Summary
Warning: The following contains spoilers for Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, Episode 5, “Phantoms of the Dead,” and Episode 6, “The Hero of the Village,” now streaming onCrunchyroll.
After a generous four-episode premiere,Frieren: Beyond Journey’s Endhas continued strong since with two new episodes that continue to show studio Madhouse at its best. This time, a new character is introduced to round out the cast before the bulk of the journey to Aureole commences, and it might be even better than the premiere.
With the amount of time spentgetting to know Frieren and Fern thus far, the introduction of a new character, and the establishment of a trio, bring high expectations for the new party member. Thankfully, Stark’s introduction might be the quickest that viewers will fall in love with a character all season, and it’s all thanks to how the story handles the vulnerabilities of its cast.
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Faces From The Past
Part of howFrieren’s storytelling manages to maintain such a consistent and engrossing pace is how it breaks its episodes up into halves. Episode 5’s former half first appears as a self-contained story to show how Fern has matured as a mage when it’s actually laying the groundwork for a larger commentary on fear in both the latter half and Episode 6.
Frieren and Fern investigate a mountain pass where villagers have been disappearing,supposedly at the hands of ghosts. This comes just after a flashback in which Fern recalls when Heiter told her he’d visit her from the afterlife if she was a good girl, so it becomes pretty obvious that he’ll be the one standing before her.
Typically, whenever characters are confronted by spirits pretending to be lost loved ones, it’s some huge ordeal where the leads have to push themselves to “kill” a loved one. But because of how Fern has grown and because of what the audience knows going into this sequence, there isn’t the same level of urgency. She might hesitate, but she knows it isn’t real andwillstrike down the ghost.
That doesn’t necessarily make it easy, though, and neither does it negate the simple catharsis of getting to see them again and hear their words. While the encounter with the ghosts is brief, there’s a sense that both she and Frieren have learned something about themselves based on who appeared before them. For Fern,this moment exemplifies how far she has come, so when she meets Stark, she’s very judgmental of the young warrior’s cowardice.
A Cowardly Hero
With such rich theming guiding every minute of the story, the show manages to subvert expectations in subtle ways thanks to its use of perspective, foreshadowing, and withholding of information. Stark is Eisen’s apprentice and a warrior who protected the villagers near Riegel Canyon from a dragon that attacked by staring it down until it left. But when Frieren and Fern actually meet him, all of that turns out to be a complete misunderstanding.
He only stood there because he was terrified, and he accepted the love of the townspeople because he was too embarrassed to admit his cowardice. The animation does an incredible job of contrasting the opposing accounts of the incidentwith some hilarious visual comedythat exaggerates the threat of the dragon as well as the overwhelming gratitude of the villagers.
Fern reacts to all this with a certain measure of disgust, but as Frieren herself points out to her, she was afraid the first time she fought a monster too. In just the same episode, Fern froze up in front of Heiter’s “ghost” just as Stark froze up before the dragon, though not to the same degree, of course. If the ghost encounter was a sign of how far she’s come,then meeting Stark was a lessonin not being quick to judge others for their fears.
Furthermore, there are plenty of clues that Stark isn’t as weak as his cowardice would suggest. After all, he’s not just some random dude - he’s Eisen’s apprentice, but just because he’s strong doesn’t mean that someone can’t be afraid. The most interesting aspect of this story is how it doesn’t conflate the presence of strength with the absence of fear.
So many stories embolden their characters by framing their overcoming of fear as a result ofacquiringgreater strength,but Stark alreadyhasthe necessary strength. Despite that, it doesn’t stop him from being afraid of something going wrong - of making that one slip up. What he needs is the resolve to push past his fear, just as Fern found it when she fought her first monster.
Stark’s Resolve
When it comes to TV anime, it’s not unexpected for the early episodes to put their best foot forward and for later episodes to possibly scale down the quality because of time constraints. With so many episodes and such a large premiere, one might have gone intoFrieren’s new episodes curious to see if the quality would drop off at all. However, after the fight in Episode 6, it is abundantly clear that Madhouse isn’t pumping the brakes anytime soon.
Stark’s face-off against the dragon is gorgeous in a way that’s shocking even after several already impressive episodes prior.The standout moment of the battleis this shot where Stark is clutching onto the dragon, and it looks as if someone strapped a GoPro to the side of its head. From the way Stark’s clothes and hair rapidly flutter in the wind, to the visible struggle to keep his grip, the animation conveys the weight and impact of every hit splendidly.
Narratively, the fight serves as the crescendo for the story, where unresolved questions about Stark and Eisen’s opinion of his apprentice, are all answered. Evan Call’s soundtrack once again strikes an evocative chord that, in tandem with the gorgeous artwork, injects every pregnant pause with a weight as heavy as Stark’s greataxe.It’s such a powerful and satisfying climax, and its ending only marks the halfway point for the sixth episode.
There are so many layers to howFrieren: Beyond Journey’s Endbuilds up to this incredible payoff that it’s almost hard to believe this particular arc was only two episodes long. Stark’s personality, vulnerability, and power are explored in such a charming and gratifying way that he’s become an instant favorite, all thanks to a theme of fear and resolve that was brilliantly executed.
