Season 2 of Frieren’s finally here!!! It’s been a bit over 2 years since S1 ended, and man, they spent those 2 years absolutely cooking. Frieren s2 is just as perfect as s1 was, no blue lock or opm type of season 2. Alright, so I just wanna quickly point out some things about ep 1 of s2 that just aired.
So I ended up watching ep 1 3 times today bc it’s just so good and I’m happy to finally have s2 here. If you recall, in the last ep of s1, we got a flashback of himmel saying he doesn’t like saying tearful goodbyes because it would be embarrasing when they met again. That’s exactly how the end of s1 and start of s2 felt to me. S1 didn’t have any grand ending, it was just simply the end of an arc and the start of a new arc in their journey. S2 came in without a recap or anything, literally just picked up from where we left off in s1, leaving the bridge. Also despite it having been 2 years in the real world since s1 ended, just picking up right when we left off like no time passed at all is so consistant with frieren’s themes, you really just gotta appreciate that.
I also love how this episode really has no plot, it’s literally just them traveling on their way to their main goal, nothing eventful really happens. That sounds boring on paper, but plot never really was a major factor in frieren since the whole idea is we’re looking at the world after the main story has already finished. By not worrying about the main story, we just get to experience the little things along the journey. How memorable is that cave really going to be down the line once frieren’s journey is over? It probably won’t be that much of a thought, but by letting us just experience that for a part of an episode, it lets us find value in these one off experiences that you’ll find on journies such as this.
We also have some more Himmel teachings, trusting your party members. Himmel and Frieren both trust Eisen and Stark, so if they want to run away, it’s not a cowardly move, instead it’s a move that Himmel and Frieren are willing to carry out if Eisen and Stark really feel like they can’t win a fight. This reminds me of elden ring. Right at the start of the game, the first enemy you see is the tree sentinel. This is a boss that’s extremely difficult to beat right at the start of the game, but it’s purposely put there to teach the player than you’re free to do whatever you want in this game, you can try to fight it, or you can just simply walk around it and come back later if you want. This is essentially what the party does here, Stark didn’t think he could win against that monster, so Frieren fully accepted running away, Joseph Joestar would be proud lmao.
We also get to see some great development between Fern and Stark here. The cave really allow them to further build trust, and the whole scene at the inn was just so cute. They’re both starting to be a bit more open and direct towards each other, especially Fern who’s not really known to show a lot of affectionate emotion, we get to see some great moments of softness in her as she takes care of the bracelet Stark gave her. They’re seriously so cute lmao.
The animation is just incredible, it’s so fluid and realistic. A couple things that really stood out to me was when Fern and Frieren were talking at the river, and Fern shifted her position to put her feet in the water, you can see so clearly how she shifts her body weight and swings her legs around realistically. Another moment was when it cuts to Fern getting ready for bed in the inn. The way she moved her hair aside to take off the necklace was so realistic as well, the way she leans to the side and even the physics of the clothes. When some people talk about great animation, they talk about the flashy fights in shounen anime, this is the type of great animation that I talk about. The juxtaposition between opm s3’s animation last season and this masterful, fluid animation we’re seeing in frieren this season is definitely something you gotta just point out to further question how opm s3’s animation could even have been that bad lmao.
Last thing to talk about is the OP and ED. Simply put, they’re amazing. The OP is by Mrs. Green Apple which I thought was an interesting choice bc they’re not who I really think of immediately when I think of Frieren vibes, but they absolutely cooked. The song really fit frieren so well, and funny enough, I think this op sound way more heroic than the first op, yuusha by yoasobi even though yuusha means hero lmao. As for the ed, I think it’s a great choice to go with milet again, she fits frieren so perfectly. The ed animation is just stunningly beautiful. The first ed went with stop motion animation, and the 2nd ed went with this pencil animation. The aesthetic is so beautiful, and I has such a nice raw human touch to it. Both the op and ed animations also perfectly match with the melodies and rhythms of each song which is wonderful. Honestly, the op and ed each deserve their own full blow analysis, but I’ll leave that to another time maybe lmao.
That’s about all the main things I wanted to point out for now. Overall ep 1 was just fantastic and I’m definitely looking forward to the rest of the episodes. This season is only 10 episodes I believe, so way shorter than s1’s 28 episodes. Really going to make sure I savor this over these next couple months lmao. Alright, cya
