Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End vol. 3

Vol. 2 threw a surprising curveball into the series’ pleasant narrative with the demonizing of actual demons.  The creativity displayed by writer Kanehito Yamad and artist Tsukasa Abe continues through the remainder of the arc as Frieren goes to confront the demons’ leader Aura and her magical Scales of Obedience while Fern and Stark take on a couple of her underlings in town.  Though the fighting itself may not be as flashy as other shonen manga, the real meat is in the details as we learn that there’s something different about how the title character manages her mana.  It ties in to how she was raised by the great human mage that found her as well as how the demons themselves convey status and power.  All of this represents some quality worldbuilding on the part of the creators and I was hoping they’d keep that standard up for the rest of the volume.

That they don’t manage to do so is disappointing, but by no means dealbreaking.  After the demons are dealt with, Frieren and her companions continue their journey in much the same manner as before.  Their adventures involve meeting up with an exercise-minded elf in a snowbound cabin, Frieren checking in on a town that has a legendary sword (and monsters) in its outskirts, and an encounter with a priest who may be a magical prodigy, but possesses some truly awful luck.  None of these stories are bad, but they didn’t offer up any surprises like the “Demon Arc” did.  It’s just more fantasy comfort food of the same variety that we got in the first volume.  I’m still invested enough to keep reading, but there’s that hint of disappointment which comes with reading the rest of the stories in this volume now that I know the creators are capable of more.