This is a pretty good anime, but vaaaaastly over-rated. Don't get me wrong, it's definitely like a solid 8-8.5, and it is probably the current best as of this season, but over time its hype will die down as it gets compared to a wider range of anime vs what's available this season. My wife is not a big weeb like I can tend to be, and she is looking forward to Apothecary Diaries and solo-leveling moreso than she looks forward to Frieren. Frieren is a very laid back anime to kind of zone out and enjoy without feeling the need to analyze anything beyond the surface. Apothecary and Solo have us both talking about the show afterwards asking each other "what do you think that meant?" "What do you think is gonna happen next?!" etc.

That said, the episode was like most other episodes of Frieren: Slow and methodical storytelling. I don't need action all the time, but the pacing in this seems to be paced as if I were an elf myself. So far everything that has happened could have been a 12 episode season with all the character depth that they have now.