‘Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End’: The Long and Winding Road to Aureole

The importance in any adventure, especially in a fantasy setting is primarily the end goal. The end goal being to defeat the evil that threatens to take over the land. It could be destroying the One Ring, defeating a Netherbrain or taking out an ancient dragon guarding a bounty or vanquishing a Demon Lord.

Whatever the media — film, books, video games, Dungeons and Dragons — the story is always the journey, the hardships, the life-threatening situations that the party of adventurers fall into and often get out unscathed. Often even the bonds between the party are forged are so strong that nothing can really cut them apart. The journeys are often long, grueling and take years to finish. As the cliché saying goes, in the end perhaps the real treasure was the friends they made along the way.     

When good has, (in most cases) triumphed over evil and the journey is over. There’s a final celebration, a send-off for the heroes. The curtain falls. 

And this is the moment when the curtain rises for Frieren’s tale. The battle is won, the party of heroes have emerged victorious and in the midst of the celebration, there’s a lingering question in the air — now what?

There’s never much thought given to what happens afterward when you don’t even know if you’ll finish the journey alive. Your companions that you’ve gathered along the way all have their own quests to complete (if they haven’t done so) and lives to get back to. The adventure has taken a long, long, long time to finish after all.

But for some non-human companions, time works differently and a ten-year-long adventure is but a blink in their near-immortal lives spanning thousands of decades. Such is the case with Frieren, an elven mage. For her, this arduous journey was a microscopic timeframe in her otherwise long life.  She parts ways with her friends and promises to meet them again in 50 years to watch the Era Meteor shower together.

A lot can change in 50 years. People age considerably. The Era Meteor shower is marked in Frieren’s life as her human friend Himmel dies shortly after, of old age. It then occurs to Frieren that she didn’t truly get a chance to understand her companions in the fleeting time they were together. She visits her friends, wanting to spend time with them before they pass on.

After Himmel’s death, Heiter, the priest is next to go. He entrusts a young orphan, Fern, to Frieren’s care as her apprentice. The dwarven warrior Eisen bids her to journey to the Aureole, The Land Where Souls Rest, to bid a final farewell to Himmel and finally say the things she left unsaid. Along with Fern and Stark (Eisen’s apprentice), she decides to travel to Aureole while retracing the adventures she’s had with her old fellowship before all signs of them fade away.

Living for so long, Frieren always struggles to understand people’s feelings, their thoughts and actions and though she’s slowly getting better and changing, there is still a long way to go.  

“We’re not fairy tales, we really existed.” This is what Himmel tells Frieren when she asks him why he was so insistent on getting statues built of himself and the party. Himmel figured that if anything could survive the test of time, it would be solid figures built of stone and metal for everyone to remember them by. Mostly though, he thought these vestiges would ease Frieren’s loneliness when she’s the only one left alive.

She may not look like she does, but she certainly cares about her comrades. Remembering that Himmel wanted to show her the Blue Moon weed that grows wild near his hometown, she tirelessly searches for it to plant it beside an old statue of his. She learns a spell that makes sweet grapes sour because that’s Eisen’s favorite dish.

If there is something Frieren loves, it is magic. It is a hobby she is passionate about. She barters her skills in exchange for simple spells, even really obscure ones that don’t seem like they have a use or even fake grimoires. She’s constantly expanding her repertoire of spells.

One thing to be said is that the magic system is not treated as usual magic systems in fantasy settings. While there is attention given to the many mundane uses it has, it also shows something that we don’t often get to see — how the potency of magic changes throughout the years.

The best example would be how the demonic spell Zoltarak which would decimate anyone in its path. The demon responsible for creating Zoltarak was sealed as he was too strong. Meanwhile, his spell was studied and assimilated to be employed in magic for rudimentary defensive spells. When Frieren unseals him years later in the future, he’s bitterly surprised that his once overpowered spell is reduced to something a novice mage can counter. It makes for an interesting magic system considering it’s the equivalent of say, a fireball in DnD which continues to remain as overpowered as ever.

And while putting off battles you can’t win is a staple in video games, it is rare to see it in a show, but coming back to tie up loose ends is part and parcel with Frieren. The battles here are less about how cool the fights or mechanics are but more about how foes and Frieren have changed with time. Time here being eons, more than a thousand years.

It should be obvious by now that what carries the plot forward is not ‘badass battles’, cool edgy characters or suspense and intrigue. This show is not for those looking for a fast-paced fantasy-action anime. The flow of time in Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is very slow. There’s a single episode that details the six months that Frieren’s party spent trapped in a blizzard. The show (and the manga) moves at a leisurely pace akin to one wandering the woods on a clear summer’s day.

The beauty of Frieren lies in the moments one often takes for granted. It is in the quiet conversations between Frieren and her companions. In comfortable silences as they watch the sunrise on the dawn of the new year. It is in birthday celebrations with hamburger steaks. There is something about the ordinary that is just so delightfully extraordinary.

It is also about taking things for granted and past regrets. But also, about how one can move forward, about words left unsaid and gaining closure, about realizing your feelings for someone long after they are gone. And no matter how old or wise you are, you can still be a child at heart.    

The animation is done with a lot of care. The small details are given a lot of attention — changes in facial expressions, fluidity of the movement of characters, the spell effects, the flowers blowing in the breeze. In most anime, characters exhibit emotions in an exaggerated manner. Frieren’s characters however are mellowed with simple character designs, so when they do emote more than usual, it adds much more to the tone. Crowds are animated in 2D rather than CGI. Even the background characters insignificant to the plot have been animated with such care that it really makes the world look lively and lived in.

The music is also very fitting. It is gentle, calm waves that wash over you as you watch. It’s fantasy music, but not fantasy music that plays when you charge into battle. It’s rather the music that plays as your bard strums that well-loved, trusty lute when your party relaxes in camp on a clear moonlit night when you break journey.     

The show closely follows the manga, however, the scenes are expanded a lot more in the anime. It gives a lot more personality to the original work so we get a deeper glimpse into our cast. Episode 11 is a prime example of that, it doesn’t take away from the story, it only lays down stronger foundations.

Considering the pace at which they are adapting the show, the details in animation as well as the length of the ongoing manga, it seems as though the anime looks to be as long as Frieren’s journey. This is quite fitting in a way for a show that deals with the passage of time, living and cherishing every moment in one’s mortal existence and taking time to smell the flowers that line the dirt-trodden path.    

The aroma of Frieren’s favorite merkur pudding wafts in the air as you unwind watching the show. So, sit back, relax and dig into your treat as your elven companion regales you with a spell she learnt in the previous town over.