Frieren: Beyond Journey's End

Episode 20

One of the best aspects of this arc—and this episode in particular—is introducing us to mages outside of our anti-social pair and the psychopathic demons they've been battling against. On one hand, we have those like Lawine and Kanne who seem like a pair of relatively normal (if immature) girls. On the other, we have a stoic older man in Denken and a battle-hardened commander in Wirbel.

As a part of developing the expanded cast of mages, we learn the reasons behind why many of them are taking the exam. While Frieren and Fern are doing so simply to get the permission they need to continue their journey, the other mages have different reasons for aiming for the title. Some seem to be doing it for fame and power. Others are doing it for the “special privilege”—being taught any spell of their choosing by the immortal elf who runs the magic association. And then there's Übel who seems to be using the exam as nothing more than an excuse to get her murder on.

Of course, Übel is far from the only one of the mages willing to kill the others taking the test. While she is the most bloodthirsty, all the mages seem to have realized the easiest way to pass the test is to wait for another team to expend most of their energy to capture a bird and then kill one of their members. This would leave the rival team unable to pass the test (as all members need to be alive) and likewise make their captured bird meaningless—allowing the winning team to get a bird and eliminate a group of rivals at the same time.

This splits the mages into several groups. Frieren, Fern, and Denken are unwilling to kill anyone regardless of whether they pass the test or not. Then there are those like Wirbel who are willing to kill only if needed. Lastly, we have those like Richter who are eager to kill the other examinees simply because it's the best strategic move.

This philosophical difference allows for both intra-team conflict and inter-team conflict. For the former, Richter is unable to simply kill Lawine and Kanne like he wants because doing so would anger Denken (who could simply choose to quit the exam in protest and make Richter fail as well). For the latter, Fern uses her enemy's willing-to-kill mindset against him. She claims to have killed Ehre—tricking Wirbel into giving up on trying to kill Übel and steal her team's bird.

All in all, this episode does a good job of letting us get to know the other members of the test and their ways of thinking. And now with Fern and her team safe and Wirbel's team getting their bird, all that's left is to resolve our two final duels: Denken versus Frieren and Richter versus Lawine and Kanne.

Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• As always, the fight scenes look great in this episode.

• Fern defeats the supposedly stronger Ehre by fighting her the same way she would a demon. She tricks Ehre into fighting head-on—allowing Fern to use her hidden mana reserves to force Ehre into a battle of attrition she was not prepared for.

• Clone magic is one hell of a trump card. I wonder how much mana it takes to cast, how much mana each clone has to use, and how long a clone can be maintained.

• Last week, I said I was happy about the subtle foreshadowing of how this part of the story would end but in this episode, they beat us over the head with it.

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.