Manga 126287 Sousou No Frieren Reviews Filter Check 2

I really don't know how to talk about this series to be completely honest. It might have one of the strongest first 30-ish chapters in any manga I've read, but it starts to lose what makes it so special the longer it goes on.

If you've ever played DnD (or watched any sort of fantasy media) I'm sure you've run into a 500-year-old elf character, but have you ever stopped and asked yourself "damn how would living that long actually affect you?" I had one of my friends once ask this in the middle of playing DnD once. He said "If I can achieve so ... much in 20 years, and can change the world in 80 what are elves doing for 500 years? Does every elf just have a learning disability or something?" And honestly, that question has stuck with me for a while. If you lived for 1000 years, ten times longer than a human lifespan, what would still keep you on the level of regular people?

It's this question that has been stuck in my mind for about two years now that has primed me so hard to enjoy this series because I've never actually seen the question tackled in media before. And it turns out, a story that tackles that question is super interesting. What would you do if the greatest accomplishment a human could achieve was done and gone in less than one-one-hundredth of your lifespan? What would you do if the people you achieved it with were all born and all died in less than a 10th of your lifespan? Could even form truly human connections anymore? Would you be numb to it? Or would you carry the memory of those relationships for another 500 years? What would a decade even mean to you? Much less a year, or a day.

Interesting questions right? And they're all tackled in the story... for the first 30 chapters.

I hope you can see where some disappointment would come from when they just stop talking about those things because they have to do a cliche anime test arc. I don't know about you, but I don't particularly care about seeing the Naruto chunin exams in a character drama about the emotional impacts of immortality.

At the time of writing this, I'm not completely caught up, but I am roughly another twenty chapters past the end of that arc and the story really hasn't seemed to regain its footing since this bizarre break of pace. And honestly, it's extremely disappointing. I still have faith that by the end of this series we might still see a good payoff and discussion of the things established in the first quarter of the story, but when the middle is this bland and unfocused, I'm not sure if that ending will land nearly as hard as it will deserve to.

TL;DR, this story tackles some interesting and unique themes and ideas but loses steam when it decides to shift focus to being more action-oriented and doesn't regain its footing afterward to create a fairly bland story that deserves more clarity and focus.

7/10 because the early chapters are incredible and I could easily see the story reaching those heights again

At first the story was quite interesting. But the story after that It's pretty neutral and going to sea like "Fumetsu no Anata e". (I read about 30 - 40 chapters.)

Overall the art style isn't bad. As for the story of "sousou no frieren", I think there are better options and some modern shounen have a better perspective, such as "Chainsaw Man" and "Vanitas No Carte," which better present the characters' relationships and the context of the communication of love.

If you've ever played a game with long-lived elves. You'll feel indifferent, and the more you watch "Violet Evergarden," you might feel ... less special. but if you like "Violet Evergarden," you'll easily enjoy it.

art style 9/10
The design of "Frieren" is quite usable but everything else is indifferent.

Story 7/10
The story is good at first but after that the story goes out to sea like "Fumetsu no Anata e". I liked Frieren and her friends' storyline better in the later episodes.