Discussion Frieren: Beyond Journey's End

Episodes: 28 | Source: Manga | Genres: Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, Shounen

Synopsis
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During their decade-long quest to defeat the Demon King, the members of the hero's party—Himmel himself, the priest Heiter, the dwarf warrior Eisen, and the elven mage Frieren—forge bonds through adventures and battles, creating unforgettable precious memories for most of them.

However, the time that Frieren spends with her comrades is equivalent to merely a fraction of her life, which has lasted over a thousand years. When the party disbands after their victory, Frieren casually returns to her "usual" routine of collecting spells across the continent. Due to her different sense of time, she seemingly holds no strong feelings toward the experiences she went through.

As the years pass, Frieren gradually realizes how her days in the hero's party truly impacted her. Witnessing the deaths of two of her former companions, Frieren begins to regret having taken their presence for granted; she vows to better understand humans and create real personal connections. Although the story of that once memorable journey has long ended, a new tale is about to begin.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

 

Episode 1 was great and a very interesting start. So, Frieren's party - herself, Himmel, Eise, and Heiter have already defeated the Demon King and are praised as heroes. The party breaks up after a decade of adventuring together, as their quest was complete. Naturally, Frieren has an extremely long lifespan due to being an elf, and as she continues with her magic training/discovery, all of the others age while she remains. Frieren arranged a trip for teh group and shortly after Himmel passed due to age. They held a funeral for him. Heiter was pretty insistent that he was going to soon pass as well, and gave the impression he had come to terms with it. A while later Frieren visits the Holy City, and intends to offer him a drink to his grave, only to find him being alive and apparently he's looking for immortality or a way to extend his life as he isn't ready to pass yet. We've also been introduced to Fern - a cute and talented kid orphaned. Heiter requested Frieren to raise her and take her with her on her journey, but Frieren refused.

 

see ya in a month then

 

I was planning on 1 ep a day lol

 

Episode 2 was great. Frieren continued looking into the text and also training Fern. During this time, Heiter became bedridden nearing the end of his life. He confirmed with Frieren that Fern had excelled in learning magic. Fern also revealed the reason she trained so hard was a way to repay Heiter to show that she'd be ok when he passed. Heiter revealed to Frieren that he kind of tricker her into teacher Fern so that she would be able to go with her without complaint, and Fern finally relented. Heiter took Fern in as a way to pay respect to Himmel, as it's something he would do. Fern and Frieren have travelled around a little bit picking up magic and doing jobs/helping people, and the most recent village an old lady requested they clean up a statue of the Hero, Himmel. He'd saved her life and the village a long time ago. It seems like Himmel never got to take Frieren to see Blue Moon weed like he wanted, but she and Fern were able to find some to put alongside the statue after cleaning it up. It was a nice touch.

 

Episode 3 was great. So it's currently 27 years after Himmel's death. Fern is now 16 too. Frieren and Fern pull into a town and Fern is tasked with getting pretty much all of the supplies. Fern was pretty suspicious of what Freiren was up to, but it was pretty cute. She was getting her a birthday gift and finding out were to get sweets to celebrate Fern's birthday. After leaving the town, they made it to a village where a dangerous demon named Qual had been sealed 80 years ago. Qual invented kill magic which was extremely powerful magic that basically guaranteed death. Overtime counter measures have been developed and Frieren killed him by using it. Fern was tasked with defending Frieren with her defensive magic, which went well.

 

Episode 4 was good. Lol, who is the adult here, Fern of Frieren? Feels like Fern. Frieren really isn't a morning person. The latest thing they did was clean up the nearby sea for a village. They offered a fake magic book, just the nature of their town getting fake magic books. Frieren knowingly accepted, mostly because she wanted to see the sunset which she didn't get a chance to do due to oversleeping, which had disappointed her party. She did enjoy it, although it was due to Fern's happiness. Frieren and Fern met up with Eisen later on to look for magic that would allow Fern to talk to the dead, allegedly. Interestingly, we find out that Frieren is over 1000 years old and they're the notes of her teacher and a legendary mage, Flamme. Flamme also knew eventually Freiren would return to seek the knowledge of the magic due to her nature. Pretty amazing. So "heaven" the place where souls rest is in the North, which is now occupied by the demon king's castle, and it's called Aureole. That's the next stop of the journey, although it took the hero's party 10 years to reach previously.

 

Episode 5 was good. The adventure continues with Fern and Frieren on their way to Aureole. Passing through a town they're warned of going through the mountain passage due to people going missing. After some intel gathering it's de to "ghosts". It's a type of monster that uses illusions of the dead close to people. They're called Einsam. Pretty rough, but they were dealt with. Turns out there's also a dragon in the area. Close call. They've also made it to the next village to recruit a new member for their journey. The person in question is Stark, the pupil of Eisen. He seems like a bit of a coward and kind of is, but Eisen has taught him a lot and seems to have made him strong. The battle with the dragon will be interesting.

 

Episode 6 was good. Fern and Frieren thought that Stark was bailing on them, but he came at the last minute. So the scar wasn't from the dragon but from Eisen, with him being afraid of Stark's potential. In a twist, Stark soloed the dragon and didn't think he was strong, but the dragon did stay away from the village due to him. Frieren got her spell and Fern looked at poor Stark calling him small. The group made it to the next town and apparently the checkpoint was closed due to monsters. After some perusing, it came about who Frieren was and they got to pass.

 

Episode 7 was great. So the elves are dwindling and nearly exitnct. They don't have romantic or reporductive urges which has worked against them. Even Frieren thinks she may be the last or amongst the last of the elves. Fern, Stark and Frieren made it to the next town and there are demons in sight. Frieren goes to attack them but is detained and jailed. The demons are there for a peace treaty and Frieren claims they are all just liar manipulators and the town will regret it. We get some backstory of the heroes party in another town in the past where a little girl demon killed a village child and ate her. Most were calling for her death, but Himmel and the village chief insisted on trying to make her live there peacefully. As per Frieren's words, they did regret it when the village chief was killed by her. She was slain. Demons are abandoned by their parents and are solitary creatures that lie and trick to benefit themselves. This has proved true for the current demons "seeking peace" they just want to have the village drop the defensive barriers and wipe it out.

 

Episode 8 was great. I didn't expect this to play out this way so quickly. Draht went to assassinate Frieren and it backfired. She completely destroyed him with no effort even in her position, crazy. Frieren fled due to Draht killing a guard while she was there. Granat confronted Linie and Lügner again after he realized that Draht was missing. His guard was killed without effort and he taken hostage to try and get info about how to control the barrier. Fern and Stark ran into Frieren as she was fleeing the village and they are determined to help the villagers. Stark was freeing Granat and was caught, then after distracting the demons, Fern used magic and got a good hit in. They fled soon after so things are still escalating. Also, "Frieren the slayer, she's sent more demons to the grave than anyone else." Damn.

 

Episode 9 was great. Frieren is facing down Aura right now. Apparently Aura uses scales and where she has the larger mana reserves, she wins getting control which is why it's believe no one really stands a chance. I'm betting Frieren is the exception here. She did loose to Frieren before, or fled. Fern figured out the blood was being used to track her and Stark, but it was too little too late. She and Stark put up a good fight and were both able to prevail. Now we should move onto Frieren's battle.