The Winter 2021 Manga Guide

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End

What's It About? 

For ten years, elf mage Frieren traveled with Himmel the hero, Heiter the priest, and Eisen the dwarf warrior as they quested to destroy the demon king. At the end of their journey, Frieren set out on her own, not quite understanding how differently time flows for her versus her human companions. Reunited after fifty years only to see them wither and die, Frieren begins to ponder the nature of connections at a time when it's already too late to say goodbye.

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End is scripted by Kanehito Yamada and drawn by Tsukasa Abe. Viz has released its first volume both digitally and physically for $6.99 and $9.99 respectively

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Is It Worth Reading?

MrAJCosplay

Rating:

Asking something like “what does life mean to you” or saying “life is fleeting” can seem pretentious. But the contents of life do seem to carry quite a bit of weight for the characters in this simple fantasy tale. The main character is a young elven mage who has a longer lifespan than humans and experiences time differently than them. The moments she shares with her non-elven friends carry a lot more weight than she might've originally assumed. 10 years might be a lifetime for most humans, but it is a regular adventure for an elf, and this manga captures the differences in that passage of time beautifully. What originally presented itself as this sort of epic adventure quickly slowed down its pacing into something more heartfelt than I originally thought. When a character dies or when the passage of time is effectively communicated to the reader, it's done so in a way that almost feels like it's not supposed to leave an impact on you, but that almost makes it more tragic. This is a very methodically planned out series that doesn't feel like it's trying to be anything too big; instead, it uses this fantasy world we often see in other media to tell a much more intimate story. It really is hard to explain without spoiling it but at the very least I think the first few chapters are worth your time.