Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Vol. 1
Written by: Kanehito Yamada

Drawn by: Tsukasa Abe

Published by: VIZ Media LLC

The Skinny: Fantasy manga grows up.

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is part of a new sub-genre of manga and anime that doesn’t merely adopt Western Fantasy tropes, but expands then into a deep examination of the characters and settings. After defeating The Demon King and restoring peace to the land, four adventurers go their separate ways. Elven mage Frieren goes back to her old life of wandering alone without much thought for her companions. When they meet again fifty years later, she finds that her companions have all aged, while she hasn’t changed at all. After their leader Himmel passes away, she realizes that she hardly knew anything about him, and goes on a journey both to learn more about her companions and herself.
With such a long-lived central character, author Yamada and artist Abe are able to explore the themes in unique and interesting ways. They transform what appears to be a standard heroic fantasy story into a poignant examination of loss, regret, and the passage of time. The creators are able to play with the pacing of the story in interesting ways, having months or even years pass between chapters. The manga is filled with page sequences where months pass like days. Rather than feeling rushed, however, these sections evoke a sense of stillness and calm.
The story also flashes back between the party’s original adventures and the current journey to great effect. Frieren often interacts with people she met in her travels who were children during their quest, and are now elderly. In one particularly interesting chapter, she visits a village where they sealed a demon, knowing that it will soon break free. This is somewhat of a one-off story, but the creators give a lot of insight into the world building and magic system of the setting. The demon was too powerful to defeat outright eighty years ago, but the development of magic has continued apace since he was sealed, in large part as part of an arms race to discover a defense for a particularly dangerous killing spell that the demon developed. Frieren unseals the demon, tells him that his king is dead, and after a short battle, kills him with his own spell. While he was sealed, the world, and the study of magic, had passed him by. His powerful magic became ordinary.
Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is a melancholiac, thought-provoking, and beautiful examination of how we view the passage of time and our connections to others. It is available in print from your local comics shop or digitally from Comixology. There is also a new anime adaptation available through Crunchyroll!