What’s there to do after you’ve slain the great evil in the land and saved the world?
This is the central premise of “Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End.” As such, the series starts with the literal end to the titular Frieren’s (Mallorie Rodak) journey with “The Party of Heroes” that has slain the Demon King and brought peace to the anime’s standard fantasy land.
Frieren, an elf girl who serves as the party’s mage, ages much slowly than her companions, comprised of Eisen the dwarf (Christopher Guerrero), Heiter the priest (Jason Douglas) and their leader, Himmel the hero (Clifford Chapin). In fact, during the series’ first few episodes, we watch decades slip by, with Frieren visiting the party’s human members (Himmel and Heiter) at the end of their lives.
Frieren is left directionless as she eventually is left with only Eisen, who has a lifespan greater than humans but nowhere as long as elves, and is now too old for adventuring. However, Eisen and Heiter leave her with two human apprentices to mentor, Mr. Stark the warrior (Jordan Cruz) and Fern the mage (Jill Harris).
The anime has a general slow pace interspersed with moments of excitement. A lot of time is dedicated to Frieren nurturing Sark and Fern, which is ironic, because Frieren often acts like a big kid despite her age. She is obsessed with collecting grimoires that hold spells, even relatively mundane ones, and loves to sleep in late — she’s basically a millennial.
Yet she also holds massive power. In this world, the older you are, the more vast your mana reserves are (the energy that powers spells). Frieren is thousands of years old, but has learned to suppress her mana in order to avoid unwanted attention. This gives her a general unassuming nature to those who don’t recognize her from the Party of Heroes and is why I like this take on the overpowered protagonist trope — Frieren has as much celebrity and power one could reasonably get in this world, but she prefers to be left alone and keep a low profile.
At two points, two different characters temporarily fill in their vacant priest role — Kraft (Orion Pitts), an elf who’s alluded to have a mysterious past, and Sein (Christopher Wehkamp), a human who thinks he’s waited too long to become an adventurer. Both are excellent temporary cast members, with Kraft appearing to be more ancient than Frieren and Sein serving as the only other adult in the party when he briefly joins it. Priests are able to access critical magic that can identify illnesses and treat them, so I suspect that they’ll need to fill this role on a permanent basis in the future.
The last arc of the anime covers a tournament-style First-Class Mage exam, in which Frieren and Fern must compete to serve the First Class certification needed to progress in the Northern Lands, which is where the Demon King’s old castle is. It’s an enjoyable arc that broadens the anime’s world, but is filled with mostly flat characters whom we’ll presumably meet again in future arcs. It does introduce an interesting bureaucracy to this world, one that Frieren runs up against as she has deep disagreements with its director, an elf named Serie (Anastasia Munoz), an elf woman even older than Frieren, who has memorized almost every grimoire in existence.
“Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End” is a refreshing take in the fantasy anime genre, specifically the time-old tale of a ragtag group of complimentary mages and warriors saving the world. The world has already been saved for quite some time, but that doesn’t mean that it’s without danger. This story is as much as Frieren’s as it is the new generation she’s helping to bring up, though I admit Frieren’s perspective is the most interesting one.
Despite having lived for thousands of years, she’s as mature as someone in her late 20s or 30s, as it takes her a while to process her emotions. This is a common trait among elves, who are dying out because very few of them experience love of the need to reproduce. We learn that that’s not necessarily the case for Frieren — she slowly realizes she did love Himmel, but it’s too late.
I’m not sure if this will resonate with teenagers or younger anime fans. But as someone approaching his 30s, I was able to identify with this one deeply, particularly its themes of moving on as you watch friendships become memories.
“Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End” Season 1 gets a 9/10
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