{"id":6901,"date":"2026-01-22T10:36:55","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T10:36:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/if-youre-not-watching-frieren-youre-missing-out-on-the-best-fantasy-anime-in-ages\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T10:36:55","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T10:36:55","slug":"if-youre-not-watching-frieren-youre-missing-out-on-the-best-fantasy-anime-in-ages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/if-youre-not-watching-frieren-youre-missing-out-on-the-best-fantasy-anime-in-ages\/","title":{"rendered":"If You\u2019re Not Watching &#8216;Frieren,&#8217; You\u2019re Missing Out on the Best Fantasy Anime in Ages"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/app\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Freren-Crunchyroll-season-2-io9-template-circle-light-1280x853.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>While <em>Solo Leveling<\/em> ultimately became Crunchyroll\u2019s Anime of the Year in 2025, <em>Frieren: Beyond Journey\u2019s End<\/em> was on the short list of people\u2019s uncrowned kings of anime that year, and for good reason; it took everyone by surprise with how disarmingly good the show was. Studio Madhouse\u2018s anime adaptation of <em>Frieren<\/em> also doubled as a return to form for old-school fantasy anime without all the gimmicks that\u2019ve made the genre derivative over the past decade.<\/p>\n<p>The fantasy genre, in large part, up to that point was oversaturated with isekai shows that basically played <em>Mad Libs<\/em> with their sentence-long permutated premises of so-and-so with a mundane modern\/RPG-class day job actually being goated at that job and getting all the ladies and what have you, that it all but became synonymous with the genre. Rather than shake the puzzle pieces that make up the hallmarks of the fantasy genre and haphazardly pick up what plays up the min-maxing stats of a hero\u2019s progression the most, <em>Frieren<\/em> was a return to form to old-school fantasy tales where character and world-building lead to growth, not arbitrary number crunching.<\/p>\n<p>Its second season on Crunchyroll looks to be more of a good thing. For those who still haven\u2019t been put on to the show, allow us to count the ways why <em>Frieren<\/em> is a household name in the anime community as a must-watch show in this jam-packed season.<\/p>\n<div class=\"not-prose video-container\"><noscript><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Frieren: Beyond Journey's End Season 2 | Official Trailer 2 | Crunchyroll\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/EOMVXqH9DSg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/noscript><\/div>\n<p>On the whole, what makes <em>Frieren<\/em> such a magical breath of fresh air is that it has a pretty meditative vibe to watch\u2014kind of like an animated lo-fi beats video with a fantasy twang to it. The show begins with Frieren, the mage of the heroes\u2019 party, at the end of her great adventure, having already defeated the big evil and saved the world. When her party go their separate ways, years pass like seconds for her, what with her being an elf, leading to a bit of survivor\u2019s guilt as she sees the party members she spent a non-insignificant portion of their lives adventuring with die, among them the hero Himmel, who definitely had feelings for Frieren. Feelings Frieren didn\u2019t recognize until it was too late.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"ht\" dir=\"ltr\">Do you get deja vu? <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/frieren?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#frieren<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/7Q4CoWcXDr\">pic.twitter.com\/7Q4CoWcXDr<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 \ud835\udc36ae (@caezelnut) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/caezelnut\/status\/2012414848907526213?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">January 17, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>But life marches on. This time around, however, Frieren aims to rectify her past mistakes by taking in the small, mundane moments with a new party as she retraces her steps from her great adventure as the mentor and, let\u2019s be honest, surrogate parent of a warrior named Stark and a fledgling mage named Fern. These are two heroes who also just so happened to be the previous apprentices of Frieren\u2019s party members. Along the way she takes the time to really soak in the little moments that make life so wonderful; this is made abundantly more poetic and a touch melancholic since Frieren is a mage of a thousand or so years, making her functionally immortal compared to her human allies.<\/p>\n<p>She didn\u2019t appreciate this enough with her past party, and she regrets having had to lay two of her friends to rest. She doesn\u2019t want to repeat that with her younger upstart party.<\/p>\n<div class=\"not-prose video-container\"><noscript><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Frieren: Beyond Journey's End Up Until Now in Less than 5 Minutes\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/wDYV0XlPVWg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/noscript><\/div>\n<p>While the show is still primarily all vibes, it is far from aimless. Ultimately, Frieren\u2019s goal is to reach Aureole, the rumored final resting place of souls, so she can speak to Himmel the hero again and bid him a proper farewell. But that doesn\u2019t mean she and her friends can\u2019t accept a few side quests along the way. Be that killing demons, entering a mage tournament that had no business being as good as it was, or taking on garden-variety quests for the chance that a chest is actually filled with treasures and isn\u2019t another mimic\u2014a vice uniquely Frieren\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>When the show isn\u2019t wowing fans with its pensive writing and likeable ensemble, it\u2019s blowing their minds when the otherwise chill anime\u2019s action pops off incredibly hard. Be it from its flourishing of\u00a0intricately animating the ruffles of moving fabric\u00a0as\u00a0characters take off jackets\u00a0or the kinetic force of\u00a0riding alongside a dragon, the show\u2019s fight scenes go above and beyond what one would assume it would, given both its contemplative premise and the manga\u2019s tendency to forgo showcasing its fights so prominently. Translation: The show hits.<\/p>\n<div class=\"not-prose video-container\"><noscript><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Height of Magic | Frieren: Beyond Journey's End\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/_kUFws-dHEI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/noscript><\/div>\n<p>Much of what makes <em>Frieren<\/em> feel so special behind the scenes comes down to how outstanding Madhouse has been at adapting the manga and at keeping the show in the anime zeitgeist. Outside of the content of its episodes, that tender love and care also translates into season two\u2019s outro, \u201cThe Story of Us\u201d by Milet, where artist Mimei Aoume used hand-drawn colored pencil sketches to create its ending sequence, as well as its social media crew making damn-near daily posts of <em>Frieren<\/em> plushies in all kinds of odd real-life settings.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"zxx\" dir=\"ltr\">https:\/\/t.co\/oY44O5Nr3O <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/HVrtitc0TH\">pic.twitter.com\/HVrtitc0TH<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 \u9752\u6885\u7f8e\u82bdAoumeMimei (@aoumemimei) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/aoumemimei\/status\/2012695958824407124?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">January 18, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>It also probably doesn\u2019t hurt that the show triggered a whole artist boom on Twitter when a fan asked folks on Reddit for tips on how to draw Frieren with an uptilted head pose from a lower perspective. Oh, also, a real-life <span style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px;\"><em>Frieren <\/em>fan<\/span>\u00a0stopped a knife attack in 2024, becoming a local hero, because \u201cif Himmel was there, he would\u2019ve done the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Seeing as how <em>One Piece<\/em> also became a symbol of rebellion, <em>Frieren<\/em> being right up there as a symbol of heroism is as good an example as any of its influence on the anime community in their day-to-day lives in the short span we\u2019ve had it in the mainstream.<\/p>\n<p>While season two comes with a bit of a dour note that it will only be 10 episodes, compared to the first season\u2019s double-cour (part) 28-episode run, much of that is due to the ongoing manga also suffering from multiple hiatuses. This, in part, is due to the authors\u2019 health, according to AV Club. (The series is written by Kanehito Yamada and illustrated by Tsukasa Abe.) That said, there\u2019s still plenty of material to be covered this season, which the impatient anime-onlys among us can read ahead of time on the Viz Manga app. For what it\u2019s worth, we\u2019re guessing the season will likely end somewhere around chapter 71~77 for those who care for that sort of thing (season two starts on chapter 61, btw).<\/p>\n<p>New episodes of <em>Frieren: Beyond Journey\u2019s End Season 2<\/em> stream every Friday on Crunchyroll.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While Solo Leveling ultimately became Crunchyroll\u2019s Anime of the Year in 2025, Frieren: Beyond Journey\u2019s End was on the short list of people\u2019s uncrowned kings of anime that year, and for good reason; it took everyone by surprise with how disarmingly good the show was. Studio Madhouse\u2018s anime adaptation of Frieren also doubled as a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6902,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_daextam_enable_autolinks":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Freren-Crunchyroll-season-2-io9-template-circle-light-1200x675.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}