“Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End” is set to be the upcoming most anticipated anime of Fall 2023, with the release date announced to be September 29th. According to official records, the anime will be animated by industry juggernaut Madhouse Studios and produced under the Shogakukan License.
The actual project is to be spearheaded by veteran animator Saitou Keiichirou as his directorial debut, and the position of sound director has been undertaken by Madhouse veteran Hata Shouji, while the voice crew consists of industry veterans such as Tanezaki Atsumi (Frieren) and Okamoto Nobuhiko (Himmel). In hindsight, the production pedigree for Frieren is looking to be taken to the utmost standard possible.
What is Frieren about?
With the Demon King vanquished, “The Legendary Hero’s Party” returns to their homeland victoriously. But as the end realization of the end of their journey dawns on them, the mage of the party Frieren realizes that she would soon be left alone in this world as her companions pass away due to age, while she still retains her youth due to her elven bloodline.
Accompanied now only by an apprentice, Frieren wanders the land in search of magical knowledge, but in truth, she is really only searching for the meaning in her life that she failed to gain during her travels with the Hero’s party. During her travels, we follow her creating new relationships with people she meets along the way (some of whom even join her party), along with trying to reminisce about the past while moving across locations that she visited with her old party (with a sense of regret).
Frieren – Where to watch + Speculations
During the Japan Expo 2023 panel by Crunchyroll, it was announced that “Frieren: A Beyond Journey’s End” will be streaming exclusively on the service alongside “A Girl & Her Guard Dog“.
It was also revealed that the anime will be premiering with a 2-hour special pilot episode, and while the official episode count or adaptation length is yet to be announced, there are a few speculations we can make such as: –
- Considering the quality of production showcased in the trailer, The studio production history and the cost assumptions we can make from the production crew. We can speculate that Frieren is likely looking to be a 12-episode series.
- Regarding adaptation length, if the anime does turn out to have a run time of just 12 episodes, we can deduce that it will be adapting 2 chapters of the manga per episode. So, coming to that conclusion we can estimate that Frieren is going to be at least a 24-chapter adaptation of the manga which translates to around 3 total volumes.
Conclusion
#フリーレン pic.twitter.com/CHMrzVtGoI
— 『葬送のフリーレン』公式 (@FRIEREN_PR) July 11, 2023
Frieren is a type of quality anime that are few and far between each year with its amazing source material, production quality and cast/crew. The appreciation for such quality is not hidden either, instead, it is being well displayed by the overwhelmingly positive reception the promotional material is gathering. All in all, Frieren is in good hands and we viewers are well prepared to experience it in all its glory.