Sousou no Frieren, A Heartwarming Story about The End of a Journey

    Most of the fantasy manga begins with the hero and his companion traveling around the world to defeat the evil forces and to bring peace to the human world. But this kind of story did not happen in this series. Sousou no Frieren by Kanehito Yamada & Tsukasa Abe tells a story about Frieren and her friends, Himmel, Heiter, Eisen, after defeating Demon King and their lives. The main character in this series is Frieren, she is an elf mage who loves to explore anything about magic, but when it comes to her personality she is calm, lacks expression, and ignorant. But this is change when her friends start getting old and finally meet their end, she realizes that even after their 10 years journey she doesn't know anything about humans, and want to do one last journey to learn anything about humans and what waiting for her in the end.

    Like most of the fantasy genre in shonen manga, the world where Frieren lives is a magical world full of a various race like elves, demon, and dwarf that live among human. Even though magic exists, not everyone can use it. So, someone who has magical powers is required to help humans carry out their daily lives. The progress of this story itself is slow pacing, where Frieren with her new traveling companion, Fern, and Stark, traveling from town to town, and day by day, helping people as much as they can with their daily. The thing that makes this manga different from the others is that actions like slaying demons or monsters are not the main focus of this story. The world where Frieren lives right now is full of peace and less conflict. Most people have a good relationship with others, although bad people still exist, it's just a few.

    The interesting part of this manga is about their characters and how they interact with each other. Frieren, even though she is a powerful mage, she is not without her flaws. In fact, along the way, she always gave Fern a hard time because of her habits, such as waking up late or spending too much time in one place. Meanwhile, Fern itself is a moody girl who can easily get offended by what others say to her, and last but not the least, Stark although he is a warrior, he is a coward trying to avoid fighting with monsters. As the story goes, the author shows us how much they can grow. Little by little, the initially indifferent Frieren showed her concern for Fern, she even tries to gift her some present when she is on her birthday. Stark itself is not cowardly as its starts, he is also a type of kind person who always helps each other in need. And when Stark and Fern interact shows how cute they become, that somehow looks like lovers who often get into petty squabbles.

Even If It's Small, It can be Meaningful

    As a fantasy adventure shonen manga, the worldbuilding of this series is not that impressive for me. Before I read this manga, I expect that the worldbuilding will be unique with massive geography, various kinds of races with different backgrounds or cultures, and places with beautiful and mesmerizing views, but after reading until the latest chapter, I don't found all of it. Then I realize, that worldbuilding and the intense battle fight is not the main point of this series, although this manga is included in the action shonen genre but based on the storyline, most of the story leads to a slice of life. The slice of life genre is not my main genre when it comes to manga or anime, but I'm still curious about what makes this manga popular and outstanding among others. 

    Through Frieren, the author invites the reader to dive into the perspective of an elf who has lived nearly a thousand years of life. For Frieren, human life is just short, that's why she can do what she wants for a long period. But the time for humans is very precious, and in their short-lifespan, humans want to make their lives something meaningful. This is something that Himmel tries to tell Frieren in the past, but sadly Frieren just understood this after a long time Himmel passed away. In the past, Himmel as a hero didn't always do big actions like killing demons, but what he did for people, even if it was just a small favor or words of encouragement made a lot of changes in their lives, even after Himmel died a long time ago, his service is still remembered.

    Sousou no Frieren also reminds us, that in the end happily ever after is what we seek. This is not the kind of story where the hero died painfully in the bloody battle against evil forces, this is a story where characters like Himmel and Heiter can die peacefully without any remorse. The author from this series successfully introduces us that even with a simple story where everything in the world is in peace and full of good people it still can make the reader is immersed in a beautiful story.