[Editor's Note: An incomplete draft of this article was accidently published previously. It has been taken down and replaced with this, the completed version.]...
Frieren is a fine anime, but both it and FMA are wildly overrated. They’re both popular shonen anime with cool action sequences and are both mainstream enough to not be offputting for general audiences. They’re pretty much designed to be popular and accessible, but that degree of accessibility also makes them somewhat bland.
You know I haven’t seen a whole lot of anime, so sue me, but I’ll kind of agree with this take. They’re both pretty good anime, and probably even great, and an easy recommendation, right. At the same time, they really don’t inspire me in any way, or bring up like, interesting philosophical subject matter really at all, which are things that are value in media more than like. Cool fight scenes, and an accessible story.
Also, an aside, but these shows don’t have that great of fight scenes. They have pretty good “action”, I guess, pretty good animation, but fight scenes? I wouldn’t say they’re well written or choreographed, they’re about as basic as you can get. FMAB gets some points for having inventive solutions that crop up occasionally as a result of the setting’s alchemy and real chemical reactions and stuff, but that’s about it. Otherwise both of these shows are kind of extremely basic when it comes to their action. Both in the way that it’s conventionally written, but also in their direction and choreography. I think stylistically I might be opposed to anime generally, in this regard, as a medium that has, almost inherently, no limitations (being animation, right), and as a kind of, general style, that tends to place the setup basically right before the payoff happens. Rather than sort of gradually building up to more well-founded action scenes. In action choreography, maybe I just have kind of, infamously high standards for this stuff, or have different tastes from the norm, cause every time I’ve seen “great anime action” it’s always like, the most incomprehensible, stiffly animated, impact frame yutapon cube sakuga nonsense you could ever imagine.
I dunno, am I insane for the take the the vast majority of action choreography is better done when it’s grounded into an actual physicality, and implicit physical ruleset, rather than like, appreciating the tradeoff that comes with not doing that, the tradeoff of spectacle and absurdity?
I think early Trigger has some great examples of anime as a visual medium - things like Gurren Lagann and Kill La Kill have such a distinct visual style that would be impossible to replicate using live action or CGI. FMA and Frieren could, however, just as easily be in a different visual medium and be more or less the same. And you’re right that the fight scenes in each are fairly forgettable. I think the only one that stands out to me in FMA: Brotherhood is the one towards the end with Wrath. And I say this as someone who has seen a lot of anime - literally hundreds of series.
Idk, I think Frieren isn’t about the action, and all the stuff about elves and maturing, and what is really important etc is a breath of fresh air to me. And has just been interesting and different to me.
I saw both FMA and Brotherhood when they were airing. They’re both fine. Just not particularly complex or notable. I dunno what to tell you. I like Princess Tutu and Monster. Those are examples of “not bland” anime.
Frieren is a fine anime, but both it and FMA are wildly overrated. They’re both popular shonen anime with cool action sequences and are both mainstream enough to not be offputting for general audiences. They’re pretty much designed to be popular and accessible, but that degree of accessibility also makes them somewhat bland.
You know I haven’t seen a whole lot of anime, so sue me, but I’ll kind of agree with this take. They’re both pretty good anime, and probably even great, and an easy recommendation, right. At the same time, they really don’t inspire me in any way, or bring up like, interesting philosophical subject matter really at all, which are things that are value in media more than like. Cool fight scenes, and an accessible story.
Also, an aside, but these shows don’t have that great of fight scenes. They have pretty good “action”, I guess, pretty good animation, but fight scenes? I wouldn’t say they’re well written or choreographed, they’re about as basic as you can get. FMAB gets some points for having inventive solutions that crop up occasionally as a result of the setting’s alchemy and real chemical reactions and stuff, but that’s about it. Otherwise both of these shows are kind of extremely basic when it comes to their action. Both in the way that it’s conventionally written, but also in their direction and choreography. I think stylistically I might be opposed to anime generally, in this regard, as a medium that has, almost inherently, no limitations (being animation, right), and as a kind of, general style, that tends to place the setup basically right before the payoff happens. Rather than sort of gradually building up to more well-founded action scenes. In action choreography, maybe I just have kind of, infamously high standards for this stuff, or have different tastes from the norm, cause every time I’ve seen “great anime action” it’s always like, the most incomprehensible, stiffly animated, impact frame yutapon cube sakuga nonsense you could ever imagine.
I dunno, am I insane for the take the the vast majority of action choreography is better done when it’s grounded into an actual physicality, and implicit physical ruleset, rather than like, appreciating the tradeoff that comes with not doing that, the tradeoff of spectacle and absurdity?
I think early Trigger has some great examples of anime as a visual medium - things like Gurren Lagann and Kill La Kill have such a distinct visual style that would be impossible to replicate using live action or CGI. FMA and Frieren could, however, just as easily be in a different visual medium and be more or less the same. And you’re right that the fight scenes in each are fairly forgettable. I think the only one that stands out to me in FMA: Brotherhood is the one towards the end with Wrath. And I say this as someone who has seen a lot of anime - literally hundreds of series.
Idk, I think Frieren isn’t about the action, and all the stuff about elves and maturing, and what is really important etc is a breath of fresh air to me. And has just been interesting and different to me.
FMA??? BLAND??? Did you even watch it???
I saw both FMA and Brotherhood when they were airing. They’re both fine. Just not particularly complex or notable. I dunno what to tell you. I like Princess Tutu and Monster. Those are examples of “not bland” anime.