Title: Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Vol. 13
Author: Kanehito Yamada (Story), Tsukasa Abe (Art)
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 192
Genre: Fantasy
Publication Date: May 13, 2025
The Story
Back in time, Frieren, Himmel, Eisen, and Heiter encounter two greater demons. Himmel and Frieren are placed under hypnosis; however, Heiter used a spell to protect himself and Eisen who attacks. Meanwhile, Himmel realizes that he’s in a fabricated world and somehow is able to fight in the real world just uses his senses! He’s able to break the hypnosis spell and that allows Frieren to head to the monument and go back to her present time.
From here, we get side adventure after side adventure for the majority of the volume. They continue to travel from town to town until they stop at a place where a man named Vadaal is the mayor. He seems friendly enough until he attempts to kill Frieren! We learn about the empire’s shadow warriors and how he and his group were stationed at that town until they were able to kill everyone on a list that the empire deemed a threat. After an entire lifetime in that village, Frieren, the last person on the list, suddenly showed up!
After that, we join some old friends in Land and Ubel. They are on a mission, and despite Land’s apprehension about working with her, Ubel drags him along anyway. We then join Frieren and gang as they, too, were summoned (more specifically, Fern was summoned). The mission is to act as Serie’s bodyguards because there has been word that someone is attempting to assassinate her, and the assassination attempt will take place at an upcoming ball. The previous adventure involving Vadaal and the shadow warriors was important because we soon learn that one of them is the one targeting Serie!
Characters
I wouldn’t say that there was any significant development with our main characters; however, there was a sweet moment that saw Stark forget it was his birthday, but Fern was determined to give him a gift. This furthered the Stark x Fern ship a bit more even if nothing concrete happened.
For being a temporary character, Vadaal received quite a lot of development and backstory. We learned about the empire’s shadow warriors and how they were created to be a fearsome and elite fighting force, carrying out some of the empire’s top-ranked missions. While it wasn’t explicitly stated why there was a hit list and why the shadow warriors needed to assassinate everyone on the list, it was implied that the empire deemed them as threats to the land. Vadaal only pretended to be part of a family because that was the cover story he and the other shadow warriors used when they were stationed in that village; however, over time, the ruse became real. One by one, they passed away, and Vadaal was the only one that remained. Despite being a ruthless warrior, he was very kind and gentle, treating the villagers with respect and was always willing to lend a helping hand. That’s how he rose to the position of mayor. To me, he was just a warrior sworn by duty, but after decades of being stationed in one spot, that sense of duty faded until it was truly needed. He learned what it was like to love life and those around him. A pretty diverse character for someone being used for a chapter or two.
Ubel is still our favorite tomboy mage, while Land still prefers to keep his distance from just about anyone and anything. Land flat-out turned down the job offer, but we all know our favorite girl wasn’t going to just let him pack his suitcase and run away so easily! Good to see that Land still prefers to work in the shadows and avoid confrontation. He and Ubel mix like oil and water; however, it is that dynamic that makes their pairing work so well!
Final Thoughts
This was a transitional volume through and through. We wrapped up the little time-traveling arc, went on some one-off adventures all for a piece of scrap paper and a haunted vase, and then we started off with some backstory on the shadow warriors, which led right into our next arc. Unless something happens during this assassination attempt that causes us to dig deeper, I can’t see this being a long-running arc like the magic exams or the golden village arcs. I wouldn’t be surprised if this one gets wrapped up in the next volume, as it seems as if we just need to stop an assassination attempt and find out why.
The reason why could lead us further down the proverbial rabbit hole; however, this doesn’t feel as if it has the same setup as the previous, longer-running arcs. It’s just a feeling that I have, but hey… who knows? I could be wrong, and this could end up spanning multiple volumes as we dig into the world’s greatest conspiracies or something. Anything to keep Frieren from reaching the northern lands so she can connect with the souls of her party members despite the fact that she was just with them in the past at the beginning of this volume! (Yes, I’m never going to let that plot hole go!)
If anything, it looks like Serie’s assassination attempt is going to happen in the next volume, so we can expect some action, and hopefully, a reason to dive deeper into the reasons behind why Serie’s name is on “the list.” (1,000 points if you get this reference, but I kind of want to click a pen every time someone mentions “the list.”)
You can also check out other The Outerhaven reviews on your favorite social media networks:
Subscribe to us on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/theouterhaven.net
Subscribe to us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheOuterHaven
Subscribe to us on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/theouterhavennet
This item was provided for review by VIZ Media
