Episode 9 Rating: A-
Episode 10 Rating: B+
After the conclusion of the Divine Revolte arc, the series returns to its earlier pattern of half-episode vignettes to close out the season, resulting in a remarkably undramatic conclusion to the season which feels more like a break in the adventures than an actual stopping point. Even so, it does drop some hints about a potential bigger story that is upcoming.
Those hints, interestingly, focus on Denken, who appears at the beginning of episode 9 and then again at the end of episode 10. While it initially appeared that he may have been heading for the grave he long sought, the message he was looking at in episode 9 now appears like it may have instead been a missive from Serie, and his destination is the quarantined area known as the Golden Land. This may be connected to the passing reference Revolte made a few episodes back about a demon who studied humans, but if so, why is Denken the one being sent there, apparently to maintain a barrier around the region? And another very brief flash in episode 9, connected to the end of episode 10, indicates that Frieren has encountered that individual herself. Looks like we’ll have to find out next season, which has been confirmed to be coming in the fall of ’27.
The main focus of episode 9 is instead on two smaller adventures that Frieren’s trio takes on, both of which are very typical RPG-styled quests. The first, where they exterminate a flock of small dragons which has attacked a village, may seem random at first, but it does provide both the episode’s requisite action dose and the set-up for the second vignette, as it shows where Himmel got the notebook that he came to use as a memoir. The second involves them getting through a barrier protecting a collapsed monastery to recover that notebook, now known as “Himmel’s memoir.” That the memoir is just an account of minutiae from a “silly journey” is utterly beside the point; being written by the revered hero himself makes this priceless. That the contents of the journal were shown to us from Himmel’s perspective was a neat touch, and isn’t it curious that that viewpoint always eventually settled on Frieren?
Episode 9 also brings up one other key point, one that just bolsters Himmel further as a genuine hero in heart as well as action. We’ve seen examples of that before, but here the rationale takes a different angle: why Himmel always insisted on some kind of payment for what he does. In Himmel’s view, charity can leave a person feeling indebted even if the person offering it doesn’t intend it that way, and that’s not what he wants at all. Receiving a payment, even if it’s just a grimoire with a “worthless” spell, means that the payer is less likely to feel indebted. “If we make people indebted to us, we haven’t really helped them,” Himmel says in very biblical fashion. This is far from the first time Himmel has been shown being very conscious of how people might react to him and the example he’s setting.
Episode 10 also offers its requisite battle scenes; two of them, in fact, with both the vignette about the bridge threatened by bird monsters and a crystal field plagued by a giant wolf-like monster providing some degree of challenge for the trio. These battles are designed well: they move at a swift pace, show off the series’ animation chops, and are varied enough that they don’t get dull or fully predictable. The connects to the past aren’t neglected, either, with one involving yet another dwarf whom Frieren encountered with the hero’s party and the other involving a scenic vista which helped inspire the party to push on against the demon king. Neither of these scenarios packs the emotion that the vignette involving Himmel’s memoir does, and frankly, they feel ordinary by series standards, but that still makes them more interesting than most other fantasy series out there.
Neither episode misses its chances for bits of humor, either, or is short on little details in backgrounds. For instance, in one flashback in episode 9, Eisen is shown doing a one-handed handstand to kill time, and in both episodes 9 and 10 Stark can be seen doing the same (either to kill time or entertain kids) if you watch closely. I also loved little details like how Frieren just casually fires off magical attacks while Stark is holding her to keep her from being blown away by the bird monsters, how Fern can be seen fist-pumping over the prospect of getting a grimoire for a spell that produces perfect pancakes, or how Stark in one scene is using Kraft’s “keep warm” exercise. I deeply respect that the series has enough confidence in the viewer to include things like these without highlighting them.
In all, this much shorter second season doesn’t carry quite the impact that its first season does, but that’s also making a comparison against one of the best pure fantasy series anime has ever seen. It’s still very solid entertainment which boasts far higher than average technical merits and musical support, both an OP and an ED which will likely be counted among the year’s best in both categories, and the mix of action, humor, and wistful sentimentality which helped make the first season so great.
USA Anime 