Frieren: Beyond Journey's End -Prelude-, Vol. 1

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End -Prelude- #1

by Mei Hachimoku, Kanehito Yamada (Cartographer), Jenny McKeon McKeon (Translator)

After the legendary elf mage Frieren is forced to confront the cruel passage of time, she sets out on a journey to fulfill the final wishes of her friends and get to know the world a little better. Under the supervision of Kanehito Yamada, writer of the original manga, comes five original short stories! Join Frieren, Fern, Stark, Lawine, Kanne, and Aura in all-new adventures!

Genres: Fantasy, Light Novel, Manga, Slice Of Life, Fiction, Magic, Audiobook

160 pages, Hardcover

First published April 17, 2024

Reviews

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I adore Frieren, it's such a beautiful, well written manga, and the anime is just as emotional and majestic. This light novel fits right in with the other forms of Frieren, it's simply written but still conveys that vulnerability and strength from the manga and anime, giving advice and essentially life lessons at the perfect moments.

I liked most of the stories in this book, especially the final one about Frieren and the people she's met/ will meet- it made me cry! (Ahh I miss Himmel). Fern's was sweet, Stark's was courageous, and Aura's reminded me how conniving demons can be.

Overall, this was a really enjoyable read for fans of Frieren, I hope there will be more light novels in the future, I'd love to read about Ubel, Sense and Wirbel some time!

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really loved seeing more of the characters.

I have to admit i didn't like the writing style that much and it REALLY took me out that there were characters with normal names (vance, luisa and will), instead of just german words. I hated that decision bc it really didn't fit and took me out the whole time.

Other than that I really enjoyed Ferns and Starks Story but that was more because I love these two.

Kanne and Lawines as well as Auras Story was really interested, since we didn't see that much of them in the mangas/anime yet.

AND FRIERENS STORY MADE ME CRY. WDYM. THAT WAS SO SAD??

[Marellium · Rating 3 out of 5]

C'est très étrange comme sensation : j'ai eu tout du long l'impression de lire une transcription d'un manga, dans un style d'écriture extrêmement simpliste voire scolaire, sujet - verbe - complément, quelques périphrases pour éviter les répétitions, quelques figures de style bien exécutées mais attendues... ça m'a montré à quel point le dessin est primordial dans un manga et à quel point c'est un style particulier.

Sinon, niveau contenu, on se rapproche de l'anthologie : une petite sucrerie pour faire patienter en attendant la suite, des nouvelles sympathiques mais pas bouleversantes... en dehors de la dernière qui m'a beaucoup touchée dans sa construction.

[Shanifiction · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frieren: After “The End” -Prelude- berisi lima cerita pendek dari karakter-karakter di Frieren: After “The End”.

Ada cerita Fren semasa kecil saat tinggal bersama Heiter. Stark yang kabur dari Eisen dan tinggal disebuah desa yang diserang oleh naga. Lawine dan Kanne yang menjalani ujian sihir bersama. Pertarungan pertama Aura dengan kelompok Himmel Sang Pahlawan. Serta perasaan Frieren akan siklus kehidupan di mana konsep waktu sangatlah berbeda untuknya.

Sebagai penggemar anime-nya aku seneng banget baca light novel ini! Bisa mengobati rindu sama karakter-karakternya. Aku merasa jadi lebih mengenal mereka setelah membacanya.

Buat aku yang paling menarik cerita Aura. Karena jadi tau pov demon itu seperti apa. Perasaan yang kita miliki sebagai manusia itu lah yang dimanfaatkan oleh demon. Pokoknya boleh tertipu sama mereka!

Kalau kalian juga penggemar anime Frieren seperti aku, sangat rekomen buat baca ini! Season 3 masih lama jadi bisa lah menunggunya sambil nyari asupan cerita lain lewat light novel ini! 😆

[nyaru · Rating 4 out of 5]

nice side stories, some better than others tho. writing seemed a bit amateurish at times, but enjoyable nonetheless

[Elisabeth Brianne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was cute! The dialogue was a little hard to read and the book itself felt very young and amateurish, but I’m sure it’s not easy to translate an anime/manga into a novel. I still love getting to read about an anime!! It was the very time I’ve ever had the chance to do so.

I loved the opportunity to spend more time with all these characters I adore so much, and I’m excited to read the next installment when it comes out!

[Mayú Belén · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me felicito a mí misma por haber decidido darle una oportunidad a esta novela corta, "Frieren: Prelude Vol. 1" basado en el manga de Kanehito Yamada (manga y anime que amo), escrito por Mei Hachimoku, son cinco historias que logran complementarse con la historia del manga, hermosas , mi favorita la última, Frieren y su viaje. 🖤🌸

[Ilaria Massariol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Questa light novel riesce a catturare perfettamente l'essenza di Frieren: una scrittura semplice ma ricca di emozioni, capace di trasmettere la stessa dolcezza, malinconia e profondità del manga e dell'anime.
Ho apprezzato tutte le storie: quella di Frieren finale mi ha commosso particolarmente, ma anche le storie di Fern e Stark sono bellissime!
Una lettura piacevole e consigliata ✨

[Carlos Wang · Rating 4 out of 5]

粉絲向作品。
算是補完裡面角色個性的。
比較讓人意外的是阿烏拉這個前面幾集的配角，卻一直出現。XD

[Elihú · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frieren se convirtió en una de mis obras de Fantasía favoritas de la vida. No anime, no, así: obra. Y es que Frieren logra capturar con mucho amor lo que Fantasía debería sentirse: un viaje, un tono, una cadencia, una tristeza feliz. Evoca lo más tradicional de la Fantasía clásica, la añoranza por Faerie, pero al mismo tiempo subvierte los elementos (por no decir tropos) más sonados de la épica, ejemplo máxime: el fin de la aventura, de la quest, de salvar al mundo, aquí es el inicio. Y también destaca en su atinado homenaje a La Historia Interminable de Michael Ende (no es casualidad que el viaje sea llegar a "Ende", que significa "fin" en alemán y que además esconde la puerta que lleva a Aureole, una especie de cielo, de Arcadia, de Avalon).

Por todo eso y más, me encantó leer esta antología de cinco relatos que son parte del "preludio" a la historia principal. Como suele pasar con las antologías, el resultado es un poco irregular. De hecho, los primeros dos fueron los que menos me gustaron (centrados en una pequeña Fern y un joven Stark), por lo que arrastré varios días la lectura sin avanzar mucho.

Sin embargo, a partir del tercer relato, me los devoré sin tanta dilación. La historia centrada en las amigas Kanne y Lawine me enganchó, pero la de Aura, una demonio, fue mi favorita. Mucho se ha laureado a Frieren por conservar la naturaleza de los demonios como depredadores, sin intento alguno de humanizarlos o redimirlos. La historia de Aura en un momento parece que quiere hacerla "empática", pero veremos que no es el caso.

Y, por último, el relato sobre Frieren es justo uno que ahonda más en la tragedia de nuestra querida elfa: todos sus amigos y seres queridos se van a "bajar de la carreta" antes que ella y su cualidad de raza longeva le obliga a ver cómo eso sucede mientras ella debe continuar existiendo. El viaje de Frieren parece interminable. Pero no por ello menos hermoso y, en última instancia, necesario para ella si quiere conectar de verdad con el mundo que ha salvado y quienes lo habitan.

La escritura es muy ligera, no esperemos grandes florituras ni técnica. Son relatos sencillos, amenos, como un dulce para los fans. Nada más. Y yo me los saboreé muy gustoso. Amo Frieren.

[Online Eccentric Librarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/

In this charming light novel set in the world of Frieren: Beyond Journey's End we get five small novellas, each giving a short glimpse into the past of notable characters from the massively popular manga and anime.

The writing style maintains the series' calm, slice-of-life feeling. Although it contains no great insights or new story reveals, the whole thing is a pleasant read. The writing style is appropriate and all the characters feel 'correct'—a difficult feat when jumping mediums, especially as the author here is not the original author for the series.

Each novella concentrates on one character: Fern, Stark, Lawinne/Kanne, Aura the Guillotine and Frieren. Of these, Fern and Stark are perhaps the weakest because they mostly cover ground already explored in the series. The Lawainne/Kanne is all new but the story told is quite similar to the ones we have seen already. The one on Aura is perhaps the most interesting and gives us the best insight. I also quite liked the last one focusing on Frieren.

Overall, this left me wanting more and I would have happily read similar tales from other characters. I wish there were a bit more bravery and treading new ground. Since the series spans a vast timespan, creating new places and characters should be easy without interfering with existing canon.

The translation is smooth and flowing, though I cannot vouch for its accuracy. Overall the quality of the writing here is far better than what you usually get in a light novel.

Highly recommended for fans of the show, reading this will transport you back into the world of the show. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

[sil ✧ · Rating 5 out of 5]

˚₊‧꒰ა 5/5 ⭐️ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚

i watched the anime before reading anything from Frieren: Beyond Journey's End -Prelude-, Vol. 1 by Mei Hachimoku, and honestly, i'm completely in love with the anime, so of course i had to read this too. this prelude is basically a collection of stories that happened before the main plot of frieren, and it fits so perfectly into everything i already loved about the world and the characters.

it felt exactly like slipping back into the anime's atmosphere, that same quiet, bittersweet, slice-of-life tone but with little glimpses into who these characters were before we met them. perfect for anyone who's as attached to this story as i am.

𖥸 "living means someone knows you and remembers you."

some stories don't need to be big to leave a mark, they just need to be honest.

[Emilia Carter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Being written my my favorite author currently, and supervised by the author of Frieren, I was absolutely super excited to read this. I’ve seen many speak about the writing being bad or lackluster. If you’ve read the source material or watched the anime adaptation, I’d think you’d agree that he portrayed each of the characters perfectly. The stories themselves each created a short but concise narrative that were vividly told. Also, this is a group of short stories, so knowing that, it would be a bit ignorant to expect a large sprawling story as some other people seemed to have expected. The stories, I believe at least, were meant to complement the main series, not be as substitutes. I’ll admit that this wasn’t my favorite book by far, but it did what it set out to do and was a very fun ride. Stories 4 and 5 were especially good. I’m super excited for volume 2 and think that if you’re a Frieren fan looking for some expanded story, this will be a lovely read!

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this a lot, I'm actually fairly surprised at it's comparatively low rating when compared to the manga but then again - I am a huge fan of Frieren in any and all forms. People complain about western names like Will but it would be strange to me if every single human being in the entire world of Frieren, had a Germanic name. People complain about amateurish writing but I found it short, simple and fitting for a "light novel". The translation errors are much better in this than say - a Yen On, that time I got reincarnated as a slime light novel, which usually has many. I think this book has what? - 2 or 3 very minor translation "errors". Rating this 4 stars would be too low for me and due to the simplicity of the Goodreads rating system - it gets 5 stars. That's kind of a pattern with me, rating out of 10 would be much better. I would rather rate up than down.

[Gabriel Cruz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pesar de venir de un manga / anime, este tomo de Frieren realmente es una novela ligera, en donde nos relatan 5 historias de varios personajes emblematicos, y si estas acostumbrado al guión del manga, son historias que aportan cierto aprendizaje de una historia cotidiana, y sirve solo para enriquecer el lore de cada personaje, si te saltas la lectura, no te perderías de nada de lo que lleves en el manga, pero es gratificante ver historias del antes de personajes, principalmente de Aura, que no tuvo tanto tiempo en pantalla. Para los que van al día del manga, hay pequeños guiños a unos demonios que aun no salen en el anime. Lectura ligera para pasar un buen rato con al elfa favorita.

[⚡eli⚡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I somehow thought that we would get unknown short stories of the gang, but in reality, a lot of situations and dialogue were already known due to previous works (written and adaptation). The writing was simple enough, and I'm not sure if I personally had issues with formatting, but there were so many words that were not correct/broken and formatting was weird (words/sentences were sometimes in bold). I hope this is fixed. That aside, this works if you want to reminiscence in the world of Frieren.

Thank you Edelweiss and Yen On for earc copy.

[Denisse Ibarra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Las historias son muy lindas, si te gusta el mundo de Frieren, te gustarán. La razón de la baja calificación es porque la narración es deficiente, hay diálogos que son puntos suspensivos y eso en la prosa no debe ser, puede que el autor, si bien se dedica a escribir novelas cortas, tal vez lea más manga que novelas. También en la última historia hay que adivinar quién dijo qué porque el texto no lo específica.
A pesar de eso, las historias, como dije, son muy lindas, cada una es mejor que la anterior aunque mi favorita fue la penúltima, la de Aura, me sorprendió gratamente.

[James Hawk · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved each story so much, Frieren’s was definitely my favorite. I also really liked Aura’s story a lot more than I thought I would.

I think if I had to rank them it’d be
5.) Lawine and Kanne’s
4.) Stark’s
3.) Fern’s
2.) Aura’s
1.) Frieren’s

By no means are any of these stories bad! I loved all of them and Frieren Beyond Journey’s End is my favorite anime/manga series of all time and I’m so glad I we got more of it with these short stories. I also think the characters picked for the short stories were perfect choices.

[Ines · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ce livre est un très beau complément à Frieren, qui retrouve toute l’atmosphère douce, mélancolique et les moments de tendresse qui font le charme de la série. Chacune des cinq nouvelles apporte un petit quelque chose aux personnages sans jamais donner l’impression d’être de trop. Mon seul regret, c’est que tout s’arrête beaucoup trop vite : j’aurais aimé que chaque histoire soit plus longue et davantage développée. Ce n’est pas une lecture indispensable, mais pour les fans de Frieren, c’est un bonus plein de charme qui donne simplement envie d’en avoir plus.

[Aubrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I was reading this, I felt like I was hearing the Time Flows Ever Onward theme from the anime. Each chapter (even the Wandering Scales) felt like drinking a hot cup of coffee on an idle, rainy day—it felt warm, comforting, even like a soft hug from a friend after a long time of being apart.

You know how they say Frieren yearns so much for Himmel that you start yearning for him, too?

Yup, yearning right over here. That Journey's End chapter just tore my heart open and bled me dry. The ending was perfect, too.

[neura · Rating 2 out of 5]

i thought that the five stories contained in this novel would be things that had not happened in the anime, but it is quite the opposite. they are things that have already been animated in the first season of the anime, they only include a bit more extra detail, but it is nothing important. it helped me remember the characters, and i think that if you have already watched the anime, unless you are an extreme fan of this saga, you don't need to read this novel

[Filippo Malvisi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel expands canon events that take place before the manga/anime. While it does narrate interesting tidbits that are only mentioned in the main material (and that looked worth exploring to begin with) the result is just a fun story that does not add much depth to the characters, except Aura and, to an extent, Frieren.

A worthwhile quick read for the avid fan, but far from necessary for the casual enjoyed

[Jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

This didn't really add anything to the canon and the writing wasn't great. I'm not sure why this is being called a novelization when it's a collection of short stories about various characters, in no discernible order and without any real link between them. None of the stories add additional depth to the characters.

[Marah · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short cute novelization for one of my favorite animes. I really love Frieren and am waiting for the next volume of the manga, so reading this was a nice little journey back. I loved the first story with young Fern and Heiter, and I loved the last story as it mentioned the future of Frieren's walk of life, with eventually meeting Fern, Stark and Sein.

[Hannah Tiffany · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was very good! As a lover of the anime, I really did enjoy this. My favorite stories of the five were the last two, but all of them were very good and definitely added to the characters. I really enjoyed being back in Frieren's world. I recommend this if you like the original manga or anime, as this is a great complementary piece.

[Pedro Fadul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disfruté la lectura de este formato, es cierto que el estilo de escritura es diferente al habitual pero no me molestó. Creo que se profundizó más en el desarrollo de algunas tramas que no recibieron tanta atención en el manga.

[Jane Lebak · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed three of the five stories in this volume. I couldn't really get into the demon or the two bickering mage gals whose names I forget. But the stories about Fern, Stark, and Frieren were really good.

[Alejo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reads like a fanfic. The ivrea translation is inconsistent with their own manga translation and within the novel itself. The only redeeming point is the last story.

I say all this as a huge Frieren glazer btw

[Maya Liang · Rating 3 out of 5]

摘句：
你知道修行最重要的的是什麼事嗎？....答案是氣勢與忍耐。（艾冉）

懷有溫情或罪惡感這類情感，以生物來說才是有缺陷的。（阿烏拉）

歡樂的回憶或想跟別人相處的情緒，說不定反而對妳造成傷害。因為我們將會託付很多東西給妳，即使那不是我們的本意。（欣梅爾）

在這條路的前方似乎有什麼在等著，包括了幸福、不幸等一切的事物。p215

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

14NP