(CR) Sousou no Frieren (Frieren: Beyond Journey's End)

[Last Sinner]

Originally Posted by Kanon

I'm definitely going to check it out. Fern is ridiculously attractive, personality and body both.

Have fun. Wonder if you find my fave image thus far.

[Decel]

Originally Posted by Mad Pierrot

I don't know who writes the lyrics but the "Yusha" opening theme really feels like it's Frieren the one singing as she wonders what to do with the story now that the hero is gone. The music video even shows them a bit flirting in one small scene where Frieren shoots pink hearts at Himmel who blacksout

Yoasobi. They're really kicking it out of the park this year with this and Idol. I think they custom-make the song to fit the story, though I didn't feel this with their Gundam OP.

I'm not sure if Milet's ED is custom-made or one from here repertoire, but I also think that it somewhat fits the story. Not as good as the OP though.

[Nachtwandler]

More like Ayase wrote it. While Ikura sometimes helps writing Yoasobi songs, both Yuusha and Idol were written solely by Ayase.

[Frontier]

Draht talks a big game and has deadly magical thread...but he picked the wrong opponent, as not only can Frieren defend herself with just her mana but she can easily cleave his arm off. And then he had the gall to try to talk with her to save yourself? Yeah, Frieren's not going to listen to that for even a second .

I love how Frieren's thinking that exposing and killing the demons will earn her a pardon. Well, until she found the dead guard .

Wow, Fern sure gulped down that burger! But I guess they have other priorities than just good cuisine, even if she has to drag Stark and all his anxiety into dealing with the demon problem and free Frieren...who already escaped jail .

Stark used begging! It had no effect! Though Frieren isn't just leaving the demon problem to Stark and Fern, someone has to stop Aura the Guillotine herself. Who looks pretty cute for a demon, though I take it she gets her name from all the beheading .

Graf Granat isn't a complete idiot. He realized something was up. It's just too bad the demons were more than happy to resort to violence when exposed, and Granat's skills with a sword aren't a match for Lugner's blood magic. They just need him alive to dispell Flamme's barrier for their invasion .

Poor Stark. He has to wade through water because he can't walk on it like Fern, and he doesn't even get to hold Fern's hand because she can just fly over him .

Stark may still be a terrified mess but he can't abandon the Graf or run from a challenge, even a dangerous demon adversary, and he provides the perfect distraction for Fern to show up and hit Lugner .

Dang, I kind of wanted to see Manaka Iwami versus Kana Ichinose. But Fern making Lugner recall being the sole suvivor to a demon slaughter Frieren did was pretty cool. She's following in her masters' footsteps well .

[magnuskn]

You know, when this series loses its chill, it does so rather excellently.

[kari-no-sugata II]

Demons at start of episode: you brought a knife to a boss fight!

Demons at end of episode: Why do I hear boss music?

I liked the extra bits they added.

[Dark Wing]

Only thing I got to say is...It's about to go down.

[Ragashingo]

A damn excellent episode!
- Loved Frieren’s smile and her acknowledgement that she too has dangerous opponents to fight.
- Loved the blast through the window.
- Is Aura controlling a horde of human zombie guards?!

Wish I could watch next week now!

[AntonKutovoi]

I have to admit, I kinda giggled at the title drop at the end of the episode.

[Huh...?]

Originally Posted by Ragashingo

Loved Frieren’s smile and her acknowledgement that she too has dangerous opponents to fight.

I think it's actually different.
- Frieren already said that she is stronger than Aura.
- Then she said that, she hates fight strong opponents, so she better hurry and finish things fast.

If you think about Frieren's normal nature of being lazy and doing stuff slowly which can even takes years or decades.

Her trying to do it fast would suggest something else.

And that being that while Aura is currently weaker than Frieren, Aura has the potential to surpass her.
So Frieren plans to take her out before that happens while she is at the top (in terms of strength).

[Kanon]

Frieren gave all the credits to humans for making Zoltraak obsolete but it turns out she contributed a lot. The "ordinary attack magic" that she taught Fern is also a spell modified to be extremely effective at killing demons.

Originally Posted by Huh...?

I think it's actually different.
- Frieren already said that she is stronger than Aura.
- Then she said that, she hates fight strong opponents, so she better hurry and finish things fast.

If you think about Frieren's normal nature of being lazy and doing stuff slowly which can even takes years or decades.

Her trying to do it fast would suggest something else.

And that being that while Aura is currently weaker than Frieren, Aura has the potential to surpass her.
So Frieren plans to take her out before that happens while she is at the top (in terms of strength).

I don't think that's it. Frieren, despite being lazy, also has a very strong sense of responsibility. She can sense Aura is nearby and preparing an attack, so she needs to deal with her as quickly as possible.

Her saying Aura is a strong opponent is just her being modest, as she usually is. I expect she will have no trouble dealing with her.

[FlareKnight]

I love how casually Frieren ends that first demon. Just frankly disappointed in her attacker. Naive and clearly lacking combat experience. The moment his opening move didn't kill her that should have said everything about the situation. Leaving her hanging for several seconds and free to attack him in any manner was a huge error. She doesn't need to undo the spell if she can kill the caster/cut off the hands controlling it.

Did wonder for a bit if Frieren was being lazy and leaving the fighting to the others. But ok, credit to her. She is focusing on the biggest threat. Did claim to be stronger than Aura so it should be fine. Though to be fair she is fighting on her own without her former allies. Will need to be sensible about it.

I also love how her anti-demon spell is what she set as the basic attack spell for Fern to learn . Making sure that she'd be able to fight well against the most dangerous things out there. Good teacher.

And good work by Stark. He couldn't beat that guy, but he did his part. Well I suppose we can't say he couldn't have won. Fern clearly told him what to prioritize and he created the opening without suffering serious injury. Not a bad choice to fall back. The town leader could easily be made into a hostage in the midst of a chaotic fight. Fall back, get him treated, and then than handle the threats coming at them.

Frieren is looking set to live up to that slayer title .

[grecefar]

I kind of think that stark thinks he is a coward, it is his nature but the trembling is just him being excited to be facing a strong opponet, when things needs to be done he can do it. Kind like usopp but less annoying.

they can do the job no problem, they are strong.

[Shadow5YA]

Originally Posted by Kanon

Frieren gave all the credits to humans for making Zoltraak obsolete but it turns out she contributed a lot. The "ordinary attack magic" that she taught Fern is also a spell modified to be extremely effective at killing demons.

To be fair, Lugner is an untrustworthy source at best. For all we know Lugner could be downplaying the contribution from human civilization because he only acknowledges Frieren as a threat.

[Decel]

Originally Posted by Frontier

Stark used begging! It had no effect!

LOL!

Yeah the Zoltraak evolution's credit is rather ambiguous. Also, we don't know if the ordinary offensive magic that Fern uses is a tailor-made spell that Frieren customized, or if the anti-demon characteristic is actually part of the vanilla version of OOM.

Great episode, I like that Frieren doesn't hand-hold her two followers. I assume Stark is all panicky because, compared to Fern, he's new to Frieren's school-of-hard-knocks method. Fern has already experienced Qual from Ep3, while Stark only has a dragon for experience...

You're not going to fight them just because they're strong? Was a gut-punch of a statement.

[~Yami~]

Frieren looks so cool.. I know that Stark and Fern are doing something amazing too but Frieren stole the show

[ryllharu]

Originally Posted by Kanon

I don't think that's it. Frieren, despite being lazy, also has a very strong sense of responsibility. She can sense Aura is nearby and preparing an attack, so she needs to deal with her as quickly as possible.

Her saying Aura is a strong opponent is just her being modest, as she usually is. I expect she will have no trouble dealing with her.

Frieren makes long-term plans to kill specific demons. We've seen it before. That sense of responsibility plays into her decades-long planning. Even though Heiter checked the seal every couple years, the villagers and Heiter knew that Frieren would come back exactly when it was about to break.

Originally Posted by grecefar

I kind of think that stark thinks he is a coward, it is his nature but the trembling is just him being excited to be facing a strong opponet, when things needs to be done he can do it. Kind like usopp but less annoying.

The fear is what makes him stronger than someone who has comparative physical strength. That's what Eisen was pointing out.

Stark is very strong. Stronger than Eisen was 80 years ago at his own peak. But Stark is still afraid of strong enemies. He's never overconfident because of it.

That gives Stark a distinct edge. He always gives 110% because he's always wondering if he'll die facing an opponent.

He has a good balance of pride not to run away, and goad an opponent into paying attention to him, but he's cautious enough not to make fatal mistakes.

[Shadow5YA]

One thing to note in this episode that's lost in translation is the Japanese counting system: When you write or say a number, you have to include a suffix to describe what you're talking about.
For example, when you're counting people, you would include ~ri 人 as the suffix, with 人 being the kanji for person.

However, after killing Draht Frieren says,
"まずは一匹
mazu wa ippiki
(that's one down)."

In that scene she does not use the counter for humans and uses ~ppiki/~hiki 匹 for counting animals instead, showing that she really does not consider demons to be people.

[shmaster]

There is a misunderstanding that Zoltraak has became obsolete after it got passed into the human hands. The reality is that Zoltraak is now the meta of the magic system.
Everyone learns Zoltraak and everyone learns the defense spell against. You are not going to find a mage who is not constantly on guard of Zoltraak, as Zoltraak one shot anyone who isn't constantly ready to pull up a defensive shield.
People are building faster and stronger Zoltraak everyday, so shields there quicker and more compact are built everyday, and thus magic that circumvent the whole Zoltraak vs shield formula is being built. But once Zoltraak is out of your focus, someone is going to one shot you with it. There simply is no escape from Zoltraak within the moden human magic culture.

Originally Posted by Decel

LOL!
Yeah the Zoltraak evolution's credit is rather ambiguous. Also, we don't know if the ordinary offensive magic that Fern uses is a tailor-made spell that Frieren customized, or if the anti-demon characteristic is actually part of the vanilla version of OOM

Zoltraak is a very flexible spell. Many many version of it exists.
Rapid fire? Long range sniping? High compression fast trigger? Brute force? There are many more, take your pick.
Anyone good enough can customize it. It is no secret art that only a select few can modify it.
That's the true essence of Zoltraak, the possibility of this spell is endless, and everyone can have access to that.

[ryllharu]

Originally Posted by shmaster

There is a misunderstanding that Zoltraak has became obsolete after it got passed into the human hands. The reality is that Zoltraak is now the meta of the magic system.
Everyone learns Zoltraak and everyone learns the defense spell against. You are not going to find a mage who is not constantly on guard of Zoltraak, as Zoltraak one shot anyone who isn't constantly ready to pull up a defensive shield.
People are building faster and stronger Zoltraak everyday, so shields there quicker and more compact are built everyday, and thus magic that circumvent the whole Zoltraak vs shield formula is being built. But once Zoltraak is out of your focus, someone is going to one shot you with it. There simply is no escape from Zoltraak within the moden human magic culture.

We've gained some insight into more reasons that Frieren caused this. Not only is it very strong and there's been time to develop dozens of variant counters to Zoltraak, the cultural impact of what she's done makes all the demons furious. They get unsettled that one of their "life's work" gets surpassed and amplified by 'weak' humanity because they expect to be the ones with superior magic skills since they spend decades honing a single type.

Even the imperious way Frieren and Fern glare down at their enemies while floating. It is purposefully meant to be demeaning to demons. They're instantly reminded of Frieren when they see another mage floating like that, and she's always looking down on them. They all think they're superior beings, so that taunts them quite a bit.

Now we have expanded confirmation that Frieren wasn't just lazily looking for magic those 50 years (or however many before her original journey with Himmel, Heiter, and Eisen). She was building out multiple frameworks to exterminate demonkind.