January 15th, 2025 
AstroNerdBoy Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End 21
葬送のフリーレン
Sōsō no Frieren 21
Spoiler Summary/Synopsis:
As he preps for combat, Denken lets Frieren know that his philosophy on magic is that the greatest joy comes from searching for it. Frieren recalls meeting Serie with Flamme and disappointing the elf mage with the same philosophy. At the top of the ridge, Richter gives Lawine and Kanne a lesson on modern magic and how they will lose.
Meanwhile, Denken and Frieren duke it out with magic. The old man quickly realizes that he will lose a battle of attrition. As such, he casts a spell, enveloping Frieren in a fire tornado. This catches the attention of proctors Sense and Genau. Sense reports that someone has been analyzing the barrier for a while now. He’s unconcerned as Serie cast the barrier, making it unbreakable.
Inside the barrier, Frieren defeats Denken and threatens his life. He tries to warn his companion Laufen that this is a bluff. However, Laufen thinks she can snag the old man with her speed magic. She fails. Frieren binds them to a tree, then takes down the barrier, shocking Genau and amusing Serie. As such, the falling rain allows Kanne and Lawine to defeat Richter.
While Fern’s party take shelter from the rain, Denken’s party comes upon a defeated party, where one of their members is dead. They have a Stille, so Denken engages in a fist fight to secure the bird. They win, and eighteen test-takers make it to the second stage.
Thoughts/Review
Man, this series is so good, and Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End 21 is just another banger of an episode.
Frieren’s Awesomeness
Not to take away anything from Lawine and Kanne, but the main thrust of Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End 21 was Frieren’s awesomeness. And it all starts with her confidence in Lawine and Kanne. Thus, she was able to just calmly focus on Denken. As we learned, his desperation comes from the fact he wants to travel north to visit a grave. Despite his specialized, powerful spells, she easily defeated him with basic, combat magic.
Next, she bluffs Laufen into attempting to save Denken and snares her. All the time this is going on, Frieren has been analyzing the barrier. Then she casually takes it down. I chuckle at Serie’s reaction to this. After all, she dislikes Frieren for rejecting her a thousand years back. However, this action had purpose so that Kanne could use her water magic and defeat Richter. Sweet.
I loved the flashback, when Flamme brings Frieren to meet Serie. It seems unthinkable that Frieren would turn down the opportunity to get a free bit of magic. In my mind, Serie offering her a free spell would still fall into Frieren’s philosophy of finding magic.
The only other thing that happened was a character moment between Fern, Übel, and Land. There, we learn that the brazen Übel has a demure side.
Final Thoughts and Conclusion
In the end, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End 21 is more amazing, storytelling awesomeness in an incredible series.
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Nothing of import to add to your review, you covered it all… as you said, this one was one of the high points for the series. Once the plot points have all been threaded, all that’s left is to weave and tighten them into a tapestry image. (^_^)
Possibly-vaguely-interesting note about the Crunchyroll dub… at least at the very beginning of the episode, for some reason, they turn up the BGM to a level where I found it intrusive and even a tiny bit raucous. (I went back to rewatch and it started as the dub by default, because of course all Americans want dub. (o_0))
Haha! I don’t remember when the last time I watched a dub was. But it isn’t just Americans who want this. I teased YouTube content creator Disparu for his, “I can’t read while I’m also trying to see things” attitude. 😂
To be fair, I come from a place of being a speedreader (and an avid reader of anything I could get my hands on) since I was knee-high to a grasshopper. I can understand why some folks would prefer them, if their reading speed is limited (and heaven only knows how limited it may be nowadays).
But I’d really hope it’s not the overwhelming majority, the way US publishers* seem to think. On average, Japanese VAs are still likely to possess vocal talent that makes US VAs look like talented Little Leaguers trying to compete against MLB teams. If someone has the ability to enjoy them, and would want to if they knew, it would be a shame for them to be deprived solely due to not knowing.
* – Whose history includes having wanted to eliminate fansub competition for decades, and trying to ram dubs down our throats even when a clear majority didn’t want them.
Oh yeah, I understand why folks would prefer dubs. In the early days, I did as well. It was Love Hina dubs that put me off dubs forever. I would occasionally listen for review purposes, but then I just said, “Forget it” as I found the Japanese versions superior.
I think I may have mentioned before, apologies if so — for me it was the Ranma dubs, and the cringey “Suh-SOO-key” for Sasuke.
Haha! Yeah, that would be cringe.