At this point, it’s no surprise to hear that Netflix has one of the strongest anime catalogs in the world – featuring blockbuster series like Jujutsu Kaisen, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, and the more recent Sakamoto Days, the streaming service also offers a healthy selection of high fantasy anime that have made their way into the mainstream, and seem to be expanding on that niche going into 2025. Netflix Anime recently posted on their X (formerly Twitter) that they would begin streaming the first season of Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End on March 1st. While the show was already a massive success when it debuted in September 2023 with Crunchyroll, being available to Netflix’s global audience will put more eyes on the heart-wrenching fantasy adventure series than ever before.
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Based on the original manga by Kanehito Yamada and Tsukasa Abe, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End opens by introducing the end of the main party’s quest, with the four of them – Eisen, Heiter, Himmel, and the titular Frieren promising to reunite with one another in fifty years to watch the Era Meteors. For Frieren, five decades is nothing, but for her traveling companions, two of which being human, they spend the rest of their lives apart before finally being reunited. Once the festival concludes, Himmel passes away and Frieren begins to mourn her lack of connection despite spending so much time by his side. In her guilt, she visits with her other former party members and takes on a human apprentice raised by Heiter, promising to teach her magic.
[RELATED: Frieren Hypes Season 2 With Big Surprise for Anime Fans]
Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Is a True Modern Classic
Aside from being visually stunning, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is beautifully written, capturing the bittersweet nostalgia carried by the wisened elf as she revisits old places with a new generation of humans by her side. These moments not only give her a chance to reflect on her fond memories of Himmel, but it also allows her a redo of sorts to make every step a bit more meaningful than her previous adventure, and to truly value the memories made with Fern – and later Stark – once they become an official adventuring party. Frieren‘s world-building is also unique thanks to the way it plays into its narrative flow. By using Frieren’s memories of the world and the success of her former adventuring party, she feels better equipped to handle what’s coming their way, and uses that knowledge to more thoroughly analyze what the demons are plotting.
It takes the audience on an extremely intriguing journey, as they are taken on a literal walk down memory lane as Frieren reflects and begins to reevaluate her very complicated and nonchalant worldview now that she has the chance to think about Himmel’s intentions when he was still a young, naive adventurer. It’s a truly phenomenal piece of media that absolutely deserves the recognition it has received since Madhouse’s stunning adaptation was released, and with the manga having well over 24 million copies in circulation, it doesn’t seem like Frieren and Fern’s adventures will come to an end anytime soon.
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Image courtesy of Marvel Studios -
Image Courtesy of Marvel Studios
