Beyond Expectations
Frieren starts where many high fantasy stories end. The hero’s party is returning to the King following the successful defeat of the Demon King, ushering in an era of relative peace for years to come. Our stay with the heroes is brief, learning only the basics of each member. Himmel is the main hero, kind but vain. Heiter is a priest with a strong vice for alcohol, Eisen a strong warrior dwarf, and Frieren herself was the party’s mage. Knowing only these most basic facts, time skips 50 years into the future as Frieren returns to meet up with her former friends, looking no different than when she left. The party, however, is significantly aged (minus Eisen as dwarves seem to age much slower like elves) with Himmel looking completely different as a short, old man. They make one last trek together to view a meteor shower, where Himmel ultimately passes away happily surrounded by his friends. This ultimately causes Frieren to finally reflect and appreciate their journey, which to her was nothing more than a blip in her long life. This new desire to better understand and appreciate humans leads her to checking in on her surviving friends once more, ultimately picking up their apprentices, Fern who wanted to be a mage to repay Heiter for taking her in as an orphan, and Stark, who was trained by Eisen but has a cowardly past. Their ultimate goal is to retrace the original hero party’s trek to visit Ende, which is rumored to be heaven, allowing Frieren to talk to Himmel once more.
The premise sets up the quest as some exciting grand adventure on paper. After all, there are two powerful mages and a strong warrior in the party, certainly there will be tons of action and hardships. The reality is much more “boring” as the vast majority of their trek thus far is traveling town to town and enjoying each other’s company. After all, the Demon King is dead and much of the land is peaceful. The journey is far more of an introspective experience with the series having a somber and melancholy tone overall. Seeing the statues of her party, some in disarray, the details of their adventures faded, a reminder that no matter how great, time will ultimately cause these things to be forgotten. There is hope and a prevailing theme of appreciating the present which adds joy between these moments of reflection. She initially claimed the 10 years the initial party spent together weren’t nearly enough to know someone. This makes sense from her view of how time passes, but it’s proven through all of her memories and stories she learned far more than she realized and how it has changed, albeit slightly, her actions with her new party. The most succinct examples of these themes can be seen in the characters Sein and Kraft. The party meets Sein, a highly skilled priest with vices similar to Heiter, who missed his chance to adventure with his friend and has been trapped in the town shackled by that decision. It is ultimately Friren who after a long while of trying, finally convinces him to join, having seen herself and her apathy in him and wanting to give the same push to him that Himmel gave to her. He does so on the condition that his main goal is to find his old friend whom he had turned down years ago. All of this attention, character building, having him travel with the party for multiple episodes makes it appear as though he will be a prominent member for the journey, but despite the time spent together they go separate ways as he goes in a different direction to find his friend in a brief goodbye. Kraft, however, is an elven Monk, potentially older than Friren, whom the party stays with a few months to ride out a blizzard. Their time is relatively brief and in terms of screen time far briefer than Sein’s. Each purports to ultimately see Friren again, but despite his relative unimportance I truly believe only Kraft will reappear to her, with time again being the ultimate winner, even though Sein was more central to the journey.
The other interesting aspect is the role of magic in the world and the competing ideologies of Frieren and another elf Serie, the master of Frieren’s human master Flamme. Serie sees magic as a tool for fighting and power, having never lived in peace and her worldview tainted by the long eras of strife. This is reflected in her Mage Association whose tests and practioner’s seem to favor flashy offensive magic, often using the elements nearby as one’s speciality. This is in stark contrast to Frieren, and as a result Fern, who are more interested in the pursuit of learning magic, no matter how trivial, and the joy of its use. The group often does work for “folk magic” which consists of things like, creating flowers, de-rusting statues, finding accessories and the like. Ironically, these simple spells have been far more useful than any powerful offensive spell. That is not to say they are not well suited for certain fights. Flamme, having strongly believed Frieren would defeat the demon king, specifically trained her to kill demons. As a result Frieren and Fern when they do battle often rely on Zoltraak, the most basic of offense spells, as its simplicity allows it to be used in overwhelming barages. This combined with Frieren’s long training in hidding her mana and Fern’s innate talent for it make it easy for them to fool demon’s who cannot comprehend the use in doing so. This results in rather quick battles where the party dispatches demons relatively easily, reinforcing it as magic more suited to bringing peace than being used for warfare. I would hazard a guess the general reliance by humans on Serie’s approach is likely to be a larger factor in the story, potentially causing more issues than the remnants of the Demon King’s army as the party travels north.
There’s far more I could go on about here as the show brings up many questions and has a surprising amount of depth. One thing I will quickly add is that it is interesting demon’s are played as pretty much iredeemable beasts, using words to trick humans at any oppurtunity. It’s actually becoming more rare for such black and white style of enemey to exist, especially in a show with as many nuances as it does, and it ultimately surprised me as a result. Examples like that, and many I’ve listed or could list reinforce the quality of the show. It is easily one of the best I’ve watched in a long time, if not ever, and I’m sad it may be awhile for season 2 I’m very glad its coming.
Is it trash? NO
Rating: ★★★★★