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Frieren: Beyond Journey's End Manga Gets Novel Adaptation

The prequel novel is a collection of five short stories that are not included in the manga's story featuring Frieren, Fern, Stark, Lawine and Kanne, and Aura. The novel depicts Frieren before she goes on a journey to "get to know people." Yamada is supervising the novel.

Yamada and Abe launched the ongoing manga in Shogakukan's Weekly Shonen Sunday magazine in April 2020. The series was previously on hiatus and returned to serialization in March 2023. Shogakukan published the manga's first compiled book volume in August 2020, and it will release the 13th volume on April 17. Viz Media publishes the manga and released the 10th volume in English on February 20. The manga has added 7 million copies to circulation since the debut of the anime. The manga now has over 17 million copies in circulation.

The manga has won several awards, including the New Creator Prize for the 25th Annual Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2021 and the 14th Manga Taisho Award in 2021. In addition, the manga was nominated for Best Shōnen Manga for Kodansha's 45th annual Manga Awards in 2021 and the 46th awards in May 2022. The American Library Association's Graphic Novels & Comics Round Table (GNCRT) included the manga in its top 10 list of 2022 Best Graphic Novels for Adults Reading List.

The Frieren: Beyond Journey's End anime premiered with a two-hour special on September 29. It is the first ever television anime series to premiere in NTV's "Kinyō Roadshow," a Friday evening programming block usually reserved for feature films. The anime then started airing later episodes on October 6 at 11:00 p.m. JST in NTV's new anime timeslot, "FRIDAY ANIME NIGHT." The anime will run for two consecutive cours until March. Crunchyroll is streaming the anime as it airs, and it is also streaming an English dub.

The anime's "First Class Mage Exam" arc started with its 17th episode on January 5, and marked the start of the show's second cours (quarter of a year).

Source: Shogakukan