Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, Vol. 1 by Kanehito Yamada, Tsukasa Abe
Series Name: Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End
Genres: Adventure, Elves, Fantasy, Magic
Intended Age Group: Teen
Publisher: Viz/Shonen Sunday
Edition: Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-9747-2576-2
Rating: 4/5
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Description from the Book
Elf mage Frieren and her courageous fellow adventurers have defeated the Demon King and brought peace to the land. But Frieren will long outlive the rest of her former party. How will she come to understand what life means to the people around her?
Decades after their victory, the funeral of one of her friends confronts Frieren with her own near immortality. Frieren sets out to fulfill the last wishes of her comrades and finds herself beginning a new adventure…
Personal & Info
I’ve heard a lot of good things about this series, and it popped up regularly in advertisements. When I saw it in my local bookstore, I made sure to grab it to give it a try.
People who enjoy fantasy, stories about elves, or D&D will probably like this series. I definitely plan on continuing to read and review it. It might not happen quickly, but it’s definitely on my list of things to continue.
Characters
Frieren is the main character. She is the elf mage in a party that defeats the Demon King and then goes their separate ways. She’s also a bit of a slob and rather lazy.
Himmel is listed as the hero of the party. He is the pretty boy with a heart of gold.
Heiter is the priest of the party, constantly called corrupt by his comrades because of his drinking and ideals.
Eisen is the Dwarf warrior of the party.
Fern is an aspiring mage in the care of Heiter. She becomes Frieren’s new companion in her travels.
Story & Thoughts
I hear this series is a bit of a tear jerker, and I can see why. The cover is beautiful, but the implications start immediately. Upon opening the book, the first page is a blackened out version of the cover image, so all you see is Frieren sitting by herself with barely visible shadows of her friends beside her. As the elf of the party, it is her fate to outlive everyone she meets.
The first chapter does a good job pointing out the differences in how an elf thinks compared to the average person. Her life span is so much longer that while everyone is commenting on how it’s been a long ten years and discussing retirement from adventuring, Frieren is thinking of it as having been ONLY ten years. What is a long time to her companions feels more like five minutes to her. The comments she makes in this chapter really drive the point home. She talks about meeting up in fifty years like it’s nothing.
When the reality of her life span becomes obvious to her, Frieren decides to travel. Her reasons are unclear to herself, but I think she wants to honor her comrades and clean up whatever messes are left unfinished. She thinks her reasons are to learn more spells and do tasks specifically for herself in a form of self gratification, but I’m sure there is more to it than that.
The elf perspective is done wonderfully, and the responses to Frieren’s behavior and ideals as an elf are great. It is perfectly understandable for a human to get a little impatient spending six months simply looking for a flower.