Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End 08
葬送のフリーレン
Sōsō no Frieren 08

Spoiler Summary/Synopsis:

Draht attempts to behead Frieren, but she surprises him by protecting her neck with a mana barrier. Frieren remarks on the arrogance of demons before removing his forearms. He attempts to beg, but she slays him, where he turns to dust. Leaving the cell, Frieren sees the beheaded guard and knows things don’t look good for her.

Meanwhile, Fern and Stark discuss the situation. Inside the castle, Graf Granat informs Lügner of Frieren’s disappearance. He demands to know where Draht is. Realizing the jig was up, Lügner instantly slays Granat’s guards with blood magic. Lügner soon defeats Granat, but keeps him alive in order to determine how to remove the city’s barrier. Lügner despises the human mage Flamme, who originally created the barrier that the demons have yet to overcome.

Stark and Fern discover Frieren sneaking out. She tasks them with dealing with Lügner and Linie so she can deal with a bigger problem. As such, Stark and Fern infiltrate the castle. Stark finds the injured and bound Granat, but he’s unable to free the Graf. Lügner and Linie enter, but Lügner doesn’t see Stark as a threat. Therefore, Stark attacks him, providing a distraction that allows Fern to blast the demon from outside the room.

Since the Graf is injured, Stark says they should retreat. Fern covers their escape while Linie protects Lügner from a possible death blow. Lügner begins to regenerate. He realizes that the demon Zoltrack spell has been modified to kill demons. It is then that he remembers Frieren and her devastating attacks on demons. Outside the city, Frieren arrives to challenge Aura.

Thoughts/Review

Even though I knew the story of Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End 08, it is just so good, I got lost in the goodness.

Girl Bosses, but In a Good Way!

I already liked Frieren, but man, did she smoke in Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End 08. She’s the OP mage character that I love to play in RPG games. However, she’s earned that OP status since she’s studied magecraft for at least a thousand years if not longer. As such, she’s calm, cool, and collected. That’s why when she looked so unconcerned even though she’s hanging by her neck, I knew the good times were coming. (And not just ’cause I’d read the manga). Oh man!

One of the things I think I like about the series is having a seriously OP lead done right. Often in a shounen fantasy battle manga, OP characters are just forced to fight even more OP villains. But here, Draht was dead the moment he entered Frieren’s prison cell. He just didn’t know it yet. And once Frieren had lulled Draht into overconfidence, that was it.

I honestly think Draht was filled with fear, knowing Frieren was about to slay him. A part of me wonders what Draht wanted to say, likely in exchange for his life. But as Frieren has stated, demons just use words to (mostly) fool humans. And since she’d already fooled him, there was no reason for her to give up her advantage.

That’s what makes Frieren a good girl boss character! To that end, when she expresses her lack of enthusiasm to go after Aura, when Frieren grins, I got pumped. And I already know what is going to happen.

As an aside, at least we got an explanation on why these magical creatures (demons, monsters, dragons, etc.) dissolve on death.

Stark/Fern dynamic

Another thing I liked about Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End 08 is the dynamic between Fern and Stark. They are almost like an old, married couple. The sexual spark isn’t there, just a trust and an understanding that comes with time. As such, they can talk about anything. And Fern gets Stark to do things he might not otherwise do.

To be fair, they haven’t been together that long in the story at this point. But I think they came to a quick understanding of each other and shared a common interest, namely in not letting Frieren get bogged down in minutia that would waste precious time.

As such, I loved how Stark did his job as the warrior. He’s the muscle and the tank. Fern is the nuker. To that end, thanks to Stark’s actions, Fern was able to partially nail the powerful Lügner. Frieren knew this about the two. She has trained Fern for years and knows her abilities. She knows how Eisen trained Stark and witnessed Stark slay a massive dragon. Obviously, Frieren was right to leave it to Stark and Fern.

Still, I don’t know why Fern didn’t fire another Zoltraak to blast both Linie and Lügner for good. I suppose she wasn’t confident that she could finish them off with one more blast. Plus, Stark needed cover to get the Graf out.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

In the end, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End 08 is just another “banger” of an episode.