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A review by thebookbin
Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, Vol. 1 by Kanehito Yamada, Tsukasa Abe
adventurous
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I just finished Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End volume 1 and it’s a super interesting manga.
The manga begins at the end of a quest. A just paladin, a corrupt priest, a dwarf warrior and an elf mage defeat the demon king and bring peace to the land. But the elf, Frieren, is either immortal or exceedingly long-lived. Their quest to kill the demon king took 10 years and she thought it was such a short period of time.
She continues on her journey to learn more about magic and when she next sees her companions, they’re all old men while she looks unchanged as a teen girl. When the paladin dies, Frieren begins to have complicated feelings about life, the nature of friendship, and the passage of time.
I was worried that the novel would be fan service-y with one main female character in a group of men, but it turns out that the men aren’t a super big part of the story besides serving as a past for her. She takes on a young female apprentice and her memories of her teacher, who was also female, really balance it out so it’s not male-centric.
Frieren is an interesting character. She’s almost sociopathic—she displays very little emotion and what she does is centered around herself. I was also worried about the “old person in a young body” trope because sexualization of minors is a huge problem in manga, but Frieren isn’t sexual at all. It’s unknown if she’s like this because of her longevity, because maybe she’s still a kid in the terms of her life span, or perhaps the devastation of living countless lifetimes and watching people die has desensitized her.
This manga is clearly going to play with a lot of DND and classic fantasy tropes and I’m looking forward to seeing where the story goes from here.
3.5/5
The manga begins at the end of a quest. A just paladin, a corrupt priest, a dwarf warrior and an elf mage defeat the demon king and bring peace to the land. But the elf, Frieren, is either immortal or exceedingly long-lived. Their quest to kill the demon king took 10 years and she thought it was such a short period of time.
She continues on her journey to learn more about magic and when she next sees her companions, they’re all old men while she looks unchanged as a teen girl. When the paladin dies, Frieren begins to have complicated feelings about life, the nature of friendship, and the passage of time.
I was worried that the novel would be fan service-y with one main female character in a group of men, but it turns out that the men aren’t a super big part of the story besides serving as a past for her. She takes on a young female apprentice and her memories of her teacher, who was also female, really balance it out so it’s not male-centric.
Frieren is an interesting character. She’s almost sociopathic—she displays very little emotion and what she does is centered around herself. I was also worried about the “old person in a young body” trope because sexualization of minors is a huge problem in manga, but Frieren isn’t sexual at all. It’s unknown if she’s like this because of her longevity, because maybe she’s still a kid in the terms of her life span, or perhaps the devastation of living countless lifetimes and watching people die has desensitized her.
This manga is clearly going to play with a lot of DND and classic fantasy tropes and I’m looking forward to seeing where the story goes from here.
3.5/5