Frieren: Beyond Journey's End
Living means being known and remembered by someone.
Decades after her party defeated the Demon King, an old friend's funeral launches the elf wizard Frieren on a journey of self-discovery.
Wokeness: 0%
Overall Score: 100%
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Quietly brilliant
The pacing is slow and thoughtful, so not everybody's cuppa, and can be surprise for the average anime fan I guess. In many ways it reminds me of Mushishi.
The animation is gorgeous if not flashy. Music is perfect but understated, always taking the back-seat to the visuals.
It tackles the subjects of both impermanence, most obvious example being the death of heroes, and permanence, most obviously through the legacy of heroes. It also brooches, quite brilliantly, on the themes of humility, and true strength.
On a more grounded, and political, level, demons are openly instrumentalizing human empathy to exploit and deceive them. "Demons learn the tongue of humans only to deceive them." "Why do you say this word?" "It's a magic word. When I say it you do not kill me."
The Japanese are naturally based.
Which is funny, in a way. Western culture (what passes for nowadays) has adopted pervasive moral relativism; well, the self-proclaimed mainstream has, and has imposed it on the soft belly of the IQ curve. At the same time, the Japanese, and Asians in general (in the US understanding of the term, not Yookay's) are savagely defending essentialism: what is evil cannot be good, and there is no misunderstanding.
They're literally doing us better than us. Making us look like right muppets in the process. Cheeky tossers.
Frieren herself is a new - at least to me - mix of cute elven girl (sans the ADHD) and 70s movie stone-cold bad-ass. Think Eastwood with longer ears. Being high level is not only about overwhelming power. Although the series features some high-powered fights to rival Dragonball. And Macross too, with its missile saturation attacks. Beautifully animated.
As for Himmel, well, he's a hero of the common folk. He's dead from the start, but damn well present.
By the way, if you know a modicum of German, the names are unimaginative and on the nose. They might be exotic for a Japanese audience, but they rather break the immersion for me.
Anyway, the characters - all of them - are solidly written, with adult and rather subtle arcs, if somewhat predictable. Should be a treat for the teen crowd. By treat I mean a good start for moral analysis and discussion.
Good fiction explores important themes; great fiction leads one to explore them by oneself.
Frieren is a decent shot at greatness.
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KiepskiLover-782
• 4 months ago
Created: 09-02-2025
KiepskiLover-782
LGBTQARGB Protagonist
Frieren, as well as the entire race of elves, is described early on as basically Asexual - having little to no interest in romance or intercouse, as a result of their long life.
There's also something to be said about the gender in the show. Female characters are always strong, mature, often in mentor positions (Frieren, Flamma) while the men are more dumb, unserious and vain, but still capable (Himmel, Heiter, Stark)
The worldbuilding is fantastic and I almost cried just being reminded of the half-century meteor shower scene
It does feel more 'shouneny' the longer it goes on, but it's a great watch anyway
Created: 11-04-2025
A fresh take on slice of life animes
I haven't watched something this interesting have a decade i believe, what made me turn my attention to it was the moral relativist of woke people in the internet when it comes to demons portrayed in that anime, so i watched the first episode and instantly got hooked to it.
the pacing of the story is neither slow nor fast, it just hits right in that spot, and it's interesting, this anime tries to tell that every moment in your life matters, and that you should be ready to enjoy good things in it when it happens, Frieren realizes this a little too late, so this anime shows her trying to understand relationships again.
I am watching season 2 right now and have found absolute zero woke elements, it's safe to watch, not only that but the writers and animators of this anime gave the middle finger to people trying to apply moral relativist to the demons, so i don't expect the quality to fall anytime soon.
Created: 03-10-2026
