Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End vol. 13

When we last left the title character she had accidentally traveled back in time to hang out with her old friends Himmel, Heiter, and Eisen and was looking for a way to return.  Then she and Himmel got caught up in the effects of the Black Mercy Grausam the Miraculous’ hypnosis abilities and found themselves about to get married!  I’ll give the creators this:  The way in which Frieren and Himmel deal with their situation is kinda clever.  Everything else about this arc has been an exercise in creatively bankrupt fanservice that assumed the audience would be happy enough seeing Frieren do stuff with her old party again.  What we got may have (barely) been okay, but it would’ve been even better if it had some impact on the story than being the end in itself.

After that, we’re back to the usual series of one-off stories where the characters wax poetic about the sweep of time and how things change before we know it.  Which isn’t as annoying as it usually is now that we’ve come off a series-low arc.  I’ll even admit that the story about the shirtless guy trying to get his fortune back was fun and the two-parter about the town leader with a secret actually did make the sweep of his story engaging in spite of its predictability.

Then we finally get to the good stuff in the last couple of chapters as two of the more memorable characters from the First-Class Mage Exam Arc make their return:  Taciturn duplicate creator Land and smiling psychopath Ubel.  They, along with Fern – and by extension, Frieren and Stark – have all been roped into a plan to thwart an assassination attempt on Continental Mage Association leader Serie’s life.  Land and Ubel make for a diverting presence as they engage in some fantasy spycraft, which is refreshing in itself as it’s not something we’ve seen in this series before.  It’s enough to make me look forward to the next volume but too early for me to take it as a sign that “Frieren” has got its groove back.