Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End - Episodes 9-10 [Review]
After properly catching up on Frieren over the last week, I was excited to see the prolonged action sequence that many of the manga readers were gushing about.
As Frieren, Fern and Stark continue their journey north, they discover that demon envoys have been dispatched to sue for peace after years of ongoing conflict with the domain of Graf Granat. Frieren is mistrusting and attempts to kill one of the ambassadors, Lord Lugner. She’s promptly arrested and thrown in the dungeon.
A broad arc of the last two episodes is unpacking demons’ true nature in the world of Frieren. “Monsters capable of speech, but not interested in communicating.” Piercing through the common cunning and deception of demons, Frieren poses a threat to Lugner’s true intent: having the city’s magical barrier lowered in the name of “peace”, so his master Aura the Guillotine can raze it to the ground.
After one of Lugner’s associates fails to kill Frieren in her cell, she makes her escape to confront Aura directly on the outskirts of the city.
Meanwhile, Fern and Stark are challenged to defeat Lord Lugner and his remaining ally, Linie. Demonstrating pride characteristic of a demon, Lugner is confident that he is superior to Fern due to his larger mana supply. So you can imagine his confusion when the young mage overwhelms him with a barrage of magical blasts.
Stark’s latest encounter is an echo of his past, as Linie is able to read mana and copy fighting styles with ease. As she crosses blades with Stark, he recognizes the moves as those of his master: Eisen the Warrior. While seemingly outclassed, Stark ultimately applies a key lesson from his former master to secure victory.
In episode 10 we get more backstory on Frieren and her former master, Flamme. We witness Frieren’s tragic origins before being taken on as Flamme’s apprentice. The fabled mage imparts wisdom around the true nature of demons, as well as the key skill she uses to defeat demon kind: masking her true level of mana. Since demons are a “might makes right” society, they underestimate her based on her visible mana, and she uses that to overwhelm them in an instant. As Frieren confronts Aura, we see the satisfying result of over a millennia of training, with another stunning one-liner from the elven mage as the episode comes to a close.
These last two episodes have cemented Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End as one of my favorite series in recent years. The approach to combat is so crisp: you won’t find heroes shouting special move names in a bombastic, extended sequence. The conflict is like Frieren - calm and collected.
The music continues to impress week after week, whether it’s complementing a contemplative montage in the woods, or a high-stakes conflict between two powerful mages.
One of the best aspects Frieren is its subtle ability to convey the passage of large gaps of time. We see Flamme (a human) age naturally from one scene to the next, almost in the blink of an eye, 50 years pass. This stand-in for how Frieren experiences time inspires a sense of melancholy, and a keen explanation as to why she remains so distant from those around her.
Frieren is top-tier fantasy, and once it’s done I’m confident it will stand proudly among some of the best in the genre. Excited to see how the series progresses, but right now it’s my most eagerly anticipated show each week.
