Frieren doesn’t mince words when it comes to Fern’s development: she has control over mana, which is the hardest of three things a mage needs. Unfortunately, Fern lacks sufficient mana itself, and the necessary strength to use it. She can gain both, but it will take years.
We watch those years—four of them, to be exact—unfold in a sequence of beautiful little slice-of-life scenes. Meals are shared, different seasons are enjoyed, magic training and long hours of study in the library take place.
After four years, Heiter has a fall, and is no longer able to walk. Fern has improved, but still can’t hit the rock across the gorge. She’s been patient with herself as Frieren advised, but “eventually” being able to blast the rock isn’t good enough for her; not when Heiter has so little time left. She wants him to be glad he saved her, and to know she’ll be alright without him.
While sitting by Heiter’s bedside, Frieren asks why the “Corrupt Priest”, as is her nickname for him, chose to take Fern in. Turns out he happened to be having a drink atop a high cliff when a lil’ Fern, who had lost her family, was considering jumping. He convinced her not to because it’s what his good friend Himmel the Hero would have done, were he still alive.
He told Fern it would be a shame to die, because all of her precious memories of those she loved would vanish from the world. But once the grimoire is deciphered and Frieren reports that it contained no immortality or resurrection spells, he says that’s fine. What matters is that Fern is now a true mage, and thus won’t be in Frieren’s way.
Heiter wants to spare Fern the pain of watching someone else taken from her, so he wants Frieren to take her and leave before he dies. This makes Frieren (and me) tear up (for the second episode in a row). Heiter’s heart is in the right place, but he’s wrong: Fern wants to say goodbye to him properly. Before that, she makes sure Fern has some time with Heiter to make a few more little memories before the end.
Frieren then take Fern with her on her aimless journey through the world in search of spells. Fern learns these spells are very specialized and random, but it’s Frieren’s hobby, so that’s what they do. Frieren also makes clear that the bulk of “adventuring” is doing odd jobs for people who can’t do them easily themselves. They do this…for 26 years.
This brings them to a small village where an old lady shows them a tarnished and weathered statue of Himmel the Hero. In a stirring, emotional flashback that lasts only a few moments, we travel all the way back to when this grizzled woman was just a frightened little flower girl in the path of a demon…until Himmel saved her.
The statue got the way it was in part because no one in the village other than her even remembers Himmel. Add up all the years from the titles used since Frieren’s party saved the world and it comes to 100 years (50 years after victory, 20 years after Himmel’s death, four years training Fern, and 26 years of traveling). The world is short of humans who were alive when the Demon King was around.
When the statue is repaired and cleaned, the old woman mentions that she’d like to give it some more color, perhaps by planting some flowers around it. When Fern notes that Frieren has a spell to conjure flowers, Frieren says the only flowers that will do are Blue Moon Weed flowers, which grew in Himmel’s hometown.
The only problem is, the old lady, an herbalist, says the weed has all but died out where they are. Nevertheless, Frieren is determined to find it so she can analyze it and make a spell to conjure it. Six months of searching pass without any progress. Fern grows concerned Frieren’s obsession will go on indefinitely owing to her elven perception of time.
She shares her concerns with the herbalist, who gives Fern some seeds from a very similar blue flower and urges her to tell Frieren how she feels. Frieren is receptive, and doesn’t want to take up too much more of Fern’s comparatively short life on the search, so she’ll end it “soon,” whatever that means!
Fern then asks Frieren why she loves collecting spells so much. Frieren insists it’s just a hobby, but also notes that she once lived a much more “apathetic” existence before she met and joined Himmel. Like Heiter, being with Himmel changed her. We flash back to the days of yore when Frieren filled a field with flowers, Himmel made her a pretty crown to wear, and told her his wish to one day show her the Blue Moon blooms of his home.
During their conversation, Fern’s seeds were stolen away by a seed rat. The two follow its tracks (another spell), which lead to an old abandoned stone tower. A single blue petal falls, and leads Frieren to magically launch herself up to the top of the tower, which is absolutely covered in the blue flowers she’s been looking for.
Frieren smiles, because she was finally able to see the flowers Himmel wanted to show her. Later than she’d like, but still. She whips up a conjuring spell, surrounds Himmel’s statue with them, and even makes a crown of them for him, just as he once made one for her. His little gesture, and many others like it on their travels, awakened a joie de vivre Frieren didn’t have before.
By the same token, Frieren takes exception to Fern saying the two of them are far apart when it comes to being passionate about magic. Yes, Fern may have been able to choose something other than magic in order to show Heiter (and herself) that she could support herself later in life.
But, and this is the important part: she did choose magic. And in one of the most heart-swelling cutaways of the episode, we see that she did it for largely the same reason as Frieren: because there’s great beauty in magic, and beauty in the faces of those watching you use it, especially if they’re people you care about.
I’m only halfway through the four-episode opening salvo of Frieren, but I’m already pretty confident this is a top contender for Anime of the Season, if not the year. It’s just so well made, so bittersweet and nostalgic. It’s like wearing a warm blanket and holding a mug of cocoa by the fire. It’s the kind of show that reminds me why I keep watching anime.
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