Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End – 09 – Get Up

Granat thanks Fern and Stark for saving him, and vows to pardon Frieren, now that he knows she’s the mage whose party saved the town back when his gramps ran it. As for the main threat, Aura has been that for five centuries thanks to a pair of scales that weigh her mana against her opponents.

The one with less mana falls under her control, hence her large army. Frieren the Slayer will admit it is bigger than the last time they met eighty years ago, but she finds Aura’s magic “disgusting.” If a demon is going to insist on talking to her, she has no reason to be nice. I for one am glad Aura talks, because she’s voiced by Taketatsu Ayana.

Frieren dispels the magic Aura is using on the soldiers surrounding her, but Aura assumes she lacks the mana to dispel all of them. She also asks why Frieren isn’t just coming in blasting all kinds of flashy attacks. Frieren says Himmel scolded her, but when Aura tells him Himmel’s gone, she agrees: why not go all out and waste no time?

The church where Granat, Fern, and Stark are located has a barrier, but Stark knows they can’t hide there forever. He gets up as if to confront Lugner and Linie, but he’s actually going to find Frieren and beg her to come back and deal with them. It’s less heroic, but Fern can’t deny it’s realistic.

It isn’t until they’re outside that Fern realizes Luger’s blood is still on her and Stark’s clothes, too late for a healed Luger to pin her to the wall by the shoulder. At the same time, Linie rolls in like a little ball of lightning, conjures an axe just like Stark’s, and delivers a blow that sends him off the battlements to the ground below.

Frieren can’t help Fern and Stark; they have to trust that she left them there because she knew they’d be alright. Lugner and Linie are terrifyingly powerful opponents. Even so, Fern’s calm expression endures even when she shatters the blood vine that snagged her, then unleashes a dizzying barrage of magical attacks at Lugner.

He may have a lot more years under his belt, a lot better mastery of magic, and larger stores of the stuff, but Fern has one thing he doesn’t: speed. She’s even faster on the draw than Frieren, and uses that to great effect. Linie smashes Stark into the ground and prepares to join Lugner, but Stark gets back up, so their fight continues.

While Draht had his wires and Lugner has his blood, Linie has the ability to assess and copy the exact fighting style and weapon of whatever warrior she fights. She first demonstrated it by fighting Stark with the same axe he has, in Eisen’s style, then switches between different weapons and styles in the middle of combat, which combined with her dancerly acrobatics makes for a tremendous spectacle.

When Stark falls again, it’s with the belief he can’t beat Linie, who is fighting like his master. He initially assumes he’s lost, but then remembers a lesson during which Eisen told him the most important thing is for a warrrior to get back up. As long as you’re standing, you haven’t lost. So he gets back up, and realizes Linie’s blows aren’t as powerful as Eisen’s were. Linie is just pissed off she can’t join Lugner.

Ultimately, her arrogance is her undoing, as she sees Stark wide open with his all-or-nothing attack and heaves her axe into his side. But rather than cutting him in two it barely digs in an inch. Stark wears a wry grin as he’s confirmed this girl is no Eisen, then initiates a Lightning Bolt attack that carves her clean in two. I have to admit: I stood up and cheered.

Linie meeting her end distracts Lugner for a split second, which is all the opening Fern needs to send a fatal Zoltraak through his heart. And so Frieren was right: her apprentice and her frontline warrior could handle themselves just fine against Aura’s lieutenants in her absence. I just hope she’s right about still being stronger than Aura!

What a couple of breathtaking, outstanding battles these were. I’m still all jacked up after watching them. Needless to say the storyboarding, animation, direction, lighting, sound effects, and Evan Call score all conspired to create a sublime viewing experience I won’t soon forget, and that left me craving for the next battle.

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End – 08 – The Beauty of Accumulated Effort

Whelp, Draht can’t say Frieren didn’t warn him! After suspending her from the ceiling with magical wire, which she keeps from beheading her with her mana, he believes he’s won. Frieren doesn’t let him believe it for long.

In the space of five seconds, spread out longer so we’re able to follow, she liberates one of hands and then the other and plants him face down on the ground. Before he can plead for his life, Frieren takes it, lamenting the young demons’ lack of battle experience.

Eisen told Stark that good food is the sign of a peaceful town. After scarfing down a tasty burger, Fern decides to petition Graf Granat to release her master, for she senses the peace of the town is about to be threatened. Stark feels the same way, but he’s much more of a scaredy-cat than Fern.

Granat discovers Frieren has escaped, his dead guard, and the fact that Draht is missing, and asks Lugner and Linie where he is at swordpoint. Lugner assumes the time for violence has come, and he uses his blood like Draht used his wire: to decapitate all of the knights. He then wounds Granat and takes him prisoner.

On their way to the graf’s mansion, Fern notices a cloaked figure and recognizes her as Frieren. In a quiet alley, Frieren explains how she came to be free and why she’s decided this place is boring and it’s time to go. But Fern wants to protect the town from the demons.

Frieren tells her and Stark to deal with them on their own. Knowing an enemy like Lugner is strong isn’t cause not to fight them, and in her opinion (not to be undervalued considering her prestige) she doesn’t believe Fern or Stark to be any weaker than Lugner or Linie.

The real reason Frieren is leaving the remaining two “envoys” to them is that she has bigger fish to fry. Aura the Guillotine is only 10 clicks outside the city with her army, waiting for the envoys to lower the magical barrier. Frieren admits she doesn’t particularly like fighting strong foes, so she intends to end things quickly.

Under cover of darkness, Stark and Fern infiltrate the manor. I love how Stark tries to be chivalrous by lending Fern a hand, knowing full well she can fly. Lugner keeps blabbing to a tied up and bloodied Granat how he and other demons like him are the products of tireless hard work and practice, and how he loathes geniuses such as Flamme, the one who developed the anti-demon barrier.

He gives Granat some more alone time to think about telling him how to lower that barrier, and that’s when Stark enters. Granat initially thinks his son has arrived, and he recognizes Stark’s trembling hands, because his son’s hands did the same thing when he left for war. Far from calling him a coward, he considers it most valorous.

Lugner and Linie return before Stark can smash the chair with his axe, so he demonstrates his speed and instincts by scoring a hit on Lugner, then protecting his vitals from his blood magic. Stark isn’t there to fight Lugner and Linie two-on-one, but only to give an opening to Fern, who blasts the shit out of Lugner as she floats outside the window.

Linie prepares to fight Fern, who is All Business, but Lugner warns against rash action, and even allows Fern and Stark to leave with the injured Granat. As Frieren thought, Fern and Stark can handle themselves against this level of demon. I only wish we’d been able to see Fern vs. Linie.

Lugner tells Linie he can track them with his blood on their clothing, and also that Linie would have died if she’d been hit with the Zoltraak attack Fern used, which has apparently been upgraded into a demon-killing spell. He then recalls whom the young mage reminded him of: Frieren the Slayer, another genius who used the attack on him long ago.

The episode closes with Frieren floating just as her student did, backlit by the full moon, in no mood to talk and ready to take care of business as she faces down a smirking Aura and her army. We’ll have to wait until next week to learn if Frieren was right about being stronger than the little purple-haired terror, but unlike the late foolish Draht, I’ll believe she is until proven otherwise!