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This EPISODE encompasses Three MANGA chapters »
VOL.1 #006: New Year's Festival / #007: The Land Where Souls Rest + VOL.2 #008: One One-Hundredth
HIDDEN ITEMS MARKED WITH THIS ICON, MIGHT CONTAIN MILD SPOILERS FROM THE MANGA. To show them, just click to expand (they’re hidden by default). They won’t ruin the experience of watching next seasons but might make them less surprising.
OPENING TRIVIA:
The intro song has been composed and performed by YOASOBI, who are them?
This Japanese music duo started to be noticed in 2019 and have made its way into the TV and anime scene quickly. The name derives from a term that is related to “go out and have fun”. The composer Ayase and Lilas Ikuta (the vocalist) have recorded numerous songs for anime like Beastards, Mobile Suit Gundam, or Oshi no Ko: hear a selection in this Youtube video!
They also have a line of artistic T-shirts in collaboration with Japanese artists, see some at the link in this paragraph (down in the page).
In this Episode at timestamp [1:30]TIMELINE: if we are 28 years AHD… at what season did Himmel die then?
We are in a village by the Granz Channel, on the east coast of the central lands, 28 years After Himmel’s Death (AHD). Last episode was still in the 27th year after his demise, so little time has passed since.
We can notice that, in this episode, it is three months before New Year’s Eve (October then); and because Himmel probably passed away some weeks after the Era meteor shower took place (mid-summer probably)… so we can get to the reasonable conclusion that Himmel died some time in the late summer or early fall, 28 years before. (We have to account for some weeks after those 28 years for Fern and Frieren to get here).
Why did Frieren and Fern deviated so much from the quickest route to the north and chose to visit this small village on the east coast?
As she stated before, she wants to re-visit the old places Himmel and the others stayed in at their original 10-year travel. They did in fact went to this village, probably detouring because it was nearly the time of the famous sunrise. There is kind of a sticking thorn that Frieren wants to take out here from her memories, as we’ll see.
See place #4 at the general map of the Journey
In this Episode at timestamp [1:48]The Village Chief
The old man here is the village chief, one that probably almost lived to know of Himmel and the party of heroes more than 80 years ago. The peace period after the defeat of the Demon King brought more commerce and ships to the coast: but it seems also the storms and the rocks near the cliffs in the coats, have caused multiple wreckages since.
In this Episode at timestamp [2:08]Did Flamme wrote a lot of grimoires? If so, when…?
This is the first of many fake grimoires we’ll see in the story.
We’ll know later that, years before dying, Flamme would in fact wrote a lot of grimoires about magic theories and spells. Most of them disappeared though, and people saw the opportunity of forging those: to sell them at exorbitant prices probably.
It’s true that Frieren knows about this, but… does she hope to find some real ones too? We think so…
In this Episode at timestamp [3:10]It’s late December and it’s snowing in the village.
By the way, we love that orange shawl in Fern’s outfit here.
But ALAS: she’ll NOT be putting it on again (for unknown causes), and instead will use a big light-blue scarf —matching better her character coloring yeah— for the next winters.
What TRACK of the OST is played during the next scenes?»
“Sneaking and Shopping”
Episode at timestamp [4:40]How many grimoires does Frieren carry in her suitcase?
See if you can count them, they are all over the place in that rare scene at the inn!!
(We can see at least 21!)
In this Episode at timestamp [3:52]The book Frieren is reading is somewhat readable on screen!!!
We can read some parts talking about: “The mage Flamme is called the ‘founder of humanity’s magic’.
And that it was “1000 years ago”. The rest is a bit muddled, though.
In this Episode at timestamp [4:35]Frieren means “cold” but…
She does not like much those low temperatures nor the chilly weather!
In this Episode at timestamp [5:04]Heiter’s quirks: the “tongue-clicking” of rage
That technique was probably familiar to Fern, which probably got scolded as a kid by the priest that way. The reflection of his glasses on the door on that scene makes his shadow look like a ghost don’t you think? (And yeah: his “ghost” will appear in the next episode indeed).
In this Episode at timestamp [5:53]Frieren’s quirks…
She really loves a good bonfire in a chilly winter day!
In this Episode at timestamp [8:15]Himmel gives her an earful too.
The mage expression seems to be bothered, by recalling how Himmel gave her an earful. She thinks he didn’t know her so much, and that the New Year’s sight would be something uninteresting for her anyway.
In this Episode at timestamp [6:49]What TRACK of the OST is played during the next montage?»
“Shipwrecks and Treasure.”
Fern & Frieren “magical work” together
To float huge objects, Fern and Frieren combine her powers, and end up taking away a whole torn ship!
In this Episode at timestamp [8:43]Himmel did try to know Frieren from the start.
He has surely noticed how she appreciates when they help people, and they smile back at them.
In this Episode at timestamp [8:58]Oversleeping again?
Oh the look of agony on Fern’s face: realizing her master has not woken up in time, and they are going to miss the sunrise!
In this Episode at timestamp [9:43]Fern’s delight is our delight too!
We also enjoy seeing Fern so delighted. An orphan that has been a hard worker, and has had to be a caretaker of Heiter and now Frieren. But also a girl that is starting to savor these occasional sweet and rewarding moments of life.
What TRACK of the OST is played at this moment?»
“A Sunrise Worth Seeing”
CURIOSITY: this music theme will be heard on numerous emotional moments like this in the series… and is probably responsible for us crying that much on them. Goosebumps!
2nd part of EP.04 » The Land Where Souls Rest
In this Episode at timestamp [10:23]Why does the title appear in the middle of the episode?
The anime adapts usually TWO chapters or stories from the manga. In many of these episodes the first part corresponds to the first chapter adapted.
Here, the second part is what really fits with the title: of BOTH the anime episode and the manga chapter.
In this Episode at timestamp [10:31]Eisen’s past and beliefs.
It might have happened more than 100 years ago, when Eisen fled from his parent’s village when demons attacked. Dwarves traditionally do not believe in the goddess or the afterlife in this world: but they honor their late beloved ones with stone altars.
Frieren’s metaphysical doubts
Frieren is quite skeptical about souls, the Goddess of Creation and an afterlife in general. We’ll learn more about her beliefs in EP.11 when she meets Kraft the warrior monk, and when she reminisces of her last years with Heiter in EP.14.
TIMELINE: When and where…?
It’s probably spring in the Brett region, where Eisen lives. It’s a bit east from the Riegel area, where Stark village was attacked more than a decade ago.
Now Eisen is alone, but he kept teaching his talented apprentice everything he could… until he fled away two years and a half ago probably. In EPs 5 and 6 we will see how Eisen explains this to Frieren while she visited him here, 28 years AHD.
In this Episode at timestamp [12:39]A postal service in the Continent?
Are there mail carriers in this world? Who knows, maybe some merchants transport messages on top of goods.
Another possibility: remember how in this fantasy world, you can invoke “blue messenger ravens” to quickly deliver objects and messages to other places?
(see at the end of EP22).
Well, they probably deliver mail too!
In this Episode at timestamp [12:56]The Voll Basin
Does the name ring a bell? Maybe the name a dwarf we’ll spot in EP. 16?) In any case: this is the place where originally Flamme trained Frieren, and her master’s home.
In this Episode at timestamp [13:30]The search for Flamme’s true grimoire
Some time after Himmel’s demise, Heiter and Eisen started to research about the whereabouts of Flamme’s grimoires. As a high Bishop, Heiter and has the chance to check the great libraries in the Holy City of Strahl for that. As we see in the map, the “corrupt priest” has already identified the forest and those oak-trees nearby the possible location.
In this Episode at timestamp [14:33]Montage: “Where Hidden Magic Sleeps” track.
While hearing the piece “Where Hidden Magic Sleeps” we watch another lovely montage where we can see the search for the secret place where Flamme hid her notes. In the manga panels we can also see all these situations, like when Fern has to carry her sleepy master, flying (!)
· Notice how Frieren makes grapes sour for Eisen, and how Fern is adamant to eat them.
· Not only the elf mage manages to sleep in all sorts of strange positions, Eisen is also able to do it leaning upside down against a tree!
In this Episode at timestamp [15:28]Eisen feels sorry for Himmel too?
Yes, Eisen and Heiter wanted to help Frieren with her regrets. But what about Himmel…?
Did he notice that, at one point, he was in love with her and wasn’t able to express it to her? Does Eisen remember how Himmel also wanted to Frieren remember him, and that’s why he left so many statues for her too?
Here we can hear this Soundtrack piece»
“Great Mage Flamme”.
In this Episode at timestamp [16:34]“A 1,000 years later, and I’m still dancing in the palm of my Master’s hand”
What do these words mean?
Flamme set a path for Frieren’s life. She accepted the role that her master had in mind for her, to live in obscurity until she could defeat the Demon King. She taught her a lot of magic, and even her favorite spell is the same. There are so many influential things from Flamme, and also, she probably left some more grimoires that Frieren will be eager to learn from… if she gets to find them.
The original journey was to fulfil her master wishes, and this new adventure is also destined to follow her master’s late indications, leading her life again to the same journey, but to Aureole!
Notice again how: even now, Frieren is even wearing the same kind of earrings from her master!
MAGIC Theory: barriers
This is the first time we see a powerful barrier protecting a place. This barriers that Flamme created were prodigiously strong, and lasted for a millennia, such as the one that protected the city of Granat, that Lügner mentioned in EP.09 as the work of “a genius”.
Mana-based creatures like monsters and demons are hopeless against them, as probably they detect their kind of mana and completely depletes them from it!
There are other kinds of barriers that affect even humans, but we’ll learn more about them in Season 2 and 3 of the Anime…
WARNING: MILD SPOILER OF SEASON 02 from the MANGA (click to reveal)
Flamme did research in all sorts of magic in fact. Creating GOLEMS too (a spell Frieren uses sometimes) is other of those areas she wrote about. She knew they could be useful for all sorts of purposes and intentions, as we will see at the latest chapters of season 2.
In this Episode at timestamp [14:11]Old-style Frieren
We get to know that Frieren is indeed Flamme’s best student (albeit she had others), and we get to see Flamme’s character design, a Greek-Roman white dress style with jewellery in gold and ruby red.
Have a look at Flamme’s character design sheet here!
In this Episode at timestamp [17:13]Outtro references to Flamme
Flamme’s place was indeed protected for almost a 1000 years within the barrier of the great tree.
In the ending, if you care to watch closely, you can see a representation of that big tree.
In this Episode at timestamp [17:50]Why don’t history books talk about Frieren as a Flamme disciple?
Of course, Fern’s readings about the History of Magic mentions Flamme. But it never mentions Frieren as her student, because the Legendary Mage protected her identity in order to make her less conspicuous until Frieren found the opportunity to go adventuring to end the Demon King’s reign.
In this Episode at timestamp [18:10]Anticipating Frieren’s mistakes!
Frieren finds it bothering that her former master was able to discern her future mistakes so long ago. She is still not accepting that she needs the help of those around her to dissipate her regrets and learn more about humans in general, and Himmel in particular.
In this Episode at timestamp [18:28]When did Flamme made this journey to Aureole?
Probably some time before meeting Frieren. After leaving her master Serie, to study magic throughout the continent: she was probably fighting demons along the way, along with some warriors and mage friends, and unfortunately many of them died in battle. She then kept travelling north (has a cape for the cold weather if you noticed) until she discovered Aureole, a place that she might have heard rumours about. Her appearance and age seems very close to that of when she met Frieren, around 30 years old probably (she lived at least 50 more).
We can safely assume that, in her way back home, she found the elvish village where Frieren was, hurt and miserable, and rescued our elf girl.
Note: fittingly, “Aureole” means “halo” in German.
Why did Flamme never tell Frieren about Aureole before?
Frieren was alwayss skeptical about an afterlife, and probably wasn’t very interested in the topic. That said, there were many things that Flamme didn’t teach Frieren during her life. She only taught her the spell for creating a field of flowers at the very end of her life, for instance.
Her purpose for Frieren was to prepare her to be the central figure in defeating the Demon King, and nothing else mattered until then. Any other information, magic or grimoires that might have distracted her elf student from fulfilling her role, were secondary and carried less importance. Also, she probably didn’t want her to visit her at Aureole, for the very same reasons —something Frieren would have felt important to do, after all.
That said, she did hint Frieren that, if she felt the need to know more about people she lost, she should come back to this place for help.
In this Episode at timestamp [18:45]Was Flamme so ‘irresponsible’ to write about Aureole, as it was a myth?
We can safely assume that she wasn’t. Something happened in Aureole and she wrote about it.
Frieren does not want to believe her words at first, thus the reason for her statement about her. It’s not the last smirk remark she’ll make about her master though. In the next episode she’ll be making more jokes about Flamme.
In this Episode at timestamp [19:45]Is the Demon King still alive somehow, brought to life again in his castle?
There are all sorts of theories about this based on bits and pieces of information on different episodes.
But here, Frieren is not stating that he is still there, only that the castle remains in that place.
Yes, we see some “magic lights” in the place. But that doesn’t mean he’s alive, it might just indicate that some other demons might have taken over the place by now.
In this Episode at timestamp [20:06]Frieren’s quirks: she hates cold weather
Again, cold is one of the worst enemies of Frieren: maybe even more than demons themselves? 😉
In this Episode at timestamp [20:23]Where exactly is Aureole?
Probably near the coast, on the most northern edge, whereas Ende is somewhat south of that point.
It’s very likely Flamme avoided the castle and travelled around it: a feat only possible because she had learnt to suppress her mana and could travel undetected. Also, if she encountered any demons in the vicinity, she fooled them and destroyed them without mercy.
In this Episode at timestamp [20:25]What happened in Ende for the party of heroes?
Probably the hardest battle they ever fought. In EPs 26/27 we some glimpses of what might have happened there. Let’s speculate from that info, shall we…?
Apart from beating the demons that might have escorted their King, Frieren had to resort to the “height of magic”. The Demon King saw though her mana suppression: so she had to use an undetectable spell that likely made her temporarily vulnerable to attacks. So Heiter, Himmel and Eisen had to protect her and use the opening she created with that “magic”. Still, it surely was a fierce fight, and ONLY because ALL and EACH of them gave their best, they did win in the end.
So NO: Frieren couldn’t have won that battle alone, as some people think.
When she faces new, powerful enemies in season 2, she’ll still remember that lesson: “Teamwork makes the dream work”.
In this Episode at timestamp [20:57]Is Frieren a good master?
Eisen speaks his mind here: he thinks so.
But we’ll also see what Heiter’s thoughts on the matter at the beginning of EP.27 of season 1.
The reverse question is also pertinent… is Fern a good “padawan”? What do you think?
In this Episode at timestamp [21:07]Frieren quirks: get me that grimoire, babe…
Oh the naughty smile of Frieren when she gets a new grimoire “for free”… even if it means to conquer a dungeon, flee from a monster, fight a dragon, or go against the odds with a mimic! We’ll hear her even singing victory, when getting her hands on the grimoire from the Solar Dragon nest in EP.06.
In this Episode at timestamp [21:34]Frieren “cares” about Fern.
Frieren cares, “in her own way” about Fern. We’ll notice her interest in small details like remembering birthdays, trying to save funds for snacks and food, and overall letting her learn and grow as a mage.
Manga detail: Frieren has been giving Fern small birthday presents EACH YEAR she has been with her. But the most important one was on her third year of travelling, for her sixteenth birthday.
In this Episode at timestamp [22:14]Is Frieren acting like Serie, when she states that she will regret having an apprentice?
In a sense, the elf mage replicates the same thinking of Serie about human apprentices dying soon, “no matter what I teach them”.
But she does not state that she was going to be disappointed in them, only that it would be “a waste of time”.
Does she not want to be hurt by seeing people (like Flamme) die and disappear from her life?
What TRACK of the OST is played during the next scenes?»
“Goodbye for Now, Eisen”
In this Episode at timestamp [21:27]One one-hundredth: how much has Frieren lived?
If 10 years are less than 1/100 of her life, that means she is somewhat more than 1,000 years old. So she probably was “only” 100 or less years old when Flamme rescued her: only “a child” from an elf’s perspective.
We can safely conclude that Frieren is a bit less than 1.100 years old, or probably not much more than that.
In this Episode at timestamp [23:26]The next stops in the Road to Ende
- They’ll go through a mountain pass in the south (Willie Region) because its more suited for travellers, though it’s not such a straight way to go.
- The Rigel Canyon is then nearby —that’s where Stark lives by it.
- The Northern lands checkpoint (see EP06) in the fortified city of Waal is the main access to the Northern lands, that start around the Granat domains (EP07).
In this Episode at timestamp [24:13]The new journey officially begins!
The end of the music track “Goodbye for Now, Eisen” will stop right before the OP music in this EPIC moment… when we realise we might have another 10-year adventure in front of us!
END of EPISODE'S #04 GUIDEENDING VERSES.
We love those last eight verses in the ED song:
“And if I found you again
Somewhere along the winding road
I’d keep you by my side
‘Til it had to come to an end.
There’s little in the world we surely know
But when I’m in the dark all alone
I’m sure my tears are bound to dry, and the morning sky is sure to glow
…
I’m whispering a lullaby for you to come back home”
Next Guide for EP. 05 will be published around October 26th, 2025
