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.

To Your Eternity – S2 16 – Cheat Code

Fueled by rage and his hatred of Nokkers, Fushi punches it into overdrive, constantly transforming into different vessels once he gets exhausted, which happens at different intervals with different vessels. Then, when the Nokkers have Fushi cornered, he is rescued … by Kai, Hylo, and Messar, who have been resurrected.

We later learn Bon did so by disconnecting the bodies from Fushi by cutting the rope. It’s Bon’s way of easing Fushi into the realization that he is capable of resurrecting dead people; the three warriors are a trial run. Fushi puts them to good use, but in cases where he transports them from one distant location to another, the fastest way to do so is for them to die.

As the logistics of defending Renril continue to grow in complexity as the battle rages on, the cycle of death and rebirth, and recycling of material (both rubble and corpses) takes on a nightmarish scale and level of efficiency. Fushi can pretty much infinitely conjure crossbow bolts, gun bullets, and the bodies of his three deathless allies.

This is the kind of shit that gives Kahaku pause, because the more Fushi takes on and creates with his expanding powers, the more he risks losing his humanity. You can see it in his relatively blank expression when the warriors decide to kill themselves as a shortcut.

When Kamu and the other citizen soldiers restrain Kahaku, they fear he’s a Nokker (he also cuts off Yuiss’ arm because she got infected, so he really saved her life). Kahaku, perhaps given unique perpective by his left arm, still sees “the black demon” as the ultimate puppet master and not someone deserving of loyalty.

Kahaku is on Fushi’s side; the only one looking after his well-being as a person. Everyone else considers that a luxury they can’t afford, they, including Bon, need him operating at peak efficiency and, where the Nokkers are concerned, peak lethality.

So it’s heartening as Fushi continues to get swept up in a maelstrom of death and destruction with no end in sight, he happens to spot March’s unmistakable calling card: a handprint that indicates she’s “doing great”. I wish I could say the same of Fushi!

Juuni Taisen – 03

Is it just me, or have the POV warriors gotten progressively more interesting with each episode? After Boar and Dog, we now learn more about Chicken (Niwatori), who had spent last week showing Dog one side only to turn on him and show her true one.

Niwatori’s childhood was…rough, to put it comically mildly. We find her where the cops do: malnourished and filthy in an apartment filled with garbage and blood. It’s not her blood; it’s that of her parent(s), which, considering her “pecking” specialty, she killed by repeatedly pecking bits out of hem with an egg topper.

Her own memories of this time are quite foggy; she spent some time at a facility after a hospital visit, and after regaining her physical health, she was adopted by the Niwa family, whose matriarch was interested in utilizing her special ability to speak to birds.

They trained her into a soldier and assassin who can hide in plain sight and deceived and betrayed so many people, she had no idea who was a friend or enemy.

Back in the present, Niwatori has successfully fooled Dog unto his death, and makes quick work of Zombie Boar with a swarm of birds under her control, who peco their prey to pieces and pick flesh from bone.

Feeling peckish herself, Niwatori enters a convenience store and encounters Rat, who has no quarrel with her, and leads her to the sewers to meet Monkey.

Niwatori finds herself unusually affected, even moved by Shuryuu’s seemingly catch-less kindness and earnestness, and believes Dog’s One Man Army poison has heightened her emotions as well as her body.

Even though she finds herself perfectly capable of killing Monkey and Rat right there and then, and knows that is the best course of action to ensure victory in the Zodiac War, she just…can’t do it. She withdraws…and when she does, she’s so busy cursing herself for making such a dumb move, she doesn’t realize Ox is right there, ready to kill her.

Naturally, because Niwatori is the POV character this week, she has to die, and she’s not even the first warrior Ox kills this week (that honor goes to Horse, whom we don’t learn much about before his demise).

Still, she faces her imminent death standing tall, with a defiant look in her eye, and after sacrificing so many of her beloved birds to defeat Zombie Boar, there’s a poetry to her giving up her body to feed still more of those birds.

I won’t say that she came out of the hell of her childhood—in which she was no doubt pecked away at to the brink of death—to live a life of honor or morality. Indeed, she saw herself as an instrument—another weapon in the Niwa family’s arsenal—and little else.

We don’t know what wish she’d have asked for had she won the Zodiac War. But I will say that for the brief time I got to know her, I emphasized and liked Niwatori, and the show feels a little smaller without her, as I’m sure it will continue to feel as more POV characters meet their maker.