Just as the second exam begins, a surprise twist is spurred upon the participants.

Recap & Reaction

The stage has been set to meet up at the dreaded “Ruins of the Kings Tomb.” Sense, the 2nd proctor of the 2nd exam leads the remaining 18 participants into a dungeon that all previous participants couldn’t conquer.

Opener

The episode starts off with Sense addressing the rumors that no one has passed her test. For any “First-Class Mage,” this example would be ‘simple.’

There wasn’t anything dramatic introduced in the opener. It’s a very “matter of fact” opener.

Sense Explains the Exam

Sense simply states that the exam will be about raiding the Ruins of the King”s Tomb and that those that reach the “inner most depths” at the bottom of the dungeon shall pass. Bald man, Blei starts to question Sense that she expects them to do something many other testers have failed. Once again, Sense simply states that she is a ‘pacifist’ and that First-Class Mages make something that seems “impossible, possible.”

So much for asking someone to do something that you haven’t done yourself.

Methode brings up a good point, how can they prove that they’ve made it all the way through the very bottom? Sense responds that she will indeed be traveling with the participants to confirm. However, she will not be aiding anyone. Unlike the previous exam, Sense came prepared to save lives as opposed to Genau with “escape golems” to give to the participants. These escape golems essentially act as life savers in the event of a serious injury or other life threatening occurrences. But to use it, means to fail the exam. Like the first exam, there will be a time limit as everyone has to have passed by dawn the following day. This sparks a classic Frieren montage as everyone starts to deliberate how they will raid the dungeon.

This is as straightforward of a story you can get. There’s no real ‘theatrics’ or feeling tension just yet.

The Second Exam Begins!

Sense starts the exam and the participants start to deliberate what their strategy will be. Richter points out how there are many entrances into the dungeon. Right away, Denken deduces that this dungeon is from a particular era called the “Unified Dynasty.” Every entrance should lead to the inner most depths. By going through each entrance, it would map out the layout of the interior of the dungeon. Just as Denken says that they should all split up, Ton is against working together.

Ton explains that “there are no requirements for teammates to survive” and the fact that he could end up as someone’s fodder is against his logic. He proceeds to the dungeon alone as Denken tried to explain to him that the objective in this exam won’t pit them together, as it would be more beneficial to work as a team. Still, Ton has a strong distrust of Denken because of his knowledge of the dungeon, so he continues on solo. Just as he enters, Blei, Dunste and Edel enter as a trio.

Wirbel, Schwarf and Ehre end up following suit as a trio as well. Frieren takes Fern to go inside the dungeon as no one can come together as a collective to work together. Sense decides to follow Frieren and Gern inside as she deems them to be “the safest” to reach the inner most depths. Frieren warns her to not get in their way and Sense confirms that she will “neither help or get in their way.”

This is a pretty realistic expectation. The bigger the number, the harder it is to come together as a group, especially when there is one guy calling all the shots. Still, to go into a dungeon alone is pretty stupid. I love that because of the first exam, many of the teams from before decided to team up once again because of that previous experience. That happens in real life too.

Inside the Dungeon

Frieren and Fern move onward into the dungeon as Sense follows them from behind. She proceeds to caution Fern as they map out the layout of the dungeon as they go. As they proceed through the dungeon, another mini montage follows. Frieren tells Fern to watch out for the tile trap on the ground. Fern compliments how much knowledge Frieren has over dungeons. Of course, this links back to the good ole’ days with Himmel, whom loved to raid dungeons—sparking a flashback.

Raiding Dungeons with the Hero’s Party

Himmel, Eisen, Heiter and Frieren are inside a dungeon as they come to a full stop at a flight of stairs leading down. Heiter agrees with Himmel that they should go back to the fork to explore the other route, while Eisen questions why, since the stairs would lead them to the monster they want to defeat. To Himmel’s response like a RPG gamer, you have to “explore every corner of a level before advancing. That’s just one of the basic rules of adventuring.” While Himmel can’t help himself but to enjoy “raiding, beating up monsters & finding treasures” in the dungeon however dangerous, Frieren and Eisen seem to be in the mindset of taking the “safer route.” It’s not until Himmel dangles the possibility of a “rare grimoire” that has yet to be discovered that brings the comedic reaction out of Frieren, as she all of the sudden is enthusiastic about returning back to the fork to explore. It flashes back to the present and Frieren ends the scene with “it really sounds crazy, doesn’t it?”

If you have ever played an RPG game in your life, then you know it is a total fact that you should explore everywhere! Like with many of flashbacks before, we have to assume the greater meaning of this as Himmel “would like to enjoy doing all of this raiding, beating up monsters and collecting treasures, while ending up saving the world in the process.” To put it simply, Himmel’s perspective is to enjoy the wonders of adventuring, while still trying to achieve your end goal. It’s literally the philosophy we’ve come to understand of Himmel’s journey from the very beginning of the anime. Even though we all have goals and accomplishments, don’t forget to enjoy everything everything else that happens in between that journey.

The Other Participants Enter the Dungeon

Lawine gets Kanne to enter the dungeon with her, which leaves five people remaining to Denken’s discontent. Denken is frustrated that everyone didn’t want to work together because it would have made raiding the dungeon infinitely easier. Richter replies back to Denken that “everyone can’t be as rational as you.” Still, they have 5 people, including Methode & Lange, which is better than the three with Laufen. With a smile on his face, Richter proceeds to say how much more intelligent the 5 of them were that “they wouldn’t fall for a simple mimic trap.” Denken tells the rest of them to make their way into the dungeon.

Denken continues to shine as that all encompassing fatherly figure, as well as the man with all the experience that people should follow. Too many times in animes and especially shonen, where characters like Denken end up being a lot dumber than what their character would suggest. Honestly, he’s helped carry this arc as the secondary main character.

Mimic Trap

As the scene shifts with Richter making light of how no one would fall for dumb traps, Frieren comes across her nemesis, the dreaded treasure chest. Frieren senses mana coming from the chest inside and Fern warns her that it’s a mimic spell called, “Mikeit.” Laughably, Frieren tells Fern that it’s only “99% accurate” and that only legendary discoveries can be made within that 1%. Frieren, holding onto that hope like a Powerball believer, she opens the treasure chest and we get the same result that we’ve seen since the very first episode. “It’s DARK and I’m SCARED!” Frieren exclaims. As Fern tries to pull Frieren by the hips & ankles from the mimic trap, Sense can’t help but question her safety with this one..

Although funny on its surface, this continues to build one the biggest narratives that will play into the biggest lesson of this arc. Keep in mind Serie’s mindset behind obtaining and collecting strong mages and spells vs Frieren & Denken’s philosophy of enjoying the pursuit of magic. This “mimic trap” helps prove how exciting and fun the journey is in discovering something legendary.

Denken Leads the Team of 5

Denken analyzes the dungeons tiles and warns the others about the ceiling falling down in the middle of the floor. Laufen points out the human shaped blood stain as Richter notices not even a speck of bone was left behind. Just as Denken tries to open the next gate when all of the sudden.. Gargoyles attack! While everyone fends off these gargoyles, the least notable character ends up being blasted into a trap in Lange. Denken tries to break down the dungeon door, but it was no use. Lange, trapped with spikes coming to impale her, is forced to use the escape golem. It summons a golem that physically stopped the spikes and carried the young one to safety.

I can’t praise enough about the actions scenes that Madhouse produces. The manga panels of this fight is pretty average in comparison.

Now, the team of 55, suddenly becomes the team of 4. Denken notes how much he underestimated this dungeon, as even the slightest lapse in concentration could turn everything upside down.

How Frieren Keeps Getting Away With it!

The scene flips back to a Frieren half-way stuck inside the mimic trap, when Frieren asks Fern to “stop pulling her.” Instead of pulling, Frieren requests Fern to push fully into the chest instead to prevent it from continuing to bite her. Just as she gets shoved in, she plops out. This sparks the question from Fern of how she is able to escape these mimic traps when she adventures alone? Frieren states that she just “blows it up from the inside.” However, this makes her long hair look all crazy, so she doesn’t exactly enjoy doing it.

But the 1% though! After various moments throughout the season of Frieren getting caught in these mimic traps, it’s great to get full context behind how she’s able to get out of these situations. Of course, it’s just a fun bit of comedic relief on the surface. However, just keep remembering how Frieren treats the pursuit of magic.

As Frieren, Fern & Sense move onward, Frieren sees statues of gargoyles and tells Fern that they should get rid of them before advancing. They come across another treasure chest, except this time it is not a mimic trap, but some “common medallions.” Frieren suggests that ‘dilettantes’ collect them, as she starts stashing them away. They make their way to the main route, and like the flashback, Frieren tells them to head back because they aren’t done exploring every single inch of this current floor. For a 2nd time, Fern must save Frieren from a mimic trap.

Suspiciously Too Smooth..

Fern starts to get suspicious as everything that has occurred is going so smoothly. That is when Frieren agreed and points out that it is very strange for a unexplored dungeon like this, since they are basically near the innermost depths already. Frieren gets extremely excited with all the treasures that she got to collect. In which, Fern can’t help question how all of these ‘junk’ items makes her so happy?

Take note of how Frieren acts around all the funky grimoires she collected all season, along with all of this other ‘junk’ she’s been collecting in the dungeon. That pure joy and happiness will hold a deeper meaning than just some comedic quirkiness to Frieren’s character.

With Fern questioning Frieren’s odd happiness over the ‘junk’ she collected, this sparks Sense to question Fern. She compliments how she has “never met such a young talented mage like her before and yet, she doesn’t see any passion from her.” Fern’s answer is simple, as she has always studied to become a mage to pay her respects to Heiter for saving her. That has literally been her only goal with no other future beyond it in mind. Then, she points out to Sense how much Frieren enjoys all the little trinkets and weird items she collects. Because of that, that makes her smile, so she continues her journey in learning magic along with Frieren because she loves seeing her sensei happy. Sense had some doubts before with Frieren and Fern, but now she knows for a fact that she chose the right group to follow as these two can enjoy something that can end up being “so cruel.”

The more I pay attention to the manga comparisons to the anime, it becomes second nature to see where filler is added like adding more scenes to the montages, elaborating on the incredible fights, scenes that literally feel like b-roll and with this one—pulling old frames from the previous episodes.

Wirbel, Scharf and Ehre Find the Plot Twist

Wirbel, Scharf & Ehre continue walking through the dungeon when Ehre gets trapped in a spell. Ehre tells Wirbel that they are being ambushed by “three mages concealing their mana.” Wirbel denies an attack from the mysterious assailants as he notices his spell, “Sorganeel” being used on Ehre. Scharf creates a little barrier to prevent the attackers from being able to see them, which would nullify the spell. What we have here folks is one of the most common shonen anime tropes, it’s the “I’m going to fight against my mirror selves” trope. Wirbel lays out a plan for Scharf to fight the Wirbel clone, Ehre to fight the Scharf clone and he himself, will take down the Ehre clone.

Just as Wirbel, Scharf & Ehre come across their mirror selves, the scene shifts to a mirror Laufen fighting Denken, Richter, Methode and Laufen with Methode delivering a finishing blow.

These are the kind of scenes you don’t really get to see in the manga. The manga shows the clone Laufen already fading away with no action.

Denken is absolutely stunned by how incredibly similar Laufen’s clone was to the real Laufen. It literally mimicked all of her abilities and even her mannerisms. He deduces further that this could be the abilities of some kind of demon or monster, which could have copied Laufen’s memories as well to Laufen’s discontent. Looking at the bright side, Richter mentions that at the very least, they can tell the differences between the clone and the real one. On the dangerous side, Methode fears that the demon or monster that cast this clone spell can probably control many clones at once. This leaves Denken to feel vindication that coming together as a team, rather than working individually was the correct choice.

If the previous two scenes weren’t already foreshadowing what is coming next, then everyone knows what clone just showed up next. The team of Denken, Richter, Laufen and Methode have nearly made it to the inner most depth first, but standing there upon arrival is none other than Frieren’s clone! Richter asks if Denken would “be able to handle THAT?” To Denken’s stoic response, “if it weren’t an exam, I would have broken the bottle.”

Once the idea of all the testees being cloned was a thing, it’s hard not to assume that this moment would be coming. How the episode ended with this big cliffhanger still gave me chills down my spine.

Last Thoughts

Anime vs Manga

As I stay up to date with the manga equivalent to the anime, it becomes interesting how the creators decide on the pace of the episode. This is the kind of episode that could have covered three chapters, but only did two and you can feel it in the pacing of the episode. To rush or slow it down? To let certain moments sink in or move on? These are the kind of things that give you insight into what the creators of the anime were thinking when constructing episodes.

Perspective of Serie vs Frieren

Within an arc, you can sometimes lose the big picture lessons behind the arc. The introduction of Serie and her being the leader of the Continental Magic Association is representative of one philosophy. You can even think of Genau being one of those snobby ‘privileged’ individuals that represent the kind of people that Serie wants to produce. This episode starts to shine upon Frieren’s personality. To show the journey of enjoying and collecting magic. This genuine joy of what Fern deems as just ‘junk,’ is actually an infectious part about her that even Fern recognizes. While not having huge aspirations herself, that peace and enjoy that Fern sees within Frieren is something she wants to protect.

Plot Twist

Frieren is an anime without a main villain, so how can there be real drama and tension? With magic, you can literally make up anything like “mind transfer abilities.” Another way, would be like working within the confines of rules, which this arc presents with the mage exams. That presents us to a classic anime trope arc and that is “fighting mirrors.” Want a strong opponent that every has to face? Here’s a literal perfect clone of Frieren, the strongest known mage in this world!

Overall, this episode’s takeaway isn’t about anything too deep. Himmel’s flashback says it all, just enjoy every bit of your journey along your way to your ultimate goal. A big part of this episode is showing Frieren’s love for magic and her collecting fun little trinkets. With Fern’s confirmation of what Frieren represents as a person purely immersed in her true passion, it is something that we should all support. This will all lead to that crossroad and clashing ideology with Serie. This is what I love about Frieren. It ties in a big picture dilemma, while seamlessly showing how all the characters represent each side of the perspective.

Manga

This episode covers manga chapters 48-49. Considering what happens in chapter 50, it’s going to be interesting to see how much time it takes the next episode to adapt that portion. Both chapters combined for around 42 pages, so the episode’s pace seemed slightly on the slower side. However, the anime did an incredible job adapting it all with the action being the biggest highlight!