Frieren Is the #1 Anime on MyAnimeList—And It’s Not What You’d Expect

Most fantasy stories end with victory. Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End begins with one—and slowly unravels what it means to live on after the story ends.

The demon king is defeated. Peace has returned. The legendary party of heroes disbands. For Frieren, the elf mage, this closing chapter is just a brief episode in her centuries-long life. For her human companions, it was everything.

And then they die.

Frieren is not about death itself, but about the emotional wreckage it leaves behind—for those who have no choice but to keep living. What follows is a meditation on time, memory, and missed chances, all told through moments so understated you almost miss their weight—until they echo later.

What If the Regret Comes After the Goodbye?

Frieren isn’t cold, but she’s lived too long to treat time like it’s precious. In the early episodes, she visits her old comrades briefly, politely, distantly. But when Himmel, the human hero, dies of old age, she’s taken off guard by the sudden ache of his absence.

Not because she didn’t expect it, but because she realizes she never really knew him. She fought beside him for ten years and never once tried to understand who he was. That’s the pain that Frieren explores: not grief over a tragic loss, but regret over a life that was never fully shared.

That hits harder than death itself.

Time Isn’t Kind; It’s Indifferent

Frieren is built around the unsettling idea that the longer you live, the more emotional baggage you can accumulate. Frieren returns to the towns she once visited with Himmel’s party—only now, decades have passed. Old friends have become statues, memories have turned into myths, and the people who once changed her life are mostly forgotten. Except by her.

In one episode, she visits Himmel’s grave again and again over the years, the seasons changing around her. Everyone moves on. But Frieren can't seem to.

The tragedy isn’t that she’s alone. It’s that she didn’t realize how much these fleeting lives mattered until they were gone. The heroine eventually takes on a new adventure to see her deceased friends again, in what is presumably the land of the dead.

Learning to Love, to Care, to Be Human

Magic in Frieren is beautiful but understated. Battles exist, sure—but they’re not the heart of the story.

The real growth happens emotionally. Frieren takes on a new apprentice, Fern, and a new warrior companion, Stark. Through them, she starts to do what she never did with her first party: talk, care, pay attention. There’s a quiet but profound emotional arc that unfolds—not a redemption, but a slow thawing of someone who’s lived too long and loved too little.

Final Thoughts

Frieren is about the things you realize too late and the people you wish you’d held closer.

For anyone who’s ever felt the sting of a delayed goodbye or the ache of not knowing how much something mattered until it was gone, this anime will hit somewhere deep.

Something about hoping for a resolution to this common painful experience keeps us watching. We're looking forward to Season 2!