The best thing about the series is its first 4 episodes.
The team of the hero returned from the raid on the Lord of the Demons, celebrated, then lacuna at 50 years old - all aged, died, the remaining one elves again gathers a team and goes on a journey along the old route. Coupled with what people who read the manga said, it seemed that the series would be about the passage of time, human intimacy, nostalgia and all that, but ... very quickly went a typical Senenov (not even about adventurers) template.
It is noteworthy that this move of the horse allowed the series to be popular. First, he attracted the opportunity to show off elitism:
- These, ladies and gentlemen, are not stupid adventures. This, sir, is a serious study of serious feelings. (I don’t mean people who really like the idea.)
And then familiar templates (romantics between two characters, tournament arc, measuring forces, overpowering, Jo-Jov twists, etc.) allowed to keep template anime artists at the screens. And since some scenes with conversations about the past were still there, these guys could also rank themselves as “nonsense”.
I don’t mind fights and love lines in almost any plot, but not when they are inserted to the detriment of the main idea. Well, in this case, what I thought was the main idea. After all, apparently, "Freren the Gravedigger" is devoted simply to the connection of people, the influence of strangers' stories and personal relationships. But, unfortunately, not changing the world and diving twice in the same river.
And yet, the further, the more problems with logic, with linking new information with what was said earlier. Well, we have a road story here, and they're all like, Trace 60, Journey Cinema doesn't have a coherent world, and the characters just move from one parable to another. But there, no one tried to create common rules and economic space for all - and here the author explains magic in one place, in another another, in a third again in another way, and uses it by the same people (elves).
In short, if you want to look at the slow and rare, but probably beautiful fights, diluted with talk about the rules of the world, and still sometimes tears tearful stories, then be bold.
And if, like me, you want to compare the path of the team of Himel 70 years ago and the new team in the same places and with similar circumstances, with the demonstration of what their decisions in the past led to, then there is nothing to catch here (in 25 episodes only one chela was shown, whose fate is directly related to Himel).
And if you do. .
I am annoyed by the local arches dedicated to fighting.
I mean, the way the fights are built here. While in ordinary fighters (adventures) fights end quickly and are built on tactics and strength, in the Senenov type fights are built on pontiffs, and the one who wins the best bazaar.
It's not a fight to take.
- Freeren versus the demonic wizard,
- Freeren versus the demon-six,
- Friren versus the demon-tamer
etc. etc. etc.
They always talk first and let each other prepare. The knights are on all sides (and do not look that the brethren are evil). This is all the more blunt since Freeren herself says that demons have no consciousness and say words like parrots.
However, we can assume that she meant only that they lie like breathing, and they breathe unevenly to human flesh.
There's a lot to assume. So while some people criticized the first series for, for example, not having a family for 70 years, I disagree. Those lacunae are simply not important for the plot, and therefore this author’s inattention can be closed yourself: the family is there until the opposite is shown.
There is also a scolding of Frirena that she behaved insensitively at a friend's funeral. She finally cried, not because she had been stripped, but because she finally realized she would never see him again.
Much more important is the general logic, inconsistency of the plot.
And if at first it was not necessary to find fault, then further contradictions accumulated. . .
I will not mention any trifles in the assessments of the characters and their replicas, which contradict the logic of the world and the psychology of people in general, as well as the geography of human settlements and movements of demons, although they are full.
Let's take the basics of this story: the demon lord. It turns out that he was already 1,000 years ago, and his demons were hanging around. Humans and elves fought with them, but in general they could not do anything. Therefore, the dwarf from the detachment of Himel (hero), who hastened the detachment to complete the main quest, looks strange. People for 1000 years, despite the demons, develop, build fortresses, multiply - it is not noticeable that there was a need for haste (and the fact that Himel was constantly distracted by secondary quests, and the world was not burned in the fire of war, this is evidence).
Or the most obvious thing: a system of magic. Freeren collects grimoires all over the world. But at the same time, it turns out that spells can be created purposefully (this is how the protection against magical attacks in the 3rd series was created). Well, not everything could be collected in the libraries of magical schools, and the healers in the villages could create something new. But what about the sorcerers' battle? At first, Freerena talked about the amount of mana (arch series 7-10), and then it turns out that the main imagination (arch series 18-28). That is, first, the main thing is to pour more mana into the defense and spell - and then the one who is weaker will not be able to do anything, and then the main thing is to be able to imagine victory (could figure out how to defeat a water magician in the middle of the ocean - then you will win). One can imagine that the level of mana serves as intimidation of the enemy, saying that if he has so much mana, then he cannot be killed. But then there would be no point in hiding the manu, and that's what Freerena does.
The magic of imagination itself has a right to exist. But it is not suitable for the Shonen militants. With it, only quick battles are possible or at least a quick exchange of blows-defenses (in the anime itself, an analogy was given with a stone-scissors-paper, i.e. it is necessary to quickly select a countermeasure for each attack, you can also recall the transformation of wizards into different beasts from classical European legends), but Senenovostvo also suggests a long-term entertainment and some determined level of forces. It all comes down to the author’s arbitrariness. A great magician may kill a demon lord in an intense duel yesterday, but today he may be killed by a drunken Gopnik who does not recognize the war hero (for example, Satoro Gojo from Magical Battle will not be saved by his infinity magic, because the bandit has ordinary Soviet one). . . )
There are, however, problems at the level of world-building in general, which the author's silence does not solve, they are stupid just as they are:
ridiculous methods of obtaining the first rank (combat trials in which the unworthy die, but just random, i.e. many good magicians die from scratch),
- Freerena is 1000 years old, but she does not understand the sense of people’s time (this would be reasonable for a “young” elves of 200 years, because among her no one grew old or died, and here she walked for the first time with people, “shortly” returned home, came home after 50 years, and all are already dead – it turns out, and this can be).
dungeons, which are formed not understand how, but have a frankly gaming device (or rather why it had to be destroyed, if this is an excellent polygon, and if anything, you can send a weakling with some magic grenade)
Finally, I left a question that may be clarified later (and I am not going to read the manga).
. Demon girl who fought with a steak boy (dwarf disciple) did not want to kill him, winning, she persuaded him not to get up, i.e. looks like not all of them are insensitive and cunning killing machines. The author gave their mental monologues several times, which means that either he failed so well, or specifically showed that they are not “Chinese rooms”, and Frirena is just a racist.
In the arch about the dungeon, the Golems are represented almost as demons: there is no consciousness, but behavior is copied. Then we can assume that demons are such meat golems that the Demon Lord created to create spells, amplify them, and then carry them to him. Then it will be explained why in 1000 years he never conquered the world, and why demons fight (they test their fighting spells).