Review of Frieren: Beyond Journey's End

Frieren is a show focused on the character it's named after: Frieren. An elf mage who has lived for thousands of years and the story is an interesting story upon the usual D&D adventuring party as it takes place directly after killing the final boss and it's purely a show of self discovery of what a group of heroes do after the big bad is dead. The story of Frieren adventures is told mostly through flashbacks as Frieren goes on her new journey of slice of life and light hearted adventure. The leader of their group being a human warrior named Himmel. A kind heartedman who always went out of his way to help those in need, but had quite the ego about himself. He is the main motivator for Frieren and the catalyst for her new journey, enjoying the very brief time spent with the human more than the thousands of years she has been alive. The entire show is built upon the premise of Frieren wishing to explore the world and learn more about humans because of her friends she made on her quest to kill the Demon King.

Heiter was the human priest and healer of their group and a funny caricature of the corrupt sinning priest always drinking and indulging himself. Mostly a comedic relief character but has some very impactful and emotional stories when he wants to be serious. He sets up a very important plot point early into the story but is a somewhat forgettable supporting character by the end of the series.

Eisen is the final party member and the dwarf of the group. A fairly quiet and serious man he serves to be a good supporting character and teacher to a later character. The weakest of the original adventuring party in terms of character story unfortunately.

With the general premise of a fantasy world set up it is a gorgeous show. From the beautiful animation, the artistic backgrounds, the lovingly crafted intros and outros, everything about Frieren is simply eye-candy. The music is perfectly fitting and easily music that you can listen to for fun. The characters of Frieren and later on, the characters of Fern and stark, her new adventuring companions are extremely detailed. There are many subtle details that bring the three characters to life and the flashbacks to her old adventuring party making parallels to her new party members is touching. Frieren has memorized many useful spells for daily life like washing clothes with magic or taking out the sourness of a fruit because she knows one of her traveling companions hates sour foods.

It is a very simple story with very simple characters. It is a story about cherishing the time that you have left on this planet and spending your time wisely. Everyone involved in making Frieren has so much passion and love for creation it's admirable and I hope that not only they hold onto that spark of hope, love, and life, but also that anyone who watches this show remembers that life is beautiful. Life is worth cherishing.