Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End 18
葬送のフリーレン
Sōsō no Frieren 18

Spoiler Summary/Synopsis:

Frieren, Fern, and Stark arrive in the large, fortified city of Äußerst, which occupied an island in the middle of a lake. During the drive, Frieren reveals she lost eleven times to mages who had less mana than her, including the demon Qual, whom she sealed. Elsewhere, bandits harass a young mage woman named Übel. The elf monk Kraft shows up and sends them packing. Übel thanks him, but he tells her he didn’t do it for her. He did it to save the lives of the bandits from her.

In Äußerst, Frieren discovers that a fifth-class mage certification is the minimum required to test for a first-class mage certificate. When an old mage sees Frieren’s ancient, holy emblem, the qualification requirement is immediately waved for her. Fern tells Frieren that even without a certification, she knows Frieren is a great mage. This mirrors what Himmel told Frieren 80 years prior.

For the first test, Frieren gets paired with two fighting, teenage girls and childhood friends. Fern gets paired with Übel and a male mage in glasses, Land. All of the teams are required to capture a small, magical bird known as a Stille. All members of the team must return for the team to pass. None can leave the barrier of the testing site.

Frieren gets to know Lawine, who specializes in ice magic, and Kanne, who specializes in water magic. The pair impress Frieren with their teamwork, but because they didn’t listen to her, they failed catching a Stille. The first night, a bird monster nearly kills Kanne. Frieren saves her. Kanne reports what she noticed about the nearby lake.

Thoughts/Review

The First-Class Mage Exam Arc that starts in Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End 18 causes a shift in the nature of the series. Until now, Frieren’s journey has been one of tracing the steps of Himmel’s party. This journey helps Frieren to learn more about humanity. It also helps her recall things about Himmel, Heiter, and Eisen. However, as we will see, the time spent in Äußerst gets a much more detailed look, unlike previous places.

So what does this mean? For a start, an introduction to a whole boatload of characters. In the summary, I mentioned the bickering friends Lawine and Kanne as well as Übel and Land. However, there are seventeen other named characters before this arc completes. 😅 However, this episode mainly focuses on Frieren, Kanne, and Lawine, which is a nice change of pace. Further, we get to see how these two work well together despite their constant fighting.

The second shift is the nature of magic. To date, we’ve seen Fern and Frieren only used “basic” combat and defensive magic. We’ve seen demons use specialized magics. Now, we see humans do the same, such as Kanne’s water magic specialty and Lawine’s ice magic.

I do find it odd that this mage testing system allows mages to jump in where they want. Normally, one would expect to start from a fifth-level mage, then go to fourth and so on until arriving at first-level. Apparently, Fern skipped to third ’cause that was the earliest test. 😅 Still, it is a minor quibble.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

In the end, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End 18 shakes things up with this mage testing. We all but lose Stark while Fern and Frieren are on separate teams. However, it was good seeing Kraft again.