Sousou no Frieren – Episode 11

Episode Synopsis:

Frieren and company wrap up their stay with Graf Granat, and determine the next stop on their journey to be the magical city of Äußerst. On they way, they are stymied by harsh winter weather and forced to share a shelter with a travelling monk.

Episode Review:

[subtitles] Äußerst
[me] Wait what? winds the tape back
[Graf Granat] オイサースト
[me] winds the tape back
[Graf Granat] Oisaasuto
[me] winds the tape back
[Graf Granat] ˈɔɪ̯sɐst
[me, who can read scharfes S but not umlauts] Wikipedia, how is German Ä pronounced?
[Wikipedia] ɛ (eh)
[me] Uh… huh. So, if I had Äu-
[Wikipedia] oh no, see, together those are pronounced ɔʏ (oi)
[me] God. Fine.

So anyway the first half of the episode is spent winding down from the previous arc (with a nice little musical montage) and deciding to head towards the magical city of Extremely. It’s north of their current position and it’s near the first fork in their path, so it shouldn’t be far out of their way unless they were originally planning on hoofing it through the wilderness to the north-north-east rather than take the roads due north or to the north-north-west, but I thought it was strange that the convenience of the stop wasn’t really brought up relative to their stated reason for visiting: to get Frieren a current First-Class Mage certification.

This is a post-game mood – when you’re self-evidently strong enough to deal with a new area (the Northern Plateau, in this case), but you’ve gotta trip the story flags and do the questline to actually get access to it.

After all, the question in my mind is certainly not, to paraphrase a fictional weirdo, who will let Frieren – a mind-bogglingly powerful magician who helped defeat the demon lord several decades ago and defeated one of his chief lieutenants just the other night – cavort around the frigid and demon-infested northlands without a fancy piece of paper – it’s who is going to stop her.

And while the elf herself whines and moans about having to get certified again (she still carries a trinket that was surely significant to some long-forgotten organization), Fern sets the course to the regional authority and the conversation pretty much ends.

::shrug::

So once we’re on the road again and nearing a landmark mountain range, snow starts falling and Stark reveals himself to be a driver from the American south by becoming incapacitated immediately and completely (in contrast, the women are not visibly affected at all, despite the fact that he’s implied to be the most physically fit and none of them are wearing headgear of any kind – might be a mana thing, but, if pressed, I’d have to go with Rule of Funny). Frieren manages to locate a strategically-placed emergency hut, and the team holes up there for half a year with Kraft, an elf similarly stymied from travelling in the opposite direction.

How being a monk differs from being a priest like Heiter is not entirely clear (he’s certainly no First-Class Mage, which I guess means we’re still far from the Northern Plateau), but Kraft appears to prioritize both physical fitness and piety to the same religion, which allows him to bond with Stark and Fern, respectively. When the weather finally turns, he and Frieren have a poignant conversation on the nature of faith. Even if the Goddess hasn’t made herself known since the age of mythology, Kraft says, he believes in her because he needs her to exist – he needs to believe that his long life (possibly even longer than Frieren’s) will have meant something to someone. On its face, this sentiment falls a little flat – the man’s in good shape, and he sees Frieren off by saying they’ll meet again in few more centuries, so even if everyone who knew of his “righteous triumphs” (whatever those were) has passed away, it seems like it wouldn’t be difficult for him to find something to do in the same vein, if perhaps on a smaller scale. Of course, the real point of this exchange seems to be for the audience to consider how it might apply to our own lives. Maybe it’s not so bad, to have that crutch – it might even motivate us to continue to do good in this world. Frieren doesn’t seem completely sold on the idea, presently, but I’d be surprised if the story doesn’t involve events that prompt her views to be further explored.

Summary: