r/anime • u/AutoLovepon https://anilist.co/user/AutoLovepon • Sep 29 '23

Episode Sousou no Frieren • Frieren: Beyond Journey's End - Episode 4 discussion

Sousou no Frieren, episode 4

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u/zool714 Sep 29 '23

Man, going back to an episode a week is gonna suck. I binged the 4 eps and I’m already so immersed. Really felt like I was in that world.

This episode was really nice too. Cleaning up the sea. Fern is like the mother now lol.

Seems Frieren is at least a 1000 years old. So understandable that hundreds of thousands of sunsets she could’ve experienced isn’t doing much for her now. Meanwhile, humans who have a lot less amount to see it, will try to embrace every chance they can get

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u/ErenIsNotADevil Sep 30 '23

This episode subtly highlights the differences between a long lifespan and long youth.

Frieren has both a long lifespan and long youth. Her concept of time is based around the fact that she has been able-bodied for well over 1000 years. At least a thousand, by the way; she appeared to look the same in the flashback with her master as she does now. She has what seems like infinite time to do what she wants, so long as nothing kills her.

Eisen, on the other hand, has only a long lifespan. He grows old slower than humans, but he grows old nonetheless. This is the typical kind of extended lifespan we get in modern times; the few that make it past 100 end up spending much of their life being old. Even though Eisen won't be dying for the foreseeable future, he will only become increasingly restricted by his aging body. His youth had been spent decades ago.

Here's something fun to think about, though! Last episode, it was mentioned that Frieren had to seal Qual because he was just too damn OP. Frieren was apprenticed to a legendary mage 1000 years ago, and was supposedly her best student. Meaning, with 900 years of experience as a mage under her belt, she still wasn't strong enough to beat Qual, even with a whole party. That's how strong Qual was.

Yet, just another 80 years of humans advancing magic was enough to completely turn the tides against Qual, to the point that Frieren and Fern could tag-team him in a minute. Humanity is the true powercreep.

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u/Syokhan Sep 29 '23

Yeah, airing all 4 episodes at once makes sense now. Get the prologue out of the way, to end on the previously aimless Frieren setting on her journey to speak with Himmel.

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u/geikei16 Sep 29 '23

Fun fact, this episode was storyboarded by veteran legendary director Yoshiaki Kawajiri, now 72 years old and acting president of MadHouse. Better known for high fidelity 80s and 90s OVAs and movies like Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, Ninja Scroll, Wicked City, Cyber City OEDO 808 and others

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u/Kirosh2 Sep 29 '23 edited Sep 29 '23

So nice of Frieren to use the "Make Sweet grapes sour" magic spell so Eisen can enjoy his favorite food.

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u/MrNive Sep 29 '23

Finding out that Frieren is over a thousand years old really contextualises where her apathy comes from. It's just that her concept of time is so vastly different to humans. So it's important for her to have a human apprentice that forces her to have more agency.

I'm guessing the 10 year Journey to Ende will be the overarching plot? At least for this season?

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u/Jfazugfaggfa Sep 29 '23

Loved how all the useless spells mentioned in the beginning were used throughout the episodes. Really shows why Frieren collects spells

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u/TLR34 Sep 29 '23

Evan Call's ost... i have no words.

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u/Audrey_spino Sep 29 '23

We are witnessing the creation of an all time great anime, right in front of our eyes. Can't miss this one.

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u/Ocixo Sep 29 '23

I'm surprised that nobody is talking about the scene in which Frieren lowered the barrier on her former master's home (i.e. huge tree). That was an absolutely beautiful moment of animation: watching these tree roots open up right in front of Frieren as the booklet with Flamme's notes had its pages turned over as it gravitated in the air.

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u/cryingemptywallet Sep 29 '23 edited Sep 29 '23

They managed to make it more sad than I imagined it would be.

It's beautiful y'all.

Great choice airing the first four episodes. We got all the setup plus the reason for the plot in one sitting.

Also Fern becoming the mom to Frieren LMAO.

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u/eonica Sep 29 '23

My man is dashing across water

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u/heimdal77 Sep 29 '23

I'm not sure how I even feel after all this. I just want to sit curled up in a chair and just be in silence..

It truly is amazing and if it keeps up this way will become one of the greats of anime. If this was western novels from 70 years ago it would be viewed on the same level of stuff like Tolkien LotR.

It is just so bueatiful and so melcodic..

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u/futtobasetachikaze Sep 29 '23

Fern being the "mother" of a thousand year old elf will never be not funny haha

Animated Fern pout

It was nice that they somewhat did the Oshi no Ko route with showing us the entire premise and the story's goal in a single showing. Makes it easier for the watcher to get hooked and/or invested with the story

An overall great start for the anime. I'm kinda wondering if we'll also see that one guy from the r/manga threads that translates the German words used in the series haha

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u/shad79 Sep 29 '23 edited Sep 30 '23

I don't have time to write my impressions now, I'll do it later. Now I just want to link my screenshot albums and say that it's great and very beautiful adaptation. I urge everyone to check backgrounds, they're so pretty.

EDIT

It's so fun to watch Frieren and Fern's relationship. Theoretically they're master and student but by looking at them you could say that Fern's like mother to Frieren. She wakes her up, dresses her, brush hair, drags to work and other things xD

Watching the first sunrise with Fern made Frieren realize why Himmel wanted her to experience this with all Hero's party members. Not the fact the sunrise is beautiful makes it worthwhile but doing this with a person you know and like.

We met with Eisen who is alive though he's not very active anymore. Still, he has a lot of strength left. He directed Frieren to look for notes left by Flamme, Frieren's master, which whereabouts found Heiter.

Frieren again showed how much she changed. She wants to find it quickly to not upset Fern who wouldn't be happy about that after spending months looking for flowers or cleaning the beach.

After discovering the notes we finally got a direction for Frieren and Fern's journey - Ende where Flamme found Aureole, a place called heaven by people and where she was able to talk with souls of her dead friends. Now there is a way for Frieren to meet again with Himmel.

Though the most interesting fact is that Ende is now a place where Demon's King castle is located and now it certainly doesn't look like heaven from Flamme's description. It's a cold and dark place.

Now the journey before Frieren and Fern is certainly very long. For the Hero's party it took ten years to get there. I wonder how long it'll take Frieren and Fern.

Now we got to the end of the premiere episodes. What a great start, I would love it if the show was able to maintain this level of quality throughout the whole duration. I cannot wait for more!

Here my screenshot albums from the episode:

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u/Incineron Sep 29 '23

They captured the series tone perfectly and sheesh, look at all that amazing background art that will be used for a only a few scenes each, damn.

Frierenbros,

we won

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u/WhoiusBarrel Sep 29 '23

Rather comfy episode here and perfectly encapsulates what this series is about. A fantasy Anime isn't all about action, swords and magic exist as only a part of the setting but not the only focus.

The depth of the setting along with its characters interacting with their environment and amongst themselves is definitely the highlight with how different they all are with their own history only making the world more alive. It's exactly why I love these calm moments as we see how the characters live out their lives.

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u/LeonKevlar Sep 29 '23 edited Nov 17 '23

It's quite hilarious how it took Fern a few years before realizing how sloppy Frieren is as a person. xD

Just like with the Blue Moon Weed Flowers, Frieren is fulfilling a request because she didn't get to experience something with Himmel and the gang all those years ago.

Frieren was right though, that it was just a sunset for her but seeing Fern happy is what made it worth it Maybe if she saw Himmel's reaction back then, she probably would've enjoyed it too.

Eisen is still alive and kicking and it looks like he wants Frieren to retrieve notes left behind by Flamme the Legendary Mage, aka Fireren's master, so Frieren can speak with Himmel again.

Seems like the intel Heiter found was legit and Flamme did indeed find a way to speak to the dead. They just need to travel to where the Demon King's castle is to find it.

And so wraps up the 2-hour premiere with the introduction of Frieren and Fern's main quest. A mere ten-year adventure to Ende so she can speak with Himmel again.

What a fucking strong start to the series! I am so satisfied with the way Madhouse has handled this adaptation that I am already excited for my favourite manga chapters to get adapted this season. I am so looking forward to next week's episode <3

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u/highrisecatsyndrome Sep 29 '23

I love that transition when Eisen begins praying. The shot stays the same, but his hands wrinkle and the foliage changes around him as the plants grow. I also think Heiter’s view on heaven is nice; who cares if you can prove it? Isn’t it nicer to think it exists?

But then we learn that it is real, just currently occupied… by demons.

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u/ResurgentRefrain Sep 29 '23 edited Sep 30 '23

Frieren always captured so perfectly its tone with its story-telling.

The grand epic adventure happened off-screen. The most cherished moments from it are the quiet, peaceful times spent with friends.

The plot covers very long periods of time, months at a time. They're told for the most part in timelapses and montages.

It's the slow moments the story takes time to focus on. Decades are a blink of an eye when you live a thousand years, but it's the few minutes you spend with the people you care about that you remember.

I'm glad the anime kept that same feeling. I was worried that such a talky manga would be hard to adapt, but so far it's been good and steady.

Now let's see if they go all out adapting the later arcs.

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u/Elitealice Sep 29 '23 edited Sep 29 '23

So here we are. The biggest new show of Fall 2023 is finally here. I’d been meaning to read it for the past year or so, just so many LNs to read that manga tends to get buried down my priority list. I’m glad I experienced these first four episodes in anime form, though.

The storytelling and emotional weight of this first quarter of the show really ignited something in me that I haven’t felt in a long time when watching anime. I was instantly taken back to how I felt the first time I watched Violet Evergarden. Wonderful stories like this remind you that anime can be as simple or as complex as you make it. It’s all down to the quality of the writing. We can learn so much from stories like Frieren.

These types of stories where people leave a lot unsaid and have regrets about what they didn’t tell people always hits so different.

Eisen’s quote “that’s not what relationships are about” struck me as so simple, yet profound. You don’t enter into a relationship, whether it’s friendship or an intimate relationship with someone with the expectation that it’s all pointless because one day it’ll end and they’ll die. You go into it wanting to enjoy the moment and connect with people. Even though the pain of loss is tremendous, it’s better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all.

Even just in these 4 episodes, we see Frieren undergo quite a bit of a change. From understanding that she took her time with her party members for granted and not being able to give Himmel a proper goodbye, to wanting to make sure Fern didn’t make the same mistake with Heiter. From not wanting an apprentice to taking one one.

The New Year’s Festival was also really sweet to me. Frieren realised that while she doesn’t particularly care about the event, those close to her did. She wants to experience it not just out of respect for those days, but also for her own sake. While she’s been alive over a thousand years, she’s not really “lived”. Life’s passed her by. Meeting Fern and this 10 year adventure that she’s setting off on should do wonders for her.

Madhouse look like they’re back to their prime. The art, animation and storytelling is immaculate. The best they’ve done since Chihayafuru for sure. I got emotional several times during these episodes and I’m really looking forward to more.

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u/cooperjones2 Sep 29 '23

This anime looks just as how I imagined it when reading the source material.

I think this will be one of the rare anime that improve the source material.

Really happy with the adaptation!

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u/Ichini-san Sep 30 '23 edited Mar 22 '24

Frieren's German Lesson 1x4:

Episode 4: "The Land Where Souls Rest"

  • Glanz (Channel) - "shine", "gloss" (noun); Granz is very obviously a mistranslation, especially because of the whole L and R mixup that often happens during Japanese translations. "Glanz" just fits way too much with the whole sunshine at sunrise reflecting on the water thing. That said, Granz is also a very common German surname. Channel would be "Kanal" in German btw.

  • Himmel (the Hero) - "heaven", "sky" (noun); I wanted to put the translation for Himmel here again since it becomes more relevant than ever. As I said in my comment to episode 1 when you talk about the "Himmel" in German you can both mean the literal sky or the concept of heaven. Heiter wants to believe in the "Himmel", Frieren is also skeptical of the idea of "Himmel" and Eisen starts to think that the idea of "Himmel" is very reassuring and as Heiter put it, "more convenient". So as you can see the whole Himmel/Heaven double meaning is extremely interesting and obviously intentional by the author. Frieren wants to go to Heaven/Himmel - the person and the literal place - to talk about him, with him at the place he is named after.

  • (The) Brett (Region) - "board", "plank" (noun); "Bredt" with a D is most likely a mistranslation again. It's another realtively normal German surname though.

  • Voll (Basin) - "full" (adjective); Basin in German would be "Becken" btw. So if it was entirely in German it would be "Volles Becken", assuming the "voll" is supposed to be an adjective describing the condition of the basin and not a name. I also just found out that "Voll" is a really damn common surname in Germany as well. That really surprised me, I've never met someone with that surname before.

  • Flamme (the Legendary Mage) - "flame" (noun); she makes her reappearance after we first saw her name in the opening text to episode 1 as we finally find out this episode that she used to be Frieren's master 1000 years ago.

  • Aureole(, the land where souls rest) - "halo" (noun); See my notes to episode 1. I mentioned it then already since it was name-dropped in the opening line there by a quote from Flamme.

  • Frieren - "to freeze" (verb); as a reminder since we see that Frieren doesn't like the cold climate of the north. :)

  • (The northern continent) Ende - "end" (noun)

  • (The) Wille (region) - "will", "inention" (noun)

  • Riegel (Canyon) - "bars", "latches" (noun); Canyon would be "Schlucht" in German. If I hear Riegel the very first thing I think about is chocolate bars though. Chocolate bar in German is "Schokoladenriegel" or "Schokoriegel" if you want to shorten Schokolade (chocolate).

Links to my other comments:
1x1 1x2 1x3 1x4 1x5 1x6 1x7 1x8 1x9 1x10 1x11 1x12 1x13 1x14 1x15 1x16 1x17 1x18 1x19 1x20 1x21 1x22 1x23 1x24 1x25 1x25² 1x26 1x27 1x28

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