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Wednesday, September 11, 2024

Wednesday Comics: Frieren: Beyond Journey's End

Volume 11 of the manga Frieren: Beyond Journey's End came out in English this week. I've mentioned the anime adaptation of this series before but I thought it was worth giving a shout out to the manga by writer Kanehito Yamada and artist Tsukasa Abe, which is ahead of the anime--and may forever be, given that the first "season" has completed and it's unclear if there will be more. The manga could be one's only chance to see the end of the story.

I'll try to be light on the spoilers for later events, but as I mentioned before, Frieren is a nigh immortal elf adventurer on a long, meandering journey to retrace the steps of her original party's journey into the demon-haunted North to find the place where the dead can speak to the living, so she can talk to one of her old party members. Her companions are her apprentice (a child adopted by her old party's cleric) and a warrior who was the protégé of another one of her former comrades.

This goal led to a storyline where Fern (the apprentice) and Frieren attempted to gain status in a wizard organization who controls access to the North. The current storyline involves some of the characters and situations from that one and centers around a town turned to gold by the actions of a demon, Macht, which the wizardly organization has been "containing" for decades.

Now, the containment has dropped and the diagoldze spell threatens to spread. Macht is being aided by another greater demon named Solitär. Several mages (including Fern) have already been defeated by them. Freiren arrives, but she's armed with the counterspell to diagoldze. Still, she has two powerful demons to defeat.

The manga, like the anime, finds its strength in its characters. In the somewhat alien outlooks of the demons and the extremely long-lived elves, it also considers human relationships and their meanings. It's an unsual series, and one I highly recommend.

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