Highlights
- The Frieren anime series has a unique magic system that follows core principles but allows for individual variations based on visualization and imagination.
- Different species, such as humans, elves, and demons, have different perspectives on and ways of utilizing magic, with humans being influenced by elves and demons specializing in a particular type of magic.
- Certain characters, like Frieren, have limitations in their magic abilities due to their realistic views, which inhibit them from imagining and visualizing beyond what adheres to logic.
The Frieren anime series has been making waves in the anime community recently with its incredible pacing and storyline. The series portrays the life of Frieren, an elven mage who decides to journey to Aureole (heaven) in order to meet her comrades who journeyed with her to defeat the Demon King.
During Frieren’s journeys, her use of magic leaves many in awe. However, the distinct differences between how humans, elves, and demons all utilize magic make many question the system of magic that is followed in Frieren. While magic is essentially making the impossible possible and can appear in various shapes and sizes, it does follow a set of core principles.
Core Principles And Rules Of Magic In Frieren
So far, the Frieren anime series has not shown any limitations of magic. However, it has been shown that magic is improved by experimentation, showing that spells don’t suddenly come to life. While true, the limitations of magic for each individual are different because to use a certain type of magic, one must first be able to visualize it. This is the fundamental way in which many spells have been created and developed. Spells like Zoltraak started with their maker being able to visualize the spell, showing that many times spells come before the logic behind them.
While understanding the logic and scientific principles behind certain events or occurrences can help a mage better utilize a spell, it also inhibits the versatility of magic in that mage’s life. The elven mage Serie noted that one can only materialize what one can visualize. This shows that with sufficient willpower, imagination, and belief in oneself, mages can indeed cast the impossible. Apart from mana capacity and skill with techniques, the imagination and determination of a mage play a huge role in their life and abilities.
Types Of Magic
Depending on the classification system used, the types of magic portrayed in Frieren can be grouped into offense spells, defense spells, support spells, or even goddess magic and curses.
While magic can be seen as a universal tool that the capable can wield, demons, elves, and humans tend to see it differently. Modern human magic was heavily developed and made available to many through the efforts of Flamme. As Flamme was the student and apprentice of Serie, it shows that modern human magic is greatly influenced by elves. Elven magic is incredible, but it is greatly rooted in logic. While this allows it to function in many ways, it loses its versatility, especially in the lives of some, like Frieren. Unlike modern human magic, ancient human magic relied more on emotion, instinct, and pure faith with no logic. While this made it harder to cast some spells as there was no logic supporting a mage’s belief, it allowed them the power of imagination, which transcends many things when used well.
Mages like Frieren who apply logic to many things, use what can be called structured magic. Structured magic, in essence, follows a certain structure with logic backing it up. Unstructured magic, on the other hand, is largely what ancient human magic was.
While one’s personality highly determines whether they use structured or unstructured magic, demons tend to use both. Demons are highly individualistic creatures, and they tend to focus on a specific type of magic. Their specialization in a certain type of magic grants them immense benefits as they dedicate their lives to learning a single thing. While this often reduces their overall versatility with the application of magic, that heavily depends on the individual and the type of magic they pursue. As demons pursue a single magic subject for most of their lives, they are eventually able to act on pure instinct, even if the logic behind such a technique is vague or can’t be explained.
Notable Characters And Their Magical Abilities
Some of the more notable mages in Frieren include Frieren herself, Flamme, and Serie. This trio of masters and students has contributed largely to the understanding of the magic system that Frieren portrays.
While Frieren is inadvertently stronger than Fern in terms of technique, mana capacity, and experience, Fern is able to become a first-class mage while Frieren is not. The deciding exam to become a first-class mage was conducted by Serie, and she failed Frieren because Frieren could not imagine herself as a first-class mage. As Frieren is very realistic, she tends to strategize more and weigh the pros and cons. While good, in a world where imagination plays a huge role, this inhibits Frieren from doing the impossible, which is essentially what magic is. Because of Frieren’s hyperrealistic views, what she can visualize without adhering to logic is limited, and as visualization plays a huge role in materialization, Frieren is limited in that aspect.
Critique And Analysis The Magic System
While many can devise the magic system portrayed in Frieren, like many authors, the maker of Frieren has kept the magic system used in the series vague. This is quite normal, as following a certain structure and logical reasoning would lead to a decreased use of imagination. As worlds with realistic combat often lack thoughtful psychology and vice versa, keeping the structure and pattern of a magic system vague may be more beneficial than fleshing it out and then struggling to maintain the rules surrounding it.
While Frieren demonstrates that mana originates from a caster and diminishes with distance from a caster, magic barriers like Flamme's still function even though she is dead. Mana imbuing objects or artifacts is a simple explanation for this, but the series has not yet introduced any artifacts or objects that can store mana.
While many things are left unexplained, the magic system in Frieren has a lot of defining aspects and uses that make it endearing to fans. Although only some things are explained, the magic system has some core principles and fundamentals that it follows.
Frieren: Beyond Journey's End is available to stream on Crunchyroll.