“Tell, Don’t Show” In Frieren

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]I discussed how Show don't tell was a major weakness for free in my disappointment video. But because it was a concise video covering multiple points, I didn't go through many examples. That's what I'll do here. I'll start by combing through episode 1 and finding every example of telling. Then I will give examples of many other anime easily avoiding this problem. I'll start with all of the tells and then look for the shows. Right off the bat, we are told about Oreo. Haidider and He tell us that they beat the demon king. He tells us about his concern about having his whole life ahead of him. Haidider tells us he likes to drink. The others tell us that he's a priest. He tells Fan that her life will be long, something she should already know. The king tells us about the new age of peace and prosperity. He tells us that they're getting statues. Fan tells us that the king was initially going to give them 10 copper coins. Haidider tells us that they spent 10 years together. He tells us that they disrespected the king. He tells us about Haider's bottle egg.

[00:00:47]Eisen tells us about Fan and the mimic.

[00:00:49]He tells us that he had fun. So does Haidider. This isn't another telling, but when Finn says, "A mere 10 years," He is surprised despite being the one that told her that her life will be long. He tells us about the era of meteor shower. Fren tells the group that she mapped out her next 100-year quest and what she intends to do. Haidider tells us about her time perception. Fren tells us that she needs a dragon horn for summoning. She tells us that he took a horn from the demon king. Fan tells us Eizen is the same, but we don't know anything about him, so that means nothing. He tells us that the adventure brings back memories. We don't know because we didn't see the adventure. He tells us that he's been waiting for Fen.

[00:01:21]Haidider tells Free that He was happy.

[00:01:23]Fren tells us that she knew nothing about Hem. Neither did we. She tells us that she wasn't aware how short human lives were. She says she didn't try to better understand him. We wouldn't know because the adventure was skipped.

[00:01:32]Haidider tells us that he fought alongside them to secure a seat in heaven. Freeman tells us that she wants to learn more about humans. Haidider tells us about Fern. Freeman tells us that he was the charitable one. She tells us that she wants to learn more about Haidider. Haidider tells us Fern has potential. Free tells us apprentice mages die often. Haidider tells us about the grimoire. Haidider tells us about how his fear of death has grown. Fern tells us she likes magic. That's the end of episode 1. These are the tell examples that are shown. Haidider is shown drinking. The meteor shower is shown as it happens. Finan's perception is shown by her saying mere 10 years.

[00:02:01]Her 100-year adventure is shown in a montage, but it's still shown. We are shown her elf aging through her looking the same while He's an old man. We see the statues. We see him happy. I could argue that her lack of awareness of human lifespans was shown, but I should also bring up that this is later contradicted. Flom was her human mentor and she saw her die. Flom died before she met He-Mo. So, how would she not know? Fern's mage potential is shown by her mana being undetectable. So, out of 36 details that are told to us, only eight of them are shown, 22%. I'm surprised they showed Heml dead instead of just telling us. Do we learn a lot about the characters in the world? Yes, but it's all told to us and is told in a boring way. At that point, I could just read a summary and get the same experience since the show is 90% exposition. Episode 1 is the worst example of Tell Don't Show, but the issue still persists throughout the 13 episodes I've watched. I don't think I've ever seen an anime have this issue to this degree. Stories are allowed to tell us things and sometimes even tell us without showing. Show and tell is the ideal, but that may not always be possible. The problem with Ferin is that it's mostly tell, rarely show. I believe this is the biggest cause for the story being as boring as it is. If you want to tell a slice of life story about after the demon king has been defeated, that's fine, but don't tell me stuff that you don't plan on showing me. It's such lazy writing. All bark, no bite. I'm sure someone will say that this is a cherrypicked example, but you can do this test on each episode and find that the problem really exists. I could do this for every episode going forward if there's interest in it, but it's timeconuming and ruins the brevity of the videos. Now, I'm going to go through anime and characters that were the subject of my recent videos and go over examples of how they do show and tell.

[00:03:31]I'll be focusing on character development, not world building. Ichigo didn't trust Futuro. She showed this by pretending to be her sister to test his love for the family. Mai felt betrayed by her mom, who was her agent. She shows this by quitting show business and losing contact. When she completed her arc of returning to showbiz, she showed this by letting her mom be her agent and acting in movies again. Yugji didn't believe in taking human lives. He showed this by struggling to fight transfigured humans. Edward also had the same belief.

[00:03:56]He showed this by not using the philosopher stone to achieve his goal since it was made from human lives. Ena was scared. She showed this by hiding in the bushes while watching her friend get beat to death. After her arc, she gained courage which was shown by her stepping in. Zoro's ambition to become the greatest swordsman is everything to him.

[00:04:10]He showed this by risking his life to fight the greatest swordsman. Todoroki hated his father. He showed this by not using the fire half of his quirk. Kochi was said to be incompetent. He showed this by leaving himself defenseless to try a plan Jo warned him not to try.

[00:04:21]Then when he became competent, he showed this by beating sheer heart attack and getting Kira's name, which even Jo couldn't do. Tama didn't support bullying. She showed this by standing up for bully victims, even when the victim was her bully. When Zaza believed that ninja weren't tools, he showed it by avenging Haku. Gohan and Krillin's cowardice was shown. Gohan ran away during the Nappa fight. Krillin and Gohan both used hit and run tactics in the Namek saga. Kojiro believed that no one should alter his recipe. He showed it by expelling Megumi for changing it.

[00:04:47]Light believed that he was justice. He showed it by killing anyone who tried to stop him. Armen's cowardice was shown by him freezing up against the Titan.

[00:04:53]Aaron's bravery was shown by him sacrificing his life to save Armen.

[00:04:56]Mikas' love for Aaron was shown by her acting irrationally after hearing about his death. Naruto was a prankster. He showed this by painting on the Hokag rock. Naruto believed that he would surpass the other Hokag. He showed this by painting over their faces. Shay suffered due to her ability to see spirits. The prequel OVA showed that Senrokara said she lost weight. We were shown that when Aaragi caught her with ease and described her weight. Takugi's love for Nishikata was shown through her writing his name on her eraser. In many of these examples, the character development that is shown through action is important to the story and moves it in meaningful directions. There are endless examples because it's such a basic technique. So Freeman's inability to accomplish such a simple task is mesmerizing. If you don't think Tell is fundamentally bad writing, then we'll just have to agree to disagree. In conclusion, show and tell is a basic foundational writing technique that every story should have some handle of.

[00:05:42]Free is tell don't show a complete lack of understanding of this basic writing.

[00:05:46]This is the biggest source of the story being boring. The fact that it fails a basic writing technique so badly yet is critically acclaimed as one of the greatest anime of all time is a disgrace to storytelling critique.

[00:06:11]Heat. Hey, Heat.