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

Stein really isn't part of the party for very long. It's surprising, you think he's going to be there for the long haul, then he's gone.

But from what I've seen, Stein's speaking for like, 90 percent of the fanbase when he's all "Just get together, already!"

This weeks episode: bird's the word. Capture a bird that can fly faster than mach 1, while avoiding the bigger, nastier birds that want to eat you. We're also starting to be introduced to some of the cast that will be around for the First Class exam, and a few of them even afterwards.

I'm catching up on the anime after basically choosing between it and The Apothecary Diaries during the actual simulcast period, then seeing the hype. Six episodes in, I've moved from "I've definitely picked the right anime to watch first" to "I'm not even sure I want to finish the first season and all those Crunchyroll ads for the new winter stuff are kind of doing their job".

Is there an epidode up to which it might be worth trying to hold on and/or after which I'm probably not going to like the series more if I still don't like it by then? I know this is the adaptation of a quite long work and that the "picking up steam" period tends to be proportional to the intended length of the story.

Edited by Nazetrime on Jan 13th 2024 at 4:47:13 PM

I mean, if it hasn't grabbed you after six episodes, then maybe it just isn't right for you. That being said, episodes 8, 9, and 10 are probably the ones with the highest hype out of the season thus far. If you watch those and still don't feel it's worth continuing then it's a pretty safe bet at that point that it just didn't gel for your wants.

Edited by Grahf on Jan 13th 2024 at 11:48:04 AM

I've yet to catch up to the anime, too, but Frieren is indeed a slow-paced work. I agree with Grahf's recommendation above, those episodes build up some hype.

As someone who has only read the manga, I honestly have kinda hard time imagining what the anime is like. The manga is pretty melancholic in nature. Like its one of those stories where animation doesn't feel like it would provide much to it

Started reading this manga (online for now,they were out of physical copies for volume 1)

This week's episode was great. I've been waiting for this one for a while. seeing Frieren vs. Denken animated was a blast. As well as Denken's solution to things after the battle with Frieren's party was a wash for his (literally so). Also a little more revealed about Serie, and how magic works in general. Keep the visualization thing in mind going forward, it'll be coming up again.

Honestly, after seeing Frieren's latest fight, I'm reminded of what Vil Dance thought after flying against Darth Vader in a practice match: that if he ever had to fight the Dark Lord for real, he'd just overload his own engines and save Vader the bother. Denken never stood a chance.

Also, I love the battle music in this anime: the folky pipes tickle my Scottish roots.

Edited by StarSword on Feb 11th 2024 at 3:43:14 PM

Fern, honey. You've got to stop leading with the "I know a spell that lets me see through clothes" bit.

You're going to make Heiter cry up in heaven and ask where he went wrong.

that corrupt priest!

Aaaaaand Stark still can't get no justice

I'm sure that once the reveal that this episode has up its' sleeve is out it probably didn't take people very long to realize what would be waiting for everyone that reached the bottom of the dungeon.

As for how they'll deal with it? I'll leave that for you all to mull over.

Ha. I figured they were going to go with having Fern fight the Frieren clone: we already know from the battle with Aura that, per Frieren herself, Fern is a faster spellcaster.

Action and suspense are great and all, but the scene that got me was Fern getting jealous over Methode hugging Frieren and dragging her back like "She’s my Frieren, no touching".

Loved that part.

Found the soundtrack version of the battle music.

I really do love the battle ost. I lost track of how many times I listened to this by now.

not available in my location!

No, I don't want someone to come and say that this is camera abuse, the camera doesn't break, the broken glass moves everywhere, in any case it would be that reality or the air is breaking something like the power of white beard from one piece or the scene where homura takes away madoka's powers in her movie.

hmmm?

This week's episode did not disappoint. So many great fights.

It's quite something that Ubel's 'intuition' allows her to be much more dangerous against certain mages than she otherwise would be. But of course Frieren herself takes the cake this episode. Given that she says that it's been roughly eighty years since she had to use 'the pinnacle' that what forced her to use it the last time was the fight against the Demon King. An attack that can barely be recognized as an attack, seemingly cannot even be defended against, but also in turns leaves the user vulnerable to counterattack. Wonder if we'll ever see it again.

We're winding down now, but the third test is both the simplest, and the most difficult. You'll all see why in an episode or two.

What I find interesting in this test is that we see plenty of ways a mage can beat someone who’s technically way stronger than them.

Now I don’t know what’s more terrifying between Übel effortlessly slicing an invincible first-grade mage in two or the fact that no one gives a shit. >.> It’s treated with the same gravity as if she had copied her classmate’s test paper.

I mean, Sense kinda gives a shit, but as shown Ubel's literally her worst possible match-up so it's not like she can do anything about it.

There might be a bit of logic here that so long as Ubel is in the system, it's still better than her being outside of it. She'd arguably be more dangerous if she slipped through the cracks and became an unknown factor somewhere.

I think it's also the fact that they can't really blame Ubel for Burg getting killed; or rather, yes, she killed him, but the guy basically told them "hit me with your best shot" and no one else in the Association thought that maybe putting yourself up at risk isn't the smartest idea, even if you're a defensive specialist. The point of the exams is to find the best of the best; sooner or later someone of Ubel's caliber or advantage would have shown up. It was beyond the height of arrogance to think that your defenses were beyond the ken of any non-First Class mage. I think at that point disqualifying Ubel for that year's examinations was the most they could really do. Remember, death is not entirely ruled out in the exams; in the first test, Wirbel didn't call Fern's bluff when she said she'd killed off Ehre. What made Ubel's case unique was that it was an instructor who got offed.

But damn, Madhouse fucking cooked this episode. Such a great display of magic and power that really cements just how formidable Frieren is. And that one close-up of her clone? Holy shit.

Edited by ITNW1989 on Mar 8th 2024 at 2:41:11 AM