Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End 05
葬送のフリーレン
Sōsō no Frieren 05

Spoiler Summary/Synopsis:

At the next town Frieren and Fern arrive in, they get warned not to go to the mountain pass. Some folks have disappeared going through the pass. There are reports that ghosts might be involved. Frieren concludes this is not the work of the undead. However, she’s not interested in helping until Fern requests they do so. The next day as they travel the road to the mountain, Fern realizes illusionary magic has been used.

Frieren confirms that the Einsam monster is in the area, using illusions to lure folks to consume them. She recounts previously facing an illusion of Flamme begging for her life. As such, Frieren wonders if Fern will be able to “kill” the illusion. The elderly version of Heiter appears to Fern, appearing to keep his dying promise to her. Meanwhile Himmel appears to Frieren, asking her to shoot him. She does, breaking Fern free from her trap to kill the Einsam.

When they reach the Riegel Canyon, Frieren and Fern discover a large, red, Solar Dragon. Frieren wants a book in its nest, so she had Fern blast it. The enraged dragon makes them run for their lives. At this point, Frieren acknowledges that they need a warrior in the party. She recalls her chat with Eisen about his former human student named Stark, who lives in the village near Riegel Canyon.

The next day, an old lady intercepts Frieren and Fern to take them to Stark. After interviewing him a bit, Stark confesses to being a coward even though the village sees him as a hero. Stark disgusts Fern, but Frieren believes he can do it. As such, she gives him until the morning. That night, they hear explosion, so Frieren sends Fern back to Stark. She finds him doing powerful training.

Thoughts/Review

Another two story episode in Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End 05, though the second story hasn’t concluded.

Killing Your (Illusionary) Loved One

For the first story of Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End 05, an interesting concept gets introduced. If you saw your deceased loved one, apparently returned from the dead, could you kill them? I liked Fern’s arc here. On paper, if you know the figure is just an illusion from some monster, used as bait to consume you, obviously you’d kill it. And yet in the moment, Fern froze and failed her test.

As to Frieren, I guess she’s fought the Einsam before. She mentioned seeing an illusion of Flamme crying for her life, but she had to kill it just the same. (I don’t remember if there’s an explanation of Frieren’s joke about Flamme often doing this.) For this new encounter, she sees Himmel. Funny enough, the illusion of Himmel says the correct thing, asking Frieren to shoot him. So yeah, I think Frieren has grown and Himmel became more important to her, hence this current journey.

The Warrior

For the second story of Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End 05, we get introduced to the warrior character, Stark. I gotta say, I laughed out loud a Fern’s  disgusted look at Stark upon learning he’s a coward. And that’s where Stark subverts our expectation. Witnessing his near magical abilities with that poleaxe, he certainly has skills. And a warrior well help Frieren and Fern. But he has to face his fears.

The problem I have with Stark’s introduction is the soft retcon. Technically, this was part of the first story too. However, we saw moment where Fern spent time with the elderly Heiter before he died. So I could believe the conversation this episode revealed happened. Yet while we know that Frieren, Fern, and Eisen made a journey together, why would they discuss Stark at that time? So it is a bit of a stretch, but I’ll let it slide.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

In the end, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End 05 was a very enjoyable episode. There were some laughs, including Frieren getting Fern to blast a dragon, only for them to flee from it.