Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, is a surprisingly succinct title that describes exactly what this anime is about. We meet the protagonist, Frieren, on her way back from saving the world from the Demon King with her party of adventurers. Her companions are two humans and a dwarf. Frieren is an elf. On the night of a feast in their honor, the party witness a meteor shower that happens only once every fifty years. As the others are awed by the spectacle, Frieren bemoans the poor view they have from the capital city. She promises to meet back up with them next time around and show them a much better place to watch.

Thus, Frieren takes off for 50 years like it was a summer vacation, returning as promised to find her dwarven companion an old man and her human companions clinging to the end of their lives. When Himmel, the great hero who led their party, dies of old age immediately after seeing the meteor shower, his death hits Frieren harder than she expected. After all, she’d “only” known him for ten years traveling together.

Thus kicks off the main events of the story.

Frieren has resolved to get to know humans better in the short times she might have with them. She ends up taking on an apprentice, Fern. An orphan being raised by the human priest from her party, she needed someone to look after her when that priest passed.

Frieren (the show) is a remarkable epic tale with almost no epic driver at all. Most of the time, it feels like a slice-of-life anime with a fantasy setting. But it’s also a tale of history repeating itself, the effects (or lack thereof in some cases) of the passing of time, of relationships and memories, and of the power vacuum left after heroes vanquish evil.

It’s a masterclass on flashbacks. While typical battle anime lean on flashbacks for reminders over the course of long series and cheap filler, Frieren’s flashbacks are an entirely separate story, paralleling her present journey. You get to see how she’s both cold and distant yet playful and silly, irresponsible while carrying the weight of the world, mighty in magic while hiding her powers, legendary yet almost entirely forgotten within her own lifetime.

Her present-time travels follow roughly the same route as she journeyed with the Party of Heroes. Even 80 years later, their adventures are folk tales. Children they saved have become village elders. Statues commemorate them. Frieren passes through as a broke vagabond mage, but any time someone manages to identify her as THE Frieren of the party of heroes, she’s treated like an honored guest.

All throughout, the world builds itself for the viewers. We find out how magic works and why monsters prowl the world. How mages of the modern era learned their spells and why Frieren (and by extension, Fern) are so different. Most of all, though, we see a world in four dimensions, not just why it IS but what it WAS and how that old world turned into a new one.

While there are fights, and the animation is beautiful, don’t confuse this with a power-creep fighting anime. Despite her appearance of youth, Frieren is one of the most powerful beings in existence. How she wins and why she chooses to fight are far more important than the foregone conclusion of her victories.

Frieren is light on plot. The fighting is lopsided, with the only tension coming before you get it hammered into your head as a viewer that being underestimated is Frieren’s superpower. So, why should you watch this anime?

Characters.

This is some of the best character work in any medium. Even fairly minor characters are deep, complex, fully realized humans (and elves, and dwarves). They have awkward relationships. They make mistakes. They live with regrets. They are shaped by their pasts. Anyone with more than a passing line of dialogue could easily feel like they had a full story of their own to tell.

But we’re watching Frieren’s story right now. And also Fern’s. (And to a lesser degree, Stark’s… he’s a guy they picked up to swing an axe and protect them, but mostly for Fern to have someone around her age to relate to).

Check it out. It’s worth your time. As of this posting, you can watch on Netflix.