Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End 07
葬送のフリーレン
Sōsō no Frieren 07

Spoiler Summary/Synopsis:

Frieren, Fern, and Stark clear a rockslide from a mountain road to help an older merchant. They then escort him and his wagon to the nearby town. On the way, the man comments about the rarity of elves. Frieren confirms they are a dying race, and the last time she saw another elf was four hundred years ago. At the town’s gate, they discover lots of merchant carts lined up for the Liberation Festival.

Frieren recalls when she was here with Himmel and company. He told Frieren that his real reason for having statues made all over is so she won’t be alone after they die. Further, it will prove that they weren’t fairy tails. That night at the festival, Frieren asks the merchant if the two will still celebrate in 100 years. He figures they will, but he doesn’t know if they will still do so in a thousand years.

Frieren’s party travels to the capital city of Graf Granat. As they walk, Frieren senses demons (mazoku) as a trio comes around a distant street corner, escorted by the Graf and guards. The guards take down Frieren when she attempts to kill the demons. The demons are high ranking peace envoys, so Frieren is taken to prison. Fern and Stark visit her, letting her know the demons work for Aura the Guillotine, one of the Seven Sages of Destruction.

Stark wonders why Frieren is so opposed to the idea of peace talks since the place has been at war for ages. Frieren recalls the past when a demon with the appearance of a pitiful, human girl child calls out for her mom. She had eaten a human child, but Himmel cannot bring himself to kill the demon. The village chief takes her in, but in the end, the demon kills him. The disgusted Himmel allows Frieren to slay her.

Frieren explains to Stark and Fern that words are merely tools demons use to deceive their human prey. Meanwhile, Graf Granat summons Lügner and the other two demons to kill them. He hesitates when Lügner claims to have a room honoring his father, whom Granat slew. Meanwhile, the demon Draht slays a prison guard to kill Frieren.

Thoughts/Review

Gah! The bad thing about this series is my desperate need to marathon it. That should indicate how good Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End 07 was.

Reminder of the Past

For the first story of Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End 07, we get the first flashback of the episode. We’ve already seen how that as Frieren retraces the steps she took with Himmel’s party, many towns and cities have statues to either him, or all of them. And in this case, it was everyone, though no one specifically remembered Frieren. Well, it had been eighty or so years since the statue was made. The passage of time separates folks from the horrors of the past.

So for folks of this time, Himmel and company are legends, almost at stuff of fairy tail status. And yet Frieren was there and spent ten years with Himmel, Heiter, and Eisen. That said, during her time with Himmel and party, to them, Flamme was almost a myth. There too, Frieren knew her and thus knows she was a real person. To that end, it is interesting to me seeing Frieren attempting to see things as humans see them, based on their short life spans.

As an aside, one thing is somewhat lost with the removal of Japanese honorifics. The translator attempts to compensate as best they can. That said, Stark simply wants Fern to address him as Stark-san or Stark-kun rather than Stark-sama. So when she drops all honorifics, that’s the main reason he freaked out.

Enter the Demons

The demons, or mazoku in the Japanese, make their official entry in Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End 07. Yes, we’ve seen bits and pieces before in mentions and such. But here, we see what makes them so dangerous. Amazingly, it isn’t power in terms of destruction. It is power in terms of emotional manipulation. As Frieren describes them, they are mere wild beasts who mimic human voice (and appearance).

And that’s where the horror of these demons come into play. The flashback to Himmel’s party encountering a demon who had the shape of a pitiful, young, human female (with horns), injured and wanting her mom is hard see. Add to this the fact that a hoard of humans want to kill her. And yet this “child” killed and ate someone’s human daughter. Despite this, Himmel and even the village chief had pity on the demon.

Yet in the end, it was all a ploy. This demon child slew the village chief and offered his daughter to the family who’s daughter the demon child consumed. For the demon girl, the word “mom” has no meaning. I don’t know how demons reproduce in this world, but we learn that they basically raise themselves. And demons are intelligent and use words to communicate. However, some words like “mother” or “father” apparently are just words demons see mean something to humans.

As such, by appearing sympathetic, demons prey on human pity and charity. And that’s what makes demons so horrific in this world. Even someone like the Graf, who had rage and hatred in his heart for demons, got fooled into pitying them. Good grief.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

In the end, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End 07 is a really good episode that is also quite chilling.