Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Season 2 Episode #02 Review

You’ll understand when you meet him.

What They Say:
“The Hero of the South”

In a village in the northern lands, Frieren’s party are hired to polish a statue of a hero.

Review: (Please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
It’s another day and another opportunity for the millennia-old mage of the hero’s party to do some mundane odd jobs with mundane spells to acquire even more mundane spells. In fact, we’ve seen this one before, haven’t we? “Polish the statue of the hero.” We sure have, and that’s how we know she has this exact spell. But while Stark notes his appreciation for these odd jobs, he’s shocked to find that it’s not Himmel the Hero, but a mustachioed stranger referred to only as “the Hero of the South.” The job is the same, but through the village, a puppet show, and of course Frieren’s own memories, we get a history lesson on another hero who was tragically relatively forgotten as he died before defeating the final boss.

That puppet show is a welcome reminder that original series director Keiichirou Saitou has not left the production. Not content with letting any piece of Frieren be merely standard, Madhouse had Saitou design real puppets, which were then constructed and puppeteered by a professional company, which was then captured to create the animation we see in the episode. The verisimilitude expressed by this injection of reality is staggering, and ironic given the juxtaposition of its subject matter being a deliberately artificial construction.

As for the Hero of the South, he represents an interesting subject that hasn’t been explored yet: the heroes who didn’t achieve the one thing that would secure their legacy for eternity. We see him approach Frieren in much the same way as Himmel only to be rejected as anyone but Himmel would have, and he proudly sacrifices himself to clear the way for his successor to step in. But by far the most interesting thing about him is his apparent ability to see the future.

I have a complicated relationship with future sight, time travel, and the like. These topics are almost inherently problematic for the sake of causality, but it seems like half of my favorite anime end up touching upon something of the sort throughout their run. This isn’t strictly time travel, but the apparent immutability of the future still suggests determinism and/or fatalism, which is hard to reconcile with the expectation of free will from our characters. Even if no time is technically traversed, the fact that actions occur as a result of future knowledge essentially still results in an argument for a temporal paradox, specifically a causal loop. Time is a tough thing. Whether Frieren will explore this topic any further remains to be seen, but this superficial examination is an acceptable acknowledgment of the possibility without contradicting any of the story’s core tenets. Ironically enough, Frieren feels like a time travel story by the nature of its constant flashes back and forth through memories.

Since we’re in episodic territory, we get two stories of the price of one in episodes like this. I’ve only read the manga that the first season covered, and I’ll do the same with this season’s material when it ends, but it’s fairly clear that this was composed of two chapters of the manga. The second half introduces another odd job that ultimately results in another, even more mundane spell, but this time, Frieren has no desire to take the job. The elf who would spend years on a frivolous distraction is uncharacteristically speaking about the limited nature of time to hurry their way through a village, but she isn’t quite quick enough to escape those who would demand to celebrate and feed her.

Frieren’s services are needed to retrieve a family’s prized sword, a job she had already done during her time with Himmel because of its attributes enticing demons to repeatedly try to steal it. Although she avoided this at first, she ultimately decides to accept the job three generations later for exactly the reason you’d expect from someone who relates everything she experiences to her nostalgia for Himmel: because letting it fall back to that fate would render Himmel’s effort meaningless. Frieren’s ability to associate anything and everything with Himmel can feel like a joke, but it represents the profound impact Himmel had on her despite their time together being less than one percent of her life, and ending nearly 80 years ago. Although she’s not depicted as being as explicitly in love with Himmel as he was with her, the space he still occupies in her mind and heart arguably implies an affection not possible in a human’s lifespan. This singular obsession that served as the catalyst for this story inspires her growth in developing empathy for the exceptionally short-lived humans, and in a sense she can value the time they spend more significantly than her own, as theirs is so much more limited.

This leads to another confrontation with, and exploration of, demons. They create the perfect contrast to Frieren’s empathetic growth because they challenge her developing compassion with cold rationality that she has historically favored. Do we look forward to Frieren defeating these demons? Of course. Do we stand with Frieren’s perspective on humanity infinitely more than that of the demons? Absolutely. Is there something hypocritical about many of us seeing a demon as evil for declaring that there’s no reason to avoid eating humans just because it’s not necessary and then eating meat ourselves? Perhaps there is. Even in minor appearances like this, demons never cease to pose some philosophical dilemma.

In case the puppet show wasn’t quite flashy enough, Madhouse is also ensuring that, even in episodic stories of odd jobs, each episode thus far has had some exceptional action animation. Other than the Hero of the South’s flashback, this is virtually the only opportunity to include that kind of material, and they seize it just like the Himmel flashback from the previous episode. There are certainly series that spend more time being more ambitious with larger set pieces. What makes Frieren special is that it feels like an afterthought yet manages to balance virtually everything we love about animation in every installment, much like the casual, humble superlatives of Frieren the character.

Speaking of demons, it’s worth noting that the lore dropped to set up the Hero of the South’s story established that, of the seven sub-bosses under the Demon King, he killed three, Himmel’s party killed two, and Aura was one more. That seems to imply that one remains in the world for a future encounter. This isn’t a series for which battling enemies is ever the most important aspect, and I don’t even need it ever explored. But the way it’s subtly layered into a largely unrelated explanation is yet another example of excellent economy of storytelling that will pay off if it’s explored later.

In Summary:
This season of Frieren appropriately establishes itself with the low-stakes, episodic variety that made it so uniquely endearing in the early parts of its first season. After a premiere that touched upon several different, somewhat interconnected subjects, this one is split fairly evenly into two halves. The first one introduces another figure of legend who didn’t achieve Himmel’s ultimate glory or legacy, but made that end goal possible through a power that could shake up the very structure of the narrative depending on how it gets used. The second inspires an initially reluctant Frieren to redo one of her old jobs to ensure that Himmel’s time wasn’t wasted. While the season continues to be relatively uneventful in the grand scheme, it also continues to remind us why that was always its strength, not its weakness. In these stories that could be forgettable side quests, we’re treated to fascinating animation in puppetry and battle alike, continued development on the themes of the importance of unsung heroes and Frieren’s sincere appreciation for the trivial efforts of humans, and thought-provoking ruminations on the nature of causality and the morality of valuing some lives more than others.

Grade: A-

Streamed By: Crunchyroll