Highlights
- Frieren: Beyond Journey's End successfully showcases a proper sense of time, something that most high fantasy series fail to do.
- Realism is often sacrificed for compact storytelling in high fantasy series, but Frieren proves that there are different ways to tell an engaging story.
- Frieren focuses on the journey itself rather than just the destination, allowing viewers to enjoy the slow and mundane aspects of the characters' adventures.
High fantasy is a genre often attributed to a fantasy story that depicts a world of magic, monsters, and different species of intelligent beings living together in the same plane of existence. Think of Sword Art Online, Mushoku Tensei, and Goblin Slayer, just to name a few.
Thanks to the boom of isekai stories, high fantasy has experienced a massive increase in popularity in recent years, but most of them have the same premise with slightly different gimmicks. But now, there is a new anime called Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End that manages to highlight a crucial story element that is rarely mentioned in other high fantasy series.
A Sense of Time
The biggest story element that Frieren successfully showcases while other high fantasy series fail is a proper sense of time. It goes without saying that the overwhelming majority of high fantasy series know how to properly pace their story, but most of them fail to convey how long something actually happens, and it gets worse the longer it goes. This issue manifested itself in two particular areas, the journey itself and the life of long-lived races.
In the first season of Sword Art Online, the players stuck in the game for about two and a half years. But if we only see what happens to them in the game, time seems to gently pass them by. And then episode 14 came along and the first arc suddenly ended. To us, the viewers, it doesn’t feel like two and a half years have gone by in the Aincrad tower.
The same thing can be said about the age of long-lived races like elves. It is said that elves can live for hundreds, if not thousands, of years and still retain their youthful looks. But more often than not, their age is simply something that is mentioned to the viewers. “You see those elves over there? They’re 1200 years old.”
It’s hard to comprehend such an absurd number because no human in real life has reached even a tenth of that age. It’s easier for us to understand somebody who has honed his craft for 30 years than somebody who has been hunting demons for 1000 years because we know how long 30 years feel to us. As a result, their long lives are nothing more than a random number to us. There’s no sense of awe or surprise when we learn about these hundreds of years old races.
Realism vs Compact Storytelling
It’s important to note that there is a reason why most high fantasy series prefer to steer away from presenting a proper sense of time. And it has to do with the decisions between realism and compact storytelling. Because in order to tell an engaging, fast-paced, and action-packed story, the author often has to remove any excess fat from the story. To do that, they have to pick which part of the story to keep, and which one to remove.
Everybody understands that it would take the hero’s group a long time to travel between his hometown to the demon lord’s lair. Especially when they journeyed on foot, which is what happens in most high-fantasy series. But that doesn’t mean the story has to show that part of the adventure, doesn’t it? On the contrary, it is actually better to cut that part out of the story in most cases.
After all, do you want to see Goblin Slayer and his companion spend an entire episode walking through towns and forests before they encounter an enemy in the next episode? Do you prefer the story to elaborate on what it feels like to be a hundred-year-old elf or to see her pierce a goblin’s skull with her bow?
By removing what many would consider to be the boring and unnecessary part, the story would be much more condensed and exciting to follow. The viewers will get to the interesting part faster and, therefore, feel even more engaged with the story. So in this regard, it makes sense to put realism to the side and focus more on crafting a compact and interesting story. But then Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End comes along and shows that there are different ways to tell an interesting and engaging story.
Why Frieren Succeeds Where Others Failed
Unlike most high fantasy series out there, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End managed to present a proper sense of time throughout its story. The reason is that rather than focusing on the actions and important milestones in the hero’s journey, this series focuses on the journey itself. Here, the interesting part is not the destination, but rather the journey itself.
Whereas other series will either skip or fast-forward the traveling part, Frieren will let the viewers enjoy the slow and mundane walking through towns and forests. Whereas other series will only show the characters taking on missions that are important to their main objective, this series will show its characters doing odd jobs that have nothing to do with the purpose of their journey.
Not only that, the series began by mentioning the fact that it took the hero’s party (Frieren, Himmel, Heiter, and Eisen) about ten years to complete their mission to subjugate the demon lord. That means we as the viewers know that the upcoming journey will take a long time to complete. By frequently mentioning how long they’ve been in certain places, the viewers can accurately sense the flow of time in any given episode, such as the time when Frieren delayed their journey for six months to find her friend’s favorite flower.
Furthermore, the series manages to showcase Frieren’s incomprehensibly long age through her interaction with people and places. The rundown village that they visited before has now become a prosperous town. The naughty boy who used to prank her has now become an elderly gentleman. The kind and youthful comrades that she left behind has now become a cheerful old man. This series doesn’t need to mention Frieren’s real age. Because through these countless interactions alone, we get a decent grasp of what it means to live such a long life as Frieren.
In conclusion, unlike other high fantasy series, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End doesn’t try to present an epic and action-packed battle against demons and monsters. This series just wants to highlight a side of an adventure that is rarely talked about. It shows that walking to new places and doing random tasks in the middle of a journey can be as exciting as slaying a fire-breathing dragon. That is why this series succeeds in presenting a proper sense of time while other high fantasy series fail.
Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is available to stream on Crunchyroll.