this post was submitted on 25 May 2025
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[–] [email protected] 46 points 3 days ago (5 children)

Would Friren count? Romance of the two teens are age appropriate for them. And two dudes that are enamoured with older women, but I think that’s it.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 3 days ago

Not to mention, those two dudes are both grown-ass adults. Nothing wrong with a grown man that likes milfs.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (3 children)

I'm waiting for the canonical reason why the female elves look like children while the one male elf we've met is drawn like a grown man. And I really hope it's not that their brain outpaces their body because then we're in the "5000 year old witch in a child's body" trope.

If this is addressed in the manga, no spoilers plz beyond a simple "Yes, it is."

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

One reason might be that the male elf is a physical fighter who is literally shown doing strength exercises, there isn't really a good way to make him look like a minor (or rather, like a link/legolas-type male elf or generic anime hot guy character) without making him look a lot weaker. Meanwhile the female elves are both wizards, so their physical shape doesn't impact their combat ability at all.

And IMO, the main character doesn't look like a child, she's just an adult woman who is kind of short and not that curvy.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 days ago (3 children)

I’d assume it’s because the only male elf is older? Idk this feels like looking for inappropriate intentions because you want there to be one.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Yeah I was about to say this he was way older than friren

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Serie looks like a child too and he is not older than serie tho.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 days ago

I mean, we have a sample size of 3 (in the anime anyway), and don’t actually know for certain how old any of them are. The only thing we really know is that Frieren is likely the youngest.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I'm sorry if my critical exploration of anime I enjoy makes you feel defensive but I literally just explained why I think that would be the worst reason. Don't worry no one's canceling Freiren, we're just having a chat.

"Adult elf bodies reflect their own self-image" would be pretty cool. Especially for the monk.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

The issue is we've encountered so few elves that it's impossible to say really anything about them as a whole. Maybe that is just how female elves look, maybe frieren and serie are just weird, or something else. But either way, we're basically just going on what little we've been shown which could change later.

Personally though, I don't actually mind the 1000 years old but looks like a child trope if it's not using it as an excuse to sexualuzed the character. Which they really aren't doing here.

And on the other hand, I also don't think Frieren looks like a kid. This is pretty common, I'll see people point out a character who's a bit short and sometimes flat (though that's not always the case even) and say that they look like a kid while I don't see it. So I don't know if it's me or what. Serie does look more like a kid to me though.

But we get back to the fact that she's not being sexualuzed anyway, so again, I don't personally take issue with it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

If I wanted to be really nitpicky, they do pay extra attention to Fern's chest after she grows up. And some of the shots can be a little "male pov." ~~This is not a diss to the show. I really, really enjoyed this series and would absolutely recommend it.~~

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago (2 children)

It could, but people could also see it as an example of the 3000 year old loli trope. So it may not be a good example.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ReallySevenHundredYearsOld/AnimeAndManga

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 days ago

She's a 1000 year old adult. At no point is she ever portrayed as anything remotely childlike.

It honestly fucking sucks that just because this trope exists elsewhere, a show like Frieren can't tell a serious story about what it's like to outlive everyone around you without being mistaken for this trope.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 days ago

You could see her as that trope, but I really don't think she fits the "loli" description. Lord knows I'm not about to google "loli" to check how closely she resembles one, but I'm pretty sure she's a rare example of an actually short woman

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

The loli is not 3000 years old.