Frieren: Beyond Journey's End continues to surprise and entertain and has established a process to do so. Every large arc will require Frieren and Fern to understand magic just that much better. They will come up against their own limitations and analyze their enemies' weaknesses. Stark will be a bulwark and a mensch. Together, they will find a way. This will then be followed by short, silly adventures, for which they will be compensated with silly payments. Then a new arc, with a more complicated, even more powerful foe, will appear, and the cycle begins again.

This heavy arc, punctuated by short and amusing chapters, kept me glued to the pages until I found that I have read yet another volume and cannot wait to read the next. I can't think of a series that I both admire for its nuance and laugh at its utter absurdity as much as I do for this one.

In trying to understand why this formula works so well, I'm repeatedly drawn back to the character of Frieren herself. Because we are watching events mostly from her perspective, the series imposes a kind of removed subjectivity on events. Frieren does not typically panic; she acknowledges her weaknesses and looks for openings. Above all, she trusts her companions implicitly, spending almost no energy at all on worrying about them. The result is that we, like Frieren, trust that her party will be there, will understand what has to be done, and will do it. It allows us, much like it allows Frieren, to spend our energy on the what and the why and the how, rather than running around in a DAN DA DAN-like tempest.

All of this becomes even more apparent when, after dealing with Denken's past, Frieren travels to her own. This time slip could cause any number of problems, but again Frieren trusts Himmel and Heiter in a bone-deep way, so she knows that whatever they do learn will not alter the future.

This arc also gives us a little Himmel x Frieren service in an unexpected illusion. Since we mostly see Himmel as a goofy narcissist and hero by reputation, this arc was incredible for building his depth. We really begin to understand what makes him a hero. This is then followed by an echoing arc for Stark in which we suddenly understand that he, too, is a true hero.

The silly passing-through stories are as wonderful in these volumes as in the others. Dragons, beasts, curses, and spells fall to Frieren's party in mere panels, while the human relationships garner pages. In an incredibly touching chapter, Frieren encounters statues of Himmel and her teacher Flamme that bear no resemblance to either. Nonetheless, Frieren sees their truest essence on display in that town and finds a moment to connect with them.

Volume 13 creates a new arc, something we've really never seen before—a foe who has no idea why he is fighting, even as he has dedicated his life to the fight. Like so many of the arcs in this series, I cannot wait to find out what happens, even though the events themselves may be predictable—again, we find ourselves in Frieren's shoes.

Tsukasa Abe's art is endlessly appealing. Every character somehow looks exactly the way they ought to look, so comedic effects and reactions are actually funny. Thanks to the anime, we can “hear” the voices in our heads, cracking jokes in the unemotional way of friends who love and are heartily sick of one another, but will kill the first person to diss the others.

Also appealing are the demons, who are often attractive, rather than horrific, but whose essential inhumanity is explored and detailed over and over again. Humans and demons can't understand each other's magic, or anything else, really. It's wise to remind us of that repeatedly because, as we are warned, we tend to assign human will to human-shaped things. The question “If not human, why human-shaped?” is a very valid one for both sides of this story.

Lastly, I am both impressed and amused at the tactics used. Impressed by the clever ways we see and are told how the fights are won. Amused when, on occasion, one of the mages, most often Frieren, analyzes the strategies and tactics in an expository internal monologue. It's helpful, we might not understand how Fern blew a hole in that demon, otherwise, but it can be a tad silly.

I initially wrote off Frieren: Beyond Journey's End as a D&D-esque quest story when I first heard of it. I learned my mistake as I watched the anime. As giggle-making a spell to keep a paper airplane flying for a long time is, there is nothing standard about the story or characters. This is a series that is deep and thoughtful in both ideation and execution. Like Frieren, Stark, and Fern, we're just on a journey, but we're learning a lot about others and ourselves as we go.