00:00:03
it's only been just over a year since
00:00:05
freerun Beyond Journey's End premiered
00:00:07
and an anime adaptation as good as
00:00:09
freerun only ever comes out what feels
00:00:11
like once every era media shower but it
00:00:14
would be a shame to pass off frein's
00:00:15
incredible anime adaptation as just a
00:00:18
fluke each and every aspect of Fan's
00:00:20
anime adaptation was carefully crafted
00:00:22
with only the utmost skill and expertise
00:00:25
which is well reflected in the cultural
00:00:26
impact frean had I've wanted to make a
00:00:29
video on fre ever since I had the
00:00:31
privilege of watching its damn near
00:00:32
perfect for episode premiere but over a
00:00:35
year passed by in the blink of an eye
00:00:37
freerun Beyond Journey's End was good
00:00:39
enough to Dethrone Full Metal Alchemist
00:00:41
Brotherhood as the highest rated anime
00:00:43
on my anime list which it held for most
00:00:45
of the websites lifetime it wasn't
00:00:47
necessarily uncommon for a hot new show
00:00:50
to take Full Metal Alchemist number one
00:00:51
spot on Mal however none have stolen the
00:00:54
spot longer than fan whether any of
00:00:57
these anime are actually worthy of
00:00:58
taking that spot along with if Full
00:01:00
Medal should even be ranked number one
00:01:03
is of course up to debate the number one
00:01:05
ranking on Ma is obviously not the
00:01:07
definitive way of declaring an anime as
00:01:09
the best of all time but it is at the
00:01:12
very least somewhat accurate and
00:01:14
somewhat reflective of a Show's quality
00:01:17
it's high time that we reflect on ferin
00:01:19
now that the dust has settled and take a
00:01:20
look at all of the elements that made
00:01:22
ferin as good as it is this is how furin
00:01:25
became the best anime of all time
00:01:31
the beginning of this journey starts at
00:01:33
its source a manga fear and Beyond
00:01:35
Journey's End was written by Kito Yamada
00:01:38
and illustrated by tasa AB to oversee
00:01:41
the two is editor in charge katsuma oga
00:01:43
who answered many questions about Fan's
00:01:45
early Beginnings in an interview with
00:01:46
manga Tao initially it had only been
00:01:48
Yamada and oga who had both been working
00:01:51
with each other for quite some time oga
00:01:53
had tremendous faith in yam's Talent
00:01:55
despite his previous work being a flop
00:01:57
to Ping's back up though oga's next play
00:02:00
was for Yam to create a gag onot manga
00:02:03
and when Yamada handed the rough
00:02:04
storyboard for the new manga to Ora he
00:02:07
laughed but not for the right reason
00:02:09
what Yamada had handed his editor in
00:02:12
charge was a rough draft of what would
00:02:14
eventually turn into the first chapter
00:02:16
of frein despite Ora suggesting a gag
00:02:19
One-Shot manga he wanted to see yam's
00:02:21
work through and proceeded to recruit
00:02:23
illustrator tasa AB when AB received the
00:02:26
storyboard for frein he asked if he can
00:02:28
draw something out of it and Drew the
00:02:29
first first illustration of fan with
00:02:32
approval from oga and Yamada they sent
00:02:34
out the story board to shogakukan's
00:02:36
editorial department and the rest was
00:02:42
history fan came into serialization in
00:02:45
the weekly Shonen Sunday magazine in
00:02:47
April 2020 and is currently ongoing
00:02:49
before it was adapted into an anime the
00:02:52
manga received two prestigious Awards
00:02:54
the first being the Tesa usamu cultural
00:02:56
prizes new Creator award which is run by
00:02:59
one of Asia's oldest newsletters and the
00:03:01
second being the winner of the 14th
00:03:03
manga ta show awards now much of this
00:03:06
will mean nothing to you as it did for
00:03:07
me but to put some things into
00:03:09
perspective manga Tao only Awards manga
00:03:12
that have accumulated eight or fewer
00:03:13
volumes at the time of consideration its
00:03:16
committee is made up of around 100 manga
00:03:18
enthusiasts all of whom have zero ties
00:03:19
to the manga industry the committee does
00:03:21
two rounds of voting to select its
00:03:23
winner and in the 14th annual manga TAA
00:03:25
Awards fan won by a landslide having 24
00:03:29
points over its competitors which
00:03:30
included OKO Kaiju number8 and spy
00:03:33
family all of which were popular enough
00:03:35
to receive their own anime adaptations
00:03:37
and is the highest point differential
00:03:39
between first and second place in the
00:03:41
entirety of manga Tao's 16-year run with
00:03:45
all the notoriety surrounding the series
00:03:46
it was inevitable that Freeman would
00:03:48
receive an anime adaptation but I don't
00:03:50
think anybody could have anticipated
00:03:52
just how high of a degree it would be
00:04:00
takachi shitro is the man we should
00:04:01
thank for the anime's Existence takachi
00:04:04
fell in love with fan after reading its
00:04:05
first chapter and immediately set his
00:04:07
sights on an anime adaptation I thought
00:04:09
it would be great if we could convey the
00:04:11
charm of the world of fan and the others
00:04:12
to the audience through careful art
00:04:14
acting and directing takachi would
00:04:17
eventually get the okay from shakugan
00:04:19
the manga's Publishing Company Yamada
00:04:21
and Ora largely left the anime
00:04:23
adaptation into the hands of its
00:04:24
producers however they requested that
00:04:26
the character's lines remain tightly
00:04:28
intact as yam craft rafted every piece
00:04:30
of dialogue with the utmost care taji
00:04:33
was left with the one final word from
00:04:35
shogakukan create a work that will be
00:04:37
loved by many people for a long
00:04:40
time to carry out this request tagachi
00:04:42
recruited producer fukushi riro a friend
00:04:45
he knew from his work on one punch man
00:04:47
taguchi and fukushi schedules just so
00:04:49
happened to align in a way that would
00:04:50
allow the two to work together it was
00:04:52
then that fukushi decided that K rosito
00:04:54
would be the best fit to direct the
00:04:56
series describing him as a director who
00:04:58
has the ability and popularity to
00:05:00
properly Express what is required Kito
00:05:03
was a former key animator who only
00:05:05
recently made his directorial debut with
00:05:07
2022 is Boi The Rock however long before
00:05:10
Boi The Rock even aired he was well
00:05:12
respected in the industry in fact he was
00:05:14
offered the role of anime director on
00:05:16
feran before Boi The Rock's Premiere
00:05:19
another key figure who goes under
00:05:20
appreciated in Fan's anime production is
00:05:22
Takashi nakame who mainly works on
00:05:24
movies however his involvement in
00:05:26
freerun allowed him to bring on movie
00:05:28
exclusive animators on a TV production
00:05:30
tldr tagui shitro brought on fukushi
00:05:33
urro who was able to get kro Sito on
00:05:36
board sito's reputation influenced
00:05:38
multiple star animators to want to join
00:05:40
the freerun project which Takashi nakame
00:05:43
was able to pick from takachi went on
00:05:45
record to express just how essential
00:05:47
saito's involvement and namesake was for
00:05:49
Fun's anime production going as far as
00:05:51
saying there were also people who said
00:05:53
if CAO cro is doing it I would
00:05:55
definitely like to participate too if
00:05:58
the anime production wasn't already
00:05:59
already evidently stacked enough on the
00:06:01
visual side of things tushi decided to
00:06:03
bring on melee for the ending sequence
00:06:05
and shogakukan decided to bring on yoi
00:06:07
SOI for the opening most important
00:06:09
however was the announcement that Evan
00:06:11
call would be composing the anime's OST
00:06:14
if I'm being honest this announcement
00:06:15
was what made frean a must-watch anime
00:06:18
for me I'm by no means an expert when it
00:06:20
comes to anime composers or anime in
00:06:22
general but off the top of my head there
00:06:24
is no other person more fit to compose
00:06:27
the score for a show like frean than
00:06:29
Evan call and he and taguchi seemed to
00:06:31
share the same sentiment I was very
00:06:33
happy when I heard about the request to
00:06:34
compose the music when I read the
00:06:36
original work it contained all of my
00:06:38
favorite elements and I imagined the
00:06:39
music as I read it even after I started
00:06:41
composing music freen story struck a
00:06:43
chord with me many times I am looking
00:06:45
forward to the day when I can share my
00:06:46
music with everyone along with this
00:06:48
wonderful story I hope you all look
00:06:50
forward to it Ean Call's music is as
00:06:52
integral to F's anime adaptation as the
00:06:55
animation itself while I'm not trying to
00:06:57
insinuate that making visuals for an
00:06:59
anime ad ation of a manga is necessarily
00:07:01
easier than creating music out of the
00:07:03
source material it is quite the task to
00:07:05
essentially capture the sound of
00:07:07
drawings but Evan call has a diligent
00:07:09
process to carry out this task he first
00:07:12
Begins by reading the source material
00:07:13
getting the feel of the atmosphere of
00:07:15
the work and then picks his arsenal of
00:07:17
instruments to use for creating the main
00:07:19
theme after the main theme is created he
00:07:21
runs it by the series main staff to
00:07:22
confirm the direction of the sound and
00:07:24
receives a song menu to flesh out the
00:07:26
entire soundtrack Evan call also
00:07:28
branched out of his comfort Z for frein
00:07:30
and introduced lesser known folky
00:07:32
instruments like the rebic viol and loot
00:07:35
this extra effort adds just a little bit
00:07:37
more depth to frean sound even if the
00:07:39
end product could have had a similar
00:07:41
Sound by using another common stringed
00:07:43
instrument it still shows just how much
00:07:45
care and passion Evan call had for Fan's
00:07:47
osc both yoi SOI and melee made comments
00:07:50
on their time working on Fan's op and Ed
00:07:53
but Evan call really went out of his way
00:07:55
to express his feelings towards each and
00:07:57
every episode of frein every week Evan
00:07:59
would tweet out his opinions on each
00:08:01
episode along with this thought process
00:08:03
on how he scores each track according to
00:08:04
the scene he also went on to do an A on
00:08:08
r/ anime and appeared in several
00:08:10
interviews about him as a composer as
00:08:12
well as his work on frein I like to
00:08:14
think of Melodies kind of as sentences
00:08:16
and I'm trying to tell a story not with
00:08:18
words but with notes what am I trying to
00:08:21
say with this melody how does the shape
00:08:23
of the melody convey the intended
00:08:24
emotion there are many flashback scenes
00:08:27
in which the main character frean looks
00:08:29
back on her memories with her companions
00:08:30
who traveled with her so I put her
00:08:32
feelings at that time into the music I
00:08:34
hope you will pay attention to that and
00:08:36
listen to the melody
00:08:38
line frein's anime adaptation would go
00:08:41
on to premiere on nepon television's
00:08:43
Kino roacho programming blog on
00:08:45
September 29th 2023 this programming
00:08:47
block was exclusively reserved for
00:08:49
featurelength films and has been
00:08:51
broadcasting since 1985 making frein the
00:08:54
first TV anime to ever be broadcast in
00:08:56
this time slot frean premiered with a
00:08:59
2-hour long special that would
00:09:00
eventually be split into episodes 1
00:09:02
through 4 the following episodes of fun
00:09:04
would go on to broadcast on ntv's newly
00:09:07
made Friday anime night again making
00:09:09
frein the first anime to Premiere in
00:09:11
that time slot frein's Premiere is one
00:09:13
of the strongest starts of an anime I've
00:09:15
watched within the first episode alone
00:09:17
characters you know nothing about feel
00:09:19
like a group of friends you've known for
00:09:20
the duration of their entire decade long
00:09:22
journey and this is achieved by the use
00:09:24
of flashbacks and various montages that
00:09:27
Tastefully give the audience Exposition
00:09:29
thank in no small part to kri oo's
00:09:31
excellent Direction flashbacks in
00:09:32
stories can often times feel cheap but
00:09:34
frean embarking on a New Journey to
00:09:36
reflect on her times with the hero's
00:09:38
party along with syo's use of frequent
00:09:40
match Cuts allows the story to
00:09:41
transition into a piece of welld done
00:09:43
Exposition smoothly I really can't
00:09:45
understate just how effective these
00:09:47
montages are they build greater depth to
00:09:50
each character giving us a candid
00:09:52
insight into how these characters
00:09:53
interact with the world and each other
00:09:55
as if they exist without the audience
00:09:57
watching I appreciate that frean takes
00:09:59
time to let these scenes marinate rather
00:10:00
than rushing to flesh out a character
00:10:03
immediately after watching frein's
00:10:04
Premiere I felt like I could spend a
00:10:06
thousand episodes in its World frean
00:10:08
also has amazing cinematography with so
00:10:11
much thought put behind each shot
00:10:13
utilizing multiple eye-catching angles
00:10:15
my favorite being this firstperson
00:10:16
perspective that's used throughout the
00:10:18
entire series background characters will
00:10:20
frequently have animations to them that
00:10:22
subconsciously make the world feel more
00:10:24
alive often times in anime it can be
00:10:26
common to notice when characters are
00:10:27
frozen in place waiting for their turn
00:10:29
to to speak but this isn't the case for
00:10:31
frean it really does feel like a movie
00:10:33
level production in a TV anime which
00:10:35
again fittingly premiered in Keno Roo's
00:10:38
movie exclusive TV programming block
00:10:40
even during the slower moments of the
00:10:42
show fan never leaves a dull moment for
00:10:44
a single second whether it's its visual
00:10:46
Direction background art or beautiful
00:10:48
soundtrack and speaking of soundtrack
00:10:50
Freeman's Premiere was scored after the
00:10:52
animation had already been complete or
00:10:54
at least complete enough for Evan call
00:10:56
to get an idea of how he wanted to round
00:10:57
out everything with this sound it's a
00:10:59
technique called film scoring and it's
00:11:01
commonly used in film making I love how
00:11:04
ferin isn't afraid to really crank up
00:11:06
Evan Call's soundtrack and we can thank
00:11:08
sound director Shi ha for that too many
00:11:10
times I've seen an anime do the
00:11:12
composers Dirty by not letting the
00:11:13
soundtrack take center stage and I'm
00:11:15
happy to hear that this isn't the case
00:11:17
with frein it all goes back to Evan call
00:11:19
saying I hope you will pay attention to
00:11:21
that and listen to the melody line it's
00:11:24
aspects like these that make me fall
00:11:25
deeper in love with Evan Call's sound
00:11:28
the adaptation elevates just about every
00:11:30
aspect of the manga and its characters
00:11:32
are animated with this fluidity to them
00:11:34
that makes each of them feel more real
00:11:36
there's this extra level of movement in
00:11:38
freerun that I haven't seen or at least
00:11:40
noticed in other shows there is a
00:11:43
staggering amount of detail in scenes
00:11:45
that will only last a few seconds but
00:11:47
this intentional extra bit of effort
00:11:49
makes the world feel that much more
00:11:53
alive there's yet another person who
00:11:56
goes under appreciated and that is toru
00:11:58
iwasawa the series action director many
00:12:01
of the standout scenes from veren are
00:12:03
largely anime original or at least
00:12:05
heavily expanded upon from just a few
00:12:06
panels in the manga and we can thank
00:12:08
elawa for a lot of Fan's best moments my
00:12:12
favorite scene from fan and my favorite
00:12:14
moment from 2023 was the fight between
00:12:16
Stark and the Dragon in episode 6 which
00:12:18
highlights every strength that Freeman's
00:12:20
anime has to offer and perfectly
00:12:22
encapsulates every aspect in just a few
00:12:24
minutes I'm just going to assume you've
00:12:26
already watched the anime at least up to
00:12:28
this point so spoilers ahead shortly
00:12:30
after the premiere we're introduced to
00:12:32
Stark a disciple of fen's former party
00:12:34
member eizen armed with a giant battle
00:12:37
ax he protects the village he resides in
00:12:39
from a red dragon however it's revealed
00:12:41
that Stark is merely putting on this
00:12:43
strong and tough attitude as a front in
00:12:45
reality he's a coward frein and fern
00:12:47
recruit Stark to come up with the plan
00:12:49
to defeat the dragon where Stark would
00:12:50
act as a distraction for both Fern and
00:12:52
frein to kill the dragon although
00:12:54
hesitant at first Stark agrees to join
00:12:56
them and now the scene is set a power
00:12:59
ful red dragon stands before Stark as he
00:13:01
begins to tremble in fear and that's
00:13:03
when frein remembers this a scene where
00:13:06
Fran's old party is faced with a
00:13:08
god-like being and eizen is trembling in
00:13:11
fear fan points this out and Eisen
00:13:13
responds with
00:13:17
[Music]
00:13:25
this not only does this scene deliver
00:13:27
such a simple yet incredibly moving
00:13:29
message it highlights the influence
00:13:31
Fan's old party had on herself when Fern
00:13:34
points out that Stark's hands are
00:13:35
shaking frean Chuckles and smirks Stark
00:13:37
takes it as a jab but frein is looking
00:13:39
at the entire scene fondly frean doesn't
00:13:41
comment on Stark's visible fear at all
00:13:43
until Fern says something since she's
00:13:46
already lived this exact moment after
00:13:48
this small yet very endearing
00:13:49
interaction Stark gains the resolve to
00:13:51
take on the dragon what unfolds is an
00:13:54
incredible feat of Animation involving a
00:13:56
fully animated 2D Dragon technical
00:13:58
background animation and an overall
00:14:00
understanding on how to convey the speed
00:14:02
scale and weight of the fight what we
00:14:04
see here is the combined efforts of
00:14:06
nothing but veteran key animators
00:14:08
expertly carrying out action director
00:14:10
toru I asawa's vision for this scene as
00:14:12
I said earlier this scene perfectly
00:14:14
encapsulates every strength freen anime
00:14:17
has to offer the firstperson perspective
00:14:19
I spoke about earlier returns placing
00:14:21
Stark in the dragon's mouth as he enters
00:14:23
its range the match cut from Stark to
00:14:25
eizen smoothly transitions into a
00:14:26
flashback not only showing influence
00:14:29
onto Stark but also allowing freein to
00:14:31
reflect on her past when the flashback
00:14:33
begins we're introduced to another
00:14:35
beautiful Track by Evan call fittingly
00:14:37
named fear brought me this far the OS
00:14:40
builds up more and more until it's
00:14:41
revealed just how strong Stark is as he
00:14:43
begins to turn the fight around we then
00:14:45
switch to the track Dragon Smasher
00:14:47
entering with this beautiful pan and
00:14:48
zoom shot done by tatsuya yoshihara
00:14:51
which is Then followed by my favorite
00:14:52
cuts of the entire scene done by utaka
00:14:54
Nakamura if kro Watanabe shingo yamashta
00:14:57
and Yen BM communicated the weight and
00:14:59
scale of the fight in the beginning then
00:15:01
utaka Nakamura perfectly conveyed the
00:15:03
speed and ferociousness of the fight
00:15:05
starting with this shot of Stark
00:15:06
latching onto the dragon as it tries to
00:15:08
throw him off the fix camera angle of
00:15:10
him struggling to stay on the dragon's
00:15:11
head while his clothes thrash in the
00:15:13
wind is by far my favorite cut in the
00:15:15
scene and one of my favorites in the
00:15:16
entire anime this is all backed by some
00:15:19
incredible background animations to tie
00:15:21
everything together which can be easy to
00:15:23
miss but incredibly jarring if done
00:15:25
incorrectly to top this all off in Fan's
00:15:28
manga there were only six drawings from
00:15:31
start to finish showing Stark fighting
00:15:33
the dragon frean goes the extra mile in
00:15:35
adding all of these details that give
00:15:37
that wow factor to the show as a whole
00:15:39
like the constant level of detail in
00:15:41
characters hair or clothing which can
00:15:43
also be seen in the Stark dragon scene
00:15:45
it really shows just how much care every
00:15:48
person involved in the anime production
00:15:49
has it would be a damn shame if this
00:15:52
level of quality was wasted on a 7 out
00:15:54
of 10 story but what frean provides is a
00:15:57
new take on the high fantasy joh which
00:15:59
has lovable characters to move the plot
00:16:01
forward not a single person will look
00:16:03
back on Fein and think that this show
00:16:05
was quote unquote carried by its
00:16:07
animation there is not a single thing
00:16:09
about the anime that is shallow the many
00:16:11
themes frean presents and how the
00:16:13
characters interact with each other
00:16:15
along with the technicality of its
00:16:16
production blend flawlessly together
00:16:18
giving us an anime that will remain in
00:16:19
our minds and move our hearts long after
00:16:22
Fan's Journey eventually comes to an end
00:16:29
thank you so much for watching if you do
00:16:31
enjoy my content then please leave a
00:16:32
like comment and sub to my YouTube
00:16:34
channel to support me as always it was
00:16:36
hard for me to complete any sort of
00:16:37
video but doing the research for this
00:16:39
and reading about the production was
00:16:41
super fun and I hope this video was as
00:16:43
entertaining for you as it was for me
00:16:44
when I did my research I hope I didn't
00:16:47
get things too wrong though I'll leave
00:16:48
additional reading and sources that were
00:16:50
used in the making of this video in the
00:16:52
description down below the next video
00:16:53
I'll be releasing will be the 2024 anime
00:16:56
Awards video which will definitely not
00:16:58
be on time but we'll hopefully release
00:17:00
before gig and crunchy roll release
00:17:01
their respective Awards so please look
00:17:03
forward to that thanks again for
00:17:05
watching and I'll see you in the next
00:17:07
one
