OP: “Yuusha (Hero)” by YOASOBI

Fall kicks off as seasons often do these days, with one of its biggest premiere.  Sousou no Frieren leads the LiA preview poll at the moment, in one of the closest races yet.  And with good reason.  It’s a hugely-lauded manga adapted by a legendary studio, with a striking staff.  Another trend these days is four-episode premieres, effectively kicking your series off with a movie.  I have decidedly mixed feelings on this, though I admit that’s mostly from my perspective as the sitemaster here.  Because, frankly, they’re a pain in the ass to cover.  There’s the straight-up time commitment, and all the variables.  Should I watch all of them and then write?  Watch and write an ep at a time?  And the problem of post length and screencap counts getting out of hand.

As I write this I’ve only watched the first ep.  That’s mainly because I wanted to get my gut reactions down while they were fresh (we’ll see how I deal with the other three).  One thing I will say is that, typically, when a series uses this approach it betrays a lot of confidence in its opening act.  Vinland Saga and Oshi no Ko both clearly knew they would bowl audiences over with their introduction, and there’s no evidence that Frieren won’t do the same (indeed, early reviews are stellar).  I do wonder whether this means we’ll get some kind of weird 28-29 episode count (it’s running two uninterrupted cours), or whether it will end early.  Or, as Vinland did, take three weeks off after the premiere (that  doesn’t seem to be the case).

My initial take is that yes, there is “there” there.  For me the MVP of the premiere is actually Evan Call, whose soundtrack is both gorgeous and completely on-point (as you’d expect).  But it’s all good.  There’s nothing in the visuals that stands out as stunning in itself, but the overall package is lovely  –  “dignified” is a word that kept popping into my head as I was watching.  “Reflective” would be another one, as that’s what this series seems basically to be – a reflection on life, death, and the elastic nature of time.  That’s all focused through the vehicle of Frieren (Tanazaki Atsumi), an elf mage and member of the heroic party of four that vanquished the demon lord and became legends.

Frieren is either immortal of just incredibly long-lived (it isn’t specified yet).  Two of the party are humans – warrior Himmel (Okamoto Nobuhiko, an odd casting choice), and hard-drinking priest Heiter (Touchi Hiroki).  Also along is dwarf warrior Eisen (Ueda Youji).  Maybe I’m projecting but starting the story after the party vanquish the maoyuu (the subtitle is “Beyond Journey’s End) seems like a wry dig at the innumerable generic series that dwell on that theme – that it’s not even interesting enough to show on-screen.  Frieren clearly has little sense of the value of time, because for her time is basically a limitless resource.  For her mortal companions, the story is obviously very different.

Frieren does learn – primarily though the aging and death of Himmel.  Framing that through the 50-year meteor shower is unsubtle but certainly effective.  I sense that part of the story is Frieren coming to realize that even for her, time is a precious resource – she may have gobs of it, but what’s gone she can never get back.  Heiter is an interesting one.  Despite his drinking he seems to age much more slowly than Himmel.  And while he professes to have no fear of death (appropriately for his job), when Frieren visits him 20 years after Himmel’s death – expecting to offer a drink at his grave – he asks her to try and translate a grimoire supposedly full of spells on immortality and life extension.

Moving on to the second episode, the reflective tone continues.  Heiter has taken in a war orphan named Fern (Ichinose Kana), who he initially asks Frieren (who refuses) to take her along on her journeys as an apprentice.  That having failed, he then asks that Frieren to train the girl in magic.  The grimoire, of course, is just a ruse – a means of keeping Frieren around until Fern is old and strong enough to accompany her when she leaves.  Because Heiter is going to die soon, and he knows this.  As humans are wont to do, he’s trying to take care of the ones closest to him even after he’s gone.

What I really like about this section is the way Heiter’s situation isn’t glossed over (well, not much).  His statement that the fear of death is “immeasurable” is indisputably the key point of the episode.  It’s what’s driven most developments in recorded human history, frankly.  Heiter is terrified, but also resigned – and Frieren can’t help him in this sense.  All she can do is help Fern, which at least can set Heiter’s mind at rest on that one point.  I also  liked the fact that Frieren called him out on his scheme to get Fern out of harm’s way so he can die alone.  She’s earned more than that.  Frieren can’t understand Heiter’s fear of dying – not really – but she’s developing an understanding of the web of emotions that tie humans together.

The bit with Himmel’s statue is pure fantasy slice-of-life, but very effective.  Watching this, I wondered if Himmel was actually in love with Frieren (and in fact possibly her with him, though without realizing it) but too kind to attempt to burden her with the pain of loving someone with a mayfly’s span of time.  Frieren’s quest for the blue moon weed flower for his statue was indeed, “for herself”- but her need to do it is a reflection of the impact Himmel and the others had on her.  Frieren also displays a growing understanding here when she realizes that it’s not only her time she’s burning on this personal obsession, but Fern’s – and that the latter doesn’t have as much of it in her account.

Finally, we have the last two of this batch of episodes, which I watched as a set.  The fourth was better than the third, maybe the best since the first.  One thing that strikes me is that I seem to get more out of this series when it’s about something than when it slips fully into idyll mode.  I recognize that the latter is a big part of its identity, and that’s fine.  But I never really got the appeal of stuff like (for example) Kino no Tabi – or rather I did, but it never quite engaged me fully.  Frankly I found a lot of that sequence with the sweets shop and the demon mage Qual kind of dull, though I did appreciate the tragic irony of Qual’s demise and how much the world changed while he was sealed.

Thematically, there’s a lot of very interesting stuff happening here.  You even have a bit of reflection on the social breakdown of rural Japan in all these villages needing Frieren and Fern to help because of depopulation (though the causes are not delved into in a social commentary sort of way).  Frieren is not a gripping character on a moment-by-moment basis – indeed, she and Fern are the least engaging among the main cast, which may or may not prove to be a problem.  But her situation is fascinating.  I was quite taken by the sunrise-New Year’s festival thing, where Frieren says that although she’s not interested, the reason she wants to experience it is because she’s not.  She’s trying to understand who she is, and how the short-lived fixtures in her life experience the world differently.

I find that a lot of the most interesting elements so far came by way of Heiter, who has a way of saying what other people only think (and sometimes don’t even realize that).  Heaven is “convenient”, he says, because all the good people who lived and died trying to do their best “deserve” something more than nothingness.   Again, if there’s a central theme to Frieren at the Funeral I think this is it – this fundamental terror of the void and our need to explain the consummate unfairness of existence.  As an immortal, Frieren in a particularly apt device through which to explore that.

I also find it very touching that her old companions always held her in their thoughts and worried about her  (not without good reason).  Even her original master, Flamme (Tanaka Atsuko), apparently quite mortal although the most powerful mage on record, worried about her disciple a thousand years ago.  All of them – Flamme, Eisen, Heiter, Himmel – understood that Frieren would come to regret not valuing the time of her companions more than she did.  This provides the seed of the series’ apparent MacGuffiin, Flamme’s tome which details the existence of Aureole – the mysterious northern land where the souls of the dead gather for eternity.  Flamme set the wheels in motion for Frieren to discover it one day, and Eisen is the one who gives her the push she needs.

I suspect this is one of those “it’s the journey, not the destination” sort of stories.  Nevertheless, I’m quite intrigued to find out what mangaka Yamada Kanehito has in store with Aureole.  It strikes me as a little too convenient (that word again) for it to be a literal Heaven on Earth where one can go and chat with the departed.  That would frankly undercut the messages the series seems to be sending.  But then again this is a fantasy to be sure, and a high fantasy at that – it’d surely be a mistake to jump to that conclusion after a mere four episodes.

All in all, Sousou no Frieren comfortably met my expectations without quite blowing me away (apart from a few very poignant moments).  The tone is very different from what we’re used to in anime, and the least effective elements of the series are the one where it feels most conventional.  It is both dignified and reflective, and clearly interested in exploring the deeper existential conundrums of existence.  It’s that exploration which drives this “movie” more than the plot or characters, though the latter are kind of a slow burn – they get more interesting the more we learn about them.  This series was one you could fully expect to be one of the best of the season, and these episodes do nothing to suggest it won’t be.

ED: “Anytime Anywhere” by milet