The Anime Guidebook to a Better Life

How Frieren Teaches The Value of Connection

Credit: VIZ

Frieren’s story of a long-lived elven mage and her group of friends is very D&D coded; there’s magic, dragons, warriors, and your typical fantasy Big Bad: the Demon King. But in episode one we find out the Demon King is already dead — our heroes are trying to figure out what happens afterward.

When we first meet Frieren and her party at the end of their quest she doesn’t see the point of getting involved with people too deeply. To her human lives pass in an instant—she even makes a point of commenting on how quickly they die. Their job done and the world saved, Frieren bids her party farewell and goes back to her solitary, nomadic life. After all, it’s easier to travel that way.

Fifty years pass.

Frieren drops by to see her old friend Himmel the Hero. Now a frail old man, he’s still strong enough for one last journey to see the same meteor shower they watched five decades prior. Shortly afterward he dies, happy that he got one final adventure with his friends.