Arknights: Perish in Frost

アークナイツ【冬隠帰路/PERISH IN FROST】

7.60(20K votes)

Ranked #1820Popularity #3261

episodes

Type

Status

Finished Airing

Aired

Oct 7, 2023 to Nov 25, 2023

Studios:Yostar Pictures

ActionFantasy

Synopsis

Rebel organization Reunion has reduced the city of Chernobog to ashes and despair. That is only the beginning of its uprising against the nations prejudiced toward those infected with the highly contagious and deadly disease Oripathy. Now, the rebels have set their sights on Lungmen—a prosperous city infamous for its inhumane treatment of the sick. After witnessing Reunion destroy her homeland, Chief Ch'en of the Lungmen Guard Department's Special Inspection Unit leads her squad to defend her city. Meanwhile, Amiya, the Doctor, and the rest of the advanced pharmaceutical company Rhodes Island continue to oppose Reunion on all fronts. However, they soon find themselves in a deadlock against a powerful enemy: FrostNova, a Reunion commander whose fearsome wintry powers cause anyone unfortunate enough to stand in her way to slowly perish in frost. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

59,879 Members

Worth Watching? — Global Verdict

7.1/10

Average Review Score

38%

Recommend It

Reviews Worldwide

International Reviews

ShinodaChan

Mixed FeelingsWell-written

For a long time, Arknights has had a cult following; myself included. We praise the game for its worldbuilding, hold its characters near and dear, and cherish the game as a part of our lives. Why is it then that the anime fails to convey this appeal? Why is it that Perish in Frost, which is in many ways an improvement over its predecessor, is still so critically flawed? The truth, put simply, is that it's a flawed story mixed with extraneous circumstances. Now, I won't talk about gacha syndrome here, nor the limited episode count. These issues should be fairly apparent, and though Yostar hastried to work with them, they both tie back to the same problem: the problems with the source material. To give a few examples of what I'm talking about: - Prelude to Dawn (Chapters 0-3) was poorly written across the board. Amiya gets a weak introduction, the first main antagonists (Misha/Alex) are respectively naive/insufferable, and most critical of all: Lungmen's issues weren't made apparent sooner. Reunion largely gets painted in a negative light up until this season, meaning that Prelude to Dawn lacked the nuance in its conflict that it desperately needed to convince viewers. By the time viewers finish Perish in Frost the story will make sense in retrospect, but it should never have been 'in retrospect' to begin with. Context clues should have been planted way sooner, and Yostar failed to make these adjustments to what is commonly perceived as the worst arc in the original game. You'd think that this wouldn't matter, but look at the viewership drop between seasons. No matter what Perish in Frost does, it can't change Prelude to Dawn's bad first impression. This gutted most broader interest in the anime, and it's unlikely to come back. - The story provides very little payoff. Payoff can take multiple forms: visual results, character development, and callbacks to previous scenes. Where Arknights suffers is in its inability to make the conflict seem worth it. If the tragedy only gets worse, and there's no real light in the dark, what's the point of any of this? Why depress viewers further if there's no clear ray of hope? One could liken it to torture porn where, instead of things getting better, the situation somehow only seems to get worse for the mere sake of getting worse. Rhodes Island rarely 'wins'. Instead, it's constantly dealt pyrrhic victories that take more away than they give. If that's the precedent across not just one, but two seasons, why should viewers still care? Players may know the answer, but for anime-onlies it's more difficult. To put it one way, we live in a time where depression is more rampant than ever, and escapism is highly preferred. If your emphasis is on confronting reality, and said confrontation rarely yields positive results, then that's not enjoyable in the slightest. While it's from a completely separate genre, consider that part of the reason Bocchi the Rock is so popular is because it relates to and instills hope in its core audience. It tells introverts that the world isn't all darkness, and that if they take a chance to step out of their shell, they'll be able to pursue what they truly want. Arknights doesn't have a similar message, it's merely a surface-level commentary on discrimination and injustice. Considering that, maybe it's not such a good idea to tell viewers the truth insofar that injustice is a systemic problem, and it takes an eternity to properly address. Again, people don't want to face the grimness of reality, and that's exactly what Arknights is: the wrong story at the wrong time. - Arknights arcs have too many characters. This is a problem that only worsens as the story develops, but for all of the intricacy of Arknights' worldbuilding, it gets too many faces involved. Gacha syndrome plays a part in this, but in general it's a mistake to focus on more than a few characters at a time. Character development takes nuance, conflict, and screentime. If you distribute your points across too many skills, you're not going to level anything. What's even worse is when the investment DOES happen, but the character is subsequently killed off. Suddenly we're back to stage 1 of depression, only now the viewer is left frustrated. Where is the win? Where is the hope? Where, in this godforsaken Earth analog, is a sign that things are getting better? Tolerance has a breaking point, and a failure to acknowledge this is a failure to keep viewers interested. Characters need to be meaningfully developed AND maintained for sake of continuity, otherwise it's a wasted effort. You could argue that in some cases a character's death is narratively significant, and in both seasons this is certainly the case. The problem is that there is nothing BUT death, leading to the aforementioned issues. - To add onto the above, Arknights prefers the 'big picture' with its storytelling. It focuses on providing a broad view of all the main players, like watching chess pieces move on a board. This is great for building a comprehensive image, but draws the focus away from individual characters. Ironically, part of the problem is in situations where the seeds for payoff are actually planted. Without getting into spoilers, this season has more than one occasion where a character's arc is foreshadowed for later, preemptively justifying their screentime. This works if your viewers are already bought into the narrative, but when the story is already as flawed as it is, the biggest concern should lay in fixing the present; not setting the stage for the future. If you take anything from all of this, it's that Arknights' story is too broad and overly depressing. It does a poor job in retaining viewers because there's little to be found in maintained progression. You can see the progression in recurring characters, but with gacha syndrome in full swing, those examples are few and far between. None of this is to say I hate Perish in Frost. As I said at the start, it's mostly an improvement over Prelude to Dawn. The animation has improved, the fight scenes are (generally) better, there's more focus on fewer characters, and the central conflict has grown much clearer. Viewers can clearly see how Amiya, Ch'en, and even the Doctor have developed, even if Ch'en's arc was gutted through pacing. This season's antagonists are far more enjoyable — barring a certain little shit — and the emotional beats are starting to hit. There are still problems, namely when it comes to the pacing, soundtrack, and inconsistent censorship, but those are things that can be improved without relying on the source material. Unfortunately, the anime is crippled by its first season, as if gacha adaptations weren't scrutinized enough. It'll be a long road for Yostar Pictures from here, and with the mixed quality of future arcs (starting strong then getting worse), I have my doubts for future seasons. Life lesson, folks: Don't screw up your first season. It'll undermine everything that comes after, simply because viewers won't view anything beyond it.

Community Discussion

Puglaysik

Recommended

Arknights is a masterpiece. There are very few games that come even close to the level of quality and consistency that Arknights has; that said, the anime is... not nearly as "perfect." Let's start with the good and work our way down to the bad and even the ugly. The Animation. For a small studio that has mostly only done short PV's and maybe some OVA's here and there, to come out and make full-length episodes of this quality is impressive, to say the least. The backgrounds and scenery, the art style and close-ups, the fight scenes and atmosphere—everything is executed beautifully, they really triedto give it a certain "movie quality" which made for a very enjoyable watching experience. Now there are some parts (or even entire episodes) that are lackluster, but, besides one exception, I feel like all the important parts have been adapted extremely well. Overall, the animation was great, and it really captured the dark/depressing setting of the game quite well. The Voice Acting. To me, there's nothing worse than bad voice acting, and fortunately, this anime has some of the best I've heard. Maybe I'm biased on this one as I really love the characters that appear in this season, or maybe I just like it when voice actors try their best, even though that may lead to overexaggerated emotions, but one thing is clear: the voice acting in Arknights is anything but average. You can really feel the characters' emotions behind every word they say; you know that they've been through a ton of stuff just from the way they talk, props to the VA's for nailing *almost* every line. The Story. It's rare for any writer to make a world as in-depth as the one Arknights has. The lore and sheer amount of potential this story has is overwhelming, but of course we don't really get to see that in the anime, as with the end of this season, we are barely at chapter 6 in-game. The first season was really... rough. Fortunately, this season is a massive step up. We got to see so much more about the characters and how the world operates, but this is only the foundation. The story really picks up from here. Now, I can't really comment on that as I don't want to give spoilers, but trust me when I say that this is only the beginning. And now for the bad: The Pacing. It was horrible; cramming 3 in-game chapters in 8 episodes is very unfair to the story, and it really hurts it in the long run as they skipped over some scenes and dialogue that I feel were quite important to really flesh out some characters. I guess we got some more flashbacks in return, but there were a lot of unnecessary scenes that really did not add anything to the story. As for the ugly, this anime was very clearly made for the people who already play the game. While there's nothing wrong with that, there are some things that not everyone can appreciate or care as much about, so in this regard, I think it really shot itself in the foot. In conclusion, this anime might not be for everyone, but as with everything in life, you don't know until you try, so yes, it gets a very strong recommendation from me, and if you're into Gacha Games, maybe even give Arknights a try. As for what I think of it, it may not be perfect, but it'll always hold a special place in my heart.

20 found helpfulNov 24, 2023

MarlsMarsBars

Mixed Feelings

This is probably the most polarizing anime of this season. Arknights: Perish in Frost delivers very powerful messages of unity and peace in a time when our real world really needs it the most. However, this message is muddied within the very bizarre execution of all the narratives. I like character depth in storytelling, but when that screen time is diverted away from the main plotline, especially in this case since there are only 8 episodes for the season, it becomes a problem. This season focuses more on fleshing out the side characters, and typically I wouldn’t have an issue with this, but they havevery little connective tissue to what’s currently going on in the story. There are several episodes of this season focused on some Reunion side characters, and although the writing is surprisingly really good and tragic, they have very little to do with the main threats present, like the Shadow Guard and FrostNova. Speaking of, FrostNova, the character that is the source of this season’s subtitle, is supposed to be the main antagonist of Perish in Frost, and although she has a lot of depth on her background, she honestly feels more like an afterthought when there are more pressing issues in Lungmen city. There is barely any time for her or the other subplots like the introduction of the Shadow Guard to find their proper footing. Yeah, FrostNova is a very intriguing villain with a good backstory, but she barely even gets to be an actual villain. Barely any of these characters get time to fit into their proper roles in all of the narratives in the story. Hell, Amiya feels more like a background character outside of maybe the last two episodes of the season. It might seem like this season is bad, but it really isn’t. Outside of all the plotlines fighting for screen time, the writing devoted to the focused characters is done really well and the visuals as a whole are underrated outside of a few iffy 3D models. I said this before for Season 1 and I’ll say it again: this anime needs more episodes because 8 is just simply not enough.

13 found helpfulNov 25, 2023

Evalith

Recommended

Arknights Perish in Frost is a solid substitute for the game's main story, elevating certain parts but dropping the ball on some. This season was produced fully in house by Yostar Pictures, an experimental decision and it shows as the quality of the drawings, cinematography and animation has clearly improved compared to season 1, though despite the improvement, Yostar Pictures is a young studio that couldn't maintain the high quality for all episodes, and one episode in particular suffered severely for it. The pacing was a bit too fast and could've used 2 more episodes for more breathing room, but at times the faster pacingalso cut some weak content from the game, and the rearranging of events helped the story flow better than the disorienting pacing and perspective shifts the game has at times. While season 1 lacked blood at some key moments, season 2 was more than willing to show some brutality, even surpassing the game at some points. Through the impressively expressive character drawings, immersive atmosphere and tension filled scenes, they manage to draw you in and get you invested in characters you barely know or only just met, ally and foe alike. You get to understand both sides of the conflict and their flaws. How those in control weaponize fear and anger to make people fight and kill each other when they would otherwise share mutual interests. This isn't a story where systematic problems are easily solved by the protagonists, this is a story that doesn't fear stating reality, the reality that conflict won't just disappear if today's problems and issues are solved, but that's not to confuse the story with being overly cynical or depressing, there is always someone fighting for a better world, slowly, but surely making change, carrying the torch for those who've lost their lives for a better tomorrow they'll never see. The voice acting is absolutely top tier with Ayahi Takagaki playing Frostnova especially giving a heartbreaking performance, headphones recommended! The art style is strikingly good, the atmosphere, the multiple layers of rain to give it that realistic depth, the subtle rain drops slowly running down a window, the way things are framed like it's live action, how visually dark it's willing to get without compromising the amount of fore/background detail, the music being spine-chilling and the realistic sound effects rather than bass boosted sound effects that feel inescapable nowadays. Yostar Pictures has done a fantastic job in all these, though my biggest complaint here would be that we don't see many civilians that inhabit what should be a very populated city. Since the start of Studio Yostar Pictures they've worked on both these seasons like it was 1 season split in 2 cours. They've done a solid job so far, but there's still plenty of room for improvement. Now that they've hopefully had some breathing room I'm looking forward to the next season with high expectations.

4 found helpfulMay 11, 2024