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this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2023
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Anime
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Anime is hand-drawn and computer animation originating from Japan.
Anime; the one thing that gets us closer to each other and brings us together.
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Another great episode. Really loved the first part about Himmel not wanting Frieren to be alone and that is why he had so many statues made.
One of the (many) things that I really enjoy about this series is its portrayal of demons. They really feel quite alien but relatable at the same time. They fall right into an uncanny middle between human and monster that always has you second guessing yourself about them. Frieren probably says it best in that they can understand our speech, but can't be communicated with; drawing a clear line between being able to speak and being able to understand and convey thoughts and emotions through speech.
There are many parallels I can draw between this series and Mushishi, but this portrayal of demons reminds me a bit of how mushi are described by Ginko. They are more or less wild things living in nature and when they intersect with humans bad things can happen, but it isn't out of malice or any kind of emotion, it is simply surviving in the environment it finds itself. I think Frieren views demons in much the same way. They are not hurting humans out of malice, but simply creatures that find themselves in a world full of humans. As a survival strategy, the demons found ways to use humans to their advantage, it just so happens that those strategies involve manipulating and taking advantage of human emotions.
I haven't seen this portrayal before Frieren, it is an intriging idea, and I think the author did a convincing job with the example of the demon girl, that it is totally not the "yesterday's enemy can be tomorrow's friends" trope you see in so many other novels/mangas/animes.
Those tend to be racism allegories, which is definitely not the case here.