Frieren's Powerful Message
- Nguyen Nguyen
- 5 days ago
- 4 min read
Frieren: Beyond Journey's End is an anime released on September 29, 2023. The story starts out with the Hero Party coming back to town after defeating the long immortal Demon King. Here, we are introduced to Frieren, Himmel, Heiter, and Eisen. This party was diverse as Himmel and Heiter were the human hero and priest, while Eisen is a dwarven warrior and Frieren an elf mage. Right from the bat, as the party is enjoying themselves in the festival thrown for them, it was shown that different species have different life spans: our main character Frieren lives the longest due to her being an elf. As a result, Frieren views life as quick, where the years of the Hero Party journeying together was nothing but a “mere” 10 years to Frieren. They soon disbanded afterwards, yet made a promise to see each other again until the next Era Meteors. Each member of the party began going back to their normal lives.
Frieren began wandering around, taking her time to explore the world to collect her gimmick magic spells. It was shown that as she explored, time slowly passed as the shop owner began growing from a young man to an elder. Frieren then snapped out of her journey and realized the Era Meteors is coming back again as she was thinking about the missing important ingredient for her research. The elf lady then made her way back to Himmel as she entrusted the ingredient to him. Upon arrival, Frieren was noticeably surprised by the changes of the town; she then walked to the meeting location, where Himmel was now revealed as a tiny old man. Watchers realize that 50 years had passed.
Frieren doesn’t hide her surprise from Himmel’s aged appearance as the words, “You’re near ancient", came out of her as a shock. Despite that, Frieren soon adapted to the new change and began to plan their Era Meteors journey.
The members were reunited and the Hero Party was once again together. Before they started their journey, it was depicted that Frieren was expecting them to walk for a week by foot as they did back then on their Demon King’s journey. “To what have I agreed?” was a comment made by Eisen. Although Eisen’s line wasn’t emphasized, it’s implied that Eisen is now weaker than he was before, as a week-long walk is rather brutal on not only him but the other human members, who are now all elders. They soon start their journey, and here, the viewers are shown a glimpse of how their party functions, with each member fulfilling their role perfectly. The trip to see the Era Meteors was slowly coming to an end as with each trace the party recovered, Himmel was reminded of their past, further making him appreciate the moment. One of his biggest wishes became fulfilled as the party now reunited with each other.
The scene was then shifted, and the village that Frieren visited is now silent. A cathedral appeared and it was shown the Hero Himmel had peacefully died of old age.
The other members of the party backed her up as they understood Frieren was always slow when it comes to emotion. And just like they predicted, as the final bell rang and the Hero’s coffin was being buried away, it immediately hits Frieren that Himmel is now gone forever. She realizes that she never really spent any time to understand or learn about him despite him always being there for her if she had asked or reached out in the past 50 years. Frieren had lost her opportunity in learning about Himmel forever.
The “mere” ten years now crushed Frieren like a wave as she realized the “mere” was longer and more valuable than she originally thought it was. It was her only memory of Himmel as she didn’t see him for 50 years straight. This is where this anime's message becomes powerful.
The message of living your life slowly and making sure to take a step back to look around is heavily underlined in Frieren, especially in their first episode. To many, this message might be obvious, however similar to Frieren, some people might be unable to understand this message fully, at least not until they have experienced loss and realize that despite having that precious person always close by to you for years, you were unaware of your understanding about them. Rather, you took their presence for granted, relying on that guarantee until time made you realize you lost it. This message was delivered repeatedly throughout the entire series, however, their delivery was gentle and calm as it presented itself as a reminder.
With current day society progressing quickly, it’s no wonder many teenagers and adults are sucked into the quick pace of life. And this is why Frieren: Beyond the Journey’s End was made. It is a reminder for people to make sure to take their time, enjoy life or even take a stop sometimes to learn about your loved one, making sure you never experience the biggest regret of your entire life.
SOURCES:
1. Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End
3. “The Journey’s End”, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, season 1, episode 1, directed by Keiichiro Saito, 2023, Netflix.
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