Written by Yamada Kanehito and illustrated by Tsukasa Abe, the award-winning Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End manga released its anime adaptation by Madhouse in September 2023. The first season ran for two cours with 28 episodes, finally concluding in March 2024 with a genre-defining run that’s now the toast of the anime world. The show quickly rose through the charts and became one of the most highly rated anime of all time. Following the show’s massive success, the second season was announced right after the first season’s finale, which will premiere in January 2026. Season 1’s finale follows Frieren’s Party as they continue their journey toward their ultimate destination after the First-Class Mage Exam. Their goal, known as Aureole, stands at the Northern end of the continent, where the souls of the dead rest, where Frieren can reunite with Himmel beyond the grave.
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Though it was only a famous legend, she confirmed its existence after reading the notes left behind by Flamme, her teacher and the greatest mage of all time. During Himmel’s funeral, Frieren regrets not trying to know him better and wants to fix her mistake. She desperately wishes to meet him again and express feelings she couldn’t during his lifetime, and give him a proper farewell. Now that Fern is officially a first-class rank mage, they can travel into the Northern Plateau, where they encounter various new people and monsters. The second season will continue their epic journey, introducing several new characters in the middle. Since Season 2 is still a few months away, these 10 episodes will keep you busy in the meantime.
10) Episode 1, “The Journey’s End”
The anime’s debut episode sets up the premise of the story in a surreal way. The story begins at the end of a journey, an unusual concept for the usual anime fans. Frieren served as a mage for the hero’s party led by Himmel. They returned from a decade-long journey after defeating the Demon King and bringing peace to the world, engraving their names in history as legends. We learn in this premiere about Frieren’s bond with her party members as well as the reason behind her reluctance to get close to them.
Much of Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End’s best episodes follow how its hero learns to appreciate human connection instead of shunning it. As an elf, Frieren has been around for several centuries, or maybe even more, so a human’s life span seems fleeting to her. It’s in this first episode that fans quickly saw the powerful emotional component to Frieren’s appeal. She reunited with her party members after 50 years to watch the meteor shower with them again, not knowing she would forever bid farewell to one of them soon after, with more to follow. She regrets keeping a distance from them after the death of Himmel, the hero. Wiping away her tears, Frieren continues her travels, carrying the burden of regret along with her.
9) Episode 4, “The Land Where Souls Rest”
Frieren brings along Fern with her journey and ends up being the one taken care of because of her irregular schedule. The duo continues to perform odd jobs in order to get their hands on new spells. They arrive in a village near the beach where her former party once stayed to celebrate New Year’s. Frieren reminisces about how Himmel was upset about her not coming to the Festival and watching the sunrise with them. Even though she is sure that watching it won’t be intriguing to her, Himmel thinks otherwise.
In the present day, Fern drags Frieren out of her bed and makes her watch the sunrise. Despite initially doubting Himmel’s understanding of her, Frieren realized that she only liked watching the sunrise because she was standing beside someone she cared about. The episode also gives Frieren a reason to begin her new journey after she discovers her master, Flamme, left behind a note, narrating her experience of visiting Aureole. Flamme knew that someday, Frieren would make a mistake and regret keeping a distance from others. Flamme’s worries came true about a thousand years later, and now her student must follow the path she set out for her.
8) Episode 12, “A Real Hero”
Frieren, Fern, and Stark continue their journey towards Äußerst and stop by the Village of the Sword, where the Hero’s legendary sword resides. She reminisces about her time with Himmel’s party when she learned that the sword he carried around wasn’t the true hero’s sword. Himmel also tells her that he and Heiter grew up together in the same orphanage. The flashback was brief, but what was truly captivating was the way Frieren’s gaze lingered on Himmel’s smiling face, as if she wanted to burn that image in her memory forever.
Although he wasn’t able to draw out the legendary sword, he proclaimed that it wouldn’t matter after he succeeded in his goal. His words came true since he made history by defeating the Demon King. After learning about Himmel’s story and his failure to draw the sword, Stark was left with conflicting emotions. The episode later reveals his tragic backstory as a child of a warrior family who was wiped out after a monster attack.
7) Episode 14, “Privilege of the Young”
Fern doesn’t hide her disappointment with Stark when he fails to give her a birthday present. The two end up having a major argument with Frieren and Sein awkwardly stuck in the middle. Thinking she was too hard on him, Fern tries to apologize to Stark, but the latter beats her to it. He buys a bracelet for her, and later, while traveling in a wagon, Frieren mentions that its pattern is quite similar to the ring Himmel gifted to her several decades ago.
She always carries the ring with her, and just when she takes it out to show them, a monster attacks their wagon, scattering their belongings all over. It flies away with them, and Frieren easily manages to kill it. However, the ring is lost in the chaos. Sein notices that the patterns in both accessories are the mirrored lotus, which symbolizes eternal love. On the other hand, Frieren finds her ring thanks to the merchant giving her a spell that can locate lost accessories. As the episode ends, she remembers the day when Himmel put the ring on her finger while kneeling, even though she thought nothing of it at the time.
6) Episode 6, “The Hero of the Village”
Stark, a warrior trained by Eisen, stayed behind in a village that’s been in danger of being attacked by a solar dragon, an extremely powerful monster. The village considers him a hero because he won in a staring contest against the monster, but the young warrior is too afraid to fight the monster in reality. Frieren and Fern arrive in the village in hopes of taking a grimoire from the dragon and join hands with Stark.
Despite his overwhelming fear, he promises to create an opening for the girls and help them defeat the monsters so the villagers can be safe. In a stunning fighting sequence, he single-handedly faces such a powerful being. Without even realizing it, Stark easily defeats the dragon and becomes the real hero of the village, winning over fans instantly and capping off one of the best episodes of Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End.
5) Episode 28, “It Would Be Embarrassing When We Met Again”
After Fern successfully becomes a First Class Mage, Frieren and her group continue their journey towards Ende, a cold region located at the northernmost tip of the continent. The Demon King’s castle and Aureole are located there, where the group is planning to travel. The journey will get more dangerous from here on out, but they are ready for the challenges ahead. Although Frieren couldn’t get the certification, Fern impressed Serie, a legendary elven mage overseeing the exams. First Class Mages are allowed to ask for one spell from Serie, who is known as the Living Grimoire.
Many mages seek absolute power and ask for all kinds of devastating spells, but Fern is different. She is happy with learning about a spell that makes clothes clean, making Frieren proud. On the bridge while leaving the city, the group encounters Lawine and Kanne, who thank Frieren for her help and bid them farewell. However, Fern comments that it was a pretty fast goodbye, making Frieren recollect a memory of Himmel, who didn’t believe in tearful goodbyes. He said that it will be embarrassing if they cross paths again, and Frieren repeats his words, subtly expressing her feelings about wanting to meet the girls again. In terms of episodes leaving fans wistful and hoping for Frieren Season 2 to come, this one is diabolical with its execution.
4) Episode 23, “Conquering the Labyrinth”
Out of 57 mages taking the First Class Mage Exam, only 18 of them passed the first round, with a few of them losing their lives due to the dangerous obstacles. Sense, the First Class Mage in charge of conducting the second round, is a pacifist and doesn’t want to have the mages fight each other again. She tasks them with clearing the dungeon, and since it’s also incredibly dangerous, she leaves them with a golem that can save their lives when they have no way out. Of course, using the golem would mean the mages are automatically disqualified, but at least that way, they won’t end up dead.
Sense decides to follow Frieren and Fern, and the three enter the dungeon together. Fern is astounded by how knowledgeable Frieren is about dungeons, but she mentions she only became like that after her journey with Himmel and his party. He was always enthusiastic about dungeons and would insist on exploring every corner, despite his party’s disapproval. However, Himmel always had a way to convince others, especially Frieren. The test continues, and the mages find themselves in trouble after their exact replicas show up in front of them.
3) Episode 10, “A Powerful Mage”
Demons are far more dangerous than ordinary monsters, not because of their powers, but because of their ability to speak and the fact that they resemble humans to some extent. This makes it easy for them to manipulate humans and take advantage of them. Frieren learned about them from her master, Flamme, a long time ago, so she didn’t fall for any tricks of Lügner and the others. The episode also features the first meeting between Flamme and Frieren. Despite Flamme suppressing her mana, Frieren immediately realized that the human mage in front of her was far more powerful than anyone she had ever seen.
Flamme taught Frieren this skill, and the latter passed it down to her student, Fern. Although demons, who value magic over everything else, consider such deception a disgrace, it also lets them lower their guard and attack the mages without knowing their true capability. All this time, Aura thought she had the upper hand because Frieren was hiding her mana. Right when Aura tried to control Frieren with her powers, the elf unleashed all her mana and forced the demon to kill herself. Frieren was so overwhelmingly powerful that Aura didn’t even have the chance to fight back and fell victim to her own spell, in one of the best episodes leaving Frieren fans craving more.
2) Episode 9, “Aura the Guillotine”
Fern has always been a talented mage and has dedicated her entire life to mastering magic. She was taught by one of the greatest mages in history, an elf who has been around for over a thousand years. After finding out that the city they have been visiting is under threat by demons, Frieren’s team takes matters into their own hands and saves Graf Granat. The demons didn’t take long before showing their true colors, and an all-out battle commenced. Frieren takes on Aura, the Gullotine, the strongest enemy, while Fern fights Lügner, and Stark keeps Linnie at bay. The battle is easily the most electrifying of Frieren’s early episodes, with Fern’s deadly calm being a tough act to follow in Season 2.
Although the episode is titled after Aura, it hypes up Fern more than anyone else, and her ability to be unfazed even in front of a powerful enemy. She is exceptionally skilled at casting spells at high speed and can make decisions on the fly. Fern casts spells even quicker than Frieren, making her a prodigy. She manages to overwhelm a demon with far more experience in magic than her.
1) Episode 26, “The Height of Magic”
The episode features Übel’s backstory and the reason she failed in the previous First Class Mage Exam despite being immensely talented. Übel is just as insane as she is powerful, even stronger than Sense. The other mages also struggle to fight the replica, but face their biggest obstacle when Frieren’s replica shows up, and no one is able to stand against her. The replica has all of Frieren’s abilities and is far more cunning and ruthless than her.
However, Frieren devises a plan to take it down, and the only one who can do it is her student, Fern. Frieren admits that she has been underestimating Fern’s true capabilities. The master and student join hands to take down the replica, but Fern is astounded by the sheer display of power by the replica. She realizes the gap between her and a mage with centuries of experience. Frieren finishes off her replica and clears the dungeon with the remaining examinees, getting one step closer to her goal.
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