I just can’t wait to get on the road again.
What They Say:
“Shall We Go, Then?”
Frieren, Fern, and Stark leave the magic city of Äußerst behind and travel along a road in the northern lands.
Review: (Please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The time has finally come. When I published my very thorough review of the first season of Frieren on its one-year anniversary, I speculated on the future of the series just as the production committee decided to use the same celebratory milestone to confirm said future, leading me to rush some edits at the last moment to avoid being immediately outdated. Although we knew we’d be getting more, we didn’t know when, in what format, or how much of the original staff or style (much less the quality) would be maintained. Over the course of the following year, those questions were answered, leading us to this long-awaited event that brings equal parts excitement and anxiety over the potential of not living up to the impossible standard set by the first season.
I noted that I would be happy for the series to take as long as it needed to return at the same level it delivered originally, and that it would be hard to imagine it working quite as well with a different team. A gap of about two years (plus one season from the first season’s beginning, minus one season from its ending) feels about right as enough time to ensure exceptional quality without waiting so long it loses momentum or the ability to stay consistent. It is, however, important to note the things that didn’t quite stay the same. I touched upon this in my coverage of the Frieren panel at last year’s Anime Expo, which ended with the premiere of the first trailer for this season, quietly announcing its main staff.
Most notably, original director Keiichirou Saitou, who I credited a great deal for the masterpiece that was the first season, doesn’t seem to want to commit to continuing to helm any series he had directed through their sequels. He is still present in this production as a supervisor to new series director Tomoya Kitagawa and his new assistant director Daiki Harashina. That is certainly the biggest worry going into this season, but everything else about the production is clearly trying to maintain continuity with the lightning in a bottle they managed to capture the first time around. The only other major change in staff is that our original character designer was, somewhat similarly, replaced by three, but when one of them is the artist of Violet Evergarden, that doesn’t worry me too much.
Indeed, by design, the Frieren anime returns and looks much as it did when it left us. Madhouse’s immaculate production, Akane Fushihara’s iconic textured aesthetic, and Sawako Takagi’s rich backgrounds welcome us back into this gorgeous, thoroughly realized world that we’ve missed so much. We haven’t come across any new characters yet, and I’m not sure whether our new trio of designers have redrawn Nagasawa’s model sheets from the first season, but our established characters certainly look consistent to what we’d expect. Along with rewatching the first season several times, I have Evan Call’s masterful soundtrack in regular rotation, so those tracks have continued to be present in my life, and we’re immediately treated to new arrangements of some of his classics alongside wholly new compositions. All of these elements make the Frieren anime what it is, but Saitou’s atmosphere was such a critical component to tie it all together, and even if he has stepped to the side, the season opens with a promise to honor the vision he had established, taking its time to breathe in the quiet beauty of its world like early episodes of the first season, after having spent most of its latter half on one plot-driven story arc.
Yes, at the very least, everyone making this series is abundantly aware of how special it was and how important it is to feel like a proper continuation of what came before. Every stylistic choice is made in perfect parity with its predecessor to ensure that it feels like a seamless transition to “episode 29” despite a couple years in between. Every episode of Frieren takes its title from a phrase spoken within the episode, and just as “It Would Be Embarrassing When We Met Again” was the ideal title for a season finale that promises more to come, “Shall We Go, Then?” is both the first and last line spoken in this season premiere, taking our hand to lead us back into the journey we’ve so eagerly awaited.
Mrs. GREEN APPLE is a band I’ve appreciated since I first heard them, but having opening songs for both The Apothecary Diaries and Frieren within a year instantly shoots them to the top of artists on my radar. I can see arguments that their style isn’t the most obvious for either, but the same could be said, and has been said, about YOASOBI’s “Yuusha” from the first season, and I don’t love that any less for the perceived misalignment in tone. “lulu.” is a bit less energetic than most Mrs. GREEN APPLE songs I’ve heard, and Frieren is diverse enough in tone and energy to make it work. Most importantly, as always, the opening sequence is paired wonderfully with the song and is a visual and thematic treat to get something new from each week.
The episode reminds of how much variety Frieren can pack into an episode without feeling overstuffed or rushed. On the contrary, as I mentioned previously, it still manages plenty of slow, drawn-out sequences in the best way possible. We follow our characters through their mundane daily lives. This isn’t something that only early Frieren had. When the opportunity allows for it, the series is happy to quietly meditate like this again.
Eventually, a seemingly inconsequential curiosity of Frieren’s (which could prove enormously lucrative if not for the fact that possession of it places a party in which 2 of the 3 members rely on magic for all offense and defense in terrible danger) is revealed to have greater significance as the party finds themselves in an unfortunate predicament. After having spent an extended arc dealing with magic, we experience for the first time how vulnerable mages become when that tool is taken away from them. It also reminds us, however, of how nonchalant some of these characters can be when faced with adversity, especially Frieren but to some extent also Fern. Stark is more of an everyman, his anxiety spilling out despite being the only one whose powers aren’t drained in this scenario. Even while ostensibly trapped in a cavern and without magic, our crew playfully explores, we get a classic Frieren montage, and Frieren herself takes a little nap as a savage monster barrels toward her.
It wouldn’t be a proper Frieren episode without a flashback to the original Party of Heroes mirroring the current events and putting that subtle smile of nostalgia on Frieren’s face. This is also the opportunity Madhouse takes to assure us that, along with all of the consistent atmospheric nuances that truly make Frieren special, it also somehow manages to fit in being a sakuga spectacle fairly frequently. The action in this flashback is loaded with absolutely inspired animation, magnificent to behold. Thematically, it serves to drive home the bond of a party, the implicit trust in each other as family, and the respective heroes’ innate drive to protect their comrades.
Avoiding dramatic farewells because “it would be embarrassing when we met again” is proven extremely relevant as the party runs into Wirbel’s party literally the episode after they last saw each other. Ironically, it has been almost two years for us, but it will feel very different if you watch the seasons one after the other. Wirbel’s companions haven’t been explored much yet, but his character has received a good range of depth. He first appeared to be a coldblooded killer but was gradually revealed to avoid violence except when necessary (in contrast to Ubel), having a noble ambition born out of childhood tragedy, and being inspired by Himmel the Hero in his moments of true heroism that focused on the plight of the average folk.
Wirbel would like to recruit Stark, but of course Stark won’t leave Frieren’s party so easily. Sein was a member of the party very briefly, but Stark has been a core of it for too long to depart this suddenly. Since the previous arc was exclusively about mages, not only Frieren and Fern but many new characters including Wirbel, Stark got pushed to the sidelines for a significant period of time, so it’s good to have a bit more focus on him now.
Stark’s relationship with Fern has seemed rocky at times, with the joke of her strictness sometimes becoming too relentless to continue feeling like just a joke. Earlier in the episode, Frieren wondered if they were a good match for each other, if Stark was uncomfortable with the dynamic of the party, and if he wanted to stick around given that she considers herself to have forced him to join. The mild tension between Stark and Fern throughout the episode builds to a subtle climax as Stark reveals that Fern was always the one inspiring him, from the moment he decided to join the party because of her, rather than Frieren. It ties together seemingly unimportant and disparate elements from the various pieces of the episode, from Fern’s affinity for the gift Stark gave her to Stark carrying her when she was vulnerable just as Himmel did for Frieren decades earlier. These kids may bicker, but they’re so cute that you have to love them and root for them.
In continuing the parallels to the first season, the new ending theme “The Story of Us” is very much in the same vein as the iconic “Anytime, Anywhere,” bringing back milet (and series composer Evan Call as arranger) for another softly soaring piece with some more English phrases touching upon similar themes. Perhaps even more valuable, it is once again set to a sequence of completely unique artistry unlike anything else in the series or anime in general. The commitment to such creative expression in every facet of the series goes a long way in reassuring us that the Frieren we loved is back without compromise.
In Summary:
As a complete episode, this actually feels like something of a variety bag more than a cohesive narrative. For the Frieren anime, though, that can still be something remarkable. The biggest question was whether this would still feel like the Frieren anime we hold in such high regard. An episode like this isn’t necessarily the best test of that, but all indications are that the team is highly aware of its responsibility to live up to expectations, and no effort appears to be spared in making it feel like a consistent continuation of the magic we experienced two years ago. Whether Saitou’s vision can be fully maintained remains to be seen, but this is clearly still a beautiful production in every sense: visually, sonically, tonally, thematically, and in character study. Some of the components of this variety bag eventually converge into a tender affirmation of bonds between characters and parallels with the past in ways that are so distinctively Frieren. Shall we go, then?
Grade: A-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Advent Seven 
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