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MANGA AdventureFrieren: Beyond Journey’s End
ANIME AdventureFrieren: Beyond Journey’s End
ONA ComedySousou no Frieren: ●● no Mahou Part 3
ANIME AdventureSousou no Frieren 3rd Season

REVIEWS

• 

  CosmicCuune

  60/100
  How a great story drags out to mediocracy

  This will be a spoiler review, but there isn't anything to spoil anyway, just makes things easier when I can directly tell you what sucks.

  Right off of the gate we get introduced to this crystal that has AOE anti-magic effect, it is also indestructible and worth a fortune, insanely powerful artifact and there's a whole cave full of this stuff. What if they can take this with them? I mean if Stark shows up with one of these in his pocket he'd slaughter those demons we saw in season 1 wouldn't he? What was Aura going to do about it when she can't cast any spells and therefore also can't fly? This stuff would also make for impenetrable armour or shield, against both physical and magical attacks. it's also worth so much the party would be forever free of financial troubles. But of course, they toss this garbage in the river and never look back, saying they can't take it because it would stop Frieren and Fern from using magic. Really? That's it? You can't tie it at the end of a rope and drag it along with you? Can't Stark pocket it and walk a few meters away from you? You just give up?

  Mechanical nonsense like this don't always matter but I am only highlighting this as an example of sloppy writing, major world building plot holes like this happen in almost every single episode of season 2 and they are very distracting because the show has nothing to say on the thematic side either. The best proof of a severe lack in theme can be seen with the climactic demon fighting arc over episodes 34,35,36.

  This arc clearly sets up Genau as the main focus as he deals with the loss of his previous partner in a battle against demon Revolt, where the partner died because he prioritized saving a civilian. They not only loose that fight, Revolt got away and now is terrorizing a new village. What an interesting setup, how would Genau react to this mistake, how does he plan to make things different in this upcoming rematch? How will the show explore the morality of this classic trolley problem? Genau keeps saying that guy was an idiot and he won't make the same mistake so let's see...

  Well in the rematch, Genau does the exact same thing, he saves the civilian right there, except he doesn't die because his HP bar is longer than his previous partner. He keeps on fighting despite the fatal wound and kills Revolt, that's the arc, that's the moral lesson. Turns out Genau's partner was a noob, his HP bar wasn't long enough, that's his character flaw. The show has collapsed a moral conundrum into a stat problem, the demon got away not because of their moral choice, but because they didn't have the stats to power through it. If only, everyone were as strong as Genau then there would be no moral problems, you simply save the civilian, let the demon stab your heart, don't die, and then you kill the demon, it's easy, only noobs die to demons you see.

  If you're still unconvinced I'll give another example. In Episode 30 we get introduced to Hero of the South, he was previously mentioned but we actually see him now. This guy was a hero before Himmel and he had the power to see the future, he went to Frieren and told her that Himmel will kill the demon king. Who thought this would be a great idea? One of the most important episodes in season 1, was that Himmel was never the chosen one, his hero's sword was fake, he never got the sword in the stone, nobody believed he would kill the demon king. But now we basically retcon that and say nope he was gonna do it all along. Even if we overlook the issue of Himmel's free will, the next big issue is if Frieren already knows that Himmel will win, then it looks like she's simply joining the winning team. When before season 2 we had a MUCH better reason for Frieren to join, Frieren saw kindness and care for beauty in Himmel, she never needed to know Himmel was going to win.

  Season 1 was a genuinely philosophical show, there were clearly elements of Platonic ideas, Flamme straight up wears classic Greek clothing. Himmel is clearly an example of the Platonic idea of the virtuous examined life worth living, the contrast between Himmel's short life against Frieren seem to echo Plato's idea that virtue is a balance in the soul which is perfectly achievable in one lifetime, where as magic, power, experience etc are endless. The show also manages to land great echoes to its core symbolisms, the field of flowers, suppressed mana, and lifetime dedication. It was basically perfect up until the first rank mage test, which was still good but the world building got slightly messy.

  Contrast that to now season 2, where Himmel still gets dragged into flashbacks constantly, and we learn garbage like he borrowed money from the Norm Company and died without paying them back, really? Is this what Himmel would do? Even the last episode felt desperate, where Fern tells Stark that she believed in him because this is what Frieren would do. Excuse me? Ms. Fern, Frieren was right there with you! You did not need to do what Frieren would do! Frieren says that because Himmel is no longer here to do what Himmel would do! Besides, they're talking about all the way back to episode 5 now, so even if it's all straight and makes sense, it wouldn't represent character growth, growth would require something to be different now compared to episode 5.

  I would say you can watch Episode 36 for some god sakuga, but otherwise this show has nothing to offer, only character assassination via retcon.

  

  Animation quality is actually quite average outside of 36. Behold, dwarf Frieren.

  

  -1 for character assassination for Himmel and Frieren on multiple occasions.

  More world building nonsense:
  Episode 38
  The party gets blocked by a 10m wide canyon, Stark can't jump over it, and they can't fly over it when it's so incredibly narrow. A dwarf took 200 years to build a bridge 10m across, how? I'm no bridge engineer but I'd say 2 years is more than enough considering how short it is.
  A guy asks Frieren to put up anti-personnel barrier around the crystals because it's pretty. Fantastic, now how are people going to enjoy the view if they're blocked off? You didn't think to just say Frieren has an anti-mining magic to cast instead? These are all very small things but they're also so easy to fix yet nobody bothered.

  Episode 33
  Apparently Frieren can just detect precious metals like silver, what would the economic consequences be? How does the Norm Company guy know Frieren can do this anyway? If it's a magic many mages can do then why didn't he hire someone else to do it? if only Frieren can do this then how did he know this? Also if people know Frieren can literally find gold/silver for them she can kiss goodbye to her hard earned low profile anonymity.
  Frieren knew this Boshaft is garbage yet she doesn't tell the poor dwarf who ends up wasting 80 years and countless gold to find it, Himmel doesn't tell him either, they just leave. Again is this what Himmel would do?

  Episode 32
  Frieren gives Stark advice on how to entertain Fern on a date, which she heard from Heiter, which is nonsense, Fern was like 6yo and they lived in the woods. How the fuck would Heiter know what teenage Fern would prefer to do on a date with a man in a town?

  Episode 31
  The party take a week long detour to visit a hot spring which is super shallow, Stark says this is good because they can all have a foot bath together. This implies that they can't go in a normal bath together, which is really kind of weird because these are life and death party members, Frieren trusts her life 100% on Stark, why can't she go in a hot spring with Stark? Just use a weird magic like magic to make the water opaque or magic to summon steam or something. This implication distances the party members when it would've been better if it was just regular hot spring and they go in together. Or if you're really uncomfortable with that, at least don't mention this question.
  

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• 

  Fireality

  95/100
  The true magic of Frieren lies in its quiet moments

  Frieren season 2 continues to deliver what the series does best, and reminds us to stop and smell the roses rather than rushing towards our next destination. The series doesn’t try to reinvent, or introduce completely new elements, but instead builds upon the strengths that made season 1 so compelling. The characters remain as earnest as ever, with our current party now growing closer, and their bonds growing deeper. The core themes stay true to Frieren, but are now given small twists that offer fresh perspectives on lessons about Heroism, living in the present, the value of the journey, and words vs actions. The world building regarding the world of magic, demons, and how past predecessors paved the way for people of the future.
  While themes, and world building elements in Frieren are fun to discuss, the characters are what gives them weight and meaning. Just like in season 1, one of Frieren’s charms is how sincere the cast feels. The series stays true to how the characters are, and making their interactions feel genuine. As I’ve previously stated in my previous review, the show presents them through their actions, and their words tend to lie about their intentions.

  

  ---

  Characters/Story

  The biggest recent example is Genau, who shares similar aspects to Serie, who tends to contradict his own philosophy. He criticized his previous partner for letting his benevolence make brash decisions, yet he commits the same fatal mistake of protecting a demon disguised as a child despite the village already slaughtered.

  

  Methode was also an interesting addition to the Revolte troupe’s fight, where her method of beating Zorida was also a contradiction to Serie’s philosophy on magic being used for combat. Methode’s approach to magic shares similar traits with Frieren and Flamme where magic’s true value is placed on the enjoyment of the user. Methode used a non-lethal spell to clear the fog, which allowed Fern to cook, highlighting Methode’s intellect, and her experience with Fern during the mage exam. I also find it interesting that the best episode of this season has Frieren completely sidelined, and instead focused on the side cast.

  

  Stark is another character who came in full swing both in his characterization, and his development. His growth from season 1 is demonstrated during the Revolte fight when he let himself get hit to assist Genau, reminiscent of his duel with Linie. I also appreciate the subtle moments whenever they visit a town. Frieren and Fern are inquiring for useful information they’ll need for their journey, while Stark spends his time helping out the locals, and interacting with the children, also reminiscent of the personality Himmel The Hero possessed.

  

  Another aspect this season highlights more clearly is how each character has their own way of displaying affection, or love language. Starting with Frieren, embodies quality time, which is also the heart of her journey. As an elf, she has slowly learned to understand the limitations of human mortality, and cherish the memories she took for granted, while making the most out of the gift she has now, called the present. On the other hand, Fern expresses affection through gifts, such as Heiter’s staff (which she was visibly distraught with when it got destroyed during the Mage Exam), Frieren’s butterfly bracelet, and Stark’s lotus bracelet. Each gift carries its own symbolism: Fern’s staff being aesthetically simple and plain reflects the philosophy that basic spells are enough to survive the mages of today (I fear not the mage who knows a thousand spells, but the mage who has casted the same spell a thousand times), the butterfly bracelet represents Fern’s metamorphosis from childhood to a grown adult, and the lotus bracelet a quietly blossoming romance.

  

  The Hero of the South was a surprisingly fitting addition into the world of Frieren. I initially felt his future sight being revealed would undermine the narrative, however his self-sacrifice became a powerful demonstration of heroism. Rather than use his future sight to escape from an outcome that would result in his early demise, he ultimately chose the path that led the future generation to defeat the Demon King. That doesn’t mean his foresight was perfect, as despite his belief that he would be buried in history, the present refused to forget him. The use of puppetry felt very intentional too, where both Schlacht and him were bound by strings of fate.

  The Hero of the South’s foresight could parallel Flamme's impact in Frieren’s life. Just as Flamme predicted a human (Himmel) would make her want to learn more about them, Hero of the South foresaw that a human would be the reason to break her centuries of detachment. I was worried Hero’s foresight would be a thematic detriment against Himmel being a fake hero, but then again he didn’t foresaw his legacy living on either, so his idea of a hero probably wasn’t Himmel. Both icons serve the same theme: that the past plants the seeds for the present to blossom, just like how learning the spell of flowers helped humanity bloom into a peaceful era.

  

  Another key theme from Frieren since season 1, has always been about the value of the journey, rather than the destination (tropey I know). However, the series constantly adds a subtle yet unique spin into the idea. For this season specifically, it focuses more on how companions sharing your sentiments can make an arduous journey feel worthwhile, even if the destination leaves you disappointed. The Fass episode is an example of this, where he spends centuries searching for an alcoholic beverage that an elf from a millennia ago hyped up just to troll whoever finds her message. Instead of wallowing in despair, he shares his discovery with the rest of the town, and showing gratitude with his journey. Then, we have Himmel’s memoir which was sought after by the ferryman since it contained records of Himmel’s experiences. Rather than recounting grand tales of slaying dragons, exploring dungeons, or fighting glorious battles against demons, the memoir contained mundane moments in their travels. Through the first person perspective shots, it placed emphasis on how Himmel valued his bonds with his companions rather than the heroic feats the whole world boasts about. An interesting twist to this is how the memoir suddenly stops, as Frieren continues flipping through the pages hoping there’d still be more. Although it was shown that Himmel lost the book in the middle of their travels, I thought it can also be interpreted that it was Frieren’s turn to continue the story through her new party.

  AND HOW COULD I FORGET ABOUT THE MAIN SHIP, STARK AND FERN. I mean the first episode shows how much both Frieren and Fern trust Stark for their lives, and while running away from the monster in the crystal cave, Fern held onto Stark’s gift to reflect the comfort and safety he brings to her. It’s even pointed out that Fern is the reason Stark took the courage to leave the village, and slay the dragon, because he had someone who believed in him. Well, their relationship definitely took at least one step forward where they finally had an official first date together, showing their gradual comfort in each other.

  

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  Animation/Direction

  The magic of Frieren wouldn’t be possible without the talented hands working in MADHOUSE. Frieren fans are blessed to have an influx of industry talents working on this series, from the directors to the key animators, down to the ethereal OST from Evan Call. The contrast between the anime adaptation, and the manga is night and day, especially with the Revolte battle being so dynamic, and possibly one of the most fluid non-rotoscoped fights I’ve seen. Beyond the animation quality, the directorial choices elevate the spectacle. For example, Fern’s zoltraak blending with the full moon was both a flashy, and an intriguing way of reinforcing her speciality in stealth, and precisions (someone show her Sniper Elite). I mean what else is there to say about Evan Call’s OST? The man always delivers.

  

  Overall, season 2 continues its character-focused narrative through bits of slice of life episodes. Although this season doesn’t attempt to break the mold the series has already established, I still feel it’s a worthy continuation of a formula that has yet to overstay its welcome. By introducing slight variations of similar stories, it reinterprets its existing core themes in ways that feel fresh and meaningful. This stopover arc gave less catharsis compared to season 1, but it still packs all the elements fans enjoyed out of the series. Personally, I’m just happy we even got to see a season 2 due to MADHOUSE’s trend of discontinuing popular series such as One Punch Man, and No Game No Life. And with season 3 marked for October 2027, and the buildup towards the Golden Land arc, it’s going to be interesting what the future holds for this series. A bit of a glaze score, but for now I’m feeling a: 95/100

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• 

  Ionliosite2

  20/100
  It's not only bad, but it makes what came before it worse

  Given how the first season of Sousou no Frieren ended on a shitty note, it’s not surprising that the second season starts badly too. At least we already got past the battle shonen arc that covered 1/3 of the first season, so we get back to the adventure of our favorite bland character band. I would like to say that I’m pleased to be past that arc, but I’m not, as this season is just worse than the previous one, basically everything about it is a downgrade, whether the slice of life adventures or the fights, the characters are as stagnant as ever, and this season decided to recontextualize some scenes making them worse.

  You see, the very first couple of episodes of this season render the entire Chunin Hunter Exam arc pointless, the Northern Plateau has checkpoints where you have to present your first class mage certificate to pass, once you get to these villages, you see there are completely normal people leaving there, there are also some knights whom I doubt are good enough to protect the people from these extremely dangerous monsters given that, as established before, not any mage can enter the place, you specifically need to have special permission to enter here. The mere fact that people who aren’t first class mages, or people that have absolutely no way of defending themselves, or that not a single other first class mage is around any of these villages tells you that the entire previous arc was just a massive time sink, that was there to provide an artificial obstacle that didn’t matter.

  This season is just a blander version of the first one, the slice of life elements are very clearly duller than what they were before, last season you would actually learn things from the characters in flashbacks, Himmel’s quirks, maybe something different about Heiter aside from him being a drunk priest, Frieren looking at something that happened in the past in a different way thanks to a new experience, but no, this season is just doing something and then having a flashback where they said and did the exact same thing, and it’s not as if the previous season didn’t have this problem, but it wasn’t something so omnipresent as it is here. Not only that, the “romance” subplot between Fern and Stark also became the dullest shit, this happens because Fern and Stark posses absolutely no chemistry at all and because their characters are pieces of cardboard, these two cannot even hold a conversation, and watching them on a date is eye rolling, as all they can say is just repeating what’s happening around them, there’s a cloud and they tell exactly what the cloud looks like, they are quiet and then someone says that it is a quiet moment, and this isn’t exactly surprising, as I think the romance between Fern and Stark always felt forced, but you just need to take a good look at what has happened before, as in the previous season, there was the episode where they danced together, that single moment is much more significant than anything that happened this season between them.

  In one of the earlier episodes of this season, the author gives us an attempt at world building, as he introduces an anti-magic crystal, crystals with the ability to stop mages from casting their magic, so as you should expect, these could easily be used as some kind of weapon against some of the strongest characters in the setting, but obviously nobody thinks much about them, they just talk a little bit about them and then ask “well, what’s for dinner?” before throwing them. This series doesn’t even understand the implications of what anti-magic crystals can do, the argument used against them is that they are too resistant, so trying to dig them and work on them is a waste of effort, however, if you know anything about rocks you should be able to understand that, if a rock is too sturdy, then you dig the earth around it and grab it, if they are too sturdy to work with them, then you just need to stick them on the weapon or armor you want to use it on, but their use is completely ignored. They apparently are also worth a lot of money, which is exactly what Frieren’s party was looking for given they need it, but again, they just threw them away because they aren’t worth keeping for them, which I guess it’s not a completely bad idea given that they are mages and that would cripple them if they had the crystals too close to them, but honestly this could be circumvented by just having Stark carry it with a rope, but as they would still need to find someone who would buy them (which shouldn’t be hard, mind you), so they don’t even entertain the idea. I know, most people who thought about these crystals did more thinking about them than the author, and I doubt they will ever be brought up again because they are treated as an irrelevant element, but it’s surprising that no one ever thought of using them as weapons against mages or maybe try them out against demons given how prevalent magic is in the setting.

  Of course, some moments of this season have done nothing but actively damage the previous one, and I’ll start with a very simple one, this season introduces a character called “Hero of the South” (he doesn’t even have a name) and he is a character actively damaging the previous story despite the fact that he barely appears at all. You see, in season 1, there was this powerful moment when Himmel fails to pull the sword, at that moment Himmel basically got told that he wasn’t the one destined to end the calamity happening, that he wasn’t the hero the sword was made for, he receives an ego blow, but he doesn’t decide to leave, he decides that he will continue his journey and be courageous independently of the meaning of that sword, because he wants to help people, and he manages to beat the Demon King because he persisted and not because he was a chosen one. Now, this 5 minutes long scene about the Hero of the South destroys all that, you know why? Because this guy who can see the future and appeared out of nowhere in front of Frieren, before Himmel came to her, told her that there was a young hero that will appear and defeat the Demon King, and that this hero is Himmel. As you should be able to tell, this means that Himmel defeating the Demon King was an event that was predestined, so Himmel was, in fact, the one chosen to defeat the Demon King, which means this short scene completely breaks the previous scene I mentioned, as the reason why that scene was powerful is because Himmel went against fate and triumphed anyway, but apparently the future that was predestined was that Himmel was going to be the one who would defeat the Demon King anyway, rendering all meaning of that scene moot.

  As much as I complain about how dull the slice of life scenes tend to be, they are much more better than the other parts, since this series also wishes to be a battle shonen, it has meaningless fights every episode for almost any quest they take, and then there are the small arcs that tend to focus on battles, and when these battles aren’t just bad, they are completely dreadful, as they usually take over from the worst parts of battle shonen battles. The battles featuring Stark are the ones that mainly suffer from this, as he is the warrior of the group, so he fights with weapons instead of beams of light. Last season, he had his fight with Linie which consisted of him getting pummeled, then having a flashback about his master, standing up, saying Linie’s attacks don’t hurt (please, ignore the blood he has as he says that) and then one-shotting her. This season decided to do something even worse, he and another first class mage whose name is not even worth remembering were fighting against a demon, and this demon blasts them both through their torso leaving a big hole, and they just stand up and keep fighting, the severe injury they had taken not mattering until after the battle is over. As you should know, Frieren is a mature series, or at least, that’s what people say it is, so this scene is something mind breaking, this series got outrealism’d by One Piece and Dragon Ball Z, it’s very hard to understand why the author would try to write these fights when he is so bad at it, and the problem of this scene isn’t that they got healed afterwards because they survived with 1HP, the problem of this scene is that it should have never reached this territory into stupidity and immaturity, if you get a hole across the middle of your torso, if you aren’t dead, then you shouldn’t even be able to walk because your spine would get destroyed, this series should know better than to copy battle shonen where the protagonists just stand up again no matter how much damage they received.

  The animation is the only part about this show that I can still praise, Madhouse is clearly giving all of its love towards it, even if at the cost of all other series they have been making since 2023. Despite the cities all looking the same, at least they look pretty and the animation in battles, as much as their actual content annoys me, is outstanding. The thing that still is horrible is the comedy, I have to thank the author for stopping doing mimic jokes that were run through the ground, but the things replacing them aren’t better, one of the scenes plays out like this: Frieren and Stark enter a bar laugh track and then they are talking about how Fern feels about a date invitation, they have a little conversation where Stark treats Frieren like an old lady and Frieren says that he shouldn’t make her mad because she would start throwing a tantrum cuts to the most obnoxious flashback you’ve ever seen of Frieren crying while her party watches and then we return to the present laugh track, the laugh track is an exaggeration from my part, but it looks like you are watching Family Guy with the cutaway gags.

  It's exhausting to watch this season, the premise was already run thin back in the first season, specially because the theme of “passage of time” is irrelevant when time doesn’t pass in the story beyond the first couple of episodes, I know it would be a pain to replace Stark and Fern with another type of cardboard cutouts, but I can’t take seriously this series when the themes it wants to explore aren’t explored as it doesn’t allow itself to do it.

  Thank you for reading.

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