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Move Over Edward — 'Frieren' Takes The Top Spot


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Gurren Rodan



Joined: 04 Jan 2018
Posts: 266
PostPosted: Wed Mar 20, 2024 8:32 am Reply with quote
Didn't one of the last Kaguya-Sama seasons also claim #1 spot on MAL a couple of years ago, at least for a little while? I'll be curious to see how long Frieren holds this spot on both sites.
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B12



Joined: 06 Nov 2020
Posts: 4
PostPosted: Wed Mar 20, 2024 8:32 am Reply with quote
FMAB gets passed every year now so this is not a big story. This time though Frieren might keep that top spot for a while since FMAB has dropped to a 9.09 rating when it was a 9.23 less than 4 years ago. All of the other older shows at the top have noticeable had their ratings drop in the last 4 years as well. Idk if just more real humans are using Mal now, or if there is some level of down voting across the board that has dropped most of the top shows ratings.
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Key
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Joined: 03 Nov 2003
Posts: 18498
Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley)
PostPosted: Wed Mar 20, 2024 8:39 am Reply with quote
Not too surprising that Frieren would accomplish this, since it's the rare show that's both super-popular and a critical darling. (I do feel that frequently being among the top 5 anime titles in Japanese TV rankings despite being a late-night show qualifies as "super-popular.")
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uhuurt



Joined: 15 Mar 2024
Posts: 26
PostPosted: Wed Mar 20, 2024 8:52 am Reply with quote
MAL's first spot means nothing as we all know obsessed FMAB fans will do their "work" to downvote everything that suprasses it, which isn't even a rare occurrence (most recently, Oshi no Ko held there pretty well). Also, while Frieren's accomplishments are absolutely admirable (and deserved, in my opinion), this kinds of statements should only be made a decently long time after the show in question has finished airing.
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doomrider7



Joined: 17 Sep 2006
Posts: 118
PostPosted: Wed Mar 20, 2024 8:54 am Reply with quote
Given how fickle and fake as all hell MAL and the general animanga community is, this doesn't mean much except that they've found a new flavor of the month to latch on to.
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Kougeru



Joined: 13 May 2008
Posts: 5600
PostPosted: Wed Mar 20, 2024 9:02 am Reply with quote
uhuurt wrote:
MAL's first spot means nothing as we all know obsessed FMAB fans will do their "work" to downvote everything that suprasses it, which isn't even a rare occurrence (most recently, Oshi no Ko held there pretty well). Also, while Frieren's accomplishments are absolutely admirable (and deserved, in my opinion), this kinds of statements should only be made a decently long time after the show in question has finished airing.


MAL implemented measures a few years ago to combat mass vote trolling like that, due to a situation where people trolled Chihayafuru Season 3 pretty heavily.
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Kougeru



Joined: 13 May 2008
Posts: 5600
PostPosted: Wed Mar 20, 2024 9:10 am Reply with quote
Unfortunately, this article isn't accurate. FMAB was actually oventaken on both sites back in 2017. Archive is loading slow so I can't find the exact dates it happened, but we can see here during August 2017 "Kimi no na wa." AKA "Your name." is the #1 on both sites in early August 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170809013041/https://myanimelist.net/topanime.php (August 9, 2017) and https://web.archive.org/web/20170730080109/http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/ratings-anime.php (August 8, 2017). It was very brief but it happened. I expect Frieren being on top will be brief as well. MAL has done well to combat vote trolling and such but pretty much every show's ratings drop quite a bit in the year after it airs.
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tintor2



Joined: 11 Aug 2010
Posts: 2168
PostPosted: Wed Mar 20, 2024 9:32 am Reply with quote
I'm fine with this if this convinces the staff to work on a season 2 like Spy X Family rather than wait 3 years until another studio grabs it like what happened with Onepunchman
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penguintruth



Joined: 08 Dec 2004
Posts: 8503
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 20, 2024 9:33 am Reply with quote
Is this show that good? From the little I know about it, mind you, it seems like just another generic fantasy anime. Better than FMAB?
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NeverConvex
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Joined: 08 Jun 2013
Posts: 2568
PostPosted: Wed Mar 20, 2024 9:58 am Reply with quote
It's much more .. emotionally poignant, I guess, than typical fantasy shows. It is also in many respects a typical fantasy show, though, albeit with all the fundamentals executed near flawlessly.

It's kind of hard to compare it directly to something like FMAB. They're very different kinds of works.
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Fluwm



Joined: 28 Jul 2009
Posts: 1058
PostPosted: Wed Mar 20, 2024 9:59 am Reply with quote
I absolutely adore Frieren, but I wouldn't consider it -- or FMA:B -- even close to the very best of the medium. Definitely not in the top 10, likely not in the top 20. Potentially in the top 50, should such a mood strike me whenever I should try to make such a list.

It's definitely one of the best shows of the past several years, though, don't get me wrong. There's just... a lot of anime out there. The biggest advantage Frieren and FMA have going for them is they hit that hard-to-define sweet spot between quality and popularity -- two very different metrics.
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RobbiRobb



Joined: 08 Oct 2021
Posts: 56
PostPosted: Wed Mar 20, 2024 10:05 am Reply with quote
I think the important takeaway here is, that Frieren seems to have the power to stay in that spot. We've seen a lot of different shows overtake FMAB on MAL over the years, but they mostly got there right after they ended, when people who enjoyed the show just finished it and rated it, while people who were more likely to give a lower rating hadn't gotten around to finishing and rating it. And as a result, it didn't take that long until they went back down below FMAB, because then other users got around to rating it.

However with Frieren, we've pretty much seen a consistent increase in score over time. It took until the end of November before it overtook FMAB but since then has only risen more. It's been at the top for almost four months. If it can overcome the fact that it ended, it has a good chance to stay in that position, or at least close to it, for quite some time, in contrast to a lot of other shows that took the number one spot at one point and then quickly fell out of the top ten. See the change of score for Frieren on MAL here.
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Key
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Joined: 03 Nov 2003
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Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley)
PostPosted: Wed Mar 20, 2024 10:10 am Reply with quote
penguintruth wrote:
Is this show that good? From the little I know about it, mind you, it seems like just another generic fantasy anime. Better than FMAB?

Thematically speaking, there's no other fantasy anime series like it, and I'm hard-pressed to think of another anime series of any type which does as good a job at using current events to reflect on a past journey and relationships (which is, arguably, the story's defining element). Also packs a stellar musical score (from the guy who did the music for Violet Evergarden) and EDs and top-end magical battles on the infrequent occasions when it focuses on them.

Yeah, I'd say it's at least as good as the FMA series and probably more impactful.

EDIT:
Fluwm wrote:
The biggest advantage Frieren and FMA have going for them is they hit that hard-to-define sweet spot between quality and popularity -- two very different metrics.

I agree with this sentiment.


Last edited by Key on Wed Mar 20, 2024 10:27 am; edited 1 time in total
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anime-prime



Joined: 17 Mar 2020
Posts: 71
PostPosted: Wed Mar 20, 2024 10:15 am Reply with quote
Key wrote:
penguintruth wrote:
Is this show that good? From the little I know about it, mind you, it seems like just another generic fantasy anime. Better than FMAB?
Also packs a stellar musical score (from the guy who did the music for Made in Abyss) and EDs and top-end magical battles on the infrequent occasions when it focuses on them.
Made in Abyss was Kevin Penkin. Frieren is Evan Call, who also did Violet Evergarden.
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Key
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Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley)
PostPosted: Wed Mar 20, 2024 10:29 am Reply with quote
anime-prime wrote:
Made in Abyss was Kevin Penkin. Frieren is Evan Call, who also did Violet Evergarden.

Ugh, you're right, so I've updated my previous post. Penkin's doing The Apothecary Diaries (the other really good series this season) instead.
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