Seriously, go watch episode one of Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End right now. Or episode one of the new season, if you haven’t watched that. Am I getting ahead of myself? Probably. Let me explain why you should be watching Frieren right now.
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The Journey of Frieren
For those not in the know, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is a charming fantasy anime about an ancient elf who spent the tiniest fraction of her life defeating a dark lord with the help of Himmel the Hero, and party. After Himmel’s regular human death due to old age, Frieren realizes how much that ten-year journey meant to her, despite centuries of life before meeting Himmel.
At its core, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is about Frieren’s new journey to fully grasp what her first meant to her. It’s about the value and meaning of life, and appreciating simple things like sunsets and fields of flowers. It also has interesting magical combat, evil demons, magic certifications, and other fun fantasy fare.
None of which is why you should be watching right now.
Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Is an Internet Darling
Both reasons you should watch Frieren immediately are because of the internet. Popularity means people talk, and Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is popular. But internet popularity has an oppressive presence that ’90s anime didn’t have to deal with. If your favorite way to watch anime is solitary, while living disconnected from internet discourse, you won’t have these problems. On the other hand, if you were that kind of person, you wouldn’t be reading this, so…
The Internet Spoils Everything
Despite knowing Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End would be my type of show when its first season aired, I didn’t watch it while it was airing. It’s the kind of show I love, but it’s also a show to be savored over lengthy viewing sessions. That was a mistake I won’t repeat this season. Get ahead of spoilers. I’d already had some events spoiled because of online chatter and memes before I watched the show. Nowhere that discussed anime, or had anime memes, was safe. Character origins, the nature of demons, bits and pieces of Frieren’s motives — all of these and more were spoiled online.
Frieren‘s second season is going to be the same when it comes to spoilers. This isn’t conjecture. Browsing Reddit, I stumbled across two spoilers for the new episode within four days of it airing. Were they meme-able? Sure. Should I have been surprised to see spoilers so soon? Maybe not. Either way, I’m watching Frieren episode by episode now to avoid spoilers.
Discourse Burns Out Online
Secondly, if you like Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End and want to talk about it, the best time to do so is now. If you talk to friends about anime, then being up to date matters, sure. But currency matters more for online discourse. When I’d finally watched all of Frieren a few months after it aired, I was curious about the online discourse around it. While I can always share my hot takes here, discussing the finer parts of themes or creative world-building can be fun.
Only, by the time I was looking, Frieren discourse had become flooded with rants and debates about the series’ demons. Frieren discourse was dominated by a single topic — ontological evil races — after the season’s finale. Discussions about elf culture, or Frieren’s bad habits, were drowned out. Now that I’m up to date on Frieren, though, and with the new series out, I can dive into the online discussions live, and they are so much better. Nobody even mentions demons from what I’ve seen, because they haven’t shown up in the one new episode. The discussions involve spoilers, but spoilers are unavoidable in a conversation. Interested in anime discourse? If so, the best time to talk about Frieren is right now.
Don’t Miss Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End as a Moment
Pop culture comes in moments. Avengers: End Game isn’t an experience relived the same way by watching the MCU films on Disney+. And it’s not possible to experience Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End as fresh, or as a moment in history, without watching it right now. Spoilers and word of mouth weaken the show when you get around to watching, like what happened to me with season one. The discourse won’t be as enjoyable months later.
What matters most is the Frieren experience. It’s a good show, amazing at times, and provides something unique in the fantasy anime space. Yet that uniqueness is defined as much by how the anime is experienced, an event that can only occur once. Like Frieren’s own quest with the hero Himmel, the experience of this anime can never be recaptured, but it can be weakened by distance from the other people you could otherwise be sharing the experience with.
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