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

This is a very good way to undermine the idea that Frieren is overpowered therefore it will be boring.

And it makes room for tactical fights that are not based on brute power level.

So, manga spoilers, you have been warned:

Recent chapters have made it clear that even an incredibly powerful mage will lose to a warrior if the warrior ambushes them and the mage isn't used to close range martial combat. Frieren just outright states that within a certain distance if Stark suddenly wheeled on her and Fern they'd both be dead before they got a chance to react. This is a chapter after Frieren is almost killed by a shadow warrior (think assassin) that is well past his prime, in an ambush that she even saw coming. Had Fern and Stark not been with her she'd have been easily killed.

Edited by Grahf on Mar 8th 2024 at 10:47:23 AM

Finally caught up with Frieren with this episode, and yeah, talk about a visual tour-de-force.

Random musing:

I really love this fanart (translation mine)

After Stark goes back to Eisen and finish telling him all the story, maybe he could go to Orden again.

Episode 27.

And so Serie's 'secret' is revealed. Her gigantic mana presence, which even dwarfs Frieren's unsupressed mana presence? That's Serie's suppressed mana presence.

Fern has managed to pass, but now the question is: will anyone else?

Next week is the end of the animation. I hope that there will be a second season, although you'd think with the popularity of the show that it'd be all but guaranteed.

The fact that we got 2 cour right off the bat bodes well for the series getting continued.

Random musing:

Well, my oh my. Although not nearly as cute or well developed as that between Fern and Stark, I'm really digging the whole Ubel and Land shipping.

Oh, and I just listened to few clips of Frieren's English dub.

...Holy crap, I think I actually prefer her English voice over the original voice!

He's a quiet, reserved young man who never leaves his hometown (literally), while she's an unconventional free sprit who always has a smile on her face. Who knows, her positive attitude and unique view of the world might just be the thing to get him out of his shell!

...Of course, she's also a dangerous sociopath who might very well just kill him after stealing his magic, but you know, good with the bad.

Plus, she's hot. And you know what they say...

Edited by Dracoblade on Mar 22nd 2024 at 11:13:07 AM

And thus, the second cour ends.

What an excellent adaptation. It's not often that a story fires on all cylinders even during the moments that in most stories would come off as slow or mundane. Here those little moments are more often than not the point, and then just to drive it home the whole thing proves that it absolutely nails action beats as well.

But, this probably isn't goodbye. Just a see you later.

After all.

Getting overwrought would be embarrassing when we meet again, wouldn't it?

In my mind, pretty much the only thing keeping them from announcing season 2 right off is that we don't actually have that much manga content out at the moment, to my knowledge. Enough for a one-cour, probably, but not two.

I think there is currently enough for two more cours. This isn't a series that needs to end on a major fight. In a hypothetical second season, the first cour could end with the gold demon arc, while the second ends with the hero party arc

What strikes me is that even during the quiet dialogue scenes they took great care in animating the little movements, the looks, etc. And that attention to detail makes a HUGE difference.

Also why the third exam ended up being my favorite. The author really nailed the kind of Blue-and-Orange Morality that an immortal like Serie would develop over thousands of years, without making her unlikeable.Though Frieren has a more conventional moral compass I guess.

The Frieren: Beyond Journey's End - Mages page has had some division over the trope best describing Land's actions during the exam. It was originally Refuge in Audacity, but it's been ruled that it's an incorrect usage, as it doesn't match the trope's definitions (performing an action so unbelievable that no one will believe it was true, hence getting away with it).

However, Land doing something so phenomenally audacious or ballsy that it was recognized and honored is a story beat that got focus. The question, therefore is what trope, if any, does describe such an action. I feel like it's signficant enough that it should be registered in his folder.

Besides Crazy Enough to Work, what else comes to mind when you hear "Wow, you actually went and did that. Promoted."

I mean, Refuge in Audacity might not be exactly what is called for, but I personally can't think of anything better. What he does is audacious, and it takes Serie to see through it because she's an ancient Archmage that's head and shoulders above pretty much everyone there including Frieren herself. At least if Frieren ever did notice what Land was doing at any point that she saw him - which admittedly wasn't many - then she never saw fit to mention it.

It might come close to Wowing Cthulhu territory but that implies that Serie is some great, untouchable being or something completely unknowable which she's not. She's incredibly powerful, but not supernaturally so; she's just a particularly long lived mage who's really good at what she does.

The description for Wowing Cthuhlu doesn’t exclude powerful mortal beings though? The quote uses Thanos as an example…

Finally watched the finale. Man, screw Serie. I'm with Frieren, she totally had that coming.

,I think Refuge in Audacity is the best trope here.

Edited by StarSword on Mar 24th 2024 at 9:36:27 AM

I don't think Refuge in Audacity fits the situation with Land at all. But on checking some examples on the trope page... a lot of them don't really fit the trope either, so what do I know.

Edited by fillerdude on Mar 24th 2024 at 6:47:24 AM

The thing about Serie is that she's actually not that unreasonable with anyone but Frieren. There's enough backstory out that the implication is that she's at least somewhat disappointed that Frieren didn't go down a completely battle-hardened, master magus path that Serie herself seems to have gone down. As far as Serie is concerned Frieren is more of a Guile Hero than anything else and that just rubs Serie the wrong way. Flamme didn't turn into the mage she wanted her to, and her disciple even less so in spite of being the same species as her.

That and apparently for elves being told to GTFO for a millennium is the equivalent of being told "go to your room and think about what you did".

A funny thing about that is that Flamme trained Frieren specifically to fight demons, and Frieren has done that well. While we don't know what Serie does with her fighting skills.

Edited by gropcbf on Mar 25th 2024 at 1:42:00 PM

Yeah, Serie's just being elitist. Her problem, I think, is that Frieren is on the Brilliant, but Lazy spectrum: she's a genius mage, but she'd rather wander the world digging up Useless Useful Spells and Mundane Utility spells than pursue power. And yet she beat the Demon Lord alongside The Unchosen One while Serie was sitting on her elitist ass.

It plays a bit into the fan theory that Frieren is autistic (note, am autistic too). Being a wandering hedge mage appeals more to her special interests than being tied down to a royal court or magic schools a la Serie or somebody like Denken.

Edited by StarSword on Mar 25th 2024 at 10:24:45 AM

What I got from Flamme's words is that Serie is stronger than the Demon King, but she doesn't have the mentality for it. Frieren deliberately makes herself seem weak and would strategize to win, while Serie would fight without such consideration. The only fight she had in the manga she was enjoying herself against an interesting opponent like Macht.

To Frieren, being a master mage is merely the byproduct of her pursuit of magic, while to Serie a mage should seek the mastery of all magic and have the ambition to become strong.

I wouldn't say that Serie was just "sitting on her elitist ass" when it came to the Demon King. As is mentioned in this series time and again, belief and visualization are two major components of magic, and it's been stated that Serie (and Flamme) simply couldn't visualize a peaceful world, and thus had no real hope of actually beating the Demon King. Remember that ancient beings in these kinds of fantasy stories tend to be stuck in their ways, and cannot just change their minds on a whim. It's the same with both Serie and Frieren; Frieren is well aware of her weakness where her mana detection stops for a fraction of a second after casting a spell, and yet is unable to fix it, despite being something beginners work to fix. Serie's mind is stuck on the mindset of a warmonger and a mage who thinks that might makes right, and so is unable to visualize a peaceful world.

It's unknown whether or not Serie could've defeated the Demon King; she never really tried to confront him, but for very good reason.

Some manga spoilers ahead, but not major ones:

If she would've tried to get to the Demon King there's no way she would've been able to do so without needing to get past his entire army first. She's probably powerful enough to defeat any of the Seven Sages of Destruction one-on-one. However if she were jumped by all of them and the rank-and-file of the Demon King's army she wouldn't have had a chance. Moreover if she had tried that's exactly what would've happened because one of the Seven Sages is a powerful clairvoyant.

I don't think it was a camera abuse in that scene, otherwise the effect of broken glass wouldn't be behind the spheres.