Was it less surprising that Sousou no Frieren or Oshi no Ko got an immediate sequel announcement? I’d call it a tie, since “zero percent surprising” applies to both. The reality of anime in the current environment is that kaijuu play by their own rules, of course. Multi-episode finales if you need one? Fine. A ten-episode season? Sure, we can do that. I’m not begrudging – that’s the way all adaptations would work in an ideal world. And this is a very good show, probably the best among all the current kaijuu anime (though Kusuriya is right there – more consistently good, but never as great).
Truthfully the apex of this season was last week’s episode. This one was fine, though it comes off as a bit of an afterthought for me. We have a pair of episodic stories, each in small ways tying in to the underlying themes of the series. First, the Frierengumi come to a giant canyon – the “deepest on the continent” (at 3000 meters I should hope so). There’s no way across, and the wind (wind is the de facto plot crutch to de-OP Frieren and Fern) makes magical flight impossible. So it’s a two-week trek through monster-infested mountains. Or is it? Frieren, ever-cryptic, remembers something and wonders if it might be finished.
It is. And “it” is a bridge, built by a dwarf named Gehen (Ookawa Tooru). Except the bridge is unusable, because every time someone tries to cross it a swarm of giant birds creates a gust of wind and attacks (once more I’m reminded that Yamada Kanehito is surely a huge HxH fan, especially the “Hunter exam” arc). The solution here is obvious enough, but there’s a historical tie-in as it turns out. As there so often is in Frieren. The Heroes’ Party encountered Gehen on their journey, and it was Himmel who gave him their money for funds to keep building the bridge. Despite the fact that he’d be dead before it was finished – Himmel says Frieren can accept repayment – a grimoire for perfect pancake-flipping (finally, one well worth the money).
This theme of destroyed villages keeps recurring in Sousou no Frieren. It’s not specifically the MacGuffin in the next chapter, but it lingers in the air. This time the trio come to an adventurers camp, where those in search of holy snow crystals gather. HSC are essential for the creation of magic items, and extremely rare. Given that the Frierengumi are again broke, for the usual reason, this is an opportunity to replenish the account. It’s a seller’s market here – bread costs 10x the going rate – so there’s good dosh to be made killing monsters that threaten miners. And erecting barriers, as it turns out.
This time around the monsters are giant wolves – and beautiful creatures they are, too. This is totally consistent with the mantra of Frieren, but it makes me ponder who the good guys really are in this series. It has a very “Us. vs. Them” view on life. Are these wolves – or the birds in the Great Tor Canyon, or the dragons last week – not just as entitled to live in these places as humans? Not in Kanehito-sensei’s view, clearly. And on the frontier, far from civilization, survival trumps everything else – I get that. Kill or be killed and all that. But at the very least the view this series takes on a very complex moral question is extremely black and white.
That gets even more troublesome where the demons are concerned, of course. As Kanehito portrays them they’re pure predators – no different in that sense than giant birds or wolves. But of course they’re sentient, and that matters. In the real world there is no sentient species like this (that we know of). But in Frieren-verse there is, and I wonder if Kanehito is inviting us to be troubled by this at all, or whether to him it’s exactly as simple as it is to Frieren. It’s a fascinating thing to ponder, at the very least.
Next season won’t air until Fall 2027, but honestly I thought it might be even longer given all the manga’s hiatuses (maybe he’s taking this Togashi admiration a little too far, ROFL). And given that it’s called the “Golden Land Arc” and will prominently feature Denken, we have every reason to suspect it will be a cracker – he’s the best. He’s reached his destination, where Edel is waiting to mind-meld the details of the sitrep to him. Edel sees that Denken plans to die in this quest, which will see him facing off with one of the great surviving demon kings, Macht.
On balance this was a nice season for Sousou no Frieren. I think it benefited from not having any extended arcs, which tend not to show off the series at its very best. That may change with Denken involved, but the mix was pretty Goldilocks here. Lots of fluff, reflection, and family bonding with Frieren and her children. As I said last week’s ep was the highlight – the finale tried too hard, and this show is better when it doesn’t do that. But there were no clunkers, and even if a cour is only ten episodes that’s still an impressive achievement. And because the show in this mode isn’t action-heavy, it really lets Madhouse flex when it needs to. Bring on more Denken and let’s keep this party going.
catterbu
March 29, 2026 at 5:56 amI think you have really hit on the issue that has arisen for me with this series. There is a deep humanism present and empathy for all human and human-aligned characters. They can have shades of grey, they can have contradictions, they feel deeply. For the others, it is pretty black and white: aiding the human-aligned is good and hindering is bad. This week definitely crystalized that. What if the birds were nesting nearby the bridge that was built? Do they have to vacate their homes because the human-aligned wanted a more convenient way to cross a canyon? No interrogation of this. I felt like the first arc(s) of the series are really incredible, 10/10, but then we start getting the demons and even when we do return to the things at which the series was good at the beginning, it never adds additional depth, but just keeps saying the same things. This is at the top end of kaijuu series (though I think Kusuriya edges this out and Chainsaw Man has a lot more to say), but it is far from the top end of all series.
Guardian Enzo
March 29, 2026 at 8:38 amThe issue of whether CSM is a kaijuu is itself an interesting one (see the podcast kaijuu wall discussions).
catterbu
March 30, 2026 at 6:22 amI remember the discussion in that podcast about CSM a little (I am forgetting the finer points), and I admit I do not recall exactly how manga sales are looking, but I do think it manages to make it. I know it does not sell like JJK, Demon Slayer, or similar, but its first anime season had buzz comparable to Frieren. Certainly the response in Japan to that season did not help, but to me any doubts were erased with its performance with the Reze movie. While it did not hit Demon Slayer numbers, it still did really well. I think a big part of its issue at the moment is that the manga just ended with only one cours and a movie of anime and the next season coming at an indeterminate time in the future. If the new season does well and the manga can up its numbers as the final volumes start selling, there may no longer be a debate. If it wavers, I can understand leaving it short of kaijuu status.
Guardian Enzo
March 30, 2026 at 9:31 amBasically the manga sales saw a big, big, dive and then had a partial recovery after Reze came out. My argument (and Samu more or less agreed, surprisingly to me) was that CSM sort of just missed kaijuu level in terms of numbers. But it’s definitely one of the closest calls of the wall so far.
AF
March 30, 2026 at 11:29 amYou mean the dragons that destroyed the people in the village deserve to be left alone? I strongly disagree with your view.
catterbu
March 31, 2026 at 2:19 amNot sure if you were replying to me, but I never referred to dragons. In this episode, the birds show up in the canyon and disturb those who are trying to cross the bridge built in their habitat. Those are are the creatures toward whom I suggested more empathy be shown. Dragons showing up and destroying people in a village is a separate case. That is the problem, there is no difference in how the two are handled in Sousou no Frieren. A more nuanced approach would not treat them as the same, but show the team Frieren understanding the different circumstances and have them act differently in each situation as a result.
dizzle
April 4, 2026 at 12:36 amYou seem to not understand the basic mechanics of their world. You have humanoids, i.e. humans, elves, dwarves, etc. You have animals, which are lesser creatures that live just like the humanoids. Then you have monsters. Notice how the monsters always disappear when killed, including the fancy ones like demons and dragons, and yes, the poor innocent birds. Monsters exist only to kill other lifeforms in this world. They aren’t part of the natural ecosystem, and can’t be reasoned with or placated. Is it simplistic? Sure. It is what it is though.
catterbu
April 4, 2026 at 9:25 amdizzle, the issue is not an issue of comprehension. I understand the mechanics fine. In fact, it is the mechanics that I am criticizing. You wrote yourself “lesser animals”. Why do the animals need to be treated this way? I would like a little more nuance there. And with the demons too. If you want to say it is part of the mechanics or the world, then the criticism lies there. If it is only in-world treatment and mechanically they are equal, then I want to criticize the in-world treatment. Regardless, I think it is fair game to criticize Yamada-sensei for animals being killed for happening to live near where some humanoids wanted a bridge without any question of ethics and I find the conception of demons here to lack nuance. “Monsters exist only to kill other lifeforms in this world.” Yeah, that is the thing with which I have an issue. Just uncomplicatedly set up and treated as the bad ones. You’re allowed to like it. I am allowed not to like it. I want complicated antagonistic forces. I think it is fair to have that desire. To be clear, I still think this is an 8/10 anime, I just wish it had gone a bit farther and reached a bit higher.
KlingKlang
March 29, 2026 at 9:01 amWhy doesn’t Gehen charge tolls to cross his bridge? He’s certainly entitled to.
Guardian Enzo
March 29, 2026 at 3:32 pmHow do we know he isn’t planning to do that?
TQ
March 30, 2026 at 1:24 amI’m going to throw out a possible reason why Frieren is both highly praised and might feel overrated. I’ll argue that the adaptation itself is a masterpiece. Every thing that’s put on the screen is done just about as well as it can possibly be done. There are so many tiny details, and the amount of expression they can get out of the flat-seeming character designs is amazing. It’s not flashy or overdone, but they’re the sort of things that an anime fan will notice.
Ultimately, though, an adaptation is tied to its source material. The original story is solid but not transcendent. So, I can admire what a beautiful thing I’m seeing but I’m not going to cry continuously for the last fifteen minutes like I do when I”m watching “My Neighbor Totoro.”
Guardian Enzo
March 30, 2026 at 9:26 amA very plausible theory. Madhouse is certainly doing an outstanding job here. The reality is, kaijuu do have the advantage of often (though not always) receiving top-tier adaptations.
dizzle
April 4, 2026 at 12:49 amYeah, I got to admit, I don’t have much interest in the source material. The first time I watched it, I wasn’t even that impressed. It wasn’t until I was watching the first season again as a refresher for the new season when I started noticing the little details we just don’t get in modern anime anymore. It’s an absolute labor of love. The level of timing and precision is practically a lost art. Every frame, word, and sound effect is carefully considered, and delivered in a way to achieve maximum impact. They just don’t make anime like that anymore, even when they have an insane budget like UBW or MSG Unicorn. It’s not production values, or slick CGI, but attention to detail.