Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End – Season 1 Episode 10 Recap & Review

A Powerful Mage

Episode 10 of Frieren: Beyond’s Journey’s End begins with Lugner warning Fern that Frieren may lose her battle against Aura. However, Fern believes Frieren will prevail in her battle against Aura and finishes Lugner off.

In a flashback, Flamme encounters Basalt (one of the Demon King’s generals) lying around in a village full of dead elves. Flamme notices a young Frieren and realizes she defeated Basalt due to her powerful mana. She belittles Frieren for engaging her enemy directly instead of using different options. Flamme takes Frieren away and tells her she’s going to become her apprentice. Suddenly, more members of the Demon King’s army arrive and order Flamme to give them Frieren. 

Flamme refuses and blows them away with her magic. Frieren realizes Flamme defeated them because she concealed her magic power, making the enemies believe she was weaker. Before they train, Frieren opens up to Flamme about her hatred toward demons. She says they took everything from her and that she wishes she could murder them all. Flamme shares a similar disdain for demons.

They reach their training grounds and Flamme suggests Frieren keep suppressing her magic until the end of time to fool demons, weak and strong. After some chatter between Frieren and Aura in the present, we return to Frieren and Flamme in the past as they venture through a town. 

Frieren asks Flamme why demons don’t suppress their mana like she does. Flamme confirms they don’t because demons have no benefit to constantly suppressing their mana. She argues demons value mana the same way humans value wealth and status.

We skip ahead 50 years and Flamme notices Frieren’s gained a strong understanding of how to suppress her mana. Flamme tells Frieren about her favorite flower spell and asks her to leave flowers at her grave. Additionally, she wants Frieren to live in obscurity until she defeats the demon king.  After fulfilling Flamme’s request, we receive a montage of Frieren’s life before and after she meets Himmel and the others. 

In the present, Aura approaches Frieren because she’s confident she’ll defeat her since it’s been ages since they last fought. However, she realizes Frieren’s a lot stronger than she imagined, startling her. Frieren unleashes more of her mana, instilling fear in Aura’s eyes. Frieren orders Aura to commit suicide and the episode closes with Aura ending her life. 

The Episode Review

After Linie and Lugner’s defeat, many were curious about how the results of Frieren’s battle with Aura turned out. Instead of a stylish battle between the two, the anime opted to give fans a simple suicidal-themed result for their bout. While some will be disappointed that Aura didn’t put up much of a fight, the episode did an exceptional job of building up to this result. From Flamme acknowledging Frieren’s enormous aura at the elf village to her training her to suppress her potential, this conclusion felt right for their fight. 

Not only that but this was a nice way to differentiate their confrontation with Stark and Fern’s battles with Lugner and Liniel. The chilling scenario near the episode’s conclusion aside, this episode gave viewers some compelling interactions between Flamme and Frieren too. It appears the two were a match made in heaven with their shared love of magic and the same disdain for demonkind. While it would’ve been great to see Frieren train to suppress her mana in real-time with Flamme, many will adore seeing them converse with each other. 

Moreover, Studio Madhouse continues to deliver glorious visuals and Evan Call and his team beautiful music. Both worked in unison to envelop viewers in shock, awe, and excitement this week. Every scene felt lively from head to toe as I found myself glued to my screen the entire time.

Overall, this was another great episode of Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End. It not only delves into Frieren’s past life but shows how strong and fearsome she is as a 1,000+ year-old elven mage. I’m curious if she’ll ever find an opponent who’ll be on par with her though.