So this was another show I ended up starting on a whim because of all the chatter I saw online about it. Here we have an interesting premise where the story starts after the defeat of the Demon King. Frieren is an elven mage that traveled in a party with the hero Himmel to defeat the Demon King and our story starts right before the party is celebrated for their heroics. The story quickly time skips to several years in the future in the middle of an era of peace brought about by Himmel, but as Frieren is an elf the 10 years they spent on that adventure was just barely a moment from her perspective and now she has to find out what to do with her life not only following the end of such an adventure but with a far longer life span than the rest of her companions she watches as they grow old and eventually leave her. This is a story of how such a brief moment from her perspective ended up fundamentally changing her life and shaping her motivations and actions for how she continues on living.

The story is a very interesting one as really the overarching story is not all that important in this case. Sure at some point Frieren does get a goal that will take her awhile to achieve but really the show is about the individual adventures she and her new party have along the way. Many of Frieren’s new adventures have callbacks to her time with Himmel and there’s a lot of heartwarming moments here. We get to see brief moments of what makes Himmel a hero but we also get a nice comparison of who Frieren was before his influence and who she became afterwards and having these moments scattered throughout the season really gives the viewer a clear understanding that however brief her time was with him those moments were so special and influential to her.

The individual moments that make those callbacks are also wonderful stories outside of the flashbacks because they tell these incredibly deep stories in such a short time. Stories of appreciating the people around you, valuing sentimental items not for it’s monetary value but for the story behind them, stories of bravery and wisdom, stories of life and death, adventures and friends. You have all kinds of individual stories here and each and every one of them has a remarkable ability to resonate with us as we watch it because we all have moments where we needed to learn at least one likely most of the valuable lessons these stories are centered around. It’s also impressive just how deep these stories can get when most of them are self contained in a couple of episodes. One of the ways this show does that is by carefully crafting the lines to where the dialogue says so much in a single line. One example is when one character says something to the effect of “when the body slows your life must slow with it.” This is a line that perfectly captures the effects of aging on the body a tale that often can take entire stories to explain in other mediums summed up well in a single line of dialogue. What is most impressive is while this season tells so many individual stories at no point did it feel cluttered with too much as each one is carefully crafted and executed in a way that honestly baffles me. I am in awe of the talent behind whoever managed to fit all of this into one season and to do so at this level.

At the heart of all of these deep and profound stories are characters with incredible depth. You have a wide cast of characters that appear each with backstories that the show takes time to flesh out and to make these characters memorable. The season has nearly 30 episodes but I can remember the characters clearly whether they appeared for several episodes or only a few minutes in one. Just like the stories the history of these characters is equally compelling where some seek to honor a loved one, find an old friend, battle their inner demons, or even let their demons roam free. You have a wide mixture of morality of the characters and each with wildly different philosophical takes on the world around them which were all fun to explore.

At it’s core with all of these stories and characters as many as we see there one central theme and that is how do we appreciate and love the things we value. Of course there isn’t one single answer to that because we all love and value different things in different ways. This idea spiderwebbed into the individual stories we see in this season to explain so many answers to this. It is a lesson that we can all understand because we all have something precious to us and it is the fact that we can see this important fact in every story that makes each one of them so compelling.

I can tell you about all of the variety of stories and make a review pages upon pages in length but I think what you really need to know is not only do these stories have depth but they are told in a way that really packs an emotional punch. There are both sad and happy moments scattered throughout the season and the sad moments are told so well it breaks your heart again and again and again with the happy moments taking the time to help you heal from them before it breaks you again and somehow you end the season just feeling happy in the end and appreciative of the experience.

Now the story does have fight scenes and while these scenes are entertaining they are few and far between because keep in mind this is a story of a time of peace so if you’re deciding to watch a show and the action is a key motivator to whether or not you want to watch it know that the action here will not entice you. This is an emotional story not an action packed one.

Overall what we have here is something that is quite honestly hard to describe. The season tells so many stories to really tell you them in any detail would be a spoiler and I won’t dare spoil a single story here so that you the potential viewers get the full effect of the emotional impact it has. I have never watched a show that has managed to make not only the quantity of emotional gut punches but in so many different ways. I truly feel like the writers behind this show are geniuses to somehow pack so many profound life lessons that resonate deeply on an emotional level and to do this not only consistently but in a way that doesn’t make the story feel crowded. This is in my opinion one of the most emotional stories ever told and I’m very happy to experience it and I am here till the story ends.