Title: Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Vol. 2
Author: Kanehito Yamada (Story), Tsukasa Abe (Art)
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 200
Genre: Shojo, Romance
Publication Date: January 11, 2022
The Story
The journey to Ende has begun where Frieren hopes to speak with the spirits of her friends one last time. After the way the last volume ended, I expected them to skip right to it; however, we are treated to the entirety of the journey instead! Fran and Frieren are taken only so far by Eisen. He instructs her to stop by a town and pick up his apprentice, a warrior named Stark.
When they arrive at the town, they spot a high-level solar dragon guarding a nest with a grimoire in the center of it. It is said that dragons use objects with great magic power in order to build their nests. They try to shoot it but it just pissed the dragon off so they ran. Back in town, they end up meeting Stark the Hero. He only gained the title because the same dragon once attacked the town and he stood up to it… or I should say… he stood in front of it shaking in fear, unable to move. The dragon must have thought that he wasn’t worth his time and left.
Come to find out, after that day, Stark trained very hard so that he could live up to the title of Hero. They confront the dragon and take the grimoire which gives Frieren the ability to see through clothes! Stark’s dangly bits are, apparently, quite small.
They continue on to the next town but reach a checkpoint but are not allowed to pass. We learn that one of the demons, Aura, had lived and is amassing an army in the Northernlands. After a bit of a misunderstanding, they are allowed to pass where they make their way to the next town. A group of demon envoys are there to negotiate peace; however, Frieren suspects something… and gets thrown into prison for attempting to disrupt peace talks. There, she has an assassination attempt on her which she overcomes and decides that the town isn’t worth her time. She needs to bite the head off the snake before it can attack and our volume ends with Frieren meeting up with her old nemesis Aura!
Characters
Our new character Stark is pretty cool. He goes through a pretty quick development cycle ranging from a scared kid who doesn’t want to fight to finding the courage to actually do battle. While he still shakes from time to time, even his master Eisen was scared to fight. Claiming that fear carried him so far during life, Stark used that fear to propel him forward much as Eisen did. He’s starting to develop into a nice new addition to the main cast.
The other character they focused on was Aura. They showed her as a small demon child. Apparently, she killed the daughter of some family and was about to be killed when Himmel refused to kill her. The mayor of the city decided to spare her. Attempting to raise Aura, the mayor was turned on and killed. She then offered the mayor’s daughter to replace the girl she killed; however, by that time, it was too late. Himmel and Frieren ended up wounding her but she ended up surviving. Now, she’s all grown up and ready to kill.
Through this backstory, we learn that demons don’t speak English nor can they comprehend human values. They only use words as a tool to deceive humans!
Final Thoughts
One of the things I like is that Frieren’s party is being comprised of Heiter and Eisen’s apprentices. This seems like a “second generation” party more than anything. The only thing is… I don’t know if Himmel had any apprentices and, if he did, how they would seek them out for their fourth? Maybe they don’t need a fourth? Right now, things seem to be pretty capable with just the three of them but they could stand to pick a healer. Maybe they will and they will be the odd person out who has no ties to Himmel?
The journey to Ende is going to take a while. Eisen stated that it was a ten-year journey which means by the time they get there and back, twenty years would have passed. I’m fully expecting Eisen to be dead by the time they come back. Fran and Stark might not carry on much longer after that, either. I’m beginning to think that reaching the palace and recommunicating with the dead will be the end goal of this series. Then again, I could be wrong.
So far, it’s been a great read and I’m looking forward to where this story takes us!
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