As a nerd that grew up in the late 90’s, it’s nearly a guarantee that I’d eventually come to fall in love with series like Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Avatar the Last Airbender, etc. And for good reason. These series all depict tales of great adventure between comrades that embark on perilous journeys to save their land while ridding the world of evil. There’s something for everyone to enjoy, and of course who doesn’t love seeing a hero overcome evil?
Yet these tales often end exactly the same way. The heroes win, they go home, and life carries on in harmony. Their epic adventure has come to a close, but lives on as legend for future generations to come. Our heroes would then eventually pass away, leaving an opening for the next generation to have it’s own heroes and legends, and a new story begins.
But what would happen if I told you that one of our heroes, after the battle is won and glory is earned, never grew old? What would happen if life continued onward for a single champion, living normally and never aging a day, while their comrades in arms slowly grew older and eventually met their end in old age? And what would this lone hero do if they, now 30 years after their friends had passed away, were asked to embark on an entirely new journey following the footsteps of their now legendary quest?
You might say that nobody asked for that story and that’s impossible. I can’t really argue there. But if that happens to catch your attention, even just a little bit, then look no further than Frieren.
This manga seeks to answer this exact series of questions. After having already lived a full human lifetime, fighting evil with a legendary hero party on par with the likes of the Lord of the Rings, we meet our main character, Frieren. Plainly put, Frieren is a aloof teenage-looking elf mage, who we learn is from a race of elves that can live thousands of human lifetimes. Now living in the aftermath of having saved the world, thirty years have passed since the death of her best friend and leader of her former party of heroes. In this magical world of demons, spells and curses, Frieren finds herself on a mission to celebrate the fond memories she carries of her past friends while also finding ways to occupy her seemingly endless lifetime through new adventures. There’s a hint of a new evil emerging, and Frieren is tasked to look into it. To Frieren, it’s like her original journey is starting all over again.
From here the manga carries on like most adventure stories, with Frieren finding companions along the way, running into new enemies and monsters, helping local towns with their problems, etc. And in this regard, this manga is not entirely that unique or special. Sure, these are fun ways of showing her growth and the gang’s adventures, but none of that is really the point of this manga. Instead, what really stands out in this manga is the unique way Frieren and her new band of friends grow and interact with each other as they learn more about each other.
To give an example, one of Frieren’s hobbies as a mage is to collect simple, seemingly meaningless or sometimes marginally useful magic to add to her grimoire. This can range from spells to grow flowers, magic to clean statues made of bronze, or a charm to make paper airplanes fly really far. It’s all fairly useless magic for combat, and to someone looking to conquer demons it almost doesn’t make sense. Especially knowing that she’s doing favors like slaying dragons or doing heavy physical labor to earn these trivial spells. Yet, when you take a step back to view this from Frieren’s perspective, it starts to slowly make sense when you consider how many lifetimes she’s lived and how many are yet to come. These trivial bits of magic can add up over the years to enrich her life, and sometimes even come of use during her many adventures. It’s in these small moments we start to understand Frieren and her unique situation, and what ultimately makes this manga so special.
But beyond all the magic and fighting, the real story behind all of this is the unique journey Frieren has to embark on that in many ways parallels and even builds on top of the past adventure she’s completed. Frieren is frequently peppered with flashbacks to her previous time with the original hero party while they visit many of the same towns and landmarks they did many years ago, and this often has Frieren missing her old friends and the times they had. Yet, as time carries on, Frieren is able to use those memories to help her new adventure group start their own legend. It’s in this special relationship between her newfound friends and her connection to the hero party of the past that truly makes this manga exceptional, and gives this manga a fresh feeling spin on a classic adventure story.
Of course, it certainly helps to have extremely relatable characters. Despite being thousands of years old, Frieren acts just like an average teenage girl, and is depicted as such. Consequently, she sleeps late into the afternoon, she’s somewhat socially awkward, and obsesses herself with shopping, much like any teenage girl. It’s things like this that help make this manga feel more like a slice of life story at times, with many of the chapter by chapter troubles resulting from something like a birthday gift gone awry or one of the crew members not being so kind to another. Instead of feeling like this is an adventure story, it often just seems like a day in the life of some teenage kids figuring out how to live adult life together. But then the manga introduces a new enemy, and everything goes right back to the classic manga fighting story we all know and love. It’s this careful balance between the two extremes of fighting and slow, day to day life filled with sly little bits of comedy or friendly banter that helps this feel like an adventure you’re actually along with for the ride.
Again I want to be clear, this story is not all that unique on its own. The spells and magic used are undoubtedly flashy, but not too much different from anything seen in Black Clover or even Harry Potter. The adventure and foes fought are intimidating, but nothing that compares to the ones shown in Naruto or Bleach. And all the friends found along the way are undoubtedly admirable, but nothing like the comrads we meet and grow to love in Lord of the Rings or Avatar. None of this story can claim to be better than any of those, in my opinion. And yet despite all of this, I found myself deeply enjoying every chapter of this manga. I believe the reason for that is not in the actual story itself, but in how you grow and learn with the characters as they traverse their own personal struggles on this journey. It’s just enough of a spin on one of my favorite types of adventure that I can’t help but be sucked into every page, regardless of what is happening.
So with that all said, I rate this manga a solid 8/10. There’s something for everyone who loves adventure to enjoy in this manga, and it surpassed many of my expectations going in. The only negative spin I can put on this is the fact that it’s not a completed manga, so we’ll have to wait to see what the future brings to determine if the story can continue to deliver on the same level. Still, this is one of the cheeriest manga I’ve read in a long time. I found myself smiling and laughing more than a few times while reading this, and was a fantastic break from the more serious manga tend to gravitate towards. If you’re looking for a fun, wholesome, and hopeful journey full of magic and wonder, Frieren is your girl.
Ps. There’s a highly rated anime available of Frieren as well that I’ve heard all sorts of great things about, and might be worth checking out if you like anime. I personally haven’t watched it yet; I’m catching up on my reading at the moment. But in any case it’s on my list to watch, and just thought I’d mention it.
As always, thanks for reading. Rock on, stay strong.