Sousou no Frieren/Frieren: Beyond Journey's End (Anime and Manga)

I figured what with the latest episode of the anime reaching the conclusion of this arc that now was as good a time as any to start a thread. Really been enjoying the anime and manga both.

Episode 10 really can be best summed up as Aura - "I took a calculated risk, but turns out the math was rigged." Frieren - "Skill issue. GG no re."

Also, I am awaiting the next chapter of the manga in eager anticipation, since the one we've left off on has things getting VERY real.

HUGE SPOILERS FOR ONGOING MANGA EVENTS YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED:

So now to get Frieren's consciousness back to the future the hero party is going to have to go through three of the seven sages of destruction, as well as Solitar who might as well be on their level if not higher.

Oh, cool, I was planning to watch that... uh...

Well, I was planning to go to the shop then watch it, but I saw this thread first. And I'm surprised that it took this long to get one.

Edit: Given the OP, I was really expecting them to make it more colourful.

Edited by RainehDaze on Nov 10th 2023 at 10:00:37 AM

I love how the manga and anime emphasizes how differently time passes for immortal elves. A few decades is nothing to them.

And that make me imagine how terrifying an elf with a grudge must be. Twenty, even fifty years later, they come back hankering for revenge for something you've completely forgotten about, but to them might as well have happened last week.

It's something that I've thought about. When the hero party are celebrating during the first episode the topic of their journey comes up, and as a decade long quest Frieren mentions that it's not even one-one-hundredth of her lifespan. So, not 1%, not even .1%, less than .01%. Assuming that she meant what she said - and there's no reason to think she's lying - that would mean that elves in this setting have life expectations of over 100,000 years.

That is, I'm not going to call it an incomprehensible length of time; but to any one of us it's an almost unimaginable one. In real life one could probably be considered fairly well versed in a craft or profession if they've spent upwards of ten to twenty years studying, honing, and applying it. To one of these elves that's the equivalent of what, a leisurely couple of weeks or months spent dabbling in a hobby that they might not even particularly care about.

I've bought all 10 tomes of the manga out so far, and am up to the 4th. It has a rare chill pace, it is nice not being pushed to always read what comes next.

Both the original manga and the line spoken in the anime is "Hyaku-bun'no ichi", one-hundreth. Unless she wanted to be needlessly cumbersome, if she wanted to say one in ten thousand, she would have said "Manbun'noichi". So unless my understanding is wrong, that translation is wrong.

Edited by Ikedatakeshi on Nov 10th 2023 at 10:28:17 PM

Ah. That's still an impressive 10,000 or more years in that case then.

That's what I kind of understood as well.

So it also kind of makes sense that the elves are all dying out. Because of their ridiculously long lifespans, a lot of the time they never get to the point where they realize, "Hey, maybe I want to finally settle down and have kids"... Somehow they just get killed before they get to that point.

It also explains how Frieren didn't realize the depths of her feelings for Himmel until it was much too late; despite her long life, she has no experience in romance whatsoever.

Plus, it's the reason why Frieren doesn't settle in an elfin village somewhere and live with people just as long-lived as she is; there aren't any (any more, at least).

Edited by Dracoblade on Nov 11th 2023 at 11:29:25 AM

Latest manga chapter is out.

The four demons become three before the battle even begins, with Tod foreshadowing that her curse will be ready in roughly 100 years so as to surely be something that the present team will need to deal with instead, not that they're aware of it. Solitare provides backup but only from the shadows. Rivale is the most straightforward, he just wants a good fight and one that Eisen seems happy to provide. Grausam though, traps the rest of the party in a lotus eater machine.

No points for guessing who Himmel's bride-in-waiting is.

No points for guessing how heartbreaking the next chapter might be....

This week's episode was a nice decompression after the events of last week.

You thought it was an elf monk. BUT IT WAS ME, DIO! Still an elf monk though.

The whole certification plot point is so weak. Im assuming it's setting up some magic school or exam plot. But seriously that's some weak setup. "If you're traveling in the wilds you need a first class mage" Who the fuck is enforcing this exactly? Are the wilderness rangers (also accompanied by grade 1 mages) sneaking up on camps and travelers to check their paper work? And if there isn't, why would you care enough about adventurers getting killed in the wilds to make this a thing? Also like, whose gonna go tell the mage who helped kill the demon king "Sorry you're clearly not well trained enough to walk outside".

As someone who knows where this is all going, some of the answers to those questions may end up being not as trite as you'd imagine.

That is an exceedingly low bar though.

Anyway, enjoyed the episode itself.

Edited by Ghilz on Nov 17th 2023 at 10:04:24 AM

Episode 12. Where what's left in the past isn't as important as what's carried forward to the present. For more than one person, it turns out.

Those last two minutes of the episode with one seemingly trivial revelation, and one not so much, and yet both are equally important aren't they?

On a lighter note, Fern continues to be absolutely savage and I love her for it.

Fern's little pouts are top-tier.

This anime has been a pleasant surprise for me because "Okay, we beat the campaign, Now What?" is not a common material. I liked Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka and the last Animorphs book for much the same reason.

Also, Stark can't get no justice XD

Edited by StarSword on Nov 25th 2023 at 4:22:30 AM

This weeks Frieren:

"I roll for seduction."

GM: Everyone in your party critically fails, your target is utterly unmoved.

It's funny; my first proper introduction to elves was ElfQuest, and the elves there are all horny as fuck. They don't procreate easily, but that just means lots of casual sex.

And now we get to Frieren, who's so sexless that she (and the human companions who've known her most their lives) thinks blowing a kiss is the height of suduction.

Random musing.

The torrent of THICC Fern fanarts wasn't something I expected before the anime aired. ...but I'm not complaining.

And I'm waiting for her and Stark to get it on eventually.

Edited by dRoy on Dec 7th 2023 at 1:46:13 AM

Any ideas? Fern saying they have to cast it right before they crash makes it sounds like they only have a second or two.

A few seconds is all the need to move the wreckage, and it's not like they care if it breaks on the way down.

Yes, the fanart of Fern and Frieren is ubiquitous - and a bit surprising, considering the almost total lack of fanservice in the anime and manga (save for that one shot of Frieren's feet in that one episode). Seriously, 100 Girlfriends is right there.

Going by the anime, it took about 8 seconds, and probably a few more moving to shore. That's more time than literally casting it right before crashing, nor does Frieren mentions any limitations beyond size like the need for delicacy.

Man, Frieren talking to Voll is the most animated we've seen her in forever. And that scene at the end when it turns out Voll's dementia is not all fake — she doesn't say anything, but you can see the dismay on her face.

There is a deep irony to Sein being added to the second OP only to leave the very episode it happens.

The next episode will begin the arc that will probably take up most of the anime's runtime. The first class mages' exam is pretty fun though, we'll meet a lot of characters, a couple of them will end up being quite significant for events after this arc as well.