This week’s Frieren starts out in media res as a well-dressed gentleman tells the titular elf how his lively best friend once invited him to go adventuring with him, but he turned him down and remained in his village, and you can tell there’s some regret there.
When Frieren asks what we also want to know—why he’s telling her this—we cut to a wider shot with perfect comic timing, to see that he’s slowly sinking into a bog, and needs some assistance. Frieren hesitates … because the man’s hand is dirty.
When Fern sees the man, named Sein, Frieren finally pulls him out of the bog. They see him to his village where he invites them to come enjoy their upcoming harvest festival, but the party is trying to reach a larger town for resupply.
He wishes them well and bids they take extra care, for the woods are full of venomous animals. No sooner do they part ways thank Stark is bitten by a snake and starts bleeding profusely from the nose. Frieren is no priest, but the bigger town is too far, so they fly back to the village, where the priest tells them Stark’s affliction is incurable.
That is, at least to this priest. His brother, who happens to be Sein, and comes in to ask why their tub is so small (such a surreal, random joke), is another story. In less than three seconds, he heals Stark of the seemingly incurable poison completely.
Sein’s older brother tells Frieren & Co. what’s already evident: Sein is a genius when it comes to healing magic. Stark believes he’d make a fine addition to their party and Fern tends to agree, but Frieren is hesitant, saying she has an “aversion” to “her own kind.”
Now, as Sein is neither a woman, nor an elf, nor a mage like Frieren, I wondered what she mean by “same kind.” Then Stark heads down to the bar, gambles with Sein and the village chief, the chief takes the shirts off both their backs (appalling Fern), and I got the full picture.
Frieren sees Sein as she once was: someone who was frozen in place and felt it too late to start adventuring. She even felt she had forgotten how to fight demons. But Himmel gave her the push she needed with five simple words: “I’m talking about the present.”
Sein may be a drinking, smoking, gambling priest, but Frieren still wants to give him the push Himmel gave her. Fern’s pleasant and assured tone when she tells Frieren that alcohol is the best medicine (echoing her guardian Heiter’s twisted philosophy) is a delight to behold.
Persuading Sein to give up his easy, comfy life to realize a long-abandoned dream proves difficult, even with Frieren, Fern, and Stark putting on a full-court press of a charm campaign. Eventually they ask his brother what he likes besides booze, cigarettes, and cards.
The fourth thing he likes is older women. When Frieren proudly presents herself to him as a much, much, much older woman, Sein is not moved, not doubt due to her, er, modest proportions. Then she whips out her surefire seduction technique: a blown kiss.
While this scandalizes the reliably chaste Fern and Stark, Sein is again entirely unmoved, and Frieren calling him “sonny” doesn’t move the needle either. She is puzzled by this, because it worked perfectly on Himmel back in the day (as he was clearly far more susceptible to her elven wiles).
When they mention his friend he regretted not adventuring with, Sein tells them he must be dead, having been gone ten years when he said he’d be back in three. He also remembers Heiter telling his brother he could serve in the holy capital and take Sein with him, but his brother didn’t want to uproot him.
After slapping Sein for the first time ever, his brother makes clear he made no sacrifice to stay in the village. That’s where he wanted to be, and he doesn’t regret it. It’s Sein who still regrets the choice to stay put, and his brother can’t bear to watch him regret it any longer. Again Frieren tells him, this is the present.
That evening, Sein visits Frieren, Fern, and Stark, by the river, and tells them he intends to accompany them on their adventures, if only until he finds his friend, who he no longer assumes to be dead. And just like that, the party grows to four, just like the one that defeated the Demon King.
I’ll go out on a limb and say this was probably the goofiest and most lightweight episodes of Frieren, but that doesn’t mean it was bad. I’ve always liked the gentle but often clever comedy that’s been dusted throughout the show, and this episode provided the most laughs to date, making for a nice change of pace: less of a sober funeral, more of a cheerful wake.
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