Highlights
- Frieren: Beyond Journey's End combines excellent world-building with a great story, earning praise from fans.
- The fantasy elements in Frieren are well-developed, with spells, enchantments, and magical creatures that contribute to the overall heroic adventure.
- Frieren stands out among its competitors in the fantasy genre, with better pacing and depth that few can hope to match.
Despite still airing, the Frieren: Beyond Journey's End anime series has received praise from fans as it combines excellent world-building with a great story. The Frieren: Beyond Journey's End anime series portrays the life of Frieren, an elven mage who was part of the hero's party that defeated the Demon Lord.
However, as an elf, Frieren's life is extremely long, and the decade-long journey that she took to defeat the Demon Lord is nothing but a drop in the ocean of her lifespan. While Frieren travels the world after the defeat of the Demon Lord, she reminisces about the past and goes beyond her journey's end. Moreover, after taking in an apprentice, the elf's aloof life becomes adventurous once more, and this time, her goal is to get to heaven.
The Gloves Come Off In This Week's Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End
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Exploring Frieren's Fantasy Elements
The fantasy elements in Frieren are very well-developed, and the show portrays a world where even the little details are accounted for. With elves, dwarves, and magic, Frieren may seem like the typical fantasy anime with magical themes; however, the progression of the story is one thing that sets it apart. The magic elements portrayed in Frieren are in the form of spells, enchantments, magical creatures, and a heroic adventure that serves as its core.
The world also takes on the common trope of good versus evil, but as fans come to realize, not all heroes in the show exemplify the 'perfect good' found in many shows. While Frieren can be called a hero and tends to save people from danger, her 'good' disposition was highly influenced by her former party member, Himmel, the hero. As an elf who lives a long life spanning thousands of years, Frieren is apathetic toward many things and allows things to occur as they will if they do not directly affect her. However, after being on a decade-long journey, Frieren's apathetic nature has tilted toward desiring positive outcomes. While being perfectly good and an enforcer of justice is to be supported and encouraged, Frieren's more apathetic attitude manages to flesh out her character more, making it more endearing to fans.
Frieren: Beyond Journey's End
Like the title of the show, one of the things that sets Frieren apart is that, unlike many other shows that portray the hero's journey to defeat the Demon Lord and save the world, Frieren shows what happens after the Demon Lord has been defeated and the lives of the many people that the hero leaves behind. In the magical world of Frieren, elves have been shown to live very long lives. And so, after the completion of her quest, Frieren's party members grow old and eventually die of old age. However, Frieren retains her youthful looks, like she didn't age a day despite the passage of countless years. As Frieren saw her journey with the hero's party as only a minuscule part of her life, she continued on her own after the party disbanded. Following her hobby, Frieren began to collect various kinds of spells, some of which some people might even consider useless. However, as an elf with a very long life, chasing one's hobby seems more realistic than working or continually fighting for thousands of years.
Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Succeeds Where Other High Fantasy Series Failed
Every new season sees plenty of fantasy anime come and go, but Frieren has managed to stand out on its own so far.
Unfortunately for the elf, she begins to regret her apathetic attitude toward her past comrades, as she wishes she could get to know them better. Unfortunately, it's too late, as they die of old age one after the other. After defeating the Demon Lord, Frieren spends years upon years collecting spells. However, prior to the death of Heiter the Priest, a member of Frieren's past party, Frieren gains an apprentice and a new goal. Her new goal is not to defeat some grand ancestor demon and plunge the world into eternal peace but rather to reach heaven and see her past comrades get rid of her only regret.
Comparing Frieren To Its Major Competitors
The fantasy genre is a large one, with various types of shows under the umbrella term fantasy anime. However, even among the vast majority of fantasy anime series, Frieren certainly stands out. Because of the fantasy genre's broadness, various incredible fantasy anime series like Attack on Titan, Demon Slayer, and The Eminence in Shadow that have aired or are set to air in 2023 stand out. However, shows that directly compete with Frieren because of their portrayal of magic include Goblin Slayer, A Returner's Magic Should Be Special, and Mushoku Tensei (Jobless Reincarnation). In the same vein, Mushoku Tensei is a direct competitor with Frieren not only because of its incredible portrayal but also because of the immense similarity between the two shows.
One could posit that the second season of Mushoku Tensei, although slow-paced, may not have met the expectations of fans after its action-filled first season, and that is where the argument lies. Regarding all roundness, when drawing a similarity to the management of the pace, in this case, the slow pace, Mushoku Tensei may have fallen short. As a result, Frieren's control of its plot, irrespective of the lack of action-packed moments, shows a good balance and overall better pacing. If the two shows could be merged, then Mushoku Tensei would be the part in which Frieren journeys with the hero Himmel to defeat the Demon Lord.
The Best Fantasy Anime Of 2023?
With popular shows like Eminence in Shadow, A Returner's Magic Should Be Special, and Mushoku Tensei all aired, airing, or set to air various parts of their series in 2023, the title of best fantasy anime of the year 2023 is highly relative. However, Frieren certainly stands up there among the big dogs. Moreover, with shows that directly portray similar themes, few can match Frieren's incredible portrayal. With neither too-fast nor too-slow pacing, Freiren is steadily progressing, but each step has so much depth attached to it that few can hope to match.
Frieren: Beyond Journey's End is available to stream on Crunchyroll.