Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End – 23 – Dungeon Raiding, as a Treat

Sense, First Class Mage and proctor, explains the second exam to the eighteen remaining examinees: All they need to do is reach the deepest level of the dungeon of the King’s Tomb.

She’ll accompany them down there, so she’ll know if and when anyone accomplishes this goal. With her prehensile hair she issues everyone a bottle containing a rescue golem, which if broken will return them safely to the surface, but also result in them failing the exam.

Denken urges everyone to work together, but one particularly arrogant young mage forges ahead alone; Wirbel only feels comfortable continuing to work with Scharf and Ehre; Ubel wants Land all to herself, and Lawine and Kanne also head in together.

Naturally, Frieren and Fern pair up, and Sense decides to accompany them, assuring them she’ll neither interfere or assist. This isn’t Fern’s first rodeo, and Frieren has likely been to more dungeons than everyone else put together.

As they proceed with caution, Frieren recalls Himmel loving dungeons, specifically exploring every nook and cranny of them. It wasn’t just completionism, either: he wanted to make the most of the time he had with Frieren, Heiter, and Eisen, while also leaving room to have fun.

Frieren, who last week did what a First Class Mage does on the regular and “made the impossible possible” may be cautious in how the dungeon is explored, but exposes her weakness for suspicious treasure chests and grimoires, and ends up glomped by a mimic.

As Fern tries pulling her out, Sense wonders if she chose the wrong party to accompany. But at no point does Frieren panic; she simply instructs Fern to push her further in so the mimic will cough her up. She avoided using magic to destroy the mimic because it turns her hair into frizzy ringlets.

Besides his First Exam buds Laufen and Richter, Denken is only able to persuade two others to team up with him: Methode and Lange. Unfortunately, when their party comes afoul of some gargoyles, Lange is sealed in a room with moving spiked walls, and has to break the bottle to escape with her life.

Before that, we get some excellent offense, defense, and teamwork from Denken, Laufen, Richter, and Methode. But Lange’s quick exit is a sobering reminder that letting your guard down for only a moment could spell ruin.

Frieren and Fern apparently have so little trouble with the gargoyles the episode doesn’t bother showing them destroying them. Instead, whlie Frieren pores over all the magical junk she’s found and collected, Sense asks Fern what her deal is. For her age, Fern is the most skilled mage Sense has ever met, but “senses” not passion or determination.

Fern wonders if both of those things were used up when she was trying so hard to pay a debt to someone by becoming the mage she is. And yet she keeps going on in search of magic because watching Ms. Frieren smile makes her smile. She likes seeing Frieren happy, and it makes her happy. This changes Sense’s previous doubts about following them.

But while things seem to be going relatively easily so far, it was a given that the dungeon’s difficulty level would rise as everyone descended deeper. Wirbel, Scharf, and Ehre are suddenly ambushed by what look like clay replicas of themselves.

Denken’s party is also attacked by a copy of Laufen. It takes all four of them to defeat it, but Denken notes that he’s never encountered such a perfect copy of a mage, complete with Laufen’s looks, moves, and mana.

Of course, we know where this is headed: Laufen is one thing, but a perfect replica of Frieren? That’s a trickier proposition. Even if Denken, Laufen, Richter, and Methode work as a perfectly oiled machine, I wouldn’t be surprised if the only one who can truly defeat a copy of Frieren is the genuine article.

The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic – 07 – The Essential Third Wheel

First, the bad news: For those of you hoping the action would get started, you’ll have to wait at least another week. Honestly, I was not one of those people. I’m glad to have as much time with these excellent, endearing characters as possible before the fighting, bleeding, and killing starts (also, there’s no guarantee the fighting will look that good).

Instead, this is a classic CBtS (Calm-Before-the-Storm) episode. Ken is haunted by the fox girl’s vision, but even when Rose returns from her scouting mission, he isn’t able to talk to her about it. Instead, he learns that beastkin who can see the future are incredibly rare and sought-after.

Kazuki and Suzune are summoned to an audience with the King, who informs them that the invasion of the Demon Lord’s army is about to begin. They pass Princess Celia in the hall, but Kazuki is still unable to call her simply “Celia”, which seems to disappoint her. Suzune notices the tension between them, but Kazuki scoffs it off.

That night, when Ken can’t sleep because of the vision of his friends dying, Kazuki pays him a visit, because he can’t sleep either. He admits he’s scared every time he has to face enemies, and terrified about the battles to come. Ken tells him all the comforting and supportive things you’d expect a good kid to say to his friend, and helps Kazuki feel a lot better about tomorrow.

The show has now demonstrated that it can not only give us wonderful scenes of companionship and affection between Ken and Suzune, but Ken and Kazuki as well. Even admitting how scared he is, Ken tells Kazuki he’s still the coolest. Ken also makes clear he’s just as scared, but he’s made up his mind to protect the people who matter to him.

Suzune, who was worried about Kazuki and followed him, overhears everything, and her heart is warmed by their pure bromance. Unlike Kazuki and Ken, Suzune seems eager to get down to business of fulfilling her role as Hero, and says nothing to Ken to disabuse us of that notion. If she’s scared, she doesn’t tell him. Perhaps she’s just that cool … I wouldn’t put it past her!

The next day, the king addresses his army with a motivational speech promising them that the Kingdom of Llinger will prevail thanks to their two Heroes and the Rescue Team. Celia remains in her chambers, looking worried, but Kazuki pays her a visit before he heads off to war tomorrow. He even finally manages to call her “Celia”, and she urges him to return home unharmed. I tellya, I’m loving this budding romance.

Meanwhile, when Ken is summoned to Rose’s room, something that’s never happened before, he’s not sure what to expect. She lectures him not to be clumsy on the battlefield, to know who to heal and when so as not to interrupt the flow of the fighting, and above all, to value his own life.

She also presents him with a gift of sorts: the same gleaming white battle uniform of the Rescue Corps she wears, and which is meant to stand out. While Rose doles out quite a bit of incidental physical abuse this week, there’s a lovely tenderness to the way she cradles his face in her hands.

Ken declares that he’ll protect everyone—including himself—once on the battlefield. Rose told him to keep spouting his ideal, after all, so spout he shall! This puts a smile on Rose’s face: she’s done all could to make him the man he is.

Visions be damned, he knows what he needs to do. He just needs to get out there and do it. I think the fox girl’s vision is of a future where he wasn’t brought to this world along with the Heroes. But he was, and his accidental summoning will be the reason the Heroes survive this world. He’ll survive it too, as long as they stick together.