Frieren has set the anime fandoms ablaze with its beautiful and vibrant animation and its fresh take on storytelling, leading to one of the best anime in recent years. The story in Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End follows the life of the elf who the show is named after, Frieren, as she continues with life after having defeated the Demon King alongside a party of heroes. The series makes very little attempt to provide the high-octane action typically expected of the fantasy setting, yet it delivers often with important story beats, told through flashbacks, as the characters of today act in a manner fitting of the heroes of the past. This character development shows the world marching forward as Frieren slogs through time, unlike any of her non-elf allies, experiencing everything and seeing the world change based on the actions of the past.
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All of these motifs and themes about the past and what it means to be a hero and an adventurer are repeatedly referenced through flashback sequences as Frieren teaches apprentice Fern and the two travel with the warrior Stark. These flashbacks are not just for narrative’s sake, though, and they allow for the series as a whole to be romantically haunted by the Hero Himmel. Himmel is often seen as the pinnacle of heroism, and the narrative seldom lets us forget it. However, there is a reason for this haunting, and as the series unravels, we see the parts that were left unsaid have had an everlasting effect on the practically immortal elf. As she travels with her new party, Frieren is frequently asked by the other characters or shown by the narrative to have certain “strange” matters of behavior, which we often see have roots in her ten years of travel with Himmel, Heiter, and Eisen.
What Himmel Means to the World
Himmel is frequently shown as an overcompassionate and ever-caring character, yet these traits never come to his detriment. In flashbacks, he is often seen being thanked for some heroic deed done to save a town from a demon or even help deliver mail. These little nods to Himmel as a character begin to paint a clearer picture of who led the party that saved the world. Himmel is often portrayed as boisterous and, in Friern’s eyes, even full of himself, often asking or accepting offers made to him by townsfolk, the group saved to make statues of him. The first episode is our first and last time seeing Himmel in the current span of Frieren’s narrative; every other instance of the hero on screen is either a statue or a memory. For Himmel to haunt the narrative is a romantic thing; his haunting is heroic and full of lived life and love left behind. Memories of him fill the world of Frieren with hope and inspire new adventurers, as we see many of the people Frieren meets on her current journey have begun working towards heroics because of the stories and deeds of hero and the party of heroes.
Himmel exists significantly for the narrative and the world of Frieren at large because he was a catalyst and a powerful force in getting the world to become one of peace. Himmel assembled the party of heroes, and in the eyes of the world, was a “chosen” hero who was fated to face down the Demon King. Whether this is true or not is not necessary to the narrative or the world at large; what is necessary is that along his way, Himmel perpetuated kindness to a world that so badly needed it and has left his mark as a hero who will be immortalized through statues and stories of admiration.
What Himmel Means to Frieren
On the other end of Himmel’s impact is Frieren, an elf who appears to have stood still in time as Himmel marched towards his inevitable death. Expressed throughout the first season, ten years for an elf is barely any time at all, yet for Himmel and the other companions, the ten years they all spent traveling together were a large portion of their lives. Given that Frieren felt this amount of time and travel was something of a short period, she frequently appeared disinterested and distant from her companions, yet as the current timeline moves forward, we see that the elf has had a nearly immeasurable impact made upon her by the other heroes, and especially Himmel.
Frieren has become the carrier of the heroes’ stories. Similarly, to how the world has enshrined her old party members, Frieren immortalizes them, but not with fables and statues, but with her memories of their mundane and simple moments together. Frieren is a being separated from the march of civilization, as much of the way the world changes is rapid to her, and in that she, like the world, is an immortal construct that will keep changing, but both things will maintain the importance of Himmel as he continues to haunt them through memories of love and heroism. Frieren cries at Himmel’s grave upon realizing she should have gotten to know him better, yet as the story progresses, Himmel continually appears in flashbacks and through many of Frieren’s mannerisms, showing that Frieren knew Himmel far more than she has given herself credit for.
You can stream Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End on Crunchyroll and Netflix.
