I just went and watched the clip of Frieren showing Serie the letter asking her to found the mage thingy and Frieren there is slightly shorter than Serie. At the end of the anime where Serie is failing her out of amusing pettiness, Frieren appears slightly taller. I agree that Serie probably hasn't changed for thousands of years or whatever, but Frieren grew a few inches over the last thousand years. Also, just speaking generally, I think Frieren's body type is more that of a child in the flashbacks and more that of a young teen in the present. She's smaller, thinner and has slightly less mature features.
Thus, I think it's clear that at least in the anime, Frieren has aged just a little over the years and Serie has not. Serie is either at her adult height and body type or has been magically kept from aging, it's not clear, but the same doesn't seem to go for Frieren.
As far as height goes, watching those scenes I'm still not seeing any difference (Frieren looks to be the same height as Serie when they step past each other during the "era of humans" speech. Not sure why we have such different impressions. Though it doesn't help that when they reunite Frieren and Serie never stand close to each other. I'm having trouble seeing her as smaller or thinner in the past as well, at least consistently. I don't suppose you could name specific parts of those scenes to draw a direct comparison?
They were in the same shot in both scenes if you watch, though only briefly. In the flashback Frieren is just a little shorter, in the present she's about the same amount taller than Serie now.
See I have seen the flashback repeatedly and Frieren always looked to be the same height as Serie. This morning I looked at the scenes in the manga and also didn't see any height changes when the two are together between past and present. I'll try examining the anime scenes more closely but it will have to wait as I'm away from home now.
Here's some hopefully easily viewable shots for reference.
https://youtu.be/C2hcifBq-Dw?t=2068
(walking together, with Frieren looking to be the same height as Serie).
https://youtu.be/C2hcifBq-Dw?t=3046 (50:46 for a split second you see them in the same scene with Frieren walking away and she appears to be the same height as Serie).
https://youtu.be/85X-FODQdQ0?si=05AgwiWc6BkXu5i8&t=185 Frieren is shorter, and at the final episode Frieren is either the same height or slightly taller in the clip you showed.
In your first clip I think Serie is also a little bit taller. Just a little.
Edited by Arha
At 3:05 where you linked Frieren is standing behind Serie though, hence she looks smaller. They need to be the same distance from the viewer (us) to really tell.
As for my first clip, if there is any difference it is extremely slight. I even measured them with a ruler on my screen to make sure my eyes weren't playing tricks on me, and they measured the same or very nearly the same (depending on the frame and what part of their walk cycle they were in).
Though I guess both clips are immaterial if we can't show that Frieren is taller in the present.
Edited by Perentie
Regarding how young or old Frieren looks, I'll add that she is about the height of 16 year old Fern. Fern got a bit taller than that afterward, but many girls are done growing in height by 16. And given Frieren was the same height (i.e. Serie's height) a thousand years ago I'd say that is further evidence that she wasn't meant to look more like a child back then (perhaps Flamme's height just makes it seem that way). Until we have some direct reference to it in the elves of this series, it's probably better to not include Proportional Aging among the Frieren tropes.
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