When & Where Does ‘Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End’ Take Place?

The Fall of 2023 is a perfect time for new anime content, and Crunchyroll is releasing a new one on September 28, 2023 – ‘Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End.’ The anime will adapt the manga series of the same name that is still ongoing, and it focuses on Frieren, an elven mage who learns about the importance of good friends and a short life. This beautiful story has been quite successful, and undoubtedly, we will get more than just an introduction. Nevertheless, this article will discuss ‘Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End’s setting and some details about the premise.

‘Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End’ is set in a medieval-like world that is divided into three parts with three smaller regions – Northern Lands, Central Lands, and Southern Lands are the main parts of the territory, while Northern Plateau, The Empire, and Ende are other known regions of the manga series. The timeline of the ‘Frieren’ isn’t strictly set, with manga suggesting there was a 50 and 28-year time skip, but the design of the cities and regions suggest that the series might be set in its version of medieval times.

‘Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End’ is a fantasy anime where the main characters use magic and fight evil forces, but, most importantly, it is a beautiful story about friendships, life, and love. If you’re interested, stay with us until the end.

Note: Beware of spoilers!

What is ‘Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End’ about?

‘Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End’ is another anime that will premiere this fall on Crunchyroll, and fans are excited. This fantasy drama series focuses on a victorious hero party of four, including elven mage Frieren, human hero Himmel, human priest Heiter, and dwarf warrior Eisen. The group becomes their region’s heroes after defeating a Demon King that almost destroys the whole world.

After the decade-long adventure, the group says their goodbyes during the Era Meteors event, which happens every 50 years, and vow to meet again next time. Frieren continues to collect magic across the lands while the rest of the Hero Party continues with their lives. However, when it comes to time, the elven mage, Frieren, doesn’t care about it since her long lifespan makes it seem like several years is just another fleeting experience with her teammates.

After witnessing the Era Meteor shower, Frierer parts from the group and promises to show them a better spot for the event the next time they see each other. Fifty years go by, and Frieren looks like she didn’t age one bit. However, when she sees her teammates, she realizes they aged rapidly. After witnessing another Era Meteors shower as a group one last time, the human hero Himmel dies of old age.

At the funeral, Frieren realizes that she didn’t spend any time getting to know her teammates, and she deeply regrets not respecting the precious time humans have to live and decides to change that. Frieren visits the rest of her elderly teammates and starts getting to know them and meeting new people.

‘Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End’ is seemingly another shōnen manga series that follows the same formula. However, it is interesting how the writer Kanehito Yamada emphasized life, friendships, and death and how humans have so little time to live fulfilling and happy lives. Moreover, the story gets elevated further when the matter of life and death and preserving time is put in the context of an immortal character to whom years are just an insignificant number.

Now that we have introduced the story let’s talk about the setting of the upcoming anime series.

‘Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End’ “borrowed” its setting from the Middle Age Europe

Many fantasy anime and manga series do have their universes inspired by real-life events and time periods. For example, ‘Berserk’ introduced many themes in their setting and atmosphere, with great writer Miura admitting he loved Western literature and the European so-called Dark Ages.

‘Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End’ is similar in that sense because the writer Kanehito Yamada took some inspiration from Medieval Europe, especially with how the cities and people are depicted.

The fictional continent of ‘Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End’ has three major regions – Northern, Middle and Southern Lands. The main city, where the king and the “Heroes Party” members returned after slaying the Demon King – Royal City. One of the main characters, Heiter, lives in the Holy City, in the region of Strahl.

Of course, there are many cities and places introduced in the manga series, but we can conclude that the inspiration for the names and designs of the cities really reminds us of Germany – mostly the language of the names and historical inspiration from the Holy Roman Empire days during the 14th and 15th centuries.

This is also seen in the names of the main characters – Himmel means “sky” or “heaven” in the German language, while the place in the manga series, Größe Forest, means “big forest” in the same language.

Elves are mythic creatures of German folklore, so all this information makes much more sense.

When is ‘Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End’ set?

Since the manga series obviously took its inspiration from the Middle Ages of Europe and German history and folklore, Frieren and her friends lived between the 13th and 14th centuries. This is a personal estimation because the manga series never mentioned the exact year, but it does mention time skips and important events within the manga’s universe.

For example, Frieren and the rest of her Heroes Party were on a ten-year journey to slay the Demon King. The Era Meteros shower happens every 50 years, and after witnessing one, Frieren returns to the Royal City to meet her teammates once again to witness another Era Meteor shower. This is where a major character passes away, and we get another time skip, this time 20 years.

This could be a nuisance for some fans who want to know every detail about the series, but in the context of the main character, Frieren, the lack of details about the timeline and only mentions of time skips really emphasize the Elvens’s perspective of years passing, which is the main point of the series’ plot.

Nevertheless, we will get a whole anime series on September 29, 2023, on Crunchyroll, and it cannot arrive soon enough.

What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments below!