I was a bit disappointed to see Frieren come back with only a 10-episode run for this season. I understand what they were going for, bridging the gap between major arcs of the story, but I just wanted to see more. I’m not satisfied. As punishment, I’m going to write a shorter review than normal (and also release it a whole season late cause I got distracted). There are very few words of praise left to be said about Frieren. It’s a great show and if you aren’t watching it or planning to watch it, I don’t know what’s wrong with you. I’d love to help, but your problems are beyond the reach of modern medicine. So, once again, I’ll be using a review to talk about things only tangentially related to the show.
Despite it being two episodes short, I really appreciated this season for its return to the short story format that made up most of the show before the 1st class mage exam arc. I’ve found that shows all too often either bridge the gap between arcs with trash filler episodes or just slam arcs back-to-back like shots of fireball at a 4th of July party (Shout out to Nick). Filler aside, I can appreciate the fast-paced slamming of arcs, but in shows that start off with more episodic structures, I’m always left longing for those early episodes. This season of Frieren really scratched that itch for me. It reminded me of the beginning of the show with its one to two episode short stories and emphasis on characters. In some sense, its filler done right. These episodes don’t exist just to buy time. They advance the story by strengthening the characters and world so that they are ready for the next big arc, and it feels deserved when another big event finally kicks off. Now it is a bit of a shame that all of this build up will be on hold for a year or so while we wait for the next season but I’m willing to mostly let that slide. At this point the Frieren creators have shown me that both flashbacks and filler can be used in excellent ways, so they have my full faith in whatever they are planning to do.