At the 2025 Crunchyroll Anime Awards, fantasy anime Frieren: Beyond Journey's End took home the night's second-biggest haul of awards, surpassed only by the biggest winner of the night, Solo Leveling — which came away with nine wins to Frieren''s four. In addition to winning the most awards of the night, Solo Leveling also virtually swept the major awards, including Anime of the Year and Best New Anime.
However, Frieren did snag two of the major awards, ending the night with a total haul of the following four awards:
• Best Director — Keiichiro Saito
• Best Drama
• Best Supporting Character — Fern
• Best Background Art
Frieren is a melancholy and introspective Fantasy story
The original Japanese title of the Frieren anime and manga is Sōsō no Furīren, worldplay that can't directly be translated into English but can be translated as either "Frieren at the Funeral", "Frieren the Slayer", or "Frieren the Undertaker". "At the Funeral" reflects the fact that the series begins with the virtually ageless Elf Frieren attending the funeral of one of her adventuring companions from 50 years ago. "The Undertaker" reflects both that idea, along with both "Undertaker" and "Slayer" can be understood as referencing the nickname she's earned during her past battles against demons and monsters.
The English title "Beyond Journey's End" isn't quite as multi-layered as the Japanese, but can be understood as conveying both the idea that the main storyline takes place decades after Frieren and her friends' initial quest and that Frieren is continuing to live on after those same friends have concluded the journeys of their mortal lives. Fundamentally, both the Japanese and English titles help to establish from the get-go that Frieren is a more melancholy, thoughtful and philosophical take on the genre than the traditional Fantasy anime series.
It's a fascinating look at what the legendary does after the quest that made them a legendary hero in the first place is over. Especially when that hero is basically going to live forever. As Crunchyroll explains the series's basic premise:
"After the party of heroes defeated the Demon King, they restored peace to the land and returned to lives of solitude. Generations pass, and the elven mage Frieren comes face to face with humanity’s mortality. She takes on a new apprentice and promises to fulfill old friends’ dying wishes. Can an elven mind make peace with the nature of life and death? Frieren embarks on her quest to find out."
There are still plenty of moments of action and comedy, too
Although Frieren was categorized as a Drama series at the Anime Awards (a category which it won), it's not completely devoid of action or comedy scenes. Frieren is established as a very powerful and well-trained magic user and she gets plenty of chances to show off against demons, usually in decisive and one-sided fashion. On top of that, one of the major story arcs of the first season is basically a magic tournament.
On the other hand, there are still plenty of comedic moments, too. Frieren is established to have a hobby of collecting strange spells and plenty of her interactions with the other characters are funny because she doesn't quite understand the nuances of basic everyday human interaction. One of the series's funniest running gags is that Frieren — despite being a highly skilled magic user and overall pretty intellectual — will be tricked by a Mimic's treasure chest every single time, as demonstrated here:
Where to read and watch Frieren
The Frieren anime adapts the original manga series written by Kanehito Yamada and illustrated by Tsukasa Abe which began in 2020. So far, the anime has aired one season of 28 episodes. A second anime season of Frieren has been confirmed and is slated to debut in the Winter 2026 season at the beginning of next year. In the meantime, season 1 can be watched on Crunchyroll and Netflix.
The original manga can be read in English on Viz Media's website and app. However, new chapters have been on hiatus since the end of 2024, though every chapter released so far has been made available in English. There has been no indication as of this writing when we can expect new manga chapters. A second official English version of the manga — subtitled Remnants of the Departed — is available from publisher Shogakukan Asia, which primarily distributes its library of manga series in Southeast Asia.