 Today on the channel, we're going to take a look at First Impressions on Frieren. Frieren? Frieren! Frieren! Frieren! I don't know how you say it. Hey everybody, welcome back to the channel. Today, we're taking a look at Frieren. Like I mentioned at the top of the video, this is volume one. Now, I do have volume two, but it did not arrive in time for the making of this video. So we're just going to focus on the first volume, a sort of first impression spaces on the series, and how it can move forward from that, my overall impressions on it. So what the heck is this series about? We follow the character of Frieren, a near immortal elf. She has a ridiculously long lifespan compared to other people and creatures of this fantasy world. And the story takes place after the main journey of our heroes is ended. Now, if you follow fantasy series or novels or you play JRPG games or regular RPG stuff, you know that you form a band of heroes and you have a quest and all that stuff. And at the end, you destroy the evil bad guy, the demon lord or whatever creature it may be and ever be, you know, you save the kingdom, you move onward on your separate ways. We follow the character of Frieren and her journey now that the main one has ended, how does she move forward from that? And when the main hero passes away of old age, it really comes at a realization, sort of an epiphany to our main character and how she views life, how she views the difference in age and how precious time really is, even though she's nearly an immortal due to her long lifespan. And you know, for a regular human, we don't live that long. And she sort of has a resentment. She wishes that she could have talked to Paimo and then probably butchered his name a little bit more and gotten to know him better. And that is one of the many themes explored in this series. After the funeral, how do you move on from there? She comes to the realization that she wants to go on her journey of her own. She's a fan of collecting magic, weird magic going through the land and helping people and just experiencing life from a different perspective. Because to her, going to see something might be, you know, a couple years might be what to us would be a couple of days. And for some other people, it would be a whole lifetime. And that in a nutshell is sort of the basis for the story. It's not a super complex tale. It's more of a character driven narrative of Frieren who at first glance might seem cold and calculating and not as lively as you would think. And you see that reflected on their friend's funeral when one of the mourners takes notice over and thought that she couldn't express such emotions, which was a shock. And she sort of wishes to have had more time to know more about her friends, not just on this journey that they went through. Because even though it was 10 years, sometimes like in real life, we're just so hyper focused on the task in hand that we don't take a moment to appreciate everything around us and the people that help us and guide us through whatever task it may be and the good times and the bad times and stuff like that. The majority of what soon follows is her taking on a young human major apprentice and going on different adventures and tasks, helping out people and earning new magic spells as a result. So the story might not be the most exciting thing if you're looking for a fantasy epic of combat and like super amazing action scenes and spells and wizardry flight and you're not going to get any of that. Instead, you have a character that is forced due to tragic circumstances to sort of reevaluate what it means to live and experience things from a different perspective as well as something very important that rarely gets discussed in manga. And that is the concept of what lies beyond grief. And when you mourn someone, what happens afterwards? How do you continue to honor that person? How do you continue that legacy? And sort of the after effects of losing a friend or a loved one? How do you move forward from that? Maybe traveling back to the loved one's town or, you know, retracing your steps with that person on your journey. In the case of our characters, she decides to go back and retrace their quest to see all the sights and sounds and the villages and all that stuff. And eventually she comes to see the fruits of their labor as people worship these guys because they saved the whole entire kingdom or country or whatever. And it sort of gives her a new perspective and having that legacy of your loved ones that are no longer there and having these characters sort of motivate you and push you forward from beyond the grave, if you will. You know, speaking of Frieden, I found her to be a great lead character. She may seem cold, calculating, and detached from humanity, but she's brimming with personality. Sometimes a little lazy, sometimes not as open as you would like, but Frieden cares and wants to help the populace. She's on this quest to re-examine what she knew and find more about her friends for her betterment. This is evident by her taking on an apprentice at the request of one of her former party members. Through this, she further comprehends humans and our complex personalities. Now, the art in Frieden is really nice. It's simple. It's well-drawn. The characters are all distinct and beautiful to look at, from the oldest person to the youngest to our protagonist. They all look unique and you instantly remember who they are. Clean lines all throughout, beautiful backgrounds. When there are scenes of magic or maybe a few combat scenes that we see in this first volume, they're nicely laid out. Everything looks topped here. Just wonderful overall. It has that sense of otherworldliness. Like, you could see it being sort of a portal to this other world and it looks alive and you want to partake in it. Especially the scenes where Frieden with her apprentice are looking for a blue flower. And that whole scene just had such whimsy to it that I really enjoyed. It was just a really nice breath of fresh air. And certainly the story picks up at the end of the book when you have some revelations about Frieden's origin, if you will, and how it moves into the next portion, the next part of that legacy of honoring those that are no longer with us, going on this grand adventure and meeting with old acquaintances who are now older and sort of reflecting with you on past experiences. So yeah, a very interesting manga. I cannot wait to continue reading this. Obviously I'm getting it physically, so it's going to take a while to read more and more chapters. But when I've read so far, I really do enjoy. It's a breath of fresh air, well-written, great characters, fantastic, beautiful artwork. And I think just a nice introspective look at subjects that rarely gets discussed in manga. How about you guys? Have you read Frieden? Are you currently reading it as it comes out? Let me know in the comment section down below. Now I'm a huge fan of elvish characters in anime and manga. That's one of my favorite tropes. So I have this question for you guys. What are some must-read manga involving elves that you think I need to check out and highlight on this channel? Guys, thank you so much for liking, commenting, subscribing, and being a part of A We Can Geek Them. It truly does mean a whole lot. If you want to see more of this content where I talk about anime and manga, be sure to subscribe. Share the video if you can. It really does help the channel grow and reach more audiences. That's it for now. God bless. Stay safe out there. I will catch all of you on our next video. Bye.