Laufen - Frieren: Beyond Journey's End

Whoops, you right.

The following is an unprompted rant/review by me about said Manga. (I am a native german speaker and find those "apt german names" very jarring, and will thus try to replicate said feeling for you for a short while.)

I intensely disliked it. The Artwork is good, somewhat bland but still high quality. The english translation is solid.

The Story starts in bland medievaleasque "high" fantasy(demons, elves, whatnot) after the big bad has been defeated. The pre-story is about the main character Freezing (Frieren) who is an elf and as such has quite the long lifespan and has to watch her good friends pass away one after the other (drama much).

The story we are following (atleast to where I have read) is where Far (Fern, probably he yearns for the unknown, the far-away and needs to drag the poor, unwilling elf lady with him, but because of japanes media, her feelings actually wont ever be like her initial setup should have made her, so she can fully support the now male lead and be happy going away from where she wanted to remain.) somehow ends up in a party with Freezing.

Then they meet up with one of her old companions Iron (Eisen) one of the most blandest dwarfs I have ever heard of in my entire life. (dwarfs are short, have a beard, like eating and like booze. Thats as far as the manga goes. He is one of the most relatable characters. dwarfes could however also be [in better media]: Spiteful, vengeful, stupid, dirty, blunt, loud, horrible, shy, awkward, fascinating, mentors, heroes, helpful, nice, pretty, non-bearded, women, woman-like despite being a "true" male dwarf, ...)

Then Far discovers why Freezing has taken them to where in this manga-world they are. because (drama much) thats the grave-site of one of her old companions, and its a beautifully drawn panel and in other media I would have loved it.

My issues with the story are mainly the blandness and another thing. Bland meaning it lacks any part of imagination on the authors part. they just have read some fantasy and decided: "you know what the world needs? more of this!" and made scrambled story after. There are tons of manga that are set in "medievalesque high-fantasy" but some of them actually do it interestingly. not this one.

And now to the big problem: the characters are fucked up stiff. Yes they are bland and unimaginative. but they could be relatable if all those (drama much) moments were actually used instead of thrown in your face and twenty seconds later Far needs to try to learn magic or some crap and is grinning over his ears and laughing and the mood is all chirpy (because mangas have light backgrounds with minimal detail, to save on costs and to enhance the drawers wrist-lifespan, which just makes everything appear somewhat anti-negative.)

A good writer would be able to overcome these medium-related challenges and still have an emotional build-up instead one just receives a bit of "whip-lash" and is forced into the next story beat.

The next story beat however must wait until the japanese are done talking and exchanging niceties. In their very forced manner. you know what I am talking about. male protagonist has a big grin, slight blush, hand behind their head, and something slighty embarrasing leaving their mouth just enough for you to experience slight "Fremdscham" ("Shame from others" maybe cringe or such in english, the reason why Germans arent funny, they only know such humour).

You know, I was busy reading a manga and evaluating if it was good, now I am just left reading boring dialogue between freezing-sama and Far-kun or whatever they called eachother.

I wouldnt have a problem with Freezing being stiff, stillfrozen etc in conversation. maybe something interesting like stutters, badly chosen words or taking a slightly too long time for answering, but always answering very smartly.

but then the human-mal-japanes-self-insert "Far" starts talking like her. THEN THE FUCKING DWARF TALKS THAT WAY. just endless: "yes it appears so", "we have had a very enjoyable day so far".

If I want some strange people talking to each other like strangers i can go to my autistic friends. at least they sometimes have something interesting going on.

anyway im tired writing now. This manga starts horribly and I cant see how anyone can like it enough to power through that shit until it probably gets better again, somehow?

tl;dr: The World, Setting and characters are unimaginative, bland even, just a bad(/BlAnD) mix of things you'd probably enjoy more coming closer from the source. And they talk in a very japanese way, in a very stiff way and everyone talks the same way. Imagine donald trump or Will Smith or another recognizable voice reading the text for one character and the the text for another. does anything change? Do you actually hear someone else or just a schizo Trump?

Some Manga/stories I have enjoyed signifitcantly more because they have at least a sliver of imagination and talent (italics for similar to what ive read of the manga ive decried here):

• Made in Abyss
• Dungeon Meshi
• Somali to Mori no Kami-sama
• SSS-Class Suicide Hunter
• The Breaker
• The Wrong way to use healing Magic
• Kaiju no.8
• The Breaker
• Her Summon
• Hito Hitori Futari
• Grand Blue
• Tensei Shitara Ken Deshita
• The Dragon, the hero, and the courier
• Isakei Walking

Non Manga:

• The Lord Of The Rings

Low Fantasy:

• True Education
• Lord of Money

I hope someone finds this and finds something on the shortlist they enjoy too.

About your question why japanese like german things, I guess its because of multiple reasons:

1. somewhat similar politics and histories from across the globe. starting from the second world war the germans won against their enemies the french and then lost to the world, the japanese won against the coreans and theb lost against the world. then the rebuilding efforts in both countries were insane, dragging them both to the top-spots on the world gdp-wise and whatevs.

2. somewhat similar cultures that highlight personal effort, dedication (to craft, the workplace, the family and community etc.), and such.

3. they just love the germans. a user? said this on a forum "Finally, Japanese just love Germany. They (we) have learned many things like constitutions, medicals and chemicals from Germany. They also love German products like BMW automobiles, artificial hearts, etc. and believe Germans are hard-working, honest and industrious. (Personally, I also rely on German middle-wares)."

I personally believe that the influence of english is significantly higher than the influence of most other languages/culture throughout most of the globe, just because of well... "american imperialism." but it is difficult for that to be visible from the inside. --> my theory being they love english more than german but for example picking a name you can "just pick a german word" for a name and since no-one actually speaks or understands it, it doesnt hurt the story. If you've read my other text-wall you know how thats untrue.

But it seems very strange for me too. In Corea there is a saying "a foreigner with black hair" when they are surprised when they see a "non-blond"-european/american. When the chinese get their heads out of their asses(1) about their 5'000 years of culture then they fall into fascination with europe as well...

I havent consumed much media from other asian spheres and am unable to think about this much more today, so I will leave the world a just slightly more (knowledgable) place than before. thank you for attending my Ted-talk.

(1) I just want to mention, that I am very much fascinated and in love with, traditional, pre-communist-revolution chinese culture, Cambodian Culture from its golden age 1960-1975, as well as some of Japanese and corean culture. it is just such an active corner of the world for all that little that I hear of it every year.

I lean quite far left generally but those "communists" have had quite the bad influence on the good of the people, but its as they say, you cant be unhappy if you've starved/been killed to death.