Frieren: Beyond Journey's End
TV-14
An elf grapples with near immortality in this moving, wonderfully animated meditation about life
The Very Best
9.1
TV Show
Japan
Japanese
Action & Adventure, Animation, Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy
2023
Atsumi Tanezaki, Chiaki Kobayashi, Hiroki Touchi
25 min
TLDR
Tsukasa Abe, Madhouse… My eyes thank you.
What it's about
After defeating the Demon King in a great war, mage elf Frieren visits her former comrades and sees how old they’ve aged, and how little of their lives remain. Upon realizing the significance they have in her long and lengthy life, Frieren seeks a new way of life that she once took for granted.
The take
In fantasy worlds, races with different lifespans are a given, but rarely does a work actually contemplate how these variations would affect relationships between them. Frieren: Beyond Journey's End starts after a great war, at the moment of peace, and to the titular elf, her shared journey with the human Himmel and their party feels like a blip in her life, their ten years of friendship blurred amongst her thousand years… until Himmel dies, which shifts her perspective on mortality. Frieren won’t have that much extravaganza we’re used to in other fantasy shows, but the way Frieren tries to reconnect with her former comrades, and the way she remembers their memory through flashbacks, all become a gentle and moving meditation on purpose, meaning, and connection, all paired with outstanding art and some of the best worldbuilding we’ve seen in anime.
What stands out
The approach. Fantasy is often a genre of spectacle, often leading to intense fight scenes, magical worlds, and special effects all to inspire awe and wonder, but Frieren’s slice-of-life approach makes so much sense for a long living elf, and it’s no less lovely due to the impeccable art and animation.
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