Frieren; A Candid Look At Immortality

How does one accurately describe time? While we may have units of
measurement that help us describe the passage of it, as a species, we
honestly have nothing that helps our perception of it. Time is
something that is truly beyond our scope of comprehension. After all, how can an
animal that lives up to 125 years at most understand what it’s like to
exist for 500 years, for 1000 years, or for 10,000 years?

While immortality is oftentimes romanticized and coveted. The downfalls of
longevity are, for the most part, blatantly overlooked. Maybe this is
because we, as a species, understand that our concept of immortality
is impossible to achieve. In the future, we may be able to find a way
that allows our consciousness to live far beyond our meat suits.
There is nothing we can do to ensure we see the end of time in the
body we were born with.

While
some species in nature achieve unimaginably long lifespans, some are
even technically immortal. Immortality has never graced a sapient
species. But that begs the question: if a sapient being could achieve
immortality, how would they see the world? And more importantly, how
would they function in relation to it?

© Yamada Kanehito, Abe Tsukasa/Shogakukan/”Sousou no Frieren” Production Committee

The Journey’s End and
a Reflection of Time

© Yamada Kanehito, Abe Tsukasa/Shogakukan/”Sousou no Frieren” Production Committee

From
the very beginning, Madhouse treated Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End
with a lot of love. The first four episodes were aired back-to-back
to serve as a prologue to the main story. The story begins as the
hero’s party (which is comprised of the elven mage Frieren, the dwarf
Eisen, the human priest Heiter, and the hero Himmel) go their
separate ways.

© Yamada Kanehito, Abe Tsukasa/Shogakukan/”Sousou no Frieren” Production Committee

While
we are not shown the events that took place over the decade that this
group spent together, during their goodbye, it becomes immediately
clear that while most of the group cherishes the time that just
passed, Frieren thinks little of it. While her party reminisces, she
bluntly states that the journey took a mere ten years. It is
important to note that while her dismissive attitude may come off as
abrasive, her tone and cadence reflect no hostility.

For
humans, a decade is a long time, especially if we assume that in
their world the average lifespan also mirrors ours, which is an
average of 80 years. The span of a decade is nothing to scoff at.
While dwarves live longer, ten years is also not lost on them. But
for Frieren, this amount of time is so insignificant that it doesn’t
even warrant a footnote.

In
a beautiful moment of subtext, as the part bids farewell, a meteor
shower lights up the sky overhead. This is a wonderful little nod to
show that human life comes, shines brightly for a very short time,
and then disappears. Here, Frieren’s inability to comprehend short
amounts of time once again becomes the focus of the scene when she
mentions that she knows a better spot to view this phenomenon, and in
fifty years she’ll return to take her companions to that spot. It’s
easy to see the discomfort in the group at this remark; after all, by
this time, both Himmer and Heiter are in their 20s. Add 50 years to
their own lives, and both of them know that by that time if they’re
lucky, they’ll have only vestiges of life left.

© Yamada Kanehito, Abe Tsukasa/Shogakukan/”Sousou no Frieren” Production Committee

When
the time comes for their reunion, we see firsthand how the passage of
time can affect some people. While Heiter and Eisen have retained
most of their looks, the great hero Himmel has long succumbed to the
ills of old age and has become a derelict old man. After some
reminiscing and upon concluding their final journey together, Himmel
effectively gives up the ghost.

© Yamada Kanehito, Abe Tsukasa/Shogakukan/”Sousou no Frieren” Production Committee

© Yamada Kanehito, Abe Tsukasa/Shogakukan/”Sousou no Frieren” Production Committee

At
Himmel’s funeral for the first time, we see a visceral show of
emotion on Frieren’s part. She laments not having taken the time to
know her deceased companion in a more in-depth manner. And as the
group once again bids farewell, Heiter jokes about his own mortality,
causing deeper introspection on her part. Frieren then tries to
persuade Eisen to travel with her, as she intends to learn more about
humans, but he mentions that with his age, he’d only slow down. As
another time skip occurs (this time 20 years), Frieren and Heiter are
reunited once more, up until his death, gaining a new companion along
the way.

© Yamada Kanehito, Abe Tsukasa/Shogakukan/”Sousou no Frieren” Production Committee

An inability to
understand does not equal a failure to understand.

As
a society, we tend to conflate ideas that are, in all honesty, not
intertwined. For example, a common fallacy is believing that failure
and inability are one and the same.

Failure
translates to trying to do something but being unsuccessful. To
attempt it, there needs to be an understanding of the matter that you
are trying to accomplish. On the other hand, being unable to do
something means you cannot even attempt it. Think of it this way:
there is a flag on the top of a difficult-to-scale hill. Person A,
someone who has mountaineering knowledge, tries to reach the flag
but, due to inclement weather, is unable to reach it; this person has
failed to do so. Person B, on the other hand, has no formal training
in mountaineering and, to add to this has health issues that prevent
them from trying to summit the hill. This person did not fail at
getting the flag; they are unable to do so. An attempt cannot even be
made.

In
this story, that distinction is of the utmost importance, as Frieren
does not fail at understanding her companions and how they view their
own time, but she’s unable to do so. For a being that can exist until
an external factor removes it from the equation of existence, the
passage of a year, a decade, and even a century is inconsequential.

A
quest to fill time…

Even
the most exciting thing, once repeated, becomes dull and lackluster.
The need to keep ourselves entertained permeates so much of life that
billion-dollar industries are built to satiate this exact need. Now
imagine trying to fill the void of time if you had a hundred more
years in your earthly coil, then add a hundred more, and another
hundred. Quickly, this becomes problematic. Luckily, for some of us,
getting lost in a hobby can quickly become a rabbit hole, and the
more inquisitive of us will keep on digging no matter how much time
we’re given.

© Yamada Kanehito, Abe Tsukasa/Shogakukan/”Sousou no Frieren” Production Committee

Frieren,
to begin with, all the time in the world does exactly this. With an
endless abundance of time, she dedicates her time to collecting
magical spells. The usefulness or practicality of these are
irrelevant. All it is is just a way to kill time while devoting
oneself to something they love. This may seem like a mundane or even
irrelevant aspect, but as a way to pass the time, a few better ways
exist.

© Yamada Kanehito, Abe Tsukasa/Shogakukan/”Sousou no Frieren” Production Committee

 With
extreme age comes extreme hostility.

Repeated
exposure to anything has varied effects on people. What initially can
be a point of absolute importance can quickly be relegated to an
afterthought or just a part of life. Likewise, the opposite is also
true. Repeated exposure to something one finds distasteful can
drastically change someone to the point of radicalization. The longer
the exposure period to something one finds reprehensible, the more
one vilifies it, and the greater the animosity that builds due to it.

© Yamada Kanehito, Abe Tsukasa/Shogakukan/”Sousou no Frieren” Production Committee

© Yamada Kanehito, Abe Tsukasa/Shogakukan/”Sousou no Frieren” Production Committee

© Yamada Kanehito, Abe Tsukasa/Shogakukan/”Sousou no Frieren” Production Committee

This
is something that seems to be completely absent in the representation
of long-lived beings, but with Frieren, we brazenly see this hate.
Her rancor towards demons is so strong that, without hesitation, she
would open fire on one in the middle of a crowded settlement. While
it can be accurately said that given her own experiences during her
childhood and as a part of the Hero’s Party, this hatred is
warranted, one is still able to see the extremes of this behavior due
to the longevity of the animosity she bears.

© Yamada Kanehito, Abe Tsukasa/Shogakukan/”Sousou no Frieren” Production Committee

© Yamada Kanehito, Abe Tsukasa/Shogakukan/”Sousou no Frieren” Production Committee

To what end?

For
watchers who are caught up with the anime and eagerly tune in each
week to see Frieren’s current journey to Aureole, one may ask what
exactly can be gained from what she is trying to accomplish. Well,
anyone who has lost someone near and dear to them would probably sell
off a part of their soul to talk to them again, but there’s more to
it than just sentimentality or closure. Some parts of yourself can
only be understood by facing uncomfortable or painful moments.
Likewise, gaining a deeper understanding of someone can only be
achieved by openly talking with them.

At the beginning of the story,
Himmel states that his enthrallment with statues is less egotistical
and more of a way to comfort Frieren after they are gone. After all,
if something is set in stone, it’s probably going to serve as a long
reminder of what once was. While Frieren herself was not aware of it
as yet, this was a beautiful little gesture to grant her some comfort
as she later on tries to grasp something that will be quite the
challenge for her to understand.

© Yamada Kanehito, Abe Tsukasa/Shogakukan/”Sousou no Frieren” Production Committee