Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End S1 Review
葬送のフリーレン
Sōsō no Frieren S1

I’ll never forget my introduction to the anime adaptation of Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End S1. Someone shared a GIF on Twitter/X, showing the conclusion of Frieren squaring off with the demon lord, Aura. The moment left me thinking, “Man, this Frieren elf is hardcore to the max.” However, I decided to read the manga first, then watch the anime adaptation. So how does the anime hold up as an adaptation?

–> Buy FRIEREN: Beyond Journey’s End – Part 1 from Amazon.com!

* * * S P O I L E R S ! ! ! * * *

The story begins with the near immortal elf Frieren returning from a ten year quest with her three other companions — the human hero Himmel, the human priest Heiter, and the dwarf warrior Eisen. They have slain the Demon King and are aptly rewarded. Fifty years later, they have a reunion, where she finds Himmel a shrunken, elderly man. After one final trip with her old party, Himmel dies.

At the funeral, Frieren realizes that during her ten years with Himmel, she never really got to know him. As such, she spends more time with survivors Eisen and Heiter. The elderly priest takes in an orphaned human, who works to become a mage to repay him. Frieren doesn’t want to take on a child apprentice, but she agrees to do a multi-year translation job for Heiter. During that time, she agrees to train the girl, named Fern.

After Heiter dies, Frieren now takes the teenaged Fern and retraces the steps Himmel’s party took seventy years prior. To earn their keep, Frieren and Fern do odd jobs while Frieren attempts to learn more about humans. Eventually, they add the warrior Stark to their party, who had been Eisen’s apprentice. With a strong vanguard in the party, Frieren is able to take on bigger jobs, including dealing with demons.

As they travel north to the former Demon Lord’s castle, Frieren learns that her party legally requires a first class mage. Despite her massive power, Frieren has no such paperwork, so she and Fern enter. Will they succeed, or will the centuries old elf leader of the mage guild, Serie stop them since she and Frieren don’t see eye to eye on magic?

A Fresh Take on the Fantasy Genre

The biggest plus to Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End S1 is that it has a fresh take on the fantasy genre. There are countless stories depicting the hero’s journey to defeat evil and learn about one’s self along the way. But what it you’d already done that quest, yet because of your immortality, the ten years you spent may as well have been ten weeks at most. And though after 1000+ years of existence, you know humans age rapidly, you are still surprised to see what the passage of fifty years does to a human who’d been in prime form.

That’s where Frieren is during the first chapter. When Himmel dies, Frieren realizes the mistake she made. The fifty years she spent wandering to and fro were nothing to her. It may as well have been a five week vacation. Thus her quest to go to “heaven” (a region to the far north) to talk to Himmel hits on an emotional level. Further, her retracing the steps Himmel lead his party on adds to this when Frieren recalls her previous visit with Himmel and party.

Another fresh element for the series is that it looks at the world in the aftermath of the defeat of a great evil. Humans thrive and their mages become more powerful. Yet the remnants of the demon armies remain to trouble humanity and the few surviving elves and dwarves. Frieren’s mission, given to her a thousand years ago by her human master Flamme, sees her deal with these threats as she encounters them.

As such, I just really enjoyed the journey Frieren goes on with Fern and Stark, so much that I’d often rewatch an episode multiple times when trying to review it.

Amazing Characters

Another great aspect to Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End S1 are the amazing characters we get introduced to. Frieren, Fern, and Stark are all interesting and likable main characters with good character arcs. Each have their fun quirks. For example, Stark often doesn’t want to do something out of fear, but does it anyway. Fern has her adorable pout. And Frieren has a few cute traits.

However, the good characters don’t just stop with the leads. Indeed, whether they are enemy characters, or ally characters in a story arc, I’m amazed at the impact they have in terms of memorability. This increases in the final arc of the anime, where a number of characters come together to take the test to become first class mages. I found myself wanting to know more about these characters. Thankfully, in the manga story (and subsequently, the next season of the anime), this will come true.

Art/Animation/Music/Madhouse!

I have to hand it to Madhouse. Back when they did Record of Lodoss War OVA, the action sequences and animation elements suffered as the series went on. However, I am happy to say that is not the case with Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End S1. While the series doesn’t have a lot of action sequences, when they do come up, they look great! The animation for these are quite good in terms of animation.

Further, the visuals of the series are just stunning. For the most part, I felt Madhouse improved on what the manga provided. As such, it helped me to completely get sucked into this world and want to stay there, which might explain in part why I kept rewatching episodes.

I really loved the musical score for this series. I haven’t decided if I’ll get it or not, but I am tempted. The music works so well with the other components that go into making this anime.

Finally, props to Madhouse for MOSTLY adapting the source manga faithfully. I’d say they were at the 95% (maybe a bit more) when it came to being faithful in the adaptation. Text-wise, I’d say it was a bit higher on the faithfulness scale. That’s a good thing ’cause when Madhouse did the Record of Lodoss War adaptation, it was quite different from the source novel(s).

What Was Bad?

So, what was bad in Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End S1? Well, not very much. My nitpicks come from that 5% range where Madhouse veered from the source material. Most of those differences from the source material I would say did make some improvements to the source material. For example, when Fern gets sick, in the manga, they find a stone hut in the woods that’s supposed to be an abandoned town. In the anime, Madhouse actually shows us an abandoned town, and instead of a hut, it is a farmhouse that Fern recovers in.

On the other hand, sometimes Madhouse made visual changes that I’m sure they thought were nifty (and I’m guessing most folks didn’t know), but didn’t make sense in a nitpicking sense. The one that comes to mine is a filler moment of an episode where they cross a stream (or something) via a fallen tree. Stark helps the somewhat scared Fern off said log. While it is a sweet moment, it makes no sense as Frieren and Fern can easily fly over without touching the log.

Another moment was when Frieren met Sein. In the manga, he’s clearly stuck in the muck, but his life isn’t in danger. Thus when Frieren ponders if she wants to help him or not, it is kinda humorous. But in the anime, Sein’s life is in danger as he’s continuously sinking deeper into the muck. As such, Frieren pondering on whether to save him or not makes her look like a heartless bitch.

Still, these are just MINOR (but memorable) incidents in an otherwise amazing anime series.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

In the end, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End S1 is an amazing adaptation of an amazing manga. It easily moved into my top 5 anime series of all time. I can’t wait to see the next season. Also, I plan to review the Blu-ray release.