Anime often feels less like it’s treated less like an artistic medium and more like an industry that relies on how effectively it can dazzle viewers with its sakuga—the fluid, flashy movements that wow audiences enough to share clips of their action sequences on social media with out-of-context captions anointing them as “peak” and “anime of the year.” Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is different. Granted, Frieren is no slouch in the sakuga department; it pops off better than most. But where the anime truly shines is in its quieter, more reflective moments. And its second season continues that quality, delivered in a short and sweet run that maintains its luster.
It’s hard to quantify the precious differentia that makes Frieren Beyond Journey’s End feel so damn special. On its surface, it’s a very mellow show where not much really happens. After all, as its title suggests, it’s a story that continues beyond the typical hero’s journey. Sure, it has the grand adventure signposted from the first episode: the story of Frieren, a thousand-year-old mage who regrets never appreciating the quiet moments that flew by in her hero’s party during their quest to save the world from a great evil. So when Frieren gains new party members in Stark and Fern, the students of her former party members, their adventure sees them trace the same path she once took with her party.
The journey ahead might take years, but it is a sentimental one, as Frieren hopes to reunite with her departed friend, Himmel, the hero, who harbored romantic feelings for her that she didn’t realize until it was too late. He might be gone, but Himmel haunts the series’ narrative at the start of each episode, indicating how many years have passed since his death. Still, Frieren and her companions continue their quest for a rumored land, said to be where the living can talk to the dead, and she can finally tell him everything she never said aloud during their journey, along with all the wonder she felt looking at her own journey with the same wide-eyed marvel he once had. Frieren is, in essence, “the One Piece was the friends we made along the way,” set to a contemplative, fantasy lo-fi beat by the incomparable Evan Call—who also crafted the sweeping score for Violet Evergarden.
As such, the show itself has plenty of downtime where you can criticize the same complaints often leveled at action series that rinse and repeat the same formula. In these, Frieren and her crew usually go from village to village helping with quests ranging from simple tasks, like fixing a statue, to more serious ones, like dealing with a cluster of dragons nesting near villages they terrorize. They never do this for a big prize at the end of a long, multi-step quest. Instead, their decisions are driven by kindness or the need to gather more money for their travels. Sometimes, they do favors in exchange for small, “useless” spells that turn apples green, help you say tongue twisters without tripping over your words, or perfectly flip a pancake. Other times, it’s just to lend a helpful hand and honor Himmel’s legacy by safeguarding the people he’d go out of his way to protect, taking the route less traveled, to make sure they can live a peaceful life, simply because it’s what he’d do.
And without fail, towards the climax of an episode, Frieren recounts a moment where Himmel imparted advice that uncannily connected to her, Stark, and Fern’s current episodic struggles, eking out a victory with a smile before moving on to the next episode. Overall, Frieren might seem dull and, by modern anime standards, relatively boring, but its familiar formula keeps working every time.
As a viewer, Frieren is an old-school fantasy, sans the Mad Libs tropey riffing anime that has been oversaturated as of late, as if embarrassed of the genre by poking fun at it, and a send-up of the sense of wonder of playing a classic role-playing game. Not to beeline to the next big battle you’re overleveled for, but to take the scenic route, distracted by side quests and interacting with all the NPCs meant to add adventure flavor text. And that is the same instinct to scrub a level in an RPG, bumbling against every surface, hoping to unearth some secret breakaway wall with every curious touch, is what Frieren does with every episode, delivering a sense of heart and wonder as the crew essentially lives up to the old saying of planting a seed without ever resting under its tree. And before you know it, the show casts a spell on you, leaving you recalling how an old haunt in the city used to be a different storefront that’s since moved out to leave space for a new touchstone. Only take that feeling and stretch it by a century, and you’ve got the same melancholic vibe as Frieren herself, seeing how little or how fast times have changed since she last ventured absentmindedly through unremarkable sidequests that left a huge impact on the quality of folks’ lives.
The crew could be soaking in a hot spring, going on a cute date, or playing crime scene investigators for a recent demon attack, and you’ll find yourself equally as enthused as when they are casting spells at breakneck speeds with all the “budget” of an animated feature. Studio Madhouse pops off on realizing two-panel manga pages skirting around its action into full-blown sequences worth salivating over. Yet, from its voice acting, background art, directing, and score, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is incredibly beautiful and remarkably moving, without doing a double axel backflip with its animation as a jingly key to do so.
While its second, 10-episode season feels less like the double deluxe episode count of its 2-cour, 28-episode first season that left anime fans’ bellies full, it still retains the same allure that made it an anime capable of restoring the idea that the medium can be an art form. It doesn’t need to rely heavily on flashy animation to move you when its “themes and such” can move you just as effectively as its sakuga can.
Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End season two is streaming on Crunchyroll, with a third season currently in production.
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