Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End 11
葬送のフリーレン
Sōsō no Frieren 11

Spoiler Summary/Synopsis:

Graf Granat arrives with Fern, Stark, and some aides. The Graf thanks Frieren for showing respect to Aura’s victims, whom are scattered all through the field. After arranging the burial detail, the Graf rewards Frieren with an acknowledged, fake grimoire from Flamme. After spending quite some time in the city helping and such, the Graf gives Frieren’s party new winter clothing.

When they are ready to leave, the Graf escorts them to the gates, where Frieren learns the Continental Magic Association requires mages to be certified. Fern reveals her third-class mage certificate. They set out for Äußerst, but a blizzard soon has them lost. Stark succumbs to the cold, so Fern has to carry him. Eventually, Frieren leads them to an old hut for shelter. Inside they find a half-naked male elf.

Frieren gets a fire going as the male elf introduces himself as a monk named Kraft. Fern gets a fire going as Stark is put into a bed with Kraft to raise his body temperature. The next day, Fern and Frieren help magic Kraft’s supplies to the hut from his destroyed wagon. They then spend the next six months riding out the hard winter.

As spring arrives, Kraft attempts to get Frieren to open up. He speaks of his beliefs in the goddess of creation. He is older than Frieren, but no one is alive who knows his accomplishments. Frieren doesn’t exactly believe, so Kraft offers to give her praise. She passes since someone (Heiter?) already did that. When it is time to leave, Kraft gives a religious pendant for Fern and promises to see Frieren again some century.

Thoughts/Review

We wrap up the Aura story and get introduced to another elf in Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End 11. It was a lovely tale, but I felt it should have been more.

Another Elf

We get introduced to a new elf character in Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End 11. While I liked this episode, I can’t help but feel there was a lost opportunity here. Within in this world, Frieren and company spent SIX months with Kraft. What did we learn about him? Well, he’s older than Frieren, at least by hundreds if not thousands of years. In his younger years, Kraft wasn’t religious, but something happened to change all that. What was it?

To me, Stark would have asked Kraft a ton of questions and learned all about his life. Yet that was not revealed to us. We see a moment when Kraft and Frieren have a brief chat. That was a lovely character moment for Frieren for sure. However, considering their race is all but extinct, I would have loved for them to discuss things elf related. Alas, that was not to be.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

I desperately need sleep, so let me wrap up my review of Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End 11 with some final thoughts.

• I notice that while Madhouse is keeping the dialog the same as the manga, they continue to exercise their “artistic liberties” where they can. To that end, some of the winter montage stuff changed or dropped from the manga.
• I wasn’t a fan of Stark passing out from the cold while Frieren and Fern made it. However, I decided that since Fern and Frieren are mages, they are able to use their mana to reduce the effects of the cold.
• The whole “1st Class Mage” requirement is an obvious retcon. I get Yamada-sensei’s thought process. We didn’t see Fern NOT get her 3rd Class Mage license, so voilà, she is one. However, I just can’t believe Fern wouldn’t have discussed this with her master. After all, it requires some kind of test. So why would Fern go, “Yeah, I’m not going to tell Frieren-sama that I’m getting a certification as a mage. Further, I’m not going to brag about my success when I get my certification.”

In the end, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End 11 was a good wrap up to the Aura story. And we get introduced to another elf, though sadly, we didn’t get as much information from this encounter as I would have liked.