Frieren 2×08 and 2×09 Review – “A Magnificent End” and “Himmel’s Memoirs”

Frieren anime season 2 episode 8, titled ‘A Magnificent End’, and episode 9, titled ‘Himmel’s Memories’, concluded the intense battle with Revolte and set the stage for the main trio’s next mission.

‘A Magnificent End’ offered one of the best action-heavy episodes of the Frieren anime yet. Genau and Stark continued to work together to defeat Revolte. I enjoyed how the creative team handled Revolte’s speed as well as how tough it was to face a four-armed demon. Genau and Stark couldn’t find an opening to land a critical hit, no matter how many times they tried. That’s why it made sense for Stark to use himself as bait, even taking damage from one of Revolte’s swords, to create an opening for Ganau to slice off the demon’s tail.

I was quite surprised when such a blow from Genau wasn’t enough to finish the fight. Turns out that the bodies of OP demons took longer to disintegrate than fodder demons. So, yeah, even with a part of his tail sliced off and the cell disintegration spreading across the rest of his body, Revolte still had enough time to continue his onslaught against the two humans.

Of course, the battle allowed the narrative to explore more of Genau’s past trauma due to losing his partner to Revolte. The current mini-arc has been layering Genau’s character by asking questions about what makes a person good. Even though Genau didn’t believe himself to be good and was used to keeping his emotions in check, his actions said otherwise. Yes, he had been sent to investigate the demon attacks by Serie, but Genau’s confrontation with Revolte was also about avenging his childhood village as well as his deceased partner.

Even though Genau knew Revolte had tricked him into thinking there was a human child that needed protection, leading to the human child being revealed to be a demon in disguise who injured Genau, the mage still couldn’t help himself from protecting the so-called kid because his instincts had kicked in. Again, it’s something a good person would have done.

As for Stark, he had remained behind with Genau to defend the dead villagers against Revolte because, in a way, it linked to Stark making up for his past failure of not protecting his home village. I mean, I get where Stark’s coming from, but I do feel he’s being a bit too hard on himself. Stark was young when his village was attacked. It wasn’t his fault that he wasn’t powerful enough to keep his home safe.

I was expecting Frieren to show up to lend a hand against Revolte. But, in hindsight, I was okay with the battle focusing on Genau and Stark vs Revolte. Stark’s character needed a major fight without Frieren or Fern to assist him. I’m glad we got just that.

Talking about Frieren and Fern, while the battle with Revolte involved swords, the other confrontation was all about unleashing magical blasts and casting magical shields. Methode was the MVP, in my opinion. While fighting the girl demon, she was still focused enough to analyze the fog produced by the guy demon, ultimately dispelling the fog to allow Fern to one-shot the two enemies.

I liked Methode’s fighting style as a mage. From what I could understand, she came from a clan of demon-killing mages who were trained in close combat and attack-type spells. However, what set Methode apart from her clan was that she enjoyed learning about magic. In her opinion, a member of her clan wouldn’t have been able to take the time to analyze and dispel the fog, as they would have been all about trying to defeat the girl demon.

With the fog taken away from the battlefield, Fern showcased how dangerous a mage she was due to her innate mana suppression ability. Using the moon to (somewhat) hide her silhouette and sniping at the two demons while hovering outside of their mana detection range made for a very cool shot of Fern. I think that particular scene was a good way to remind audiences of Fern’s impressive mana detection range, as well as her ability to cast spells not only faster than most OP mages but also to unleash spells capable of covering vast distances in the blink of an eye.

As for Frieren, turns out, she decided to stick around to watch Mathode and Fern. As she had mentioned earlier, Serie gave the current mission to First-Class Mages, which Frieren wasn’t. Frankly, I was expecting Frieren to search out the childlike demon working for Revolte. I thought that particular demon might be revealed to be more threatening than presumed due to her interest in humans. But nopes. The childlike demon was part of Genau and Stark vs Revolte, while Frieren literally stayed in the sky to witness Fern and Methode defeat the two demons in the forest.

With their mission accomplished, I’m looking forward to seeing the trio reuniting with Genau and Methode down the line.

‘Himmel’s Memoirs’ allowed our leads to rest a bit after killing Revolte and his minions. We did get a fight sequence where the trio took on a flight of dragons who had attacked a local village, with Stark doing most of the heavy lifting, but the narrative was primarily about exploring more of Frieren’s past with Himmel’s party.

We have seen Frieren helping people along her current journey because it’s something Himmel used to do. However, Frieren would also ask for some sort of payment, mainly a grimoire, no matter how simple or weird a spell it might contain. I haven’t thought much about that, considering Frieren’s interest in collecting spells. However, episode 9 revealed another reason behind Frieren’s payment preferences.

Turns out, Himmel always asked for payment for helping people because, according to him, paying a party of heroes would mean the people they just aided wouldn’t feel indebted to the party as the “help” would be presented as a “job” for the party. Whether it was food, a book, clothes, or anything the folks could easily give away, Himmel would accept said “payment”. As he put it, making others feel indebted to you for helping them would mean you did them more of a “favor” that needed to be repaid later, instead of actually “helping” them.

This show is so good!

The rest of the episode involved the trio helping a ferryman retrieve Himmel’s Memoirs from an island present inside Lake Korridor as payment to cross such a large lake (which housed a kraken). Turns out, it’s the same memoirs Himmel was disappointed to have lost during his journey. Yay to the ferryman recognizing Frieren and allowing her to keep the memoirs.

The ferry ride did have the guy mention a city of gold and how it had attracted the attention of numerous adventurers. Knowing what I know about the city of gold from listening to fans who have read the manga, I’m so hyped about what’s coming next. We need a season 3 confirmation ASAP.

As for the spell Freiren received, it was about saying tongue twisters without twisting the words.

Did you watch Frieren anime season 2 episodes 8 and 9? Are you excited about the season finale?

Let us know.

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

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