Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End – 28 (Fin) – Quick Goodbyes

After passing Fern, Serie passes Denken, because while he’s old, he still has a fire burning within. Übel passes too, as does Land, both of whom only need to show up and be precisely who they are (or in Land’s case, not show up, as he’s drinking tea at home). Wirbel passes, because Serie likes how he says magic is only good for killing. Methode passes because she’s extremely capable and talented … and she thinks Serie is small and cute, which she is!

Serie admits to Sense that she didn’t pass too many mages; it truly was a “bumper crop.” After the final exam, Denken makes sure to tell Frieren and Fern that he only made it as far as he did thanks to them, and now he can finally visit the grave of his wife in his hometown.

While in the bakery with Stark trying to decide what treats to buy, Fern encounters Denken and Laufen once more, and the four have tea and cookies together, on Denken’s dime. His wife passed just before Serie  offered the opportunity to bestow first class mages with the spell of their choosing. He also only became a mage because of Frieren’s deeds in the Hero’s Party, and that encountering her during these exams reminded him that magic could be fun.

Wirbel has a little chat with Frieren, telling her how he was initially drawn to becoming a mage because of the deeds of Himmel’s party. He doubts he or his hometown would exist without that party’s deeds.

But he also doesn’t deny that it wasn’t Himmel’s big bold battles that drew him into this life, but the little things: his quieter and less exciting but still fun and rewarding adventures. It’s why even though he’s a hardened military mage, he’ll still help an old lady pick up a basket of oranges.

That’s the story of Frieren as a whole: I greatly enjoyed the big climactic battles, but they also stressed me out. I enjoyed the quieter moments and the little acts of kindness and beauty that define what it means to be a mage of peace like Frieren.

Now her student is one of less than fifty first class mages in the world. Fern may one day be more famous than her, but she’ll still remember Frieren telling her to stop and smell the roses. Serie childishly barring Frieren from the privilege-bestowing ceremony won’t change that.

Memory and history is foremost on the aged Lernen’s mind when he confronts Frieren outside the Association headquarters, and even picks a fight with her that doesn’t last. His reasoning is that he is one of the few people who remember the great mage Flamme, Serie’s first student, and he doesn’t want her to be alone in the future.

If he can kill Frieren, he’ll go down in infamy, but he’ll be remembered alongside Flamme. Frieren won’t fight him, and tells him something he may not realize: for all her petulance, Serie remembers every one of her students, and she’ll surely remember Lernen as well, even if he never etched his name into history.

Serie is basically a genie for first class mages: any one spell they desire is theirs forever. It is quintessentially Fern, then, that she chooses a spell that keeps clothes sparkling clean and pleasant-smelling. It’s here where I’m reminded that Proud Fern is as endearing as Pouty Fern.

It’s a funny spell to ask for, but also hugely practical, considering how dirty all the traveling they do gets, and how much she dislikes doing laundry. Freiren gives Fern an extra emphatic head pat not just because she chose such a practical spell, but because she chose a weird one, just like Frieren would have.

With their business in Äußerst concluded, Frieren, Fern, and Stark depart from the city to continue their journey north to Ende. We learn that while the mages were busy with their exams, Stark was making friends with virtually every damn person in the city, and receives heartfelt goodbyes from all of them.

Kanne and Lawine wait for Frieren on the bridge out of the city to say their goodbyes, promising her they’ll retake the exam in three years. They exchange matane, or see you later, rather than sayonara, a more permanent goodbye.

Fern notes that this goodbye was rather quick, just as it was with Sein. Stark also notes their goodbye with Kraft was just as fast. This too is something Frieren learned from Himmel, and follows in his footsteps as a means of remembering him and how much he meant to her and changed her.

Himmel always said quick goodbyes too, because odds were he’d see the other person again, and he didn’t want it to be awkward or embarrassing when they did. I’ll also take Himmel’s lesson to heart and trust that I’ll see Stark the warrior, Fern the first-class mage, and Frieren the legendary mage, again at some point.

This isn’t a goodbye, but a see-you-later. If by some misfortune we don’t, I’ll still treasure the time I spent watching their travels and trials. It will be impossible to forget not just the big moments, but the small, quiet, cozy, and kind ones. That desire to treasure and inability to forget can be its own kind of magic.

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End – 27 – A Peaceful Selection

No one was killed in Sense’s second exam, but there was a significant casualty: Fern’s staff wasn’t just snapped in the boss fight; it was turned into kindling. When she joins Stark on his meditating promontory pouting and he asks what’s up, she says she and Frieren had another fight. Frieren suggested Fern replace the staff her deceased father gave her with a new one. Stark gravely acknowledges the lack of tact as Frieren being Freiren.

Another casualty was Lawine’s pride, made all the more devastating by the fact she surely hoped that she and Kanne would pass together, just like they do everything together. When Kanne asks if she needs a pat on the head, I was fully prepared for Lawine to put her in a hold and pull her hair, but instead she positions herself for the head pat!

Richter tries to forget his failure get back to the grind of working in his shop, but Denken and Laufen, who passed, make it hard. Before leaving, Denken tells him he’s still an “insolent youngster” in his eyes. When the next exam comes along in three years, Richter will surely be a stronger mage.

While Fern concedes that Frieren probably didn’t mean any harm, more frustrating for her is that Frieren still doesn’t seem to understand her (to this, Stark can only say he doesn’t understand her either). But when Fern happens to pass Richter’s shop, he tells her he’d have made a better profit if she’d just bought a new staff.

Upon returning to their room at the inn, she finds her newly-repaired staff lying on her bed, and Frieren dozing in hers. Frieren saw how her words hurt Fern, and decided to make it up to her by yet again taking the inefficient path she knows so well. Fern smiles as she tucks Frieren in, because her master does understand her better than she thought.

With a highly irregular dozen mages passing the second test, Serie is displeased. But it’s not that Sense’s test was too easy, or that forcing the mages to work together was misguided. The simple fact of the matter is that the Frieren’s anomalous presence was a spectacularly high tide that lifted more boats than ever.

While Serie’s grizzled human student Lernen typically proctors the third exam, she decides to call an audible and proctor it herself. Lernen has no objections, in particular because he wouldn’t be able to properly test Frieren, whom he can tell is suppressing her mana.

Serie praises Lernen for being the only person, other than herself and the Demon King of yore, to notice the ever-so-slight fluctuations in Freiren’s pristine suppression, which took over two centuries for her to master. Then Series scolds Lernen for being so old, yet still every bit the timid boy he was when she first took him on as her student.

Kanne is the first to be interviewed by Serie, and the moment the ancient elf senses that Kanne can’t visualize herself as a first class mage, she fails her. She also fails Dunste, Laufen, Scharf, and Ehre in short order. When it’s Frieren’s turn, Frieren already knows she’s going to be failed, because a mage of her age should be far more skilled than she is.

However, by spending so long learning to suppress her mana, she became uniquely suited to deceiving defeating demons. And Frieren also admits she was lucky because she didn’t defeat the Demon King alone. Without any of Himmel, Heiter, or Eisen, they wouldn’t have beaten him.

As for Frieren having the same “useless” favorite spell as Flamme, creating a field of flowers, it actually had an extremely crucial use: showing a young, lost, and scared Himmel that magic was beautiful, and inspiring him to seek Frieren out specifically when he assembled his party.

Frieren also doesn’t give a rat’s ass whether she passes Serie’s stupid test or not. She was beyond a “First Class Mage” before that term even existed; it’s just a label for her. Only one of her party needs to be First Class to access the northern lands, and Frieren is just as certain Series will pass Fern, for the same reason she and Fern beat her replica in the King’s Tomb.

Fern represents the new Era of Humans, and Frieren vows she’ll exceed even Serie’s expectations. That’s precisely what happens, as Serie initially thinks Fern is standing at a distance out of fear of her ridiculous mana. However, Fern isn’t still out of fear, but awe: she can sense the fluctuation in Serie’s mana. This is something not even Lernen has ever able to do, and thus was always a disappointment to his Master.

Rather than say she passes, Series asks Fern to become her student. Fern, as expected, is like “Um, no.” Serie tells her she can take her magic to new heights. Frieren told Fern that no matter how Fern responded, Serie would pass her. So Fern doesn’t beat around the bush: she’s Frieren’s student, period.

Unable to overlook such a promising mage despite her insolence, Serie turns to leave and tells her she’s passed. Fern is now officially a First Class Mage, baby. With that formality out of the way, their quest can finally proceed, though I presume a future second season will continue that tale. How I will miss this monumental first season once it ends next Friday…

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End – 26 – The Ant that Slew the Dragon

So, about that attack Fern launched when Frieren gave her an opening … the replica blocked it. And so the battle continues, with Frieren and her replica flipping to the back of the playbook and executing some awesomely powerful offensive spells at each other while Fern flits around trying to find more openings. It’s stressful, but also gorgeous to behold, and at no point does Frieren seem remotely worried. On the contrary, she’s having a blast.

While she and Fern fight her replica, the others head out to face off agains the other replicas gathering at the bottom of the dungeon. They choose their targets based on how good or bad matchup they are against the replicas. Denken is quite right that their ability to work together and communicate means not only can they win, they should win. Even when Sense’s replica ambushes Richter and Lawine, and both have to break their golem bottles.

Ultimately, the only one who believes she can defeat the replica of Sense is Übel, who just shot up in the official Coolest Frieren Mages Ever ranking in my books for this reason. As Land, Denken, and Sense lament, Übel’s mind simply works differently than most humans. Growing up watching her sister cut cloth with scissors, she developed Reelseiden, a spell that cuts anything she thinks it can.

She could cut the indomitable magic cloak of a first class mage in a past test, killing him, because she saw the cloak as cloth to be cut. In the same vein, she’s able to easily defeat Sense’s replica (and Sense herself if she chose to) because hair can be cut. Reelseiden is the manifestation of her own personal intuition, which is separate from the typical rules of magic and logic. Put simply, she’s one deadly gal!

Methode makes contact with Wirbel, Ehre, and Scharf, asking them to take on Denken’s replica, while she’ll deal with Fern’s. She needs to be alone in order to maximize the sensitivity of her mana detection, plus in an adorable cutaway, we se her successfully testing her binding magic on Fern, complete with a friendly “Take that!”, Fern declaring she can’t move, and Frieren poking her face.

When replicas they’ve already defeated start to appear, it becomes clear the Spiegel can continue re-spawning them indefinitely until it is defeated. Frieren’s replica has to be destroyed soon to allow them access to the Spiegel, or everyone’s going to eventually be carted away by golems.

Rewinding back to before they confront the replica, Frieren tells Fern that she’ll give Fern the opening she needs by showing an opening to her replica, thus making it show an even bigger opening. Everything hinges on Fern being able to exploit that opening, and Frieren tells her if she thinks they can win, they can win.

Not only that, Frieren admits she “underestimates” Fern. This is the Age of Humanity, after all. Even in her relatively short lifespan, Fern can surpass Frieren one day, but again, only if she thinks she can.

Some truly heinous magic is unleashed by Frieren and her replica in the final stage of their battle, with Frieren cutting things so close her jacket is shredded and her shoulder singed. But the big opening works, and Fern is able to pummel the replica with offensive magic, blasting her arms off.

But then Fern is once again surprised by the depths and heights of Frieren’s magical knowledge as demonstrated by her replica. Fern is tossed across the chamber and slammed hard against the wall, her staff shattered … and Fern doesn’t even recognize it as a spell, nor can she detect any mana.

True to Frieren, the most powerful magic whips out is so elegant it isn’t even recognizable as magic. But as the replica prepares to finish Fern off, Frieren slips behind her and finishes her off. Fern had to take a bit of a lickin’ so that everyone could keep on tickin’.

Victory! I loathed the potential for an unaccounted-for replica to be hiding in the treasure chamber where the Spiegel resided, but Frieren’s replica truly was its final line of defense. Frieren shatters it, and all of the replicas vanish as if snapped away by Thanos. And just in the nick of time too, judging by the precarious state of the various battles.

Everyone arrives at the treasure chamber at the very bottom of the dungeon to a smiling, congratulatory Sense, who tells them all of them deserve to be first-class mages. As for the “ladies of the hour”, as Denken calls them, Fern once again watches as Frieren gets nommed by another mimic, shouting that it’s dark and scary.

But you know what? After being as badass as she was, she deserves to act a little goofy before the third and final test, for which only two announced episodes of the series remain to tell. More than anything, I’m already loathing an end to Frieren, even if it’s likely to get another season down the road. Few anime in history have succeeded so thoroughly in making magic look and feel so … magical.

RABUJOI WORLD HERITAGE LIST

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End – 25 – The Age of Humanity

The assembled mages are pondering how to proceed with so little information, but as others arrive, they gain more intel on the replicas, and with it the confidence to take on the Fake Frieren, who is terrifying in its stillness and patience. Dunste confirms it has no mind, while Lawine learned from her brother’s adventuring that the creature making the replicas is called a Spiegel, and is extremely weak once the replicas are defeated.

The third and most crucial piece of information is not only revealed, but demonstrated by Fern: whenever Frieren casts a spell, she ever so briefly stops detecting mana. I love how sheepish she is about it, as after all it’s a common mistake made by baby mages. But all her other strengths mean only a select few can exploit this weakness.

With sufficient intel to proceed, the group forms a strategy. Fern can tell from her smiles that Frieren is enjoying this, and she confirms that, as it reminds her of when she, Himmel, Eisen, and Heiter (if he wasn’t hung over) coming up with a plan to defeat a dungeon boss. Denken and the others are concerned that Frieren and Fern will be facing off against the replica by themselves, but Frieren has the confidence of someone from the party that conquered the most dungeons in history.

It’s rare for a show to come along that wields such mastery of restraint and elegance in the execution of its battle scenes. Frieren’s battles never last long, but they’re never too short. Instead, they are as long as they need to be. In the battles, Evan Call’s score rings out and time is compressed. So much action and invention and mayhem is conveyed in just a few brief seconds. It can jump from Slow Life to Turbo Chaos in the literal blink of an eye.

It can also make expert use of delayed gratification to lend its battles even more weight. Just as Repli-Frieren is about to zap Real-Frieren in the face with a spell, we cut to however many centuries ago when Flamme passed away and Frieren paid a visit to Serie to present her with her apprentice’s will. Now that the emperor has approved it, any human can now study magic, and Flamme wanted Serie to take over the training of imperial mages once she died.

Serie has no intention of doing so, and is angered by Flamme’s “greed”, but Frieren notes that Flamme predicted her master’s reaction with perfect accuracy. Before Frieren leaves, Serie asks her to take a walk with her. While she does, we have a glimpse of Serie’s headspace. She speaks rather coldly about Flamme, having trained her “on a mere whim”, but her attitude makes sense when you consider that the way Serie perceives time, Flamme’s entire life was equivalent to only a few days, or even hours.

I love how when they walk through a very elvish-looking forest, the spirit of a young Flamme follows Serie along, smiling, holding her master’s hand, showing her her favorite spell: creating a field of flowers. Considering how relatively briefly Flamme was alive, Serie was amazed she was able to bring magic to humanity. She warns Frieren not to neglect her training, as the “era of humans” will be upon them before they know it, and if Frieren is going to be killed, it will either be by the Demon King … or a human.

Knowing all of this entering the battle, Frieren keeps her replica focused on her as they fight to a draw. Fern conceals her mana and stays hidden until Frieren creates an opening. Replica Frieren, who has the same vulnerability as her real counterpart, cannot detect Fern’s mana until it’s too late. All Real Frieren has to do is move out of the way of Fern’s Zoltraak, which she can do because she knows it’s coming. Replica Frieren doesn’t, so it’s game over in a flash.

Elves like her predate Zoltraak, they’re unable to react to it as instinctively as a human like Fern, for whom Zoltraak is just a basic attack spell that existed long before she was born. But at the end of the day the replica lost because Real Frieren is a relic from an ancient time living in the middle of the Age of Humanity, and Fern is her adorable human apprentice who was able to best her.

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End – 24 – Their Own Worst Enemies

As Denken confirms in his lovely deadpan, fighting a replica of Frieren is going to be a royal pain in the ass. It’s all he, Laufen and Richter can do to escape her wide-area initial attack, presented with the usual Frieren panache with as the three gracefully twisting and dodging the beams of magic, any one of which would be the end of them, escape golem or not.

We check in on Land and Übel after their initial encounter with a replica of Ubel, which slashed Land in the chest and stole his golem. Übel can tell he’s in a bad way, so offers her own golem, which he refuses. She then correctly surmises that this wounded Land is only clone.

She rushes out and faces off against her replica head-on, even allowing it to restrain her. Such is the trust she had in Land’s distaste for allowing anyone—even her—to die because of him. Sassiness and craftiness … I fail to see how Land hasn’t proposed yet!

Watching Übel take down her replica with an assist from Land was cool as hell, but just as enjoyable is watching Frieren continue to skip around the dungeon like she’s a kid in a candy store. Rarely is she without a big goofy grin on her face as she locates an entrance to a secret passage and reveals the best preserved stone mural of its era Sense has ever seen.

Just as they’re nearing the bottom of the dungeon and Fern is thinking things have gone far too smoothly, they encounter Denken’s team outside the main hall where Frieren’s replica is standing guard. As expected, this only heightens Frieren’s enthusiasm, as this is exactly what conquering a dungeon should be … and she should know!

The standard strategy when dealing with a superior mage is to use restraint or hypnosis magic, but when Methode, who is the best of Denken’s group at both, attempts to cast such magic on the real Frieren, she fails; Fern does not like how she hugged Frieren and pulls her away.

But while Frieren is highly resistant, Methode believes a hypnosis specialist could at least buy them some time in a battle with the replica. That specialist is Edel, who along with her party is being cornered by a replica of Sense, who unlike her template is probably not a pacifist.

Edel, who is voiced by Kurosawa Tomoyo with a slightly haughty playfulness, assesses their very bad situation, and decides to try using her hypnosis against the replica, with her two mates giving her the fifteen or so seconds she needs to capture its mind and force it to kneel.

Unfortunately, the coin toss didn’t favor Edel, as the replicas have no minds to be captured. In her moment of vulnerability Edel is stabbed through the chest by the Sense replica’s hair. Her hypnosis wouldn’t have had an effect on the Frieren replica either, even if she’d ever gotten to where Frieren and the others are. Badly wounded, she accepts defeat and breaks her bottle. The golem immediately shields her from further attacks and whisks her back to the surface.

But her two party-mates are able to fall back, and are thus still in the mix. So too are Lawine and Kanne, Land and Übel, and the loner guy who came in first. We check back in on Wirbel, Ehre, and Scharf, who manage to take out the Ehre replica by collapsing the ceiling above it. Wirbel has them working like a well-oiled machine.

That’s the key to this dungeon: teamwork, along with cool-headed analysis. It’s not impossible to clear, even with Frieren and Sense replicas stalking about. Thus far, no one has been able to defeat a replica without the aid of someone else. But when Frieren decides to correctly assume her replica doesn’t have a mind to hypnotize, brute force is the only option.

To that end, Fern volunteers to provide the brute force needed to defeat the Miss Frieren replica, and Frieren smiles with the obvious pride of a master confident her pretty young student has the strength, imagination, and resolve to prevail.

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.

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End – 22 – Meals Should Be Enjoyed

Fern reunites with Stark to find him napping in the evening, placing her into one of her trademark sour moods. Frieren determines the best remedy is a good meal, and she knows a good restaurant from when she last visited with the Hero’s Party eighty years ago.

When Denken, flanked by a donut scarfing Laufen suggests to an aloof Richter that the three of them have dinner, I just knew they’d end up at the very same restaurant. I love how Laufen acts like his granddaughter, and how Richter folds when Denken mentions his late wife.

As for Fern’s former party members, Übel runs into Land in the street and is pleased to me him and not his clone. She’s intrigued by him and wants to learn more, restraining him with the spell she learned from Wirbel by “sympathizing” with him (and also sparing his life). I guess this is her way of finding and courts men she likes! Land may claim not to like “dimwitted” mages like her, but I’m sure he prefers her to run-of-the-mill women.

When Dunkin Denken, Laufen, and Richter enter the resturant he was looking for, Frieren is already there with Fern and Stark, both of whom are duly impressed by the quality of the food. Frieren chose this place because the chef made a promise not just to her but to Himmel that he’d keep the flavor alive for generations. When she tastes her pile of steaks, the flavor has changed, but for the better.

Frieren leaves the restaurant with a fully belly and a smiling face, but the next morning she’s as mad as ever since Frieren overslept and didn’t do the shopping (Frieren also spent most of her savings on last night’s feast). Stark attempts to mediate, as this time Fern has no quarrel with him, and she comes right out and declares that she wants to eat snacks. Sure, she’s a major pain in the butt, but we love her anyway, don’t we?!

Kanne and a glowed-up Lawine (courtesy of her doting big brothers), who I am now shipping as a couple, are out on the town when they encounter Frieren with Fern and Stark. Then Wirbel passes by, takes a look at Stark, and determines he’s a true warrior who can join him and Scharf for a sanctioned beast hunt. Stark is initially weary, but was just as uncomfortable being “surrounded by girls.”

Lawine and Kanne present Frieren with a basket of cookies to thank her for helping them pass the first test. The four hang out at the inn and have fun telling stories, and though a mention of Frieren oversleeping during the test causes Fern to make a face, they all seem to have fun, and she’s definitely enjoying the snacks.

I appreciated this break between the first and second tests, allowing us to enjoy all the new characters in the more laid-back environment of Äußerst. But if Lawine and Kanne are to be believed, the first test was a cakewalk compared to whatever the proctor Sense has cooked up for them: in the last four exams, she hasn’t passed a single applicant.

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End – 21 – Making it Rain

Serie sits on her throne in a library once in good repair, now crumbling around her (a beautiful crossfade), bestowing wishes on mages while remaining stuck in amber. Centuries ago, she remembers her student Flamme visiting her with her new student: a elf girl with silver hair. Serie could tell this girl was strong, but when Frieren refuses to have her wish fulfilled, Series believes she lacks the ambition to become a truly great mage.

But for all her centuries of life and amassed knowledge and experience, her student Flamme considered something she could not: neither of them have the capacity to imagine a peaceful world. Frieren can, and so she’ll be the one to defeat the Demon King. In the present, it heartens Frieren to hear Denken say the very same words she told Serie: the joy of magic lies in searching for it. One only has time to search if there’s peace in the world.

High above the canopy atop the plateau he created, Richter “babysits” Lawine and Kanne by giving them a little lecture about the fallacy of defensive battles of attrition. The basic defense spell in use all over magedom hasn’t changed because the simplest defense is the best defense.

However, one’s defense relies on one’s stores of mana, so Richter’s philosophy is to overwhelm his opponents with high-volume physical attacks, in this case earth. But while he overwhelms the girls, he obeys Denken and doesn’t kill them.

Denken fights well, but he’s up against Frieren. He never had a chance, but he had to try, and not for the privilege of being granted a wish. As he later tells Laufen, his only wish is to travel to his homeland to visit someone’s grave.

If nothing else, Denken has the pleasure of learning that there’s still a mage out there stronger than him, and then some. In battle, Frieren sticks to the tried-and-true basic spells, making him feel like a trainee in a combat lesson.

When Frieren calls out to Laufen to give her back her Stille or she’ll kill Denken he insists she stay put and conceal her mana. But she can’t, so when Frieren’s staff starts to glow, Laufen uses her flash-step and is instantly nabbed by Frieren, having fallen into her trap. Still, Laufen doesn’t regret using her ability; she knew Frieren probably wouldn’t kill Denken, but she didn’t want Denken hurt at all.

They get to sit back and watch firsthand as Frieren, who has finished analyzing the barrier, conjures a destruction spell that shatters it. The male proctor was 100% certain it would never be broken, because Serie’s the one who put it up, and “the world would have to be turned upside down” for someone to destroy it.

Well, Frieren does just that, and as soon as she does, Serie knows it happened and who did it. Now we see while she dwells somewhat stagnantly in that library, Serie still relishes times like this when the world is upended by a mage—in this case, the last great mage: Frieren of the Hero’s Party.

When asked why she did it, Frieren says she felt bad for Kanne, and that “magic should be free”. Now the only one anyone has to feel bad for is Richter, for his greatest fear is now a reality: he finds himself in a fight with a mage who controls water … in the rain. He gets a tast of his own high-volume medicine, as Lawine holds him in place with her ice while Kanne throws a cubic acre of water at him.

Later, when Frieren finds the girls sitting, drained of mana, she gives them pats on the heads, congratulating them for winning. Frieren never doubted they would, because she never doubted she’d shatter the barrieer.

With only a couple of hours until the first test ends, Fern, Land, and Ubel find shelter from the rain in a cave. Ubel asks Fern about the other spells she knows, and when Fern mentions the one that can see through clothes, there’s a perfect jump cut to Ubel suddenly far away, covering herself, and Fern assuring her she won’t use it.

Land warns Fern not to say anything more about what she can do, because the six groups of three who passed the first test will be dissolved and all eighteen individual mages pitted against one another in the second. Denken, Richter, and Laufen are among those who passed, thanks to Denken’s fists. They all have three days to rest before that second test. Freiren and Fern exchange satisfied looks. I hope that rather than fighting each other—they’re both mages of peace—they’ll use teamwork to win together if they can.

RABUJOI WORLD HERITAGE LIST

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End – 20 – All’s Fair in Love and War

As I expected, Ehre was wrong to scoff at Fern’s “basic” spell. When that spell is launched at her hundreds of times in the space of a few seconds, so rapidly that Ehre can’t keep up and eventually runs out of mana for her defensive power, well then there’s nothing really wrong with basic, is there?

Decidedly more evenly matched, at least at first, is the battle between Übel and Wirbel. Übel spams an attack that cuts anything from any angle, but only within a five-meter radius. Wirbel uses a binding spell, but he must continue to look at his target. He’d rather Übel gave him the bird and left, but she came for a fight to the death, and isn’t running.

Übel asks Wirbel if he’s ever killed women and children, and we see that he’s at least been in battles between nations where women and children are pressed into battle, a dark part of this world we, like Fern, have been sheltered from. But asking about his past buys Übel just enough time for Fern to come to her rescue.

When Wirbel asks about Ehre, Fern says she killed her without the slightest hesitation or tell. Wirbel has no reason to disbelieve someone strong enough to walk away from a fight with Ehre, so he declares defeat (since one of his group members was killed) and walks off.

He then finds Ehre unconscious but very much alive, and gathers her up, as well as their third member, who was defeated by Übel and Fern’s third member (making use of a clone to deceive him). Ehre admits Wirbel is a pretty nice guy, and even remembers him saving her village, which is why she’s even there on his back.

He assures her he doesn’t fight the demons out of kindness, but simply because he promised a girl he loved back when he was five years old; a girl whose face and name he can no longer recall.

That brings us to the confrontation between Frieren and Denken’s groups. Laufen uses her high-speed spell (which Frieren identifies as a specific folk spell) to steal their Stille, while Richter and Denken confront them. Richter is fine with killing Lawine and Kanne, but Denken, who actually knows who Frieren is, would rather he didn’t.

Frieren doesn’t believe it’s worth killing to receive the “mere title” of first-class mage. But Richter insists that it isn’t just a title. We finally catch a glimpse of the yellow-haired elf in the first cour’s OP: her name is Serie, and she’s a “living grimoire” who knows every spell in human history.

To become a first-class mage is to gain the privilege to ask for any one spell of their choosing, and that spell will be bestowed upon them by Serie. Because mages are by and large human, and thus easily corrupted by power, most modern first-class mages are “monsters who barely seem human.”

In that regard, Richter certainly has the makings of a modern major mage general, as he’s A-OK with killing two girls even though he only needs to put them to sleep. Denken once again tells Richter that there’ll be no killing. He believes he only needs three hours to “crush” Frieren, so asks Richter to look after the children until then.

Richter raises himself, Lawine, and Kanne high above the forest on a pillar of earth, separating them from Denken and Frieren. Throughout this entire encounter, at no point has Frieren expressed surprise or concern, nor has she budged an inch.

hen they’re alone and Denken points his staff at her, she calmly points her staff at him. He says “the young are too hot-blooded,” referring to Richter, but to an immortal elf like Frieren, Denken might as well be talking about himself. The only reason I can see him being a match for Frieren is if she goes easy on him.

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End – 19 – Mana in the Water

As Frieren sits by the fire, her party-mates fast asleep, she recalls another fire long ago when Heiter told Himmel to be himself, rather than pretend he’s not afraid. Eisen’s hands would shake and he never denied his fear, something his student Stark inherited.

Fern, who was partnered with fellow third-class Ubel and second-class Land, have already successfully captured a Stille. Fern is relieved they’ll pass the test, but the other two mages warn that the true fight has just begun: now that they have a bird, others will try to steal it.

Those others don’t include Frieren’s party. She intends to nab one fair and square, but all previous attempts failed miserably. With a thousand years of strategies to draw from, Frieren comes up with a clever plan that utilizes Lawine and Kanne’s specific magical talents.

The episode presents their plan in action, in parts from the POV of other parties, before explaining it verbally, a move I really liked because it puts us in the same shoes as the other parties. The plan starts out big and loud, with Lawine freezing the entire central lake, ensuring no Stille will ever come near it.

That means the Stilles will seek out other, smaller bodies of water to drink from. Kanne has most of them covered by placing a small amount of her mana (typically only enough for a Still to detect). This narrows the sources of the birds’ water, but also the opportunities for other parties to catch birds.

Fern, Ubel, and Land are ambushed by a party composed of Wirbel (the war veteran), Ehre, a fellow second-class, and Scharf, a third-class. Magical attacks crackle and pop as they fly furiously through the air, and at no point does Fern panic, despite her opponent Ehre being a class above her. Nor does Ubel, who relishes fighting, care that she got Wirbel. If we’re honest both of them should be ranked higher than third.

Speaking of under-ranked mages, Denken seems a lot more powerful than second-class would suggest, and his younger party-mates Laufen (third) and Richter (second), no slouches themselves, defer to his considerable judgment. Like Frieren, he’s patient. Unlike Frieren, he’s cold. No actions will be taken—even taking down a party of dead mages from the trees—that aren’t necessary to the success of their mission.

Denken and Frieren represent mages who’ve reached an age and level of experience where they understand that it’s just as important to know how to go small than to go big. Frieren sits beside a pond with no mana in it, suppressing her mana to the point it’s visualized as an aura shrinking into her body.

The young ladies think her mana is gone, but just as Denken sensed the miniscule amount of mana in the ponds, Frieren can sense even more miniscule amounts. To her, it’s a lot of mana! At the same time, she suppresses it enough that a Stille perches on her shoulder, allowing her to cast a miniature version of the binding spell she used to save Kanne.

Frieren was sure to use as little mana as possible, but it was still enough for Denken to detect. That’s when he goes into field general mode. Laufen vanishes like ninja, and reappears right behind Frieren, Lawine, and Kanne. The latter two might have trouble with Laufen, but I have full confidence in Frieren’s ability to protect them.

As Ehre continues her fight with Fern, she’s tickled by Fern’s use of basic-as-hell attack and defense spells. It feels to Ehre like she’s fighting her grandfather. It’s the first time I really considered that Fern’s style is not only old-fashioned, but downright ancient. It’s also cool that the newer mages have branched out with their own individual styles.

It also reminds me that Fern is a fuckin’ badass. I remember earlier in her training when her hands trembled and she hesitated. This Fern, trained by the mage that helped bring down the Demon King, is someone special, but also bit of a relic to some, nay most other mages in the larger world.

And God bless Fern flexing in the most deadpan matter-of-fact way imaginable: by saying her master taught her that basic spells were “enough to defeat mages of this era.” If anyone knows about mages of many eras, it’s Frieren, who is walking talking history.

Fern can sense that Ehre is actually stronger than Wirbel, but Ehre warns her mana isn’t the only measure of a mage. Just as Denken mentioned how no amount of mana will serve a mage who cannot win hearts. Wirbel’s no doubt won a few in his many battles.

That experience and charisma makes him that much more dangerous, but I’m putting my rhetorical coin on the retro-af Frieren and Fern both holding their own in the trials to come, proving that old spells are the best spells.

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End – 18 – Push You Pull Me

With Äußerst finally in sight, Frieren, Fern and Stark hitch a ride in a wagon to complete their journey. Fern thinks Frieren has the First-Class Mage Exam in the bag, but Freiren tells her only a handful of mages have ever made it to that level (cut to dark room full of some those mages). Frieren also notes that she’s lost eleven times to mages with less mana than she—six in duels with humans, four with demons, and one with an elf.

She’s not the only one on her way to Äußerst for the exam. We also encounter Übel, a mage who has no qualms about using her considerable magic to tear bandits to pieces. She encounters Kraft, who uses some martial arts to convince her would-be next victims to flee. He’s not there to lecture or judge her for killing in self-defense, but in this instance he simply saved some lives that where there to save.

The first-class exam is only held once every three years, so our party is lucky with their timing. The problem is, one needs proof that they are at least a fifth-class certification in order to take the exam. That’s not a problem for Fern, who has her proper paperwork. But Fern doesn’t have any confidence she’d be able to pass the first-class exam in her place.

When Frieren whips out her ancient rusted necklace, an older mage in line happens to notice and asks to take a look. He happens to be one of the few people in the world who recognize what it is and what it represented, because Frieren is allowed to take the exam. She remembers Himmel, Eisen, and Heiter didn’t recognize it, but they still knew she was an amazing mage. Fern and Stark tell her the same thing in the present.

On the day of the exams where all the applicants are gathered, we learn more about some of those applicants. Übel failed her last second-class test because she killed the proctor (dayum), while Fern turns out to be the youngest mage ever to reach third-class with top marks. She may doubt her abilities and her potential, but Frieren doesn’t, and neither do these proctors. She’s a star. Not that I ever doubted it!

After a month of training together (another cute montage elevated by Evan Call), Frieren and Fern are split up, as all applicants are divided into groups of three. Frieren notes is a clever means of evaluating a mage’s adaptability and teamwork. A first-class mage isn’t a specialist; they’re good at everything. So Frieren is a little concerned when the other two members of her party, Lawine (blue dress) and Kanne (red hair) are constantly at each others’ throats.

The objective of the exam is to catch a rare bird called a Stille within a cordoned-off space in the forest. Lawine and Kanne may bicker and grapple a lot, but when Lawine spots a Stille, she and Kanne are in perfect synch, with Kanne manipulating water around the bird and Lawine freezing that water. Unfortunately, they ignored Frieren’s request that they simply observe; Stilles are extremely strong and can fly faster than sound, and they end up soaked by half the lake.

The three spend the rest of the day observing the Stille (in between bickering and grappling). But that night, Kanne hears what sounds like rain, finds that Frieren is missing from her bed, and wanders off. She ends up on a cliff to get a better listen, but her shoulder is suddenly slashed by the tail of a birdlike monster (not a Stille). With her staff too far away, Kanne is about to be killed, when the monster is restrained with ease by Frieren, who scolds her for not keeping a sharp eye on the skies.

After Kanne has calmed down, Frieren asks her why she called out Lawine’s name before she was rescued, when by all accounts she hates her. Kanne says she does hate Lawine, but she also admits she’s “craven by nature.” Recalling the day she first used flying magic, Lawine complimented her until finally kicking her off a cliff. She was nice when it mattered.

Kanne, then, is only a third-class mage and working towards a first-class cert because of Lawine always pulling her along with her. At the same time, since Lawine has never been without Kanne, she is just as instrumental to where she is now. The two may butt heads, but they still care for one another, and each wants the other to realize their potential as mages.

No doubt Frieren recognizes her own old, long bonds with Himmel, Eisen, and Heiter, whom she always called “Corrupt Priest.” Sometimes the best of friends don’t always get along, but still bring out the best in each other. Now that we’ve met Frieren’s party, I’m curious to see how Fern is faring in hers, which also includes Übel.

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End – 17 – Emotional Support

When the party must wait out a month-long cold wave in a village, Sein seems partly relieved, because it means he gets to spend that much more time with these lovable goofballs. The days and weeks pass with little incident, until Fern and Stark have a “fight”.

Frieren enlists Sein’s aid as priests specialize in mediation, and he learns that Stark was just getting back at Fern touching his cheek with her freezing hand. He learns that Fern was only being stubborn; she didn’t mind Stark touching her, but was momentarily scared by how strong his hands felt.

The two quickly apologize to one another and make up, leaving Sein to go to the tavern wondering why they don’t just date already? In this particular instance, Sein is very much an audience surrogate! Then he asks Frieren why she urged him to go on an adventure and shows so much concern for him.

Aside from not liking “her own kind”; i.e. someone who like her initially resisted striking out into the world, she simply wanted to do for Sein what Himmel would have done, and what he did do for her. Thanks to him, Heiter, and Eisen, Frieren learned how good it feels to spend time with friends.

Of course, it’s because Sein’s friend Gorilla is still out there, in the opposite direction, that he must bid farewell to Frieren, Fern, and Stark. The final goodbye is appropriately quick and understated. And while Frieren is right that as an adult Sein will be fine, he still notes how quiet it is traveling alone. Hopefully he’ll find his friend soon.

Frieren, Fern, and Stark continue towards Äußerst, but one day Fern won’t wake up. Frieren determines she has a fever, then uses her Holy Scripture (she apparently has one) to identify it as a simple cold. They manage to find warm shelter thanks to a kind woman who appears to be one of the only remaining residents of what was in Himmel’s day a bustling village.

Frieren prepares to head out with Stark to gather ingredients for medicine, but Stark observes that Frieren has scarcely let go of Fern’s hand this whole time. Frieren says that ever since Fern was a little kid, she’s always held her hand like this. An embarrassed Fern wrests free from her grip and turns over in bed, not wanting to be treated “like a child”.

It occurs to Frieren that Fern is right; in just two years, Fern will be a full-fledged adult. She was once so tiny, but in the blink of an eye—an elf’s eye, especially—she grew up. And yet because it felt like so short a time, Frieren suspects Fern will always be a child in her mind. She probably doesn’t know that virtually all mothers feel that way about their kids.

After some fun obstacles, Frieren and Stark make it to the majestic icicle cherry blossom tree she sought. While it bears her favorite winter-blooms, she actually came for the giant mushrooms growing at the foot of its trunk. Before she does, she tells Stark the real reason she held Fern’s hand.

She held it because looked like Fern was in pain, and she wanted to relieve that pain. She also remembers that she herself was once in bed with a fever, and it was Himmel who introduced her not just to the concept of holding the hand of someone in pain, but as means of offering emotional support, which even grown-ups need and appreciate.

After returning to the house, making the medicine, and administering it, Frieren takes Stark’s advice to “do what she wants” and takes her hand. Fern again protests, saying she’s not a child. Frieren keeps holding her hand and tells her she knows. Fern understands and smiles. Eventually, she’s fully recovered, thanks to Frieren, Stark, and the kind lady. Now it’s off to Äußerst.

Frieren’s winter cour starts off strong, underscoring the chemistry and warmth of its characters, while Frieren continues to honor absent family by savoring her new journey. Fern and Stark continue to be the cutest, there’s a new OP with lots of new characters, and a new ED with a fresh arrangement of the tender, tear-jerking song by milet.

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End – 16 – Carrying Memories into the Future

Once in the Klar region, Frieren is excited to be reunited with one of the oldest people she knows: a dwarf named Old Man Voll, who is at least 400 years old. When he claims not to remember her, she accuses him of feigning senility, but then one fierce quick move and Stark is on the ground. He may be old, but he’s still tough as nails.

Frieren would clearly love to spend a decade spending time and talking with Voll near the end of his life, but Fern only allows her a week. In that week, Stark trains with Voll, Fern and Sein help out at the farm, and Frieren is clearly enjoying every day she’s with Voll. His resemblance to old Himmel can’t be coincidental.

Frieren credits Voll with helping her get to know Himmel, Heiter, and Eisen. When they first met before she defeated the Demon King, Voll said then that he was simply protecting the village his human wife loved. Even if he doesn’t remember her face, voice, or eyes, but still remembers the love.

When Voll offered to carry the memory of Himmel into the future, Himmel says he already has Eisen and Frieren for that. When Eisen says he won’t live as long as an elf, Himmel entrusts Frieren alone with the task. Freiren bothered to get to know people thanks to Himmel.

After telling Voll she’s going to Ende, he responds as if she were headed there to defeat the Demon King; as if he was unaware that she already did. Is Voll senile? Does he go in and out? Is he just messing with her? Regardless, Frieren will carry his memory into the future too.

The friend (really more of a brother by another mother) Sein is searching for sought to be an unforgettable hero. To do that, he knew he not only needed to leave their sleepy hometown, but give himself an impactful name: Gorilla Warrior. Sein, in turn, was known as Goatee Priest, well before he grew one.

While in the next village on the way to Ausserst, Sein is hot on the trail of Gorilla, as a random villager knows him by name, and a stubborn old lady spent a lot of time with him and may know where he went when he left the village.

In order to get anything out of the stubborn old lady, Sein and the others have to complete an extensive list of chores and errands for her, for which we have a cute montage. When even doing most of those chores gets nothing out of them, Fern blames their status as a party full of socially awkward people.

Then the old lady shows them to their last task: cleaning a statue of two forgotten heroes. Fern notes that they look like “Mr. Sein and Mr. Gorilla” (I love her liberal use of honorifics), and we learn she wasn’t the first to think that. But Frieren does remember the warrior: it’s Kraft, from their little mountain vacation.

Back when he and Gorilla were kids, they saw this statue with Heiter, and it inspired Gorilla further to become a hero that no one would ever forget. Heiter broke it to him that in time, all heroes end up forgotten, for no one remains who knew them, nor passed their memory of them to future generations.

He only turned out to be half-correct, for as long as Frieren lives, she’ll remember Kraft, Voll, and above all Himmel and his cool poses.

Sein ends up learning from the old lady that Gorilla headed in the direction opposite of Ausserst, so he has a decision to make: stick with Frieren & Co. at the risk of delaying or even preventing his reunion, or part ways and seek out Gorilla on his own.