Frieren (character)

Frieren
Frieren: Beyond Journey's End character
Frieren as drawn by Tsukasa Abe
First appearance	Frieren #1, "The Journey's End" (2020)
Created by	Kanehito Yamada
Voiced by	Japanese: Atsumi Tanezaki English: Mallorie Rodak
In-universe information
Race	Elf

Frieren (Japanese: フリーレン, Hepburn: Furīren) is the title character and protagonist of the Japanese manga series Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, written by Kanehito Yamada and illustrated by Tsukasa Abe. Frieren is a former member of the party of adventurers who defeated the Demon King and restored harmony to the world after a ten-year quest. Frieren returns to the capital fifty years later; however, humanity has changed, and her former companions have distinctly aged. After one last adventure to see a meteor shower, Himmel dies of old age. During the funeral, Frieren expressed guilt for not attempting to learn more about him. Frieren then pays a visit to her other former comrades. She accepts an offer to teach and care for Fern, an orphaned child adopted by Heiter. She also receives an invitation to travel far north, to the resting place of souls, and see Himmel again to bid the hero a fitting farewell and express her feelings. To fulfill those requests, Frieren embarks on a journey together with Fern while still pursuing her passion for learning magic.

While initially conceptualized as a comical fighter, Yamada scrapped multiple ideas she had for Frieren until deciding to make her an elf who grows in the story while remembering Himmel. In the anime adaptation, she is voiced by Atsumi Tanezaki in Japanese and Mallorie Rodak in English. Critical response to Frieren's character was mostly positive due to how the series focuses on Frieren's view of life and how she aims to become a better person. The further exploration of her dark past was also praised for how it changed people's views of her.

Creation

Frieren was originally envisioned as the protagonist of a comedy manga where she was obsessed with killing demons. In planning the series, editor Katsuma Ogura was impressed with Tsukasa Abe's artwork and suggested him to work with Kanehito Yamada. Yamada was impressed with the first illustration of Frieren, believing the title character had an aura of humanity. When he asked him to draw a character picture for Frieren, Yamada said, "If this is the person, please do it." Abe was put in charge of the animation. After several revisions involving comedy, the author came across with the idea of having an elf with a long lifespan as the main character. Although Himmel dies, his appearances in flashbacks were written to reflect Frieren's emotional growth. When Himmel appears, the author feels that the story tightens up. Even if it is sad, there is a catharsis. For the animated adaptation by Madhouse, Director Keiichiro Saito said that Fern appears to have several changes in the narrative as her growth has a major impact on Frieren.

The song "Yūsha" was sourced from the short story, titled Fanfare for Frieren (奏送, Sōsō), written by Jirō Kiso and supervised by Yamada, telling about protagonist Frieren visiting a small town called "Music City" five years after the death of the hero Himmel. She receives a difficult request from an old woman she meets in a place filled with music. It incorporates the main character Frieren's emotional changes and memories towards the hero Himmel, expressing lonely and melancholy atmosphere of the anime. Originally, the opening theme would focus on the worldview of Frieren's journey, but Ayase and Shuya Yamamoto, a Sony Music Entertainment Japan A&R, were not satisfied due to the song's "little too much emphasis on the atmosphere". So, Ayase decided to rework the song even though he submitted the song to the anime's team.

In the anime adaptation, Frieren is voiced by Atsumi Tanezaki in Japanese. When reading the original work, Tanezaki did not get the impression that Frieren was cute with the exception of her own voice. Because of her age, Tanezaki found it better to pull her lowest tone. When playing Frieren, she wanted to use her voice at my lowest level. So, it might have been different if she had some direction, but Tanezaki did not think of any other approach. Nothing was said at the audition stage, the actress guessed everyone on the production side agreed that this was Frieren which was approved by the staff. During the dubbing, the actors received the direction. Tanezaki had the impression that Frieren in the original work was a little more relaxed, so she acted accordingly. She was given the direction to make the play a little more exciting, and the atmosphere became what it is now. Tanezaki was worried until it was finished, but when she listened to that scene again, she realized that it was fun to spend time with everyone, and was satisfied with her work.

Mallorie Rodak voices Frieren in the English dub. Rodak appreciated voicing Frieren, having liked the character.

Appearances

Frieren is elven mage who was a member of the group that defeated the Demon King. Although she appears to be very young, she was born into a long-lived race of elves and has lived for over a thousand years. Because her sense of time is so dissimilar to that of humans, she has no qualms about working for months, if not years, at a time. After the death of Himmel, a member of her disbanded party, Frieren regretted not knowing him better during their ten-year adventure. As a result, she embarked on another journey to learn more about humanity. She has also traveled with a human wizard apprentice, Fern, since she took her on as an apprentice at Heiter's suggestion. Over a thousand years ago, Frieren was rescued by the great wizard Flamme during a demon attack on her hometown. This harrowing experience instilled in Frieren a deep-seated abhorrence for demons, fueling her ambition to rid the world of their presence. After the Demon King's demise, Frieren dedicated herself to researching demon-slaying magic (人を殺す魔法, Hito o Korosu Mahō) in Japanese, literally translates as "Human Slaying Magic." However, the author intentionally made up the reading as "Zoltraak". It is a form of offensive magic developed by a powerful demon specifically for killing humans. Later, Zoltraak was studied by humanity and eventually incorporated into the foundational magic taught to all modern human mages, where it has been altered into a demon-slaying art. While continuing to kill them whenever she could until the demon race was no longer as threatening as it once was. As the wizard who has buried the most demons in recorded history, she has earned the moniker "Frieren the Slayer" (葬送のフリーレン, Sōsō no Furīren) in Japanese, as the series' title. It could also be translated as "Frieren the Undertaker". and is feared by the demon race. Despite her accomplishments, Frieren has faced her share of defeats and struggles with certain shortcomings. As an elf, she is often perceived as being insensitive to human emotions. Her occasional clumsiness in social interactions leads others to mistakenly label her as aloof, but in reality, Frieren possesses a kind and caring nature.

Reception

Critical response to Frieren was mostly positive. Anime News Network claimed that Frieren's story stands out in among other fantasies due to its focus on her regrets after Himmel's death even if the time spent with him was not much for the elf race. Frieren was compared to the story of Rip Van Winkle as it similarly reflects the changes of times in the eyes of the protagonist which makes him and Frieren highly relatable. The funeral of Himmel changes Frieren's character as she decides to go on a journey to sort out her feelings for the hero. Siliconera commented the manga helps to make readers sympathize with the elf's lifespan as the protagonist looks for a way to make the same regrets she had with Himmel and live a different life. This is highly notable in the episodic nature of the manga where Frieren now lives remembering all the lessons Himmel taught her and applies it to how she meets new people and value them more. Crunchyroll also found Frieren to go through a notable character arc when Himmel dies and starts a new journey taking care of disciple of Heitel and Eisen's disciples, Fern and Stark, respectively, which he compared more to a role-playing game rather than action fantasy. Another aspect of Frieren's new persona in is how she begins to understand how fragiles are humans and starts treasuring them.

GamesRadar+ noticed that unlike other fantasy series focused on fighting, Frieren's lessons focus more on the slice of life genre contrasting other shonen manga in the process. Frieren's face was also compared with Anya Forger from Spy x Family due to their tendencies to make a smug reaction with the former using it when sharing with Fern a potion that removes clothing to use it as Stark's birthday present. Although Frieren never shows interest in sex, the scene became popular in social media for its perverted nature.

Richard Eisenbeis of Anime News Network praised the dynamics between the main characters as Frieren quickly goes through an arc when meeting Fern and Stark as her perspective of time changes as she meets these two teenagers while also building up her backstory with each episode. The further developments of Frieren's journey alongside the growing romance of Fern and Stark was notable to Anime News Network as it helps to give further depth to the protagonist and Himmel's apparent relationship; While it becomes obvious to the audience that Himmel was in love with Frieren, the previous state the elf was in might not reciprocate his feelings, giving a sense of romantic tragedy. Sequential Tart compared Frieren to Spock: "logical and aloof and having difficulty understanding humans, but also getting closer to being like humans as she goes." Sheena McNeil of the same website called the concept of "what happens to the party when the quest is over?" interesting, praising as well Frieren's struggling with "becoming less detached" and seeing her experiencing the "lovely poignant moments, bittersweet ones, and happy ones".

The eventual reveal of Frieren's past and nickname "Frieren the Slayer" was noted by Fiction Horizon to give her character surprising strength and serious to the reader due to what happened to her family and how she started training magic to defeat demons. This led to major change in regards to how interprete the protagonist due to the sudden dark origin that might make her darker than in the earlier chapters. The fact that Frieren has been killing demons for years wonders readers about whether or not such actions are approved but the writer claimed that the enemies cannot be trusted. Comic Book Resources found Frieren's viewpoint with the demons is too different from other famous series like Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba in regards to the protagonists deal with the major antagonists. This is mostly exemplified in Frieren's duel with Aura which ends with the former ordering the latter with killing herself. The Fandom Post acclaimed Frieren's true nature and backstory as it surprised him how previous episodes have been building up the protagonist's hidden skills until Frieren's delivery of suicide towards.

Richard Eisenbeis of Anime News Network awarded Frieren as a best character of 2023 due to how she "carries" the series with her characterization often changing depending on the situation from serious to comical while still keeping a noble and tragic arc.