I cant imagine any better of main character from a anime being the boogey man then frieren. Just the immideate switch you see in personality when a demon is on screen. Its like a whole new character .In the scene where she is the final guardian clone, the music and you could feel the whole party tense up in panic.
A comment she makes near the end of the series 'After all, no one knows better than I do how frightening I can be.' Since she typically uses the bare minimum of her magic power to do things and is usually akward and can seem childish and lazy but the very few times she shows the extent of her power she becomes her opponents boogeyman.
I wasn't really expecting to wind up like this anime, but I did to the point where I played Dark souls 3 for the first time before the shadow of the erdtree dropped to get back into the mindset, I fell for a damn mimic and was like... Wow. I started cracking up honestly, because I wasn't expected to be reminded of her in that way (I played elden ring first so I didn't even know those games had trapped chests).
What is the music that keeps playing in the background? It's so quiet and soft but hits all the right notes for me to dive into the video like I'm drowning and getting lost forever in its depths. ...And then the video ends, the music stops, and my soul is jolted back into my body.
I would have loved to hear Tolkiens take on this show. I watch allot of fantasy based anime, and some live action, but I think he would have loved this. The pacing and characters are just so well developed. Even the mentions of heroes of the past, you can easily tell this was inspired by his works, but not a copy of them. They could do at least 3 spinoff series on those briefly mentioned heroes.
the doctor from doctor who is another amazing example of this trope. actually now that i think about it, the doctor and frieren are pretty much the same character
Your definition of conflict can stand to be broadened. Conflict, and the anticipation of it, both real and potential, ARE important in Frieren. It's just not always present, but it IS THERE, hence anticipation. There's emphasis in exploration, of the world, of relationships, and introspection that almost directly competes with conflict for the content of the story. They have to undertake challenges to gain approval. The happen upon threats and choose not to ignore them. They have interpersonal conflict with each other! Mainly instigated by Purple Girl (yes I forgot her name) who frequently gets annoyed or angry, and sometimes she doesn't know how to express it. They share space with people whom they are unfamiliar with or distrustful of, and may have a plan to fight them in case they become at odds. I can think of one very good example, the cold-hearted murderer for one. I can sense that she will definitely try to get close to Frieren later in the story to steal spells from her.
she's like the original novel version of I am Legend... where the main character truely becomes the thing that stalks the day and slays vampires while they sleep.
One thing I love about her duality is how you can SEE a switch flip whenever she encounters a demon. She goes cold, and doesn't hesitate, because she knows that hesitation costs lives.
I love this so much.
one could say that, hesitation is defeat
@@MasterBuller one could say that, sekiro.
its because she knows when to apply moral standards and when not to. people in the real world more often pretend to be moral when really they are making the world worse with their false sophistry
One of the under-appreciated aspects of the Aura fight was that it sets up exactly how powerful Serie is. Her fluctuating mana looks as big as frieren's mana let loose.
Just checked panels and screenshots for reference - Serie has a significantly smaller aura of magic relative to Frieren fully unleashed.
The big thing Serie has though is her aura looks significantly more dense than anyone else's we have seen, and is larger than most humans could ever dream of reaching.
Only to reveal with Fern and some other comments that Serie is *also* suppressing her mana - likely by a very considerable degree - despite the absolute bonfire she passively shows she has.
I admit I absolutely love how it shows her truly learning from her first Student, and has found a balance she finds acceptable between her pride in announcing how powerful she is, and Flamme's tactic to deceive demons.
@@Skelethin Lernen said their mana (Series' supressed and Frieren's unleashed) are equal to each other. There's a chance he's wrong but for storytelling purposes I don't see why they'd include false information without debunking it 🤷♀
What if it's the other way around? That Serie is artificially inflating her mana in order to appear stronger, and her actual strength isn't mana but knowledge of magic?
@@Crossil It could be that except for the fact that Serie has been alive for probably thousands of years and the manga/anime very clearly states that you passively accumulate mana as you live, which is why Aura is so scary and why she's one of the few people who could use such a dangerous spell such as that Balance without fear, cause very few people alive have more mana than her
@@bbittercoffee I know. I just think some comments from Serie might indicate that that's what's happening. Or, alternatively, that her mana, as powerful as it is, is no longer sustainable, somehow.
Her timelessness imo is why she sleeps in. she's never in a hurry for anything, until she stars to travel w/Fern, so why would she be in a hurry to wake up? The show in so many ways does things right. Great writer great artists. Show was just a simple joy to watch, even in dub, which allowed me to enjoy the art even more.
I don't understand how she travels with 3 people for 10 years, but at Himmle funeral she says she didn't know anything about him.
I get that tike doesn't matter for her, but 10 years still happened. We're supposed to believe she never had small talk with any of them?
@@ZeSgtSchultz she likely did, but didn't bother to take much of it to heart. She likely was concerned with long term issues and plans
@@ZeSgtSchultz she claims she doesn't know anything but with every flashback that happens later, it contradicts this and shows us, that she indeed knows a lot about her old companions. she knows Himmels favorit flowers, his favorite food, how he acts and goes about his day, how he tackles exploration and many more things.
in this regard she is pretty much like serie, who also claims to waste her time training human studens but still holds every single one of them in high regard in her own way. at this point it is save to assume all elves are like that. maybe "knowing someone" has an entirely different meaning for them. this also goes in line with Kraft, who asked frieren, if she knows anything about him and what did frieren do in her life? when fern answered "she was the mage, who killed the demon king" he promps with a different question "yeah but before that?"
so for elves, knowing about the last 10 years is like knowing what you did last month. it is enough time to learn something about another person but it is still just a tiny portion
@@ZeSgtSchultz She is over 1000 years old. She only spent a mere 10 years (less than one in a hundred) of her life with the hero party, and relative to the life of an elf that's essentially a month. How well do you think you get to know someone in only a month?
@@ZeSgtSchultzShe knows some things about him, obviously, but she didn't really try very hard to get to know him because she didn't think it was important at the time. She seems to be at least vaguely aware that Himmel liked her, but she never thought to actually respond.
God I love the scene where Stark is literally just putting on a coat but the animators decided that they should literally draw straight flames on the canvas.
I didn't see the flames you mentioned, although I saw the scene
I'd like to see the flames so could you point out what exactly the 'canvas' is?
@@UchechiChijama-v2b Its an idiom. He means that they didn't need to make the scene with Stark putting on his coat so detailed and cool looking.
Followed shortly after by Fern discarding hers in a similarly detailed fashion
Frieren not being a morning person and oversleeping a lot... Very endearing.
She does have the discipline to consistently suppress her true mana.
she did mention that suppressing her mana became second nature, like an instinct. so maybe for the first few hundred years it was about discipline but now its on auto pilot.
I think deep down Frieren hates Demon a lot, so she is determined to train with discipline, in order to fight demons, that's my guess
@@supersquid1005 its not deep down i do think she makes it very obvius she hates them.
take the demon "diplomats" for an example she saw them and the first thing she did was not ask or talk it was imediately attack them regardless of the fact an actual noble was near, futrther more when he asked her why she simple said he was a wild animal let loose on a city.
How does she suppress her mana while sleeping??
@@Dark_PeaceI can’t say how she does it, but I can probably explain it.
I tend to sleep with a hand under my leg… my right hand. One day I burned my hand really bad, like blisters, deep burns.. bad.
I had to retrain my brain to not sleep that way, and I would wake up with my bandaged hand held up the same way I fell asleep. I’d sleep for like 6 hours with my arm bent at the elbow with my hand held like 6 inches above the bed just hovering… because I didn’t want to squish it and raising it a little above my heart level made the pain less severe…
So within a week or so I basically trained my body to hold a limb up while I slept.
I’d wake up any time my hand would drop a bit and I’d adjust it, and fall back asleep…
I imagine that’s how she did it too… just maintain the “position” she wants as she goes to sleep and let your subconscious take over for you and maintain it.
It got to the point for me that when my hand was finally healed like 2-3 months later I had to retrain my hand to not hover like that… it would still happen on occasion for months.. my hand would just naturally try to return to the position it was in for 3 months of sleep.
Our minds are pretty cool… capable of all kinds of weird stuff!
when saying "she is so capable but also falls prey to silly habits" you should have shown her being trapped in a mimic - even if is not yet known because it is in a later episode
She was also trapped in the first episode
That’s a character flaw shown in ep1, twice. During the Himmel flashback and the 50yr montage.
Putting aside jokes and memes, I have seen far too many people and even video essays on RUclips (some of which claiming to be serious analysis types) thinking/saying that Frieren falls for mimics. However, the truth is;
Frieren doesn't fall for mimics. She chooses to take the risk when it's safe to do so (ie, outside of battle situations) because she doesn't lose anything of value (and because the mimic-check spell is only 99% accurate). So, it's not even comparable to irl gacha addiction since those people are actually losing something of value (namely their money and maybe even time).
Specifically, she loses a little time while in the mimic and then later when fixing her hair (but she doesn't care about that because she has practically infinite time), and suffers a little reputation damage (but she doesn't care about how others view her all that much). On the other hand, she may gain something (eg, maybe the shaved-ice spell shown in the flashback in S01E06).
In summary, she loses nothing and may gain something so why not try them all?
@@adamwebster1666 It's not even a character flaw. See my reply to @Buridan84 in this thread.
@@BadPurse She's not really trapped since she can free herself whenever she wants. For more details, see my reply to @Buridan84 in this thread.
There is NOTHING I love more than terrifying or horrifying protagonists, extra bonus points if they're also the good guys.
My favorite thing is a protagonist who upends their world and gives people nightmares not because they’re evil, but because they are so god damn *insane* and *powerful* it shakes the world itself.
@@lordfelidae4505 FUCK YES I'M GONNA START FOAMING AT THE MOUTH THAT'S THE GOOD SHIT
Being a bilingual in german and english I went down the rabbit whole after you mentioned frierens name being german, because I picked up on some many other names I didn't think about the same one. Just some names that were mentioned in the show:
Stark = strong,
Fern = distant,
Flamme = fire,
stolz = proud,
himmel = heaven,
Eisen = iron,
Heiter = bright,
Lawine = avalanche
Denken = thinking (a smart character name)
Richter = Judge
Ubel = Evil (that's too bad)
Laufen = running ( a character with speed)
Kanne = Can (potentially saying her potential is there)
Wirbel = turmoil/ whirlwind (a character caught between kindness and violence)
Scharf = sharp (needle magic)
Ehre = Honor
Lugner = Liar
Lernen = learning
ohh very nice!
Not quite right.
Himmel can also just mean 'sky', though heaven is more fitting
Übel skews more to bad instead of outright evil (which would be Böse)
Kanne means can, but the literal can as in a watering can
@@MrDiarukia Yeah I think some names they took more poetic liberty with while others are a lot of direct
@@MrDiarukia Apt, considering Kanne can drop a literal flood on your head.
Richter doesn't really strike me as "the judge" type, but more of a jaded nihilist who does have capacity for good, but has kinda given up on the world and to some extent on himself. Halfheartedly pursuing his goals while only having the energy to keep himself morally in check when it comes to truly heinous stuff, but killing some teenagers in the first class mage exam? Well, it's the exam for the most powerful and dangerous people, it's not against the rules and it is kinda expected to happen regularly. To him that's just another example of the world sucking rather than him.
The most amazing part of it for me is that all of the ''silly'' and ''charming'' elements of her personality complement very well the ''terrifying'' and ''badass'' elements of her personality because they're all because of the same things. She's very powerful and experienced as well as someone who constantly procrastinates and sleeps in for the exact same reason: she's nearly immortal. So she's had a lot of time to become a great mage but she's simply never in a hurry to do anything because, as Series said, elves can postpone important decisions even for a millennia if they want to without much trouble. She's cold and hates demons for the same reason that she's awkward and actually becomes deeply attached to her companions, her people were slaughtered by demons which led to her living in isolation for centuries. It's just perfect characterization.
I actually love that Freieren is soo sleepy in the morning, I mean if elves live thousands of years then their sleep cycle is probably a few days, her 8 hours is likely a small nap for an elf and not a full rest for her. She's been burning the candle at both ends for years and I can just imagine her takinga real elvish sleep for a week and the other character freaking out thinking she's in a coma.
(Not being sarcastic) the idea of a different sleep cycle is a really interesting thought. Did you come up with that on your own or is this some common trope that I just missed because I’m clueless?
@@H457ur Im pretty sure I read in some fantasy novel or other elves having super long sleep cycles due to long life, can't recall where but I'm certain it's not my own idea.
@@H457urThere's concepts like these in games like D&D. Undead characters sleep only for 4 hours a day and they feel completely rested. Some of them don't even sleep, they just stand in the corner to rest. Others, like dwarves, need to sleep in specific conditions (in this case, in total darkness) as it's basically in their genetics.
Of course, D&D can't do much to change the time the characters spend sleeping for gameplay purposes, but I like how they at least took the time to think things like "This dude's dead, why would he need to sleep in the first place?"
I like the literal translation for Frieren's nickname and series title. Since the title denotes Frieren going to a funeral and her nicknames denotes Frieren the one that brings you to your funeral. (This is why I wished they just said Frieren the Undertaker but that will bring other issues)
Its funny how perspectives work.
A literal translation of the Japanese title doesn't really work well in native English. It has the wrong feel and different connotations. Beyond Journey's End is a much better English title for the series.
@@blshouse I agree. While the Japanese wordplay is definitely interesting. I think far too many fans are stuck on literal or close-to-literal translations. Whereas the current translation manages to be more in line with the themes and all that.
However, if the author didn't approve of it and prefers a specific translation, then I guess I would concede to their opinion.
I think I'd call her Frieren the Grave or Frieren of the Grave, even (or something to that effect).
Perhaps not the most literal translation, but it works in the double-meaning that is kind of lost otherwise.
The Japanese title is wordplay. It's meaning changes with context and perspective...which fits the character very well. So she is Frieren the Mourner and Frieren the Slayer.
Her name is just the German word for freezing, every name for either character and place is just another German word. Which is quite funny sometimes, but there are even more “puns” (that sometimes work, sometimes they really don’t) like that
In the anime, Frieren often chooses not to fight at first if it is unnecessary, she is rarely the first to incite conflict. This also perfectly fits into the trope "fear the wrath of a kind man".
Frierens relationship with Zoltrac also embodies the saying “fear not the man that practiced 10000 punches once, but rather the man who practiced one punch 10000 times”
My favorite example of this is Rurouni Kenshin. The main character is (secretly) a legendary swordsman and REALLY SCARY. It’s never a question of him winning a fight, the conflict for him is maintaining his morals when (for him) killing people is the easier (if morally wrong) choice.
Even his weapon is a good example, a sword made with the blunt side facing your opponent and the blade facing you.
There are a few people on his level (and beyond like his teacher) later in the series like Saito, Aoshi or Shishio so fighting them poses the question of how far he's willing to revert to his old personality and if so whether he can return to being his usual goofy self.
I try to do this in D&D. Killing is trivially easy, but it's so hypocritical to brand yourself as a good guy while leaving a trail of carnage everywhere you go. It shows much more character to be merciful.
Also trauma. Sooooooooo much trauma.
Kenshin was amazing. My favorite episode is when he draws a new sword he never saw the blade of, makes a killing blow, and just snaps into his own mind surfing the turmoil of violating his self imposed limitation for the sake of a good conscience.... Meanwhile, some girl is just screaming at him to look at the damn sword. That episode could have gotten so much darker if he just dropped the sword and walked away, deaf and blind to the world around him. Leaving him to wallow and delve deeper and deeper into dismay and despair.
Fortunately , that's the real world of trauma, and not a cartoon about a plucky samurai with emotional baggage.
Just watching a one second clip of Frieren breaking down over Himmel's death made me cry.
The first half of the season I was a blubbering mess by the end of each episode.
Internal to the story, it's worth noting she's probably still a adolescent elf meaning while she has experience, knowledge, and intelligence she's biologically rather young with all that entails.
Not to mention that she spent nearly 1000 years alown with very little interaction with people, which probably made her rather socially inept.
Personally, I saw her more like someone in their early 20's, when you still have a lot of your youthful habits intact but come to realize you are not invincible and that things don't last forever and you need to accept change.
To me, she feels heavily codded like a young adult that has to come to the realization that they might have a lot of time left, but it's meaningless if they don't start living the instant now (hence why I immensely relate to the character as this is exactly where I am at right now)
I really like the idea that Frierens "we elfes don't have the same sexual urges as humans do" is just her not having hit elf puberty yet 😂
@@happystar56 but thats not really her problem alone,all elfs will have that problem
@@ohreally69It's not really a problem, that's just called being aroace. She's just like me fr fr
7:45 "she's so capable but falls prey to silly habits" I'm disappointed you didn't show her getting nearly eaten by a mimic here.
Frieren's relationship with Fern also showcases dualities that are very difficult to have play out in a story organically. The relationship of a Mother and Daughter.
From when Fern was still young, through a large portion of the first season, Frieren was her surrogate/adoptive mother. While it isn't explicit, that relationship existed for much of Fern's early time with Frieren. As their journey continues, with Fern starting to come in to her own woman, the relationship flips for a bit; Fern takes on many of the roles of a mother herself in dealing with Frieren. A great way to show contrast for the characters, but also showcasing a duality for Fern as well. That of a girl who had to grow far too quickly, but is still well within her youth; still a child even.
I'm a fan of Parent-Child stories and most are told from the Father-Daughter perspective. Frieren may not have been overtly about the subject, but it is, nevertheless one of these kinds of stories. That was one of the things that kept me coming back.
If you like their relationship, have you watched the movie Maquia?
@@kaltaron1284 No. I haven't watched a lot of animated movies in a number of years, but I'll put that on the backlog to watch. The tiny, two sentence, summary looks promising.
@@MartyrPandaGaming Hope you'll like it.
I like story like that too. Most immersive one (not an anime but a game) is Yakuza series where you begin a hot head, and reckless young man to adopting a daughter and see her grow throughout the series. Made me tear up like a proud dad.
“Best animation Ive seen”
Jacket intensifies
Something else that should probably be noted: duality, in order for it to be done well, needs to have some kind of switch. At least in the way Frieren does it. Her switch is "this is a threat that these hapless goobers can't handle." But having disconnected reasons why personalities shift results in a difficult to understand character, or a poorly written character. This is something I try to do in my DND characters, setting a point of no return. Unless I am playing an actual robot.
-- "he stole John wick's car sir . And killed his dog"
-- "Fuck"
"It was just a field of blue flowers!"
"There's nothing I can do to save you from her."
She has seen frierens mana and gambled.
Fuck
Love this video series! I think this arc also deepened Frieren's character by showing how much she hates demons. Even with Qual i don't think it was apparent how much this usually silly and aloof character is holding so much dark emotion. Of course it makes sense once you see more of her past, but this arc is where i feel it starts to show
It doesn't just show how much Frieren hates demons. It shows that Frieren is correct in that hatred, and justified in attacking demons on sight.
Another great video in this series! Something I really like about how we as viewers experience the complexity of Frieren as a character is how carefully new aspects of her get revealed to us. Whether it's a new twist on something introduced previously or completely new information, it often feels like the story has been deliberately structured to reveal these things at specific times. This also dovetails with one of the central aspects of her character, which is how she experiences time. Of course it's going to take a long time to get to know her, because she's been alive for over a thousand years and she's still discovering new things about herself in the process of making this journey. Put those things together and you wind up with something really engaging.
Love that the demon’s eyes are closer to real human eyes. Makes them uncanny in a subtle way
Something that makes Frieren’s duality work is knowing that her long lifespan makes her maturity complicated. She succeeded in accomplishing tasks that require decades of experience, but in an elf’s eyes she’s barely an adult. She’s practically a child that has seen everything that the world has to offer, and that leads to her fluctuating between acting like an adult and acting like a child so much.
This is one of the better ones in the series so far. Not that they aren't all pretty good, but this one is extra good.
I appreciate this feedback. If you want to share the parts of this video you liked so I can factor that in in the future, I'd love to hear. Youve been around consistently, I'm glad you're enjoying the videos!
@@PeyTalksAnimeI think why this video spoke so well to me is that I feel that one of the strongest aspects of Frieren(the anime) is that it does things simply, but well. This video started talking about this. It then transitioned into something else I find consistently strong with Frieren, which is the use and subversion of commonly overused possibly dead horse tropes in a way that they feel fresh. This set up and flowed into explaining why Frieren feels a lot like action heros, which wasn't something I had seen articulated well prior to this.
You then managed to take all of this and roll it up to support your video premise in an elegant fashion.
That's my best effort to quantify what I found particularly excellent about this episode.
And yeah, I look forward to watching your videos. I really appreciate the effort you put into them, so thank you 😊
This is such a good and heartwarming series. Thanks for doing these, looking forward to the ones yet to come!
Just wanna say you have the most calming speaking voice and it fits your narration style perfectly.
Your videos analysing Frieren have made me realise its similarities to Trigun and your showing of all the nuances and all the great things about frieren have made me realise these things about Trigun that I’ve never seen before and I feel like it improved one of my favourite things. This video specifically brought me to this realisation because of Vash’s boogeyman like character but not just to the bad guys but the good guys and even himself. And he also has a lot of the charm and silliness that is shown all the time with many showings of his skill that would make him a boogeyman but it is shown very rarely the true mystical power that he has and the power that truly cemented him as this boogeyman.
Trigun is definitely a series I would recommend if your looking for something that might turn out to be as great as Frieren, and even if it’s not (it probably won’t be) it’s still a great story to experience. (Also I’m only talking about the 1998 anime because I haven’t read the manga which I know is different and the new anime tells the story in a completely different way)
Your comment reminded me of the last line in an anime rap cypher about Vash from a few years ago: I’m not just a fuking legend, I’m a dam act of god!
Just thought I’d mention it to emphasize your point about him being a boogeyman for people.
RAHHH TRIGUN MENTION!!! MY TWO FAV THINGS CROSSING OVER!!!
Huh. Vash being terrifying and using that reputation to his advantage but hiding what he's really capable of really does compare well to Frieren's nature as an oncoming horror/slayer to demons, and how they dedicate themselves to protecting others.
I just got this recommended cause i be watchin lots of anime but then I was like that sounds like pey the musician then intro was like i'm pey talks anime and my mind was blown. I'm so impressed you can be such a musical god and have great literary insight many kudos to you.
my god I'm begging you pls put the music in the description its so beautiful ! You make awesome and compelling videos btw big fan here !
Love your essays and presentation style. Keep going :)
The song you chose for the background music half way through is one of my favorite pieces of music. I almost started crying when i heard it outside my normal context for listening to it
Love this series, not only because it breaks down an amazing anime but Im also learning a lot about writing in general. Keep it up!
I don't cognitively understand squat really when it comes to writing. I mostly understand stuff through feeling. Often using laymen's terms to vaguely express concepts because I frequently just use context clues to guess the definitions of writing jargon(aka synonyms new game plus, and actual writing jargon). All this to simply say that, I've been binging your exploratory series, and I find the way in which you end off your videos masterfully executed. I find myself replaying the ending of lots of these videos specifically because your execution of the end is so satisfying. So for what it's worth from my uneducated perspective(besides years of consuming media). Well fucking done, you're to be admired, and I look forward to seeing you reach hundreds of thousands.
I love the artwork of Frieren: Beyond Journey's End. It's what I want my art to look like someday.
Arghhh you are making me emotional again 🥹😭 I just finished Frieren for the second time. I can't wait for more of this show.
I really wish these were longer. It almost feels like we're getting the thesis, but not any of ths supporting evidence at times.
Duality is a fun thing to play with, especially in TTRPGs. It can lead to some really awesome character moments and scenes, and it wasn't until watching this that I realized I've been doing this almost since I started playing Pathfinder back in 2011 pretty much by accident. The first character I did this with was a half-orc based off of the Jaegermonsters from Girl Genius. He was, well is since I still play him when I get the chance, a goofy, flirtatious, hat-loving pretty-boy that spoke in a thick accent, but he is also a terrifyingly effective fighter and when his ire is roused, the silliness stops.
He's hardly the only character I have played that toys with duality either. I play a lot of female fighters/martials that happen to be short, mainly because I find the idea of a 5 foot waif mopping the floor with just about any baddie they meet amusing. Sometimes they are charming and can be a bit silly or other times they can utterly hopeless in social situations, stuttering through a conversation and getting flustered, but then when things get serious, they take the gloves off and aren't afraid to get dirty and bloodied to protect those in need.
But I think you are right, complexity isn't really needed to make an interesting and compelling character. Sometimes it can be as simple as looking at an archetype and asking yourself what's on the other side of that coin? Sometimes, it can be as simple as starting off with a simple set of traits and seeing how the character develops as they face hardships and trials. I'm playing through Curse of the Crimson Throne right now, and I have both the original 3.5e books and the anniversary edition. When I came up with my character, there were some things that I picked with malice aforethought for her background. With the GM's permission, I made her friends with an NPC that would be targeted by the BBEG as a scapegoat. I made her a bit of a worrywart, a kind and caring one, but still one that tends to get caught up in her own head. She asks her enemies to surrender, because she's a paladin that doesn't like fighting if it can be avoided, but she will not hesitate to defend the innocent or hand out a beat down on fiends or undead. At her core, she's a simple character, a cute and sweet paladin of the goddess of love, beauty, and the arts, but she's also one that is always in tension because of what is happening in the game. She could have been shallow and boring, a one note character, but as the game's gone on, she's developed into an interesting character. The plan has always been that she'd go through a hero's journey, becoming a champion of not just her faith but of the people of Korvosa, but along the way she's developed some interesting contrasts, some intentional like being very good at sneaking around even though she's the main frontliner, but others not so much, like wanting to rely on those around her, but also not wanting to put them in harm's way.
Then again, I may just be talking nonsense here, so take it as you will.
As a fellow TTRPG player, I highly agree. My first character was a High Elf Ranger, a similar goof that's a competent combatant but also terrifyingly both ignorant (nomad backstory, explains why a newbie player doesn't understand some lore basics) and wisely eloquent (repeatedly was able to talk down antagonists with roleplay debate alone). My Necromancer and High Elf Sorcerer were more in the Frieren camps where they don't make a big deal of themselves unless they can ensure no witnesses, but the former is paranoid and distant while the latter is a picture of maternal kindness and fey emotions. My Warlock is a tall lady-warrior that flips between kowtowing to villains for party convenience and cashing in favors to surgically remove entire factions from the campaign, extremely amicable with a budding romance yet is a textbook sociopath that genuinely considered letting a devil kill a child to fulfil a contract. My Barbarian is an absolute sweetheart of a chef and doctor to contrast being a massive amazon that's literally eaten dragons to death and dunked angels in magma, but also she still has that tomboyish confidence and abrasiveness to contrast when she's magically cursed to be her "normal" height. My Warhammer Fantasy Scout is a smaller lady that's still a decent warrior and amateur healer that serves as the de facto party leader and noblebright moral core in the grimdark setting. Even my current Human Male Fighter™ is highly agile for what is otherwise a sword-and-board build, has a soft spot for kids despite being a pirate that will threaten the safety of a nobleman's loved ones, and despite being a captain through and through will delegate party members who have better expertise to lead them through the situation at hand.
They also develop at different rates, if at all, with varying levels of complexity to them. Ranger is secretly a tryhard because his family are well-built adventurers while he came up a suboptimal statblock in a party that does everything he can do better than him, has a blue/orange morality that baffles players and NPCs alike when it remains both consistent and correct, and repeatedly struggles with both getting bodied in increasingly-difficult combats and being pressured to action by factions he doesn't much care for or respect. Necromancer is tormented by wanting to be a good person and avoiding drawing attention to herself by doing good. Sorcerer wants people to be their best and blames herself when things go wrong. Warlock is just evil for all 20 levels, full stop. Barbarian goes through a whole line of trust issues, orphan trauma, being incapable of solving things without violence, and accepting there are things you can't always influence. Scout gets worn down by the insanity surrounding her but still stays strong and never compromises on her morals. Fighter just wants to beat the bad guy so he can get back to his own quest for treasure, more an ally of justice rather than a proper hero.
@thedabblingwarlock that really seems like a interesting NPC!
@@kumokos7192 She is! I'm glad we got a chance to have some fun with her before the plot happened. The other thing from that game is that the GM took something I put in to explain why my character's fellow urchin/best friend/roommate wasn't there and didn't tag along on the first adventure to deal with a scumbag that had affected all of the PCs and ran with it. Now poor Audria's on the verge of a nervous break down worrying about her other friend who's now effectively a hostage of the BBEG. (Trying to avoid spoilers, hence why it's vague.)
I think this is fantastic. As an old dice roller, I often joke with my friends that this show should be called "After lvl 20." It was a joy to finish the first season, and I look forward to what happens next.
brotha, its crazy how consistent and good these videos you're cranking out are, great shit my man
Dude! You finally helped me understand the difference between bidimensional characters and tridimensional ones!
I love how Frieren fights. My favorite is between her and the Guillotine, that moment when she actually unleashes her mana from the tight control she maintains sent chills down my spine more than the first time I saw her fight in the anime. Her character is so perfectly refined at the start of the show and yet we see growth from her in small incriments. She is among the best characters to examine when a person is doing character building.
I stumbled upon this video randomly and when you explained the premise of the anime 3 minutes in I immediately started watching it on Crunchy Roll and so glad that I did. I'm loving the writing of this character so much
I am sort of leaning into writing now. I'm aware of contrasts in a character and have seen a video talking about it. But this video...somehow clears off a lot of clouds above my head. Thanks my man. That was a very coherent and eloquent analysis that shone some new light for me.
When Frieren turns left, there are no survivors.
i love this chanel. its like talking to one of those calm friends in the wee hours on a weekend
I love this essay series your doing, a Pey video comes and and my day gets better, while examining a great anime from a deeper or more nuanced way than i am capable of on my own so thank you 😊
This is some of the best analysis I've ever seen of Frieren's character and I am loving it!
Best editing style for videos like this ive ever seen, absolutely love how your videos are made and everything you have to say. I'm so happy ive found your YT at such an early time ur in career, gl bro
if you're looking for more examples, the whole gimmick of I Am Legend is that he becomes the boogeyman for the vampire whatevers in the world
Frieren is one of the most well-written Anime character. It’s just beautiful
I think character drama's set in Japan's Meji era would be a fantastic place to explore this sort of duality. That bit about a warrior in a world of peace is what got me thinking about that.
I just realised soothing about this show that I find fascinating and a video about it could be cool. And that's how the narrator is silent what I mean by that is we never get to see the characters thoughts even if we see flashbacks this drove a sense of mystery and intrigue making me want watch more to get to know them. We only get glimpses of the their inner workings through their words and actions
Holy shit, I took a small pause after episode 4 and now I wanna dive right back in. The problem lies in what updated in my watch list and if I can be bothered to open my laptop again after shutting down.
You said it was the "Coldest scene in the show." I think its one of the coldest scene's in anime. The Guillotine didn't stand a change. Frieren is a murder elf when it comes to demons and I love how the show makes her title 'The Slayer' actually mean something. Too often do i find titles to be tropes in any media, and they have little impact to me, but in Frieren, I find that her title is REAL, so very very real, and for the first time in a long while, I felt it.
And I don't think I could have felt it if they had just dumped us into a world with an all powerful Frieren blasting her way across the world. Seeing her living a chilled peaceful life and just bouncing around like a butterfly not with a care in the world makes her power more real when she chooses to employ it. And her ice cold emotionless stare when it comes to demons draws out that feeling that something very tragic has happened to her in the past when it comes to demons, and nothing will stop her from visiting that trauma back on them.
Loved this show.
Vash the Stampede would be another decent example of this, I think.
i love this show, Frieren is such a unique and cool and sweet and everything character
Minor nitpick: at 2:57 you show the circle of the hero's journey and say that the story of Frieren takes place after that. I'd argue that this is not correct in the sense of Campbell's monomyth, because Frieren does not change until after Himmel's funeral and she does not actually return back to being a hermit in the woods.
I suspect/hope Frieren will become a great subversion of the monomyth!
I have never heard someone break this down so well. Good video and good use of my time
Yeah, that goofy, nerdy socially awkward 1000 year old elf is at the same time this hardened, cold unhesitating slayer of demons.
See you next week! 🙂
Always enjoy learning to appreciate what makes frieren such an excellent story through you. Thank you
this is a fantastic video series, keep it up dude
A discussion on Frieren's dual nature has to take the demon kind POV. she is their anathema, yet they do not fear her on encounter.
Quite the opposite, each one has displayed arrogance and disdain that their bogeyman is so underwhelming. Then they die.
From my understanding, she's been lethal in near every encounter with demons. While exceptions exist and have defeated her, her victories are so complete that demonkind at large are unaware of how she kills.
In part, it's demonstrative of how far ahead in actions she actually is in situations. Destroying Qual illustrates her methods.
It wasn't a duel, this was an execution of a very dangerous monster. In order to achieve this she needed
1. An assistant
2. Powerful defenses
3. Sharpened battle senses
4. Sufficient killing power with magic
5. And a wild card. The ability to fly and catch Qual in a flank.
An 80 year Odyssey for one demon defeated.
Engamjament coment to keep this serie alive, I love your serie about the best modern masterpiece! Thank you for your hardwork.
I love literary analysis and the theory behind how to write good stories, but I also love not getting spoiled for frieren :(
Needless to say I'll be keeping your videos in the backlog until I watch it
Apologies for the spoilers! I tried indicating what id be talking about and excluding anything that would feel like a spoiler but sounds like I did a bad job. Sorry!
@@PeyTalksAnime oh no no don't worry I wasn't spoiled, I meant that I would get spoiled if I watched this! But the video looks really intresting so when I'll watch friren I'll check your videos out :3
@@HikasCorner oh that's good. Thanks for the kind comment. Hope you enjoy frieren
Maybe im a little slow but i just realized that you were also peythemusician haha, i love your songs for Atrioc. Crazy how i found your channel through anime too.
haha thank you. It's always fun when people realize the overlap
I think another great example of duality is Seven from Scissor Seven. It's a bit more front and center with his character arc, but it's satisfying regardless
Great video as always
John Wick but a cute anime elf is definitely not an idea I thought I would ever start a day with
When she dispels the testing barrier, it really shows that she is built different
“But she’s also very scary…” * thinks back to the boss fight in the dungeon*
Dang this line aged well!
This video is very much reminding me of one of my fave anime Legend of the Legendary Heroes and how the day to day-ness of dunmeshi is partially why I enjoy watching it. You're convincing me to watch Frieren which nothing else has before.
Aaaaand I'm subscribed. That was great.
After catching up to the manga, I am so excited for more seasons of the anime. You really see her appreciate the people around her more and more as their party journeys.
Ah yes Frieren, the ancient mage. Frieren, the giant toddler who fusses about waking up in the morning. Frieren, who is so good at killing she can do it nearly without thought. Frieren, who gets possessed by whimsy and wonder upon finding silly little scraps of magic.
Frieren, "The Journey's End."
Apothecary diaries had a beautiful scene with duality of Maomao literally jump scaring the viewer with her malice.
Welp I’m gonna go watch frieren brb
Kinda like the Doctor in Doctor Who. A adventurous, free hearted, and old traveler. It's only when their fury is shown that you are forced to remember that they're truly powerful. Makes me wanna re-watch both lol.
A good example of the main character who is the good guy in the story behaving like a horror movie character is Violent Night which kind of a John wick, Home alone and hallmark christmas film rolled into one.
amazing video keep it up I look forward to this every week
I've been told I speak too quickly and I must admit, using you for pace practice felt... refreshing.
I love the fanart that depicts Frieren and Doom Slayer as friends over their mutual love of killing demons.
i am happy that i am not the only one that praises the scene where stark pura his coat on . The first time i saw it i audibly gasped 🔥🔥🔥
read the title and expected a john wick analysis....
didnt expect it to be anime wick tho
There's duality in Fern and Stark. All the characters have duality.
i commented once on a different video of yours a suggestion to organize your text to be cleaner and more easily-read, but i think i have to retract that now. maybe it was just that you'd had a lot of text in that last video so it kept jumping out at me, but it really works here. it really, REALLY works.
so i'd like to apologize for infringing on your artistic process. obviously you didn't take my advice, but you could have and that would've been terrible. it's not what i would do and that's okay- every creator has their own audience- i just forgot that before. got ahead of myself and thought i knew better than you for whatever reason. but what you're doing is deeply charming and i hope you never stray from the path you think is best.
good luck; i enjoyed this video a lot
the initial perspective was valuable and the new updated perspective was valuable too. Thanks for sharing in a constructive way
You also have Himura Kenshin. Goofy, calm, hesitates to kill and has a former title of man-slayer for the sheer amount of bodies left in his wake.
Frieren using demon's mind-control back on the demon is such an Aikido thing to do. Using the opponents force against them.
I've watched this show a dozen times and Frieren never feels like an over powered character. Even though I know how each fight ends, she just doesn't feel OP to me. I also love those little moments where we see just how much Frieren cares for Fern.
Thank you, as a kid I play Origins every day for all my years of elementary school, which is kinda bad I shouldn’t have been allowed, but you have made the perfect video to show my friends why I loved that game
For double points, Fern is coming into that too, specially on the shadow exam bit
Being older I always think to myself that many of the buzzwords the youth on the internet use today are truely eyeroll inducing. But I whole heartedly agreed when everybody described how the Frieren vs Aura fight went down as Savage.
Bro savage is like 10 years old, it's not a "kids these days" thing. Secondly, you have an anime pfp, so shut up about being old and superior lol
@@FILTAIRN G-wiz now I feel really old lol
It is savage, but so is Frieren....towards demons. She hates them for taking everything from her and wants to exterminate them all with prejudice. When she gives that unsettling grin (the largest most teeth showiest one in the entire series so far) she is talking about how she hates fighting stong opponents. It is at least partly because she knows Aura is not that (a strong opponent), and that she is going to get to eliminate her in what would be the most humiliating way possible for a demon (whose literal dignity is based on mana quantity). The whole idea of destroying Aura by annihiliating her at what she thinks she is best at, is what makes Frieren live up to her name, and, what makes that grin is so menacing.
Another piece of media that predates Frieren and originally introduced me to this concept was the original run of Ruoroni Kenshin. The 90s anime certainly shows its age in some areas, but the second season is near perfection in regards to bringing the manga to life. Kenshin is introduced to us in a very similar manner to Frieren, in which we learn he was a highly feared assassin known as Battosai the Manslayer during an era of revolution, which is then immediately juxtaposed by a scene in the modern day that showcases him as a lighthearted and goofy character. This trend continues as the next few episodes lean more towards a slice of life, and we forget the warrior Kenshin once was. Its not until his hand is forced do we get a glimpse of how much of a killer he really is, and that the only thing keeping any more corpses from gathering at his feet is the fact the blade of his sword is reversed and unable to kill. Further along in the series we get glimpses of his past and rivals from that time coming to haunt him, but before the prequel OVA (Trust & Betrayal) and the flashback sequence written in the manga, we never got a true, unfiltered look into what time Kenshin came from.
Sorry for the long winded explanation 😢, if you can't tell Ruoroni Kenshin is one of my favorite series. It's a surprisingly deep dive into topics such as redemption, regret, and corruption. I keep seeing people praise Frieren so i think I'll go watch it now, but every time Ive heard of it I've always been reminded of my favorite character Kenshin. Cheers, keep up the good work.
I cant imagine any better of main character from a anime being the boogey man then frieren. Just the immideate switch you see in personality when a demon is on screen. Its like a whole new character .In the scene where she is the final guardian clone, the music and you could feel the whole party tense up in panic.
Man when Frieren hit the demon with the low tier god.
A comment she makes near the end of the series 'After all, no one knows better than I do how frightening I can be.' Since she typically uses the bare minimum of her magic power to do things and is usually akward and can seem childish and lazy but the very few times she shows the extent of her power she becomes her opponents boogeyman.
I wasn't really expecting to wind up like this anime, but I did to the point where I played Dark souls 3 for the first time before the shadow of the erdtree dropped to get back into the mindset, I fell for a damn mimic and was like... Wow. I started cracking up honestly, because I wasn't expected to be reminded of her in that way (I played elden ring first so I didn't even know those games had trapped chests).
What is the music that keeps playing in the background? It's so quiet and soft but hits all the right notes for me to dive into the video like I'm drowning and getting lost forever in its depths.
...And then the video ends, the music stops, and my soul is jolted back into my body.
I would have loved to hear Tolkiens take on this show. I watch allot of fantasy based anime, and some live action, but I think he would have loved this. The pacing and characters are just so well developed. Even the mentions of heroes of the past, you can easily tell this was inspired by his works, but not a copy of them. They could do at least 3 spinoff series on those briefly mentioned heroes.
the doctor from doctor who is another amazing example of this trope.
actually now that i think about it, the doctor and frieren are pretty much the same character
Oh, yes! The Doctor being less aloof then Frieren, more expressive
Specifically in Pandorica Opens, it really gets at the great hero is the boogeyman of monsters.
Your definition of conflict can stand to be broadened.
Conflict, and the anticipation of it, both real and potential, ARE important in Frieren. It's just not always present, but it IS THERE, hence anticipation. There's emphasis in exploration, of the world, of relationships, and introspection that almost directly competes with conflict for the content of the story. They have to undertake challenges to gain approval. The happen upon threats and choose not to ignore them. They have interpersonal conflict with each other! Mainly instigated by Purple Girl (yes I forgot her name) who frequently gets annoyed or angry, and sometimes she doesn't know how to express it. They share space with people whom they are unfamiliar with or distrustful of, and may have a plan to fight them in case they become at odds. I can think of one very good example, the cold-hearted murderer for one. I can sense that she will definitely try to get close to Frieren later in the story to steal spells from her.
she's like the original novel version of I am Legend... where the main character truely becomes the thing that stalks the day and slays vampires while they sleep.