Have you noticed anything about the way Frieren’s characters speak?
Summary:
- Frieren’s characters speak in a similar way.
- There aren’t any differences in their grammar or vocabulary.
- No character stands out because of that.
Frieren: Beyond Journey's End (Sousou no Frieren) Season 1 finished airing, and many fans moved to the manga instead. They’re already praising the source material for great art and wonderful story, but there’s one thing they’ve noticed that doesn’t sit right with them: the way characters talk.
They are all the same
There’s a certain lack of diversity in the characters’ speech. An elven mage, an ancient demon, a random priest, a charismatic warrior ― it feels like everyone has the same manner of speech, no matter what their age, race, and occupation are.
There’s nothing special about their grammar or their vocabulary, they use the same words and phrases, there aren’t any catchphrases that you would recognize a character for even with your eyes closed. They all have a nonchalant way of speaking, and this is just upsetting.
It makes a lot of sense for Frieren to be this way. She’s over 1000 years old, so a slow and calm manner of speaking suits her very well. But it doesn’t make her stand out among other characters because every other one of them speaks just the same way.
Frieren: Beyond Journey's End has a very wide world, where humans coexist with mages, elves, dwarves, and demons. Each race could’ve had something special about them to emphasize the differences between them. Elves and demons are almost immortal, so it makes sense for them to speak like Frieren.
But people and human mages are different, and seeing little to no emotion on Fern’s face and in her speech for 100 chapters feels out of place.
More diversity is needed
And not only is it a matter of speaking, but also many Frieren’s characters are similar in one way or another. They don’t differ much from the main cast, which makes the entire series lack diversity.
It’s like all the characters in the series suffer from the “Frieren effect” and are meant to resemble her at least a little bit. There is so little emotion that sometimes you want nothing more than just for a couple of characters to lose their composure and become truly angry.
Manga readers feel like it has something to do with the writer of the manga, Kanehito Yamada. Perhaps it’s their own voice or style of speaking, and that’s why all the characters are also like that.
However, a number of readers say that this may have something to do with the translation of the manga, since the Japanese version is much better when it comes to that. It’s still not perfect and lacks emotion, too, but it’s more diverse.
Source: Reddit