Denken and Frieren struggle against Macht and another demon over the fate of a land turned to gold. Things look a bit dire, but sometimes a little faith can work wonders. And this is a story that knows for wonders.
Well, that sure was a long battle. Everything I enjoy about Frieren is on display here though. It’s clever, Frieren has such obvious disdain for the demons it drips from every pore, the villains are just complicated enough (okay, Macht is), we get the series’ trademark vignettes, and it shows real character growth.
The little touches make Frieren sing. I love that Macht turns out to genuinely want to learn to understand and coexist with humanity, but he can’t be allowed to because his actions will kill scores of people before he figures it out. The implementation of the demons in this series has been a consistent point of excellence.
It isn’t an especially hilarious volume, no Frieren hanging out of something gag, but the uniquely daft nature of the grimoires that Frieren collects never fails to amuse me with how mundane they are. The one that gets introduced here is very neat and leads to a cute moment later on.
Post-battle, we get some of the aforementioned vignettes of travel, the sort of thing that this series also does well. Because it does everything well. There is a quest on behalf of an apothecary that has a wonderful and awe-inspiring payoff that just feels so interesting and unique.
That digression, which has a small hook to the past, conveys how Frieren continues to learn from humans. That learning and lack of disdain is what separates her from her contemporaries like Serie. It’s subtle, but it’s there.
We’ll see where this next storyline goes. I don’t know that this needed to happen, but part of it is alluded to earlier by something Frieren says and I trust the story enough to come through with something interesting. It certainly makes for a hell of a hook to leave things on.
This is a classic in the making and continues to be as strong as it ever was. I know it’s still my favourite manga of all time and I dearly hope that my opinion of it never flags because it is an absolute delight every time a new volume is out.
5 stars - the devil is often in the details and this manga knows where every one of those devils is hiding. Excellent volume of an excellent series.