@radeepsjammu
The story of Old Man Voll was the scariest part of the anime for me. Coming to the realisation that one day I could forget the faces of loved ones is so haunting. Of course we have photos to help us remember but there is still something lost over time. Instances of expressions that were never captured on camera. Now imagine what it is like for Frieren who doesn't even have that luxury. It also showcases how much foresight Himmel had since he built all those statues, which are essentially photos for Frieren to remember them by.
@CristiNeagu
Old Man Voll was her rock. When she realised that he too is slipping away, her world turned upside down for a second. I think that she wasn't just shocked by the fact that he too is slipping away. I think in part she was also shocked by the fact that she cared. After all, she did tell Himmel, Heiter, and Eisen that their opinion doesn't count for much, as they will be dead soon. And here she is, caring about Old Man Voll fading. This show really is a masterclass in imagery. They set a very high bar for themselves in Season 2.
@bitwise-dev
Indeed that awkward frame of Frieren realizing old man Voll memories is fading makes it 1000x better.
@snicksss
One thing I noticed that I really liked was regarding Frieren’s master. When she was introduced I knew she had obviously already passed away, but I initially thought she must’ve died some sort of tragic death, as you see happen to many masters in anime. But then they showed her being elderly later on. She lived a full life, and likely left the world just like any other human being. And a similar thing happened with Himmel as well. This layered on the core of what Frieren is as a story, it’s fantasy, but that doesn’t mean it has to be overly dramatic in every turn. There are magicians in this world, but they are still human beings that live and die as anyone else would. And that is what Frieren has seen over the span of hundreds to thousands of years, that is the weight of time.
@Adam-hl6zr
I love love love love how rewatchable this show is. HImmel's death in the first episode doesn't have much of an impact initially, but the more we learn about the kind of person he was and is forces the audience to live in Frieren's shoes. No matter what, time marches onward, and we don't truly appreciate what we have until its gone. In the same way that Frieren only breaks when Himmel is buried, we don't feel his loss until we experience how incredible Himmel was through Frieren. Then we rewatch the show. We mirror Frieren. We've seen the show before, and rewatching is following our own footprints. We can't help but regret we couldn't have spent more time with this character that only lives in memory and history.
@TrueThanny
Old Man Voll was 400, not 300. He was 100 years beyond what would be expected for a dwarf.
@mazapan87
"Rules are best explored when broken" was such a casual drop but I had to pause and think
@ClutchPwnageTv
When I first saw the shot of Frieren facing the wrong way with all that negative space behind her, it hit me that she had realized how much emptiness there potentially is in living such a long life. The void of losing ones friends, sense of purpose, and even memories fills the frame far better when the traditional convention for framing is broken. The void is behind Frieren, reminding the viewer of her own past memories and regrets. The discomfort of the close up, with parts of her cut off and too close to the edge, conjures up the suffocating reality that Frieren too might one day be in danger of forgeting what she once cared so much about.
@thelastverb
There are more scenes breaking the 3rds rule. Maybe not so obvious, but they all immediately feel "off". Amazing how often that "off" feeling can be interpreted as "lack of Himmel" in that space. For example empty space next to Frieren in church in first episode.
@tafhimimamkhan
These kind of videos makes one appreciate a piece of media even more than they did after viewing it the first time.
@Eterrath
The story of Old Man Voll might also explain why Himmel never really forced his love on to Frieren. Perhaps he never wanted her to stay committed to a life full of weighty emotions like Voll
@radeepsjammu
It's amazing how much love and effort is put into Frieren.
@tinius9276
What I love about the first negative space shot, where it is just Frieren with the night sky behind her (I am not a cinematographer, so this is just my interpretation) is that IMHO having that negative space behind feels like she is pulled back from the reality in front of her and dragged by her thoughts into an introspective shock. Whenever the negative space is in front of a character, it feels like they are consciously viewing the world ahead, focusing on their reality. Still, when the negative space is behind, it feels like the space behind them is filled with their inner conflicts or thoughts. Portraying a sinking feeling of not seeing the world ahead as their thoughts are to heavy to even let their perception see forward. Straight up that shot with Frieren feels like an emotional headshot, where her brains are splattered behind her due to the confrontation of her realizing he is actually senile. And then comes the second shot, where it is jagged, her nose cut off, zoomed in for (seemingly) little reason: Here it feels like Frieren has processed the information and her mind has moved back into her from the negative space of the previous shot, but even though she now understands the information given it is still cracking and tearing her mentality. Like someone dropped a hammer on the glass that was Frierens mental state revolving around Voll and who he is right now. All this really creates this foundation of Frierens psyche where we see that she saw Voll as almost as endless as her. Stating that he has been old forever, a childlike innocence to how little age has affected him, and here she is forced to see that while he has always looked old and used that to trick others, at this point, he is also tricking himself. And by that, also tricking her.
@prisma.
As someone who lost a family member to Alzheimer, that one scene really hit close to home. On the last months of her life, my grandma had stopped recognizing most people but me, I was her favorite grandchild, but I still faintly remember the first time she directed a "Who are you?" to me: it was heartbreaking to see firsthand she was slipping away. I cant help but empathize with Frieren, who had lost so many friends, and Old Man Voll was one of the few she could still connect with, until he asked her to defeat the demon king, she realized he was too, slowly slipping away.
@NoVideolnput
The first half of Frieren always brings me to tears, it's such a bittersweet story told in a such a brilliant and beautiful way. Then around the start of the First Class Mage Exam I feel there is a tone shift where it goes from being remorseful of the past to hopeful about the future. Kind of a point where Frieren realizes that she hasn't lost her family but gained a new one with Stark and Fern. This is easily in my top 3 favorite anime series of all time, and I cannot wait for season 2 to arrive.
@ritsutakatsuki6149
This is also the reason why I love Frieren tbh. As someone who also loves photography, the use of these different framing techniques just quenches my thirst. It was beyond perfection. The staff really outdid themselves.
@susbedo9258
Frieren is so good that care is given to every single frame, every soundtrack, every voice line, every single animation, every dialogue. I'll never grow tired of your videos on Frieren. Thank you, Pey!!
@Avenjade
Near the end you mentioned how the show introduces characters, gives their whole story, and then we lose them shortly afterwards; this really beautifully parallels Frieren's own experience as her journeys with people while long by human standards are equivalent to the feelings we have when we meet a new character only to lose them so shortly afterwards
@cleonclarkbautista4617
You know what hits even harder? I've seen somewhere that when old patients start to become more active or start remembering more stuff, they're nearing the end of their life as their brain kicks up its last power, so Old man Voll finally being able to remember his wife in a dream is so damn bittersweet it's crazy
@ACCW42