The perfect ending to the first exam.

Recap & Reaction

In the previous episode, Richter separated himself from Frieren and Denken to fight Lawine & Kanne. Frieren must fend off Denken and find Laufen to retrieve her stolen Stille, while Lawine & Kanne fight to survive.

Opener

The episode opens up with the perfect hook, working off the previous episode’s mysterious introduction of another elf that is the head of the Continental Mage Association. Before the scene can elaborate any further, Flamme shows up with a young Frieren.

The past two episodes really does a good job setting up Serie as a potential antagonist, but with Flamme shown, it becomes less likely she’s a world threat like the Demon King was.

Lots of Frieren’s storytelling works off of conflicting and contrasting ideas. Flamme fights demons underhanded, while demons are prideful. In this arc, it always goes back to the meaning of obtaining that First-Class Mage status, whereas Frieren & Denken don’t care about the prestige off of that. It makes sense for the head of the Continental Mage Association to be representative of that clash of ideals.

Flamme’s Sensei, Serie

After the opener, the episode replays the scene where Richter separates Lawine, Kanne and himself from Denken and Frieren. Denken mentions how crazy ‘hot-headed’ this new generation is. He reveals the episode’s biggest theme and that is the fulfillment in learning magic is the “pursuit of it.”

Serie’s way of thinking versus Flamme & Frieren’s way of thinking. These are two divergent philosophies where Flamme believes Frieren’s pursuit of magic will end in peace, whereas Flamme can’t even imagine Serie “living in peace.”

From the previous episode, Richter, explains the history behind the Continental Mage Association’s origins and the mages that seek the privilege of what the First-Class Mage status offers. Essentially, it is for power hungry people. People of this ‘breed’ aren’t exactly the most ‘peaceful.’ In this case, Frieren and Denken are characters that don’t want to be granted any power that Serie can offer. Frieren believes in the “pursuit of magic” herself. The journey to obtain it herself is more joyful.

Richter vs ‘Kids’

Richter handedly schools Kanne and Lawine’s attacks. Lawine ends up bluffing about using his blood against him because of the human body being made up of mostly water. Then, he starts to explain how magic is all about the ‘imaginary.’ They would have to imagine how they would be able to do it and get past his mana that would block their attempt. Lawine is called out on her bluff, but is not convinced that he would win if there was water around.

Richter is not impressed with Lawine & Kanne’s abilities at all as his mana levels are far superior to both. He continues to go on a spiel about the modern day defense spells used to combat ‘Zoltraak’ is great against offensive magic spells, but terrible against ‘physical-type’ of attacks. In the current era’s offensive spells, those ‘physical-type’ of attacks used to combat those defensive spells have become popular. In this case, Richter’s spells are natural counters to Lawine & Kanne’s.

This entire fight has been a classic anime fight trope. The guy with the upper hand explains to the audience how magic works in the world to provide the context behind how magical powers work. Then, he starts to overestimate them when Lawine calls him out. It’s basically a tutorial like in a lot of rpg games.

Frieren vs Denken

Frieren and Denken have been at each other during Lawine & Kanne’s battle with Richter. Denken is running low on mana and has a last ditch attack to corral Frieren.

The animation in these fights scenes are crazy good!

Meanwhile, Genau & Sense talk about the barrier and how there was a certain someone observing it the night before. Genau mentions just how incredibly strong the barrier is as it was erected by the great Serie herself.

Denken is completely flabbergasted at Frieren’s counter-attack and renders Denken unable to fight any longer as he has ran out of mana. It was in this moment like when Fern fought Ehre, that Denken felt like “a master fighting her student.” Frieren orders Denken to give up the whereabouts of Laufen, but of course Denken will not. Laufen is hiding out by the trees nearby when Frieren threatens to kill him.

The story has clearly shown many parallels between Frieren & Fern’s character. The cold characteristics to threaten or even lie about killing someone feels like a very rewarding character development between them.

As Denken keeps reassuring Laufen from afar that she shouldn’t use ‘Jilwer’ because of the trail of mana that Frieren will pick up, Frieren goes into “I’m about to kill mode.” Just as Frieren starts to use her attack to ‘kill’ Denken, Laufen gets caught in the middle of her move as Frieren ends up tying both Denken and Laufen up.

Like in the previous episode of Wirbel’s development of “doing what is necessary,” Frieren has to be cold-blooded and be a real threat to get the Stille back. Contrast that with what Richter deems as ‘necessary’ with wanting to kill Kanne & Lawine, it is a constant reminder that even heros have to get their hands dirty.

Denken’s True Goal

As it turns out, Denken doesn’t want more power or anything like that. His hometown is located in the “interior of the Northern Plateau.” Due to circumstances that made the area dangerous, he needs to obtain the First-Class Mage Certificate to be granted access to the cemetery.

Barriers are Meant to be Broken

Denken still feels like they have won and assumes that Richter would end up killing Lawine & Kanne. Richter is putting tons of pressure on Lawine & Kanne as he really does intend to go through with killing them after Denken lost.

Frieren tells him that she has finished ‘analyzing’ the barrier. Just as she is telling Denken this, Genau reassures Sense that it is still impossible to break Serie’s barrier as it would take “the world to be turned upside down.” And just like with goosebumps all over, the barrier breaks in dramatic fashion. It was in this moment that Sense tells Genau that that elf mage is Frieren, the same mage as the Hero’s Party mage. The same person that holds the Holy Emblem, the symbol of the last remaining “great mage.”

No big reveal here with all the evidence leading to the necklace that Frieren had, having a crazy meaning behind it. On one hand, Frieren is a person that doesn’t care about status or privilege. However, her “Holy Emblem,” actually does give her some access & privilege.

In a quick scene, Serie comments how Frieren is ‘greeting’ her for the first time in a thousand years. Because of Frieren’s prowess as a mage, this is why Serie continues to pursue magic the way she does.

These are the kind of hero’s journey tropes that embody this exact kind of scene. Like any hero that goes behind the limits that anyone expects, it’s a scene that entails so many grand lessons done in a spectacular way. Specifically for this anime, it continues to show the contrast between Serie’s methods versus Frieren’s, which clearly proves that Frieren’ way of gaining grimoires works fine, as she literally breaks down the ‘barrier.’

Lawine & Kanne’s Advantage

If there was anything the audience has learned from the previous episode, it is Lawine and Kanne’s abilities when it comes to water. Rain gives them an unlimited attack advantage. In the end, Richter realizes he has no escape and accepts his lost as Lawine holds him down with her ice magic. Then, Kanne uses the spell, “Reamstroha” and engulfs Richter.

The theme of praise continues has Frieren pats Lawine & Kanne on the back of the head. They decide to conceal their mana and stay hidden until sunset, which is no problem as Lawine & Kanne have none left to conceal anyways.

Praise, praise, praise!

Fern, Ubel & ‘Megane’

Fern, Ubel and Land hide out in the cave again until sunset when the test is over. Ubel is shocked that Fern really does only use basic spells and asks if she has anything other spells up her sleeves. Funny enough, Fern mentions of a spell other than to capture a bird in “seeing through clothes.” This sparks one of the few comedic relief moments in the episode as Ubel parks her butt for away from Fern. Of course, Fern would never and Land interjects that they should stop revealing intel about each other, since the exam will continue on when they aren’t a team anymore.

Fighting Until the End

Richter gets ‘whooshed’ through the stream of water Kanne inflicted on him to where Laufen & Denken are tied to a tree. Denken asks Laufen to use magic to take down the barrier that is constricting them, but she can’t. So instead, he tells her to use it on the tree that they are stuck to. Mana depleted and all, Richter thinks their test is completely over. However, Denken doesn’t quit as he is an imperial mage that fights until the bitter end and so they onwards to find other party stragglers to try to steal a Stille from.

Denken, Laufen and Richter come across a party of only two that have a caged Stille in their possession. Unfortunately for them, one of their party members passed away. Even though that party failed the mission with one of their party members passing away, Denken knows that the two won’t just give away what they worked so hard for. Richter gets confused when Denken starts to confront the other party as they do not have anymore mana to fight. Denken has decided that they will have to fight the traditional way, with their bare fists!

With Wirbel and the Denken in this episode, fight until the bitter end! I don’t think people really grasp that kind of hardship to fight when everything feels stacked against you.

The First Test Ends

You can’t have a Frieren episode without their staple montage! As the test winds down into sunset, many parties stay hidden, while others catch a Stille in the waning moments. Finally, Genau announces the end of the test. 6 parties will move one, meaning 18 members of the test get to advance to the 2nd part of the test. Frieren and Fern give a smile to each ocher in recognition. Then, the scene shifts to poor Stark that has been neglected from this arc. With Sein and being away from Frieren and Fern has actually made him realize how happy he is without a nagging Fern.

From teacher to student and the parallels that this arc has shown between Fern & Frieren, there is a satisfaction of the smile between the two. And poor Stark.

Last Thoughts

Manga Chapters

This episode covers manga chapters 43 – 45.

From this point on, I have read ahead in the Frieren manga, so my perspective on these reviews are going to be a bit different than prior reviews. This will takeaway a lot of the ‘speculative’ portion, but lets me drive home the point of what each episode sets up.

Frieren, Flamme & Denken vs Serie

This arc is all about the overarching ideal of what it means to obtain power and the status behind it. When you have a character that is older and rivals Frieren in strength, that becomes representative of the contrast between how one character goes about obtaining power and upholding peace versus the more power hungry character that only collects strong mages in Serie. However, the biggest takeaway between Frieren and Serie is their method of obtaining magical knowledge. Serie is essentially building a privileged class and is giving people spells that are worthy, while Frieren & Denken see the wisdom and fulfillment in searching for it on your own.

Madhouse Never Disappoints

Never underestimate how much the animators matter in episodes like this. Episode 9 & 10 proved to be one of the most incredibly action packed episodes with incredible visuals. While Frieren isn’t typical “shonen-like action packed,” this episode looked amazing between the two fights between Frieren & Denken and Richter, Lawine & Kanne. The most climatic part of the episode where Frieren took down Serie’s barrier was a chef’s kiss moment! These are the kind of scenes that the creators absolutely have to capitalize on. This is this show’s “Super Saiyan” moment where a character shows that they can “go beyond” other characters’ expectations, similar to episode 10 when Frieren showed how much mana she really has. It’s also like a ‘Gojo’ moment, where you get to see the show’s strongest character flex their abilities in spectacular fashion. It’s the payoff of all payoffs and we were all rewarded with that scene in this episode.

Overall, it really doesn’t get any better than this type of episode. We get the context of Serie’s character that adds an element of mystery while adding important contextual story elements. It fulfills the other end of the spectrum of the clashing ideals of the pursuit of magic between Frieren & Serie. By the episodes end, we get rewarded with the spectacle of amazing visuals and the grounded lessons that connects the heart with the spectacular.