Frieren: Beyond Journey's End

Episode 18

With this episode of Frieren, we officially start the largest continuous story arc of the series to this point—and the one that will likely carry us to the end of the season. This episode specifically can be split into two parts: applying to take the test and the start of the test itself.

The first of these is a look at Frieren's insecurities more than anything else. By design, Frieren removed herself from the flow of history and used that as a weapon against the demons. However, it came with more than one price to be paid. With Sein, we explored one such price—the cycle of guilt and regret from not seizing the moment. In this episode, we see another.

If nothing else, Frieren is a mage. It is the core of her identity—her very being. Yet, what proof does she have of this? Almost all those who knew her personally as the mage of the hero party are dead. And without some kind of accreditation, she's just a random magic user to the vast majority of the magical community—not a true “mage.” The only proof she has is a necklace—likely from her time as Flamme's apprentice a thousand years before. And now, nearly no one knows what it even is.

Frieren's right: magic associations are fleeting. Yet, Frieren remains. Like Kraft, she seems destined to be forgotten—outliving even the memory of all the things that make her who she is. Yet, while Kraft has found his meaning in being remembered by the goddess, Frieren has found her answer: surrounding herself with people who can truly see her. Be it the members of the hero party or Fern and Stark, these people don't need some accreditation to know how powerful of a mage she is or how much magic means to her. Their opinion is enough to validate her existence.

The back half of the episode is spent introducing us to our two new heroines for this part of the story: Lawine and Kanne. These two are an immature yet interesting pair. While they are always quarreling with each other, they also 100% believe in each other and know what the other is capable of. Their biggest weakness is that, left to their own devices, they get in their own way—never able to make the choices that need to be made. This, once again, brings us back to Frieren.

This arc allows us to see what it's like for her in a party of strangers. While Frieren claims to want to simply follow someone else's lead, her years with Fern have transformed her. While she still has blind spots in social situations, Frieren has slid into the role of mentor quite well. This doesn't change even with Fern being in another group.

With no resistance at all, both Lawine and Kanne automatically defer to Frieren. There's no debate about who the leader should be. It just happens. This shows us that being a teacher might be Frieren's true calling in a world without the demon king to fight—and it's something she might have never discovered about herself without those who loved and cared for her foisting the position upon her.

Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• Nice to see Kraft again. I love the idea that he saw right through Ubel's BS—that he was saving the bandits' lives, not protecting her.

• Throughout her life, 11 mages with less raw power than Frieren have bested her. I assume that the 4 demons mentioned were from during her time with Himmel, but what about the humans and elves? Given her millennium of seclusion, it would have to be during her time with Flamme, right?

• Supersonic birb is the best birb.

• That was one heck of an abrupt ending to the episode, right?

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.