Sousou no Frieren 2nd Season

A real masterpiece just like the first season.

Frieren is the ultimate comfort anime. On one hand you have a cast full of lovable characters (including the villains),I don't think there's a single annoying character in the whole series.
On the other hand you have flawless animation and music that makes you feel like you're a part of the world.

The thing that truly sets it apart from other similar series is how it manages to combine familiar tropes with a completely new outlook. The dwarves and the elves and the hero going to defeat the demon king are all some of the most well known tropes imaginable,yet ... this series manages to make them feel fresh all over again by giving every part of the world just the right amount of attention. The entire series feels like playing an improved remake of your favorite game from your childhood and falling in love with it all over again.

The lessons it gives are all the most important ones and the action scenes all have superb animation on top of that,it has all that you could want from a series.

Another fresh part of the series is that most of the characters don't have some grand,seemingly unachievable goal that they and the series obsess over. Even when they do have a grand goal,they don't make it into their whole personality and they're always enjoying the little things and moments. That's also a part of the reason why it's just so relaxing to watch this series.

To put it shortly,Frieren is the proof that you don't need an overly complex plotline filled with layers and layers and the simple heartwarming stories are sometimes some of the hardest hitting ones.

It's a must watch.

In reality, the thing that makes a good story a good story is the characters and Frieren is heavily character driven. I think the lazy way is an ingenious way to write a story, actually. You constantly reference quote on quote past events that happened and then have the character retrace his or her steps, imbuing context at the same time so that the audience has a deeper understanding and appreciation for the character. I think this is something Kino no Tabi tried to accomplish. There's this sense of urgency yet malaise, yet it begs the question as to whether the story for Frieren will ... conclude cohesively.

I had long intended to write a Frieren S2 review, but it's difficult to do so when a show is so lacking in content. It was the same back during S1 when my review was deleted for "too much humor" because I framed it as if the author were using ChatGPT prompts to write Frieren as a generic, bland, and sentimental fantasy show. But I actually think it's much worse than that now. The author must be using ChatGPT to deliberately make his series as dull as possible. "ChatGPT make a comedy scene where Frieren cries for three days straight as her party watches in ... embarrassment, but make sure it isn't funny." I mean, humor is subjective and all, but the timing and forced obnoxiousness makes it difficult to imagine this producing laughter. Same with the chibi bits where Fern is booping Stark. Or a sitcom moment, like Fern and Stark scheduling a "date." Meanwhile, Stark moves around like a sloth because he thinks he's going to get curb stomped by an ill-tempered kuudere. Also, wow, three episodes in and a mimic chest hasn't snacked on elfblubber yet? I see the author is really branching out with his humor. If anything, ChatGPT should easily be able to write something more interesting than this, so if the series isn't AI slop, then it would benefit from the author handing his story over to the AI overlords.

S2 follows the same aimless and episodic SoL formula that the early parts of S1 were known for before it turned into a well-animated but otherwise mediocre battle shonen. Insipid dialogue around hiking and campfires. A random monster encounter to keep anyone from getting too antsy. Frieren zones out for a flashback to when she was adventuring as one of the four heroes, which is somehow related to the present moment, such as when our chump heroes, despite being low on cash, refuse to rake in millions by forming a sweatshop to extract all of the magic-nullifying crystals found in episode 2 (have Stark use a long rope to carry the crystal back at least, lol). A bit of cozy nostalgia from some landmark that Frieren remembers, such as the small hot spring that "wasn't worth venturing out for." Oh, and plenty of shots of grandma elfblob and nanny Fern's feet, often served up in lacy nightgowns (the patrician NEET and otaku's fetish). Even the hot spring was only a foot deep so we'd get treated to another feet shot (even one from Stark for the girls)! Madhouse is spoiling us, Uwu.

Somehow this show has been touted as deep and mature, but the SoL is as shallow as ever. The source material is lacking in the first place and is elevated greatly by Madhouse's production values. The direction doesn't elevate these moments, there isn't anything insightful being said, any real world building mixed in, nor atmosphere, and the characters are as derivative as any trio you'd find in any '90s adventure series, with the exception of elfblob's unusually elftistic perspective because of her advanced haggery. A severe problem when comparing the two seasons is that, yes, S1 was poorly done SoL slop as well, but there were shonen arcs with solid animation and some more plot progression by the end that at least acted as something like "payoff." I'm sure we all expected things would slow down once again, but coming from the latter half of S1 for S2 to again be milking this sloooooow, no-content, haggard SoL of the week formula of hiking sim - huehue funny joke - suspense-free monster fight - syrupy Stark/Fern moment - elfblob flashback is like having learnt to ride a bike and then regressing to training wheels or a tricycle.