Summary
Quick Links
Frieren: Beyond Journey’s Endis a show where mana is the universal measure of a mage’s power and pride. It’s their greatest metric for gauging opponents, but its concealment is perceived as a lose-lose situation. In Frieren’s case, its mastery makes her a formidable mage, yet at the same time, it’s also a cultural and philosophical affront to both demons and mages.
However, Frieren’s reason for concealing her mana signature is more profound, and practical, and is a feat she deserves credit for. Yet, for elusive reasons, the mage community just can’t wrap their heads around accepting it, because they deem it to be “cowardly”, and a “disgrace.”
The Demon Perspective
Pride in Power
For demons, mana is more than a tool and can be considered as adeclaration of identity. The more mana you have, the more status and respect you command. Concealing mana for them is like hiding their wealth when their society expects them to flaunt it.
To demons, masking one’s mana isn’t just deceptive, but utterly shameful. It undermines their deeply ingrained belief that strength must be worn openly, as a testament to their pride and superiority.
I despise geniuses. They lack the beauty of accumulated effort.
Frieren’s concealment directly insults this value. It’s not just that she hides her mana; she has perfected the art so well that even the most perceptive demons, like Aura the Guillotine, cannot detect her true power. This makes her victories feel like cheap tricks to her enemies, a sucker punch rather than an honorable duel.
Flamme’s Philosophy
Betrayal of Magic’s Essence
Flamme, Frieren’s mentor, introduces a more nuanced critique. For Flamme, magic is about beauty, expression, and sharing—values rooted in the peaceful and creative applications of magic. Concealing mana, however, is a skill born from violence and necessity, used solely to counter the demons' mana-sensing abilities. By dedicating centuries to refining this “cowardly” technique, Frieren strays from Flamme’s ideal of what magic should represent. It’s as though Frieren has prioritized vengeance over the wonder of magic itself, a path Flamme subtly critiques. This conflict comes to the fore when Flamme teaches Frieren the spell for growing a field of flowers—a stark reminder of magic’s peaceful origins.
The Mage Community
Undermining a Lifetime of Work
Among human mages, mana concealment is divisive. Many mages dedicate their lives to increasing their mana reserves, proudly displaying the fruits of their labor. Frieren’s mastery of concealment, which allows her to appear weak while wielding enormous power, feels like a shortcut—a betrayal of the traditional mage ethos of hard work and open strength.
When Frieren defeats Lügner using her concealed mana, his reaction encapsulates this frustration. To him, it’s not a fair fight, but a calculated trick. For traditionalists, Frieren’s approach cheapens the art of magic, reducing battles of skill and power to deceptive ploys, and while it gets the job done, it’s a shortcut that undermines the effort a regular mage must put to reach that point.
Frieren’s Self-Reflection
A Lifetime of Losses
Even Frieren herself is haunted by the implications of her choices. Shereflects on the times she was defeated by mageswith less mana than her, realizing that sheer power isn’t everything. Her reliance on concealment has made her a survivor but not necessarily a stronger mage in the traditional sense.
She has been dedicating centuries to this skill, and has sacrificed opportunities to develop other powerful spells or techniques, leaving her vulnerable to those who take a more balanced approach.
However, that isn’t a weakness in the traditional sense, since as an elf, Frieren has all the time in the world to develop, and complete her mage odyssey.
A Necessary Evil
Frieren’s use of mana concealment is a pragmatic response to the existential threat posed by demons, but it comes at a cost. To demons, it’s a slap in the face of their cultural pride. To Flamme, it’s a deviation from the essence of magic. To traditional mages, it’s an insult to their way of life. Yet, for Frieren, it’s the skill that has kept her alive for over a millennium, allowing her to honor her comrades and continue her journey.
And at the very end, it is this determination, and willingness to adopt any method necessary that allowedher and her party to slay the Demon King– a feat, which even the great mage Serie has yet to accomplish. Though, considering how different Serie’s goals are from Frieren’s, it’s unlikely for it to be happening anytime soon.
Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End
Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is an animated adventure-drama series based on the manga series created by Kanehito Yamada and Tsukasa Abe. Following her parties' victory against an all-powerful demon king that threatened to destroy their world, Frieren, an elf, attempts to find her place in a new world with an undetermined future fifty years later.
