Gifts have tons of meaning, but some gifts means more than others.

Recap & Reaction

This episode places an emphasis on communication and gifts. Some people emphasize the sentimental value attributed to gifts, while others, although their hearts are in the right place, express appreciation and love differently. In his first adventure with Frieren, Fern, and Stark, Sein demonstrates what an older man’s wisdom can contribute to the budding young love between Stark and Fern.

Opener

The new party of four: Frieren, Fern, Stark and Sein arrive in a lively new town with tons of new shops. This causes Frieren to have another flashback with Heiter seeing how many bars there are in town. Himmel mentions to Frieren that they should take this chance to go shopping together. It flashbacks to the present as Frieren ends up staring at a clock tower. Perhaps, this place is one that Frieren has already experienced back with Himmel, Heiter and Eisen.

If I didn’t know any better, I’d say this episode is about shopping.. Just kidding. Dig a little deeper, the idea of presents comes up again like a couple episodes ago with Stark’s birthday. Will this be the episode about the “gift that keeps giving?”

Fighting Over Values

Stark and Fern get into a fight with Stark storming out of the room. Stark being unaware, forgot to get Fern a present for her birthday. Sein walks by an angered Stark storming out of the inn, asking Frieren as he entered the room, what these “two lovebirds” got going on. Fern has a big goofy angered face in display of her anger.

Romance in this show is very subtle, likely because of the portrayal of Frieren’s character. She lacks a lot of insight into the nuances of what life has to offer. This is why Himmel plays such an important role because he’s the one guiding force that helps her become more aware of what life has to offer.

Sein goes on to back Stark’s viewpoint that birthdays and anniversaries are not a men thing. In her frustration, Fern starts kicking him. In response to her violent kicks, Sein gets bullied into deciding to buy a gift for her.

This is very true for guys. We only give presents and celebrate events such as birthdays & anniversaries because our ladies want it. That doesn’t mean that guys don’t care though.

These are the kind of fights that you let go as you get older as Sein references Fern’s current aggression. Due to Fern’s overzealous anger of Stark, Sein and Frieren suggest to Fern to go after Stark to patch things up.

Stark is seen sitting at a water fountain in the middle of town. He pulls up his sleeves to look at his silver bracelet that Fern bought for him. Fern sees him, but decides to go see Sein instead. She compliments him on the pouch he was looking at for her gift. Seeing how Fern is struggling to deal with guys her age, he invites her to come with him to shop for her gift. However, she politely denies and Sein decides that he will decide which gift to get her himself. He reiterates the sentiment from the previous scene that Stark is just clueless about these special events. Remember, he doesn’t even celebrate his own birthday and has quite the traumatic background when it comes to these common people customs.

People need to try to make the effort to understand where each other is coming from. Since the beginning of the anime, Frieren has tried to understand where Himmel was coming from. To become more self-aware. In this case with Fern and Stark, they have different backgrounds and perceive these customs like birthdays differently. Fern should understand Stark’s position more, but Stark should have built more awareness of how Fern treats birthdays like from a couple episodes ago.

Fern tells Sein that she bought a gift for Stark on his birthday. Sein correctly assumes that they were together when he received that gift. As Sein gives his gift to Fern, he suggests that they should make up and go get a gift together like before. The last thing he tells Fern before heading off is that “people won’t know how you feel unless you tell them.” Fern apologizes for her violent kicks and Sein goes back to the inn.

The Apology

Like many young budding romances, Fern and Stark meet up as evening sun start to wither. Fern calls out for Stark and before she’s able to elaborate more, Stark cuts her off and apologizes. The reason being that he wanted to be with Fern to choose a gift, since he’s clueless about what she likes. Thinking that she’d be disappointed by this thought, he didn’t have the courage to say how he felt. Fern comforts him by saying that she wouldn’t be disappointed and apologizes for her overblown reaction.

In a happy conclusion to their conflict, Stark invites Fern to go together shopping and Fern happily accepts.

Old People Wisdom

Frieren watches on the roof at Fern and Stark’s make-up take place. Sein catches her on the roof, but the same can be said about him. He starts to explain how avoiding conflict as you get older is a wise choice.

Essentially, ain’t nobody got time for fighting when you are old!

Frieren questions Sein’s statement about ‘understanding’ relationships. Sein concludes that all three Stark, Fern and Frieren are child-like. He goes on to tell Frieren that Fern chose him for advice and not her. He wonders who she’s comparing him to. To which, she explains that Heiter was the one that raised her. Due to the positive contributions of Heiter, Sein can’t see himself being compared to such an outstanding individual. To the contrary of Frieren’s experiences with him, she starts to rattle off all of Heiter’s undesirable qualities. He was “picky with food, always drunk” and “lied a lot.”

Hearing how Heiter is counter to what Sein thought of him as an ‘ideal’ person, Heiter had always been a reliable person in his experience. This causes another Frieren flashback.

Frieren talks to a very old Heiter about how he’s ‘matured.’ In Heiter’s response, he says that it’s all because of old age. In reality, he’s still a kid inside that’s trying to become that “ideal adult.” He will continue trying to become that ideal adult until his last breath because the children need him to be one.

Frieren brings up an old Kraft the Monk lessons of “who will praise Heiter for his hard work in trying to be the best adult he can be?” Like Kraft’s response, Heiter leaves that to the Goddess, who will praise him. Frieren responds back that she will praise him while he’s still here. Heiter expresses his doubt that she would understand how humans feel. Like what Heiter has done many scenes before, Frieren awkwardly gets up with a big grin on her face to pat Heiter’s head. He reacts with saying how “that was better than expected.”

Once Heiter makes it to heaven, he’s going to put in a good word for Frieren, as she deserves praise in her own right.

The scene switches back to the present and Frieren is patting Sein on the head, saying how much of a proper adult he actually is. In his comedic response, he hoped that this would have happened to him by some older lady instead, in which Frieren responds that only a few other women are older than her.

I can tell you now that a grown man would never allow for such a thingto take place! Given how unaware Frieren is, this makes for a good blend of comedic irony, while giving a heartwarming lesson. The call back to Kraft the Monk’s episode really displays that Frieren already understood where he was coming from. She just has this comedic twist to how she handles ‘praising’ people.

A Bracelet

The party of 4 find a merchant with a carriage that would take them along to their next destination. Frieren notices Fern has a new bracelet, Stark’s present. She notices that this bracelet is a similar design to the one she received from Himmel, so she digs around her suitcase for it. Fern gets disappointed in her messy organization of her belongings when all of the sudden.. A giant bird like creature called “avian monsters,” come straight down on their carriage to pick them up just as Frieren finds the same bracelet.

All of these slice-of-life episodes lack scenes like this. One pace that is straight-forward gets disrupted by a dramatic event. Having real tension and dilemma is always going to be more entertaining. This is where having great storyboarding and the delivery of the dramatic experience matters. Reaction is entertainment, so having that slow-mo scene and Frieren losing the ring contributes a lot more to the show’s lesson behind the value of losing that ring.

Death by Bird Monster

As everyone is floating in the sky, Frieren begins to explain mankind’s origin of being able to fly, as it has only been possible for 40 years. This ability to levitate originated from a demon spell. So, Stark’s suggestion that Frieren or Fern do something with their magic spells are out of the question, as bring able to effectively levitate objects beyond humans is not a viable option.

Frieren decides that they need to make an escape and will take the merchant with her. Fern will carry Sein and for Stark.. to just jump. To Stark’s surprise, he explains the common sense that he would die. In Frieren’s recollection of warriors and Eisen specifically, he would absolutely tank any fall.

The flashback of Eisen just falling out of nowhere, making a giant crater was hilariously impeccable timing.

Fern makes the suggestion that Frieren try to levitate the carriage just before it hits the ground. Sein adds urgency to the situation as the giant bird monster likes to crash it’s pray from its fangs to the ground. In a quick decision, Frieren jumps right out of the carriage and shoots the monster down. As everyone free falls and crashes to the ground, apparently Frieren did just enough to keep everyone alive. However, it wasn’t without some damage intake.

These are the kinds of scenes that the creators have to put into episodes because of the constant lightheartedness of it all. I haven’t read the manga, but I imagine the chapters being the same way.

Whatever injuries the horse incurred, Sein was able to heal it. The only thing now is to patch back up the carriage. Because of how much damage it took, everyone spends the next gathering all the necessary parts to put it back together.

Frieren tries to find the bracelet that Himmel gave her, but couldn’t find it. While working on some carriage parts, Sein asks Fern about her new bracelet. Stark says that it took him “3 hours” to make a choice for a gift. Fern tells Sein that she told Stark to choose whatever he thinks is best. Sein gives a tiring reaction to Fern’s statement and pulls Stark aside to let him vent over a difficult person like Fern. Stark explained that he had to decipher which item was best by determining how Fern reacted to each one. Hilariously, Fern overhears everything that they are saying.

If you have been in a relationship, you’ll understand when a girl says, “do whatever,” or “buy whatever food.” It isn’t what they say boys.. That is why Stark took so long to buy a gift because it isn’t just “buy whatever,” and it’ll be okay. In reality, the translation is “buy whatever, but I must still like it.”

In the end, Stark was happy that he picked something that Fern liked. Praising Stark, Sein tells him that the bracelet’s design is of a “mirrored lotus.” It is something you give to your romantic partner as it means, “eternal love.” Fern yells out to Stark. In his embarrassment, Stark responds defensively that it is “totally a misunderstanding” and that “he was totally unaware just like she was!” Fern gives an annoyed response that “of course, it’s because you’re dumb.” Stark asks if he should switch out the items with something and an angry Fern denies him, stating that “he put tons of effort into choosing the gift for her.”

The story usually leaves these kinds of symbols like rings and bracelets up for interpretation. So for Sein to provide insight into the specific meaning of the design of the bracelet, gives a lot more context into what Himmel gave Frieren. It’s something that has probably already been assumed by the audience, but this scene confirms it. Again, the story makes these kinds of scenarios vague, likely because it is through the perspective of Frieren, who is in general befuddled by feelings and romance.

Finding the Bracelet of Love

Sein, Fern and Stark go back to the broken carriage to repair it as Sein gives a sly look towards Fern. From the previous scene, the interpretation is that Fern really does like Stark back. This begins another one of those Frieren slice-of-life montages as everyone works their way through the day and night repairing the carriage. Then, it stops when Fern asks Frieren what she’s looking for every night. Of course, it’s the bracelet that Himmel gave her.

Knowing that Frieren is looking for the mirrored lotus bracelet, Fern urgently helps look, even suggesting that they delay their stay until they find it. In classic Frieren nonchalant attitude, she figures that this would be her last time searching for it. Fern explains what the bracelet meant, but Frieren dismisses it as she explains that Himmel probably didn’t know what it meant either.

Conveniently, the merchant gives Frieren a new spell as a reward. That spells helps find lost accessories. In the middle of the night, Frieren levitates into the sky to look for the bracelet and this unlocks another flashback when Himmel and Frieren were shopping. He asks Frieren to pick something out because of her “hard work for defeating the Demon King.” Quickly, she picked up a ring and gives it to Himmel. Flabbergasted by how fast she picked it out, Himmel tells her to “put more thought into it,” but he notices what kind of ring it was and told her that “it was fine.”

As Himmel and Frieren are working towards the clock tower, Himmel gets brave with the ring and pulls her to the side and gets on one knee. He puts the ring on her ring finger. It flips back into the present time with the ring in Frieren’s possession back on the carriage. Fern confirms with Frieren that she was ‘glad’ that she didn’t stop looking for the ring. As Frieren looks at the ring in her hand, she agrees. Before the episode ends, there has to be some comedic relief so Frieren asks Fern about why she’s wearing the mirrored lotus bracelet and to Fern’s reply, she says that “it’s because Stark is stupid.” To Stark’s response, he says “that’s terrible.”

Last Thoughts

Between the giant bird preying upon the party’s carriage and the animation of Frieren levitating in the air, those scenes might be the most exciting ones. While the entire series does a good job of offering its philosophical lessons in unique ways, this episode and the last continue their heartwarming, slice-of-life portrayal of finding the meaning of something. That something is in the form of a gift, which provides more or less sentimental value depending on the person, in this case, a romantic one.

This episode made it a lot clearer that the relationships assumed to be building into romantic ones are actually fostering into romantic ones. Through Frieren’s lens, many of these scenarios that call for situational and emotional awareness are lacking in comprehension from Frieren. Nothing has been more awkwardly portrayed than the Himmel and Frieren relationship up until this point. Due to Frieren’s lack of awareness, Frieren has never received Himmel’s courting of his love. I think this is the show’s artistic viewpoint that displays many of these scenarios as vague until she becomes more aware. We’ve reached the point where Frieren is starting to see the value of what life has to offer, especially when it comes to the sentimental and romantic side of the equation.

The most important lesson of this episode is what Sein said about “telling people how you feel because they will never know unless you say it.” However, a lot more context is needed after Himmel put the ring onto Frieren’s finger because everyone knows what happened after they defeated the Demon King. The episode actually leaves us with more questions than answers. Was Frieren completely clueless about how Himmel feels? Was there some kind of rejection? Is this what Frieren regretted the most? In the end, that ring does hold sentimental value for Frieren. Isn’t this why she was heading to heaven in the first place? To make sense and peace with how she feels?

Overall, it’s a solid episode. However, I’m at my limit of how many slice-of-life episodes I can take in a row..