Sousou no Frieren – Episode 27

Episode Synopsis:

Fern complains to Stark about an off-screen disagreement with Frieren about whether to attempt to salvage the remains of her staff, which was pretty thoroughly broken by Frieren’s replica. After Richter shoos Denken and Laufen out of his shop, Frieren arrives with the pieces and convinces him to repair it. Soon, Serie arrives and administers the final first-class mage test.

Episode Review:

I feel like the drama in the first part of this episode is slightly undercut by not giving us all of the context for Fern and Frieren’s argument, if there even was an interaction that could be described as such (Fern’s reactions are not always… proportional, but they must not have come to an understanding before they parted). At the very least, I would have appreciated a snippet where Frieren actually takes it upon herself to have it restored, since it’s clear when we first see her that that’s what’s going on.

Also, Richter half-complains to Fern as he’s closing up shop that he “would’ve made more profit if [she]’d just bought a new one”, but… that sounds like a him problem? There’s no way this guy’s beholden to some corporate office setting his rates – if you’re the top artificer in the largest magical city in the northern lands, it seems to me like you can set all of your prices to make any sale worth your time, especially for a custom repair job that you had to be goaded into taking in the first place. Did he have to make do with all of the money that Frieren had on her, and would have been obligated to do so in either case? Weird comment.

Another weird piece of commentary appears in the discussion amongst the first-class mages where Serie blames Frieren’s raw power for allowing too many applicants to complete the second test – it’s a clean segue into the topic of mana suppression, which leads to some important plot points, but I feel like the assessment itself is… demonstrably incorrect? It might well have been true in a test that didn’t scale to the players candidates, but I consider Frieren’s presence there to have provided a net handicap by requiring both herself and Fern to engage her replica, preventing Fern from being useful elsewhere (sound off in the comments if you’ve put a lot of thought into how that test could have gone differently without her – I don’t feel like she contributed substantially to overall strategy, either, but there’s room for speculation about how the replicas would have otherwise been deployed).

Also, because Serie again brings up the concept of magic relying on visualization: sucks to have aphantasia in this world, huh? No magical apprenticeship for me, I guess (inb4 “self-fulfilling prophecy”).

The real meat, of course, is Serie’s brief but meaningful interactions with Frieren and Fern. She is dismissive of Frieren, and remains unmoved even when the title character reveals that the “useless” flower field spell that she’s treasured ever since it was the first spell taught to her by Flamme was instrumental to her inclusion in the party that defeated the Demon King (which is straight catnip for the audience). Fern’s interview is as impactful as it is brief, and provides a suitable wrap to the episode and the arc.

Shout out also to the non-standard “next time on” medley setting up the final episode – always nice to see variations on themes outside of the show proper.

Summary: