Considering that the sword and magic genre, which now includes the whole isekai concept, has become the prevalent genre within the anime world, with the entries in the category coming one after the other, it is always a pleasure to find ones that truly stand out. “Frieren” Beyond Journey's End”, based on the manga series written by Kanehito Yamada and illustrated by Tsukasa Abe is definitely one of those titles, particularly due to its rather unusual premise.
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In that fashion, the story begins just after a group of adventures, elf magician Frieren, human hero Himmel, dwarven warrior Eisen, and human priest Heiter return from a ten-years adventure that ended up with them killing the Demon King, and relieving the world from his sinister presence. A bit later on, Frieren splits and travels the world in an effort to discover the rarest magic grimoires.
Fifty years later, she returns, but finds that her companions have age significantly, while she, as an Elf whose life span extends to hundred of years, is essentially the same. After one last meeting, Himmel dies of old age, leaving a somewhat sad Frieren, since she has never actually been in touch with her sentiments, feeling guilty for not knowing him better. She then decides to pay a visit to her other comrades, both of which are significantly old. After staying a bit with him, he manages to trick her into taking an orphan girl he has been taking care of, Fern, to be her apprentice and accompany her in her travels.
Frieren also decides to travel far north, to the resting place of souls, and see Himmel again to bid the hero a fitting farewell and express her feelings. Thus begins the main part of the story, with the two traveling together, taking care of each other, while Frieren gradually learns to experience her feelings, particularly the ones for Himmel, and thus maturing as a person, despite her continuous obsession for rare grimoires and her inability to avoid the traps of mimics. Along the way, she picks up Stark, a young warrior boy taught by Eisen, to join her party.
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The second unique and actually surprising element here, after the timing of the beginning of the story, is definitely the focus on how the essentially ageless presence of Frieren impacts and is impacted by her comrades, who do not share this ‘ability' of hers. As such, in the beginning, Frieren is quite impervious to the fact that the people around her do not have as much time as she has, thus dealing with their lives in a more hasty way. As time passes though, and particularly after Himmel's death and her discussions with Fern, she begins to realize the fact, and through this process, gradually matures, in a coming-of-age element that is actually one of the most central aspects of the narrative.
Furthermore, and in another rather unusual element, the more Frieren reminisces of her past with Himmel, the more it becomes obvious that she is gradually falling in love with him, although with an instance of his from the past, since at the current timeline, he is actually dead. Easily, one of the most unusual romances we have ever witnessed in any medium. Also of interest in that path is the way Eisen and Fern come closer together through their equally immature, constantly fighting ways, to the point that, after a fashion, they resemble a married couple intently. The presence of Sein, a priest who becomes part of the group briefly, is actually implemented towards this path, in another very smart decision. At the same time, his analyses as an individual, as much as of the rest of the characters, is quite thorough, in another excellent aspect of the narrative.
Apart from these, essentially social drama elements, the story includes much action, which is also presented in an intriguing way. In the beginning, there are some battles that break the coming-of-age/drama narrative, with the series leaning towards the shonen, but never actually touching it. This approach eventually comes to an end, when the last part of the 28-episode season deals with the tests Frieren and Fern, along with a group of other sorcerers need to pass in order to become first-grade magicians. This arc becomes full shonen, being full of intricate action that is also induced with drama considering the mentality of a number of newcomers and the cruelty of the competition.
It is in this arc that both Reiko Nagasawa's character design and the animation by Madhouse find their apogee. Regarding the first part, the way the past characters are initially presented and then reappearing as older versions of themselves is as accurate as it is funny on occasion. Furthermore, the new ones that are introduced during the last part are rather appealing too, with the diversity in their presentation shining throughout. The ‘silly faces' are not missing from here either, as are the misplaced efforts at pedantic humor, but thankfully, these are quite restricted here.
Regarding the animation, the presentation of the sword and magic in a non-shonen way is quite good, with the interaction of the characters with the background also being on a very high level. Nothing spectacular happens though, until the final fight in the aforementioned test, where the animators truly went full throttle, presenting a series of impressive sequences, both in terms of animation and coloring.
“Frieren: Beyond the Journey” is an excellent title that does start a bit slowly but definitely picks up as time passes, through a style that definitely reinvigorates the ‘sword-and-magic' genre.
