Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End (Episode 20) – Necessary Killing
The battle to claim a Stille continues. Fern’s group are fighting to keep their one while Frieren finds herself in a standoff with an old mage who knows exactly who she is. But what is the true purpose of the test?
Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End (Episode 20) – Necessary Killing
What happened?
Ubel takes the fight to Wirbel, slashing at their surroundings with a powerful slicing magic. Wirbel can’t see it but he’s worked out that her range of attack is about five metres. She’s somewhat impressed that he’s worked that all out, but it’s not going to save him. If anything will save him it’s the fact that he’s placed her in a bind spell, making it so that she can’t move. She wonders if he’s ever killed a woman or a child before. He indulges her time-wasting by confirming that he has fought in wars where the opposition used women and children fighters as a way to catch the opponent off guard.
He’s about to kill Ubel when Fern steps in. She tells him she killed Ehre, forcing him to give up and leave. Without Ehre, he can’t pass the exam. Of course, he soon finds Ehre unable to move, completely dominated by Fern’s ordinary offensive magic. Then, he finds Schaf who has been incapacitated by Land. He’s carrying them across the battlefield when they stumble upon a Stille.
Meanwhile, Luafen has taken Frieren’s Stille, leaving Denken and Richter to stop them from pursuing her. Richter reveals that he’s going to kill one of Kanne and Lawine so that she has to give up. He also tells her about the prize for becoming a First-Class Mage – the chance to request any spell from Serie, the keeper of humanity’s magical knowledge. Denken tells him that he doesn’t need to kill them and that he will keep Frieren occupied for the remaining time left in the exam.
What did you think?
Firstly, I’m just going to get this off my chest. I hate it when an episode is building towards a fight and then just as it’s about to begin, the episode ends and we have to wait another week. Had this episode not been full of juice tidbits I would have been quite annoyed. As it is, I’ve been doing some thinking and I’m going to try to get it all out of my system before the next episode begins. I’m just speculating so I could be way off the mark, but here we go.
The First-Class Mage exam is a complete sham. I believe that Serie works for the Demon King and anyone who makes it through the exam ends up becoming one of her pawns. On top of that, the exam kills a large number of mages in the process which is insane. Just because someone fails the exam it doesn’t mean that they won’t be stronger in three years time. There’s something about Serie that reminds me of Aura the Guillotine. They both have the same smug look like they believe that they are invincible.
Another thing that has me puzzled is Denken’s involvement in the exam and that seemed to confuse the organisers of the exam. I think Denken knows what is going on and has come to put an end to it. I don’t think he’s going to attempt to defeat Frieren although I’m sure he’ll make a show of it, what with the chance of fighting with the legendary hero from the Hero’s Party. That said, Richter reminds me of Lugner and that’s concerning for Kanne and Lawine. I also feel like Wirbel is not there by chance either, possibly hired by Denken to aid his mission of exposing the mage’s association and Serie. I can’t wait for the next episode.
Also, one last prediction. Could Ehre be the girl who inspired Wirbel to declare that he would kill all the demons? It looked that way to me!
Episode highlights
Other posts in the series
- Season One
- Episode 1 – The Journey’s End
- Episode 2 – It Didn’t Have to Be Magic…
- Episode 3 – Killing Magic
- Episode 4 – The Land Where Souls Rest
- Episode 5 – Phantoms of the Dead
- Episode 6 – The Hero of the Village
- Episode 7 – Like a Fairy Tale
- Episode 8 – Frieren the Slayer
- Episode 9 – Aura the Guillotine
- Episode 10 – A Powerful Mage
- Episode 11 – Winter in the Northern Lands
- Episode 12 – A Real Hero
- Episode 13 – Aversion to One’s Own Kind
- Episode 14 – Privilege of the Young
- Episode 15 – Smells Like Trouble
- Episode 16 – Long-Lived Friends
- Episode 17 – Take Care
- Episode 18 – First-Class Mage Exam
- Episode 19 – Well-Laid Plans
- Episode 20 – Necessary Killing
- Episode 21 – The World of Magic
- Episode 22 – Future Enemies
- Episode 23 – Conquering the Labyrinth
- Episode 24 – Perfect Replicas
- Episode 25 – A Fatal Vulnerability
- Episode 26 – The Height of Magic
- Episode 27 – An Era of Humans
- Episode 28 – It Would Be Embarrassing When We Met Again
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The cliff hanger is not intentional (even though the pun is taken as RIchter creates a giant cliff). Madhouse has been transcribing the Manga at the constant rate of about 2 Manga chapters per 1 Anime episode. At 24 minutes, there is only so much you can show and tell. Richter is like Lugar, both follow a rational method to win, and winning is everything. Moral sense does not play any role. Richter even says what the problem is in this episode. The power of a First Class Mage makes them into monsters. So what is the difference between Human First Class Mages and Demons? Not so much it would appear. Frieren is easily beyond a First Class Mage in power, but as she has said, power is not everything. She has lost 11 times to mages with less power than her. Also power does not tempt her in any way. This should be fully described by Flamme in the next episode about who Frieren actually is in this world and what role she will play.
Interesting. I wonder if that’s also part of the reason for Frieren trying to discover her humanity. She was alone for so long and then the Himmel came along and left her with all these feelings that she didn’t understand. I’m looking forward to seeing how this arc plays out.
I wonder what creating that cliff was on the Richter Scale? I think his name is not randomly chosen.
Ehre and Wirble are definitely a thing. He doesn’t 100% realize it but he’s getting there. Wirble is a good guy who has been tarnished but is trying to recover his shine.
All of their names mean something. Translate a bunch from German to English. Himmel is heaven. Stark is strong. Frieren is freeze. Just to get you started.
And yeah, they’ll work it out. Sounds like Wirbel has been through a lot, though.
Stop it! Stop it! You got me on the floor laughing. I got gob smacked across the head with that pun, and I didn’t even see it coming! So thanks, I think!
It’s pretty certain that Serie is a villain, possibly *the* villain of the story. We caught a glimpse of her in the opening sequence, either this one or the previous one – I forget which – and my first thought was that she *was* the demon king. There’s a whole lot that is simply *wrong* with the entire situation which she has influenced. Just from what they’ve briefly described, I would actually be very afraid of her.
I have some hope for whatever Denken is up to. He’s clever and ruthless in some areas, but he, like Wirbel, does not simply kill for the sake of convenience. I don’t know if he really knows what’s going on, but it’s a fair guess he’s at least investigating. Then again, putting himself on the line like this, he might simply be engaged in a desperate, all-or-nothing gamble. He might even prefer to keep Frieren out of whatever he’s doing, so she could learn whatever he knows or suspects without falling into Serie’s hands.
I totally did not think that Ehre could be the girl Wirbel tried to impress. I thought she was too young, based on his story, but, then again, I thought he was younger than he apparently is as well. It would be very sweet if they were childhood sweethearts and ended up together. Of course, it would also be heartbreaking if something happened to either or both of them instead.
Agreed. I think we’re going to get some pretty epic revelations in the next couple of episodes. My guess is Serie isn’t the Demon King, but simply one of his minions that took a advantage of a position when the war was over. Seems odd that the humans would let an “elf” sweep in and take control of all magic. She’s definitely up to something.
It does seem like a gamble for Denken to step in like this, but what if he’s sent others before and had to watch as they were killed. Maybe, after years of watching mages with more potential dying because of their pride, he’s finally trying to correct the course of the world. I think he’ll turn out to be quite noble, maybe even sacrificing himself for the greater good.
Ehre had the same colour scarf as the little girl, which doesn’t necessarily mean anything, but it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve seen a clue like that in a story. I hope nothing happens to them, too.