I spoke about the zeitgeist of a series the other day with Sengoku Youko, and how my usual discord with it cuts both ways. Sousou no Frieren is as good an example of that as you could want – the current arc, anyway. The series is experiencing a massive boom at the moment, certainly the biggest since Oshi no Ko and it might be close there. But this mage exam storyline is so far removed from what the series does best that I find it to be pretty uninteresting. Just as there are fans who agree with me about how good Sengoku Youko is, there are some who share my skepticism about these developments in Frieren. But it’s definitely the minority, and it makes me appreciate how rare something like BokuYaba – where I actually agree with the zeitgeist – truly is.
I kind of promised myself I wouldn’t talk about the Hunter Exam arc again, but it truly is relevant. To make a plot like this work, you really do need a sense of uncertainty about the outcome. There was zero doubt how anything would go down here. Of course Denken would lose to Frieren. But it was no less obvious that Fern would carry her team to an easy win, or even that the two cute girls would beat mean old Richter. Or, as crucially, that Frieren was ever going to kill Denken. Admittedly Laufen didn’t know that (though Denken did), and that gullibility was crucial to her downfall (Frieren’s deadpan really paying off). But in terms of suspense? Nada.
Maybe now that we’re going into melee format (at least it seems so) that will improve a little. But fundamentally the problem remains that Frieren is never, ever going to lose to any of these people and Fern is never going to lose to any of them except Frieren (who she’s never going to beat). So honestly, we could just fast-forward to the end as we know what the results will be for the main cast. There is a world-building element purpose here too, and introducing Serie (Ise Mariya – ironically) – I understand she’s a big Juventus fan – is obviously important beyond the arc itself. But does it really require an entire cour?
It is at least mildly interesting that Frieren basically blew up Serie’s magical handiwork to rig the game in favor of Kanne against Richter. Does that mean she’s stronger than Serie in terms of mana? The two proctors certainly seemed surprised anyone could undo Serie’s magic, though Frieren’s true identity wasn’t previously known to Genau. There seems to be a suggestion that Frieren and Serie are going to be antagonists. They certainly have conflicting views on the nature of magedom, with Flamme (who introduced Frieren to Serie – her master – a thousand years earlier) describing Frieren as a “mage for a peaceful age” while Serie was a mage of battle.
Frieren’s views are much more closely aligned with Denken, both of them believing that “the joy of magic is searching for it”. I’m not sure this arc is truly salvageable but Denken is doing his best. He’s a fun old guy, as smart as anybody and no slouch in the magic department, but who also knows when he’s beat. And when things are bleak (no mana left) and the zygotes on his team are ready to give up, Denken pivots to the last, best hope – find a team even more ass-kicked than them (one of them dead and all disqualified would do it) and steal their stille. Even if that means rolling up the sleeves and settling things with his fists, which he’s still capable of doing. More Denken, please – he’s the best cure for what ails Sousou no Frieren at the moment.
Darrel
February 3, 2024 at 5:11 pmI disagree that suspense is this arc’s weakness. Frieren is largely a series that doesn’t really have much suspense – Frieren is obviously much more powerful than any other mage/demon, and the intrigue lies in watching the inevitable play out.
The biggest problem is that it throws us a bunch of characters who we are given very little reason to be invested in. And this is compounded by the fact that neither Stark nor Fern are really compelling on their own. So anytime the screen turns away from Frieren (and Denken, who is the best of the new cast), the arc becomes a drag.
Of course, the inability to craft compelling characters has been Yamada’s weakness for alot of the manga, but the generally episodic nature normally papers such cracks.
Guardian Enzo
February 3, 2024 at 5:38 pmWho says it can only have one weakness?
Darrel
February 4, 2024 at 12:24 amOf course Frieren has more than one weakness, but i think that while there isn’t much suspense in the outcomes, the main reason this is a problem is that we haven’t been given much of a reason to care about what’s happening onscreen.
In Rurouni Kenshin, most of the fights before the Kyoto Arc are foregone conclusions. But we are invested in Kenshin and the events that occur onscreen, that we want to see the inevitability play out.
Collectr
February 3, 2024 at 10:12 pmI wonder whether commercial considerations play into this sort of “plot stretching”. If Sousou no Frieren had remained in its wistful/nostalgic encounter mode – revisiting moments in the original quest as the team encounters people on its way north – then they would have reached their destination and the denouement in ~8 volumes. But the manga is a hit. Does that place pressure on the mangaka to stretch the series out, to keep the money train rolling? It’s now up to 12 volumes and still going, with no end in sight. Some of the arcs, like this one, seem to have come from an entirely different series.
DonkeyWan
February 4, 2024 at 7:42 amI think this is probably accurate, this arc has all the hallmarks of someone else’s idea intersecting with that of the manga itself. I await the inevitable beach episode…
Nicc
February 4, 2024 at 2:12 pmThe test is a couple hours away from being over. Fern’s group and Denken’s group are duking it out for one stile. Right, there wasn’t really a doubt who was going to come out on top regarding Frieren vs Denken. He was game, but she barely broke a sweat. She was more preoccupied with how to deal with the barrier. Richter wasted too much time lecturing the two girls and let them hang around long enough for the barrier to go down.
And Frieren did make a pretty good show of shattering the barrier created by Serie, whom we hear for the first time. She’s obviously an important character, showing up in both of the OPs before she showed up on screen. Her introduction has been a slow drip, and it looks like she’ll take a more active role from here on out. We learn that she was Flamme’s teacher and Frieren was introduced to Serie a thousand years ago. Right from the start, they both have differing views on magic. It seems that they haven’t met again since then until now and breaking that barrier made for quite the welcome. Breaking the barrier allows the rain outside to soak the testing field. Good for Kanne, not so good for Richter. Water may or may not be actually wet, but it sure is heavy and he finds himself washed up. Back to Denken, Frieren successfully draws out Laufen and reclaims their stile. Now, it’s just the matter of waiting until the clock runs out.
Denken’s group is down, but not still not out. He seeks to find groups who are in a similar boat and does run into such a group. They have captured a stile, but they’ve already been eliminated with one of their teammates dead. No magic, no problem for Denken as he decides to get a stile the old-fashioned way, by throwing hands. Their group ends up successful and along with the featured groups in this arc. They will no longer be teammates in the next exam. Indeed, it wasn’t really all that compelling as the outcomes were never in doubt. And, hey, we see Stark for the first time. I’m kind of hoping that he’s been doing all sorts of odd jobs around the city and has become popular because of that. I was expecting an after credits scene with Fern barging into the bar like an angry wife and dragging him out of there.
Kurik
February 4, 2024 at 5:36 pmI am fairly ok with the world building in this arc but funnily enough the one thing that still annoys me is why seemingly teenagers are able to apply for this coveted 1st mage title. The majority of the applicants should be in their 30s 40s and look like Richter and Denken. The kids with grand powers doesn’t work for me – they aren’t elves! (PS I know fren and sark are young but they are trained by the heroes so I can give them a pass but not everyone is going to have a mentor on their level).
Guardian Enzo
February 4, 2024 at 5:41 pmIt just adds to the sense that this is intended to be a stock arc with stock characters. Which is, for me, about the worst thing this of all series could do.
MFF
February 4, 2024 at 7:32 pmThey really could be one of the strongest mages in humanity, we just have no idea what counts as ‘strong’ since we are shown basically the pinnacle of magecraft all the time.
They have shown enough to me to be extremely skilled at magecraft despite their age – Freiren’s group NPC 1 being able to detect Freiren’s mana suppression and NPC 2 being able to control a lakeful of water + the rains.
Denken is definitely the star of this arc though. Just a shame this arc has dumped us a whole bunch of other characters and put a lot of screen time on them.