Title: Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Vol. 5
Author: Kanehito Yamada (Story), Tsukasa Abe (Art)
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 192
Genre: Shojo, Romance
Publication Date: July 19, 2022
The Story
Volume 5 takes us into the first round of the magic exam which will determine who is worthy of receiving the title of First-Class Mage. The first round is simple in nature but not so simple to execute. There is a special kind of bird called a Stille that inhabits the area where they are taking the exam in. They need to capture it and put it in a cage and remain with their party members until the time limit expires. Any team without a Stille in a cage and/or missing any of their party members loses and will be eliminated from taking the exam any further.
What makes this test hard are two things… The first is the Stille itself. It’s a special kind of bird that cannot be detected by magic and is extremely sensitive to magic. This means sneaking up on one as a mage is nearly impossible. Also, they can fly faster than the speed of sound and their toughness allows them to break most bonds. The second is other parties engaging in combat to try and steal your Stille.
Frieren and her teammates Kanne and Lawine set off to accomplish the impossible.
Kanne and Lawine love to argue but exhibit amazing teamwork. Eventually, they capture a Stille; however, they are ambushed by another group who is looking to take it for themselves. This is when we are introduced to Denken, Laufen, and Richter. Denken is an old imperial mage and has his reasons for obtaining the title; however, he wants to do it in the most peaceful means possible… to an extent. He orders Richter to hold Kanne and Lawine at bay so he can battle Frieren, despite knowing exactly who she is.
Upon the end of the battle, all that is left is to wait out the remaining time. Once the participants are sorted out and the winners declared, it’s time to move on to the second round of the tournament which will take place in the next volume!
Characters
Character-wise, there is a LOT to unpack in this volume.
First off, we learn about who organized the tournament and the magic council. It’s an elf named Serie. She’s also very important because she had a certain apprentice named Flammie who, in turn, as we all know, had an apprentice named Frieren. Serie is a walking grimoire who knows nearly every spell ever written and those who become a first-class mage get to have her bestow any spell they want to them by Serie herself.
In addition, we get a bit of backstory on Kanne and Lawine. In addition to growing up together, they can’t stand each other. Kanne is the type of person who always needs positive reinforcement to move forward while Lawine is rather blunt with her words. Kanne has the ability to manipulate water but it has to be water that already exists. In the rain, she is nearly unbeatable but otherwise, she needs a lot of prep work to be effective so Lawine usually acts as her counterpart to help her out, usually by using defensive magic or combining magic for joint attacks. Despite constant bickering, they really are inseparable.
In addition to being an imperial mage, Denken is old school in the sense that he believes that there is nothing greater than the pursuit of magic. He has no interest in being given a spell when he receives his title. Instead, there is a town where his deceased relatives are buried but only first-class mages are allowed to enter. He simply wants the title so he can visit their graves and pay his respects. This means he will go through some nefarious means (within reason) to achieve his goals. Even when he runs out of mana, he pushes forward on grit alone. Denken has earned my respect!
We also catch up with Fern’s group. We get to see her in combat, too. She used a lot of tricks that Frieren has taught her and wins her battles through sheer force while only using basic magic skills and attacks. She has grown so much!
Final Thoughts
For a tournament, this was quite a meaty volume when it came to dialogue. There was just SO much information here… whether it pertained to character backstories, information about the tournament, lore, etc. I personally think a bit too much was said as a lot of dialogue could have been cut to make this a more comfortable read but what was said was pretty interesting.
The first round was kind of interesting. Even though the objective was to capture a bird and remain a full party, the fights simply showed the greed of men. Rather than put in the work, they’d rather take shortcuts in order to gain the upper hand and succeed. There are a lot of lessons to be learned here from just that simple fact. Considering how most groups who sought to take the shortcut ended up getting beat, that in and of itself should serve as the lesson here.
Sense, the second proctor of the exams, is known to take a pacifist route and since it’s her turn to come up with the test for the second round, I’m expecting a more relaxed volume next time but my assumption is that’s exactly what they want us to think. We’ll see when Vol. 6 rolls around!
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This item was provided for review by VIZ Media
