Whenever a good anime or manga comes around, it’s bound to trigger some form of debate. Yet, the recent discourse surrounding Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is nothing more than misguided claims that the series promotes a fascist ideology. As someone who not only loved Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Season 1, but almost immediately dove into the manga, it was clear to me that something was off. After reading through some of the conversation surrounding this issue, I realized that, at its core, the controversy wasn’t about Frieren, but about a broader issue: media illiteracy.

Many anime fans and even critics have misinterpreted Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End‘s themes, world-building, and historical allegories that mangaka Kanehito Yamada clearly established throughout the manga. Without proper analysis, the conversation around the series has led to unnecessary and sometimes even harmful debate. To fully understand a work, one must take the work as is, not infuse it with their own subjective perspectives. So, in order to discuss the issue of whether Frieren: Beyond Journey‘s End is fascist, we have to look at what Yamada established within the text.

The Origins of the Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Controversy

Social Media Has Amplified Misinformation Surrounding the Critically Acclaimed Series

Many discussions across Twitter (X), anime forums, and even video essays, have recently surfaced claiming that Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End has fascist undertones. While these claims are niche, they’ve started to gain traction because of the broader tendency to project real-world ideologies onto fantasy works. Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End isn’t the only fantasy franchise that has fallen to this.

When Amazon Prime’s Rings of Power was announced, it fell victim to many harmful online discourses. Since then, Tolkien’s works have been projected with personal interpretations and used for good and for ill. While this sort of discourse is common in Western media, anime seemed to be safe from it for a while. Yet, with the rise in popularity around the world, anime fandom has also become increasingly more political.

Related

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Season 2 Anime Finally Gets Major Release Update

The main cast of the popular Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End series reunites to reveal exciting new updates about the anime’s second season.

With the difference in cultures and storytelling practices, the discussion surrounding anime and manga has led to more Western-influenced interpretations of Japanese media which clearly do not align with the original intent. Add to that social media’s toxic outrage cycles and hot takes that spread quickly regardless of their accuracy, and it’s not at all surprising how it all leads to reactionary discourse. Many viewers now approach media of all kinds with the assumption that everything has to be political, which more often than not, fails to consider alternative readings or the original author’s intent.

The Key Arguments Against Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End

The Anime & Manga’s Portrayal of Demons

The central point that sparked the debate was the way demons are portrayed in Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, and more specifically Frieren’s own ideology about demons. Some critics argue that Yamada’s depiction of demons in the series as inherently evil by nature, reinforces harmful stereotypes. In fantasy literature and media, however, it’s quite common to characterize specific races or species as evil, in order for them to serve as antagonists to the protagonist.

It’s a narrative tool used to set the boundary between what is good and what is evil, and not to comment on real-world racial dynamics. Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End uses this trope, the same way Tolkien does with the Orcs in Middle-Earth. We live in a time, however, where characters who were always established as evil are getting their own stories where they somehow become the heroes. ​​​​​​​

Related

Frieren Did Nothing Wrong – Demons Are Evil

Frieren’s ruthless stance on irredeemable demons has ignited debates, with critics even labeling her the anime’s true antagonist.

While this may make for some entertaining concepts, it doesn’t always work, nor is it always necessary. Demons in Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End are established as creatures who lack empathy and are fundamentally opposed to co-existing with humans. In several chapters in the manga, it’s explained that demons will use whatever they can, even human emotions, in order to kill. This alone is enough proof from the text that demons couldn’t care less about humanity as a whole.

The other side of the argument from critics is that the portrayal of demons pushes the dehumanization of the “other.” While this perspective can be valid, it is a surface-level interpretation. For the idea of the “other” to exist, the text itself has to have a nationalistic or even militaristic message, and Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End has neither. The story is deeply character-driven, and focuses on themes of loss and the value of time. The depiction of demons serves as a way for the narrative to explore these themes rather than as an allegory for real-world conflicts.

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is a Deeply Anti-Fascist Story

The Story Explores Grief, Memory & the Value of Holding on to the Things We Love

After reading Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, it becomes quite clear that, at its core, it is a story about grief. Frieren, the series’ protagonist, is an immortal elf mage who grapples with the fragile nature of human life. Having been alive for over a thousand years, she’s been witness to life and death. While at first she disassociated, meeting Himmel, Heiter, and Eisen changed all that. After Himmel dies from old age in Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Episode 1, Frieren breaks down and cries, realizing how much she regrets not having properly connected with him.

Related

This Tiny Detail Makes Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Even More Heartbreaking

Certain scenes from Frieren: Beyond take on a whole new meaning after fans understand Himmel and Frieren’s relationship.

This moment became her call to adventure. She embarks on a journey to understand human emotions and the value of shared experiences. The series is far from a political story — it’s a story about life and death. The depiction of demons in the story is used to stand in the face of that to further the exploration of these themes. They are the antagonists in the story, dangerous obstacles that threaten the two things that Frieren values above all else. The first is the lives of Fern and Stark, the people who Frieren is growing closer to. The second, and probably the one closer to Frieren’s heart, is Himmel’s legacy of peace and love for humanity.

The fact that Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End has come under criticism for this, when other stories have portrayed evil in similar ways, is baffling. Whether in Western stories, like Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, or even Japanese manga like Berserk, there’s no reason that Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End shouldn’t be able to use those same tropes to tell its story. Frieren actually rejects blind militarism and prejudice. The narrative questions absolute power and unwavering loyalty, whether through Frieren’s perspectives or through Fern and Stark’s journeys.

Anime Criticism Needs Better Guidelines

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End isn’t the only anime to fall victim to this. Fan-favorite Attack on Titan has also come under fire for similar reasons. Viewers interpret the anime’s depiction of walled cities and external threats as fascist or nationalistic ideologies. A Polygon article from 2019 criticized the anime for its depiction of authoritarian regimes and the use of militaristic imagery, claiming that they cannot be overlooked. Yet, at its core, Attack on Titan actually took a critical stance on such ideologies. The anime explored themes of freedom, oppression and the cost of humanity’s cruelty.

It’s easy to misinterpret anime narratives, or any narrative for that matter, when one applies external ideological frameworks, without fully engaging with the source material’s themes and author’s intentions. Unfortunately, social media platforms prioritize engagement over accuracy. They create echo chambers that trade nuanced discussions for sensationalism, hindering any chance for healthy critical discussions. Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End may be the current victim of this, but it most definitely won’t be the last.

Related

15 Things Frieren Does Better Than Most Other Anime

While Frieren isn’t exactly taking the anime fanbase by storm, it does several things better than many other anime.

Global anime fans have to understand that applying Western political concepts to non-Western storytelling without considering cultural context will only lead to very flawed analysis. Japanese narratives often include elements that are unique to their culture and critics should be open to understanding these aspects rather than impose their own perspectives onto the author’s intentions. It will also do them well to remember that not every story has political tendencies.

If there’s one takeaway from all of this, it’s that there needs to be room for nuanced conversation about art again. Critics must remember that there is a difference between fantasy tropes and real-world ideologies. While there will be stories that blur those lines, not every story will. There’s more to life than politics and Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End explores those different aspects.