Series Review: Frieren

Frieren, a shortened form of its true name, Frieren at the Funeral or Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, is a manga written by Kanehito Yamada and drawn by Tsukasa Abe. Serialized in mid 2020, the series has been gaining traction, even managing to secure an anime adaptation in late 2023. As of the time of this writing, the series continues on with a second anime season secured in early January 2026.

The story of Frieren is based around a world that is nostalgic of classic old fantasy, taking many hints and tropes from that of Tolkien lore. Frieren is based around a magic bound world that is on the brink of change with the rise of the age of man and the decline of elves and other races. Interestingly enough, Frieren is best described to be the merging of two stories playing in parallel that are interconnected. In one half of the story, Frieren’s past is explored as we see tidbits of her journey and memories with those of her previous party members. In the other half, in the present day, Frieren’s journey is explored as she takes on some new friends as they look to reach the same goal together. At the start of the novel, one of her old companions, the famous adventurer Himmel, passes away, and Frieren, realizing that she has much to say to him decides to embark on another adventure of her own to visit his spirit in a mystical place where supposedly heaven and earth meet.

Frieren’s product history in Weiss Schwarz is fairly recent. The series came out in late December 2023 with the series’ trial deck. In a modern release schedule where trial decks are often released simultaneously with that of their booster counterpart, Frieren’s booster release came out as an oddity, releasing later in the following year in April 2024. The series also has a counterpart in the English version of the game.

Frieren’s cards are best described to be organized based upon the members of select parties which are partially associated with colour. In yellow, all cards are depictions of Frieren’s memories, following that of her former members in Frieren’s past. In red, all the cards resemble that of Frieren’s current party, taking in members that are currently travelling in concurrent time with Frieren. Blue is a mixed colour that is mostly taking shape based on characters with direct magic casting properties (with a few exceptions) while mainly based around that of Frieren and Fern’s relationship. Lastly, green is a mixed grouping of magic association test candidates and that of remnants of the last Demon King’s former army.

Rather than explaining each of the supposed decks one by one, I’ll be breaking down some of the common deck profiles that have been built around. Beginning with Frieren and Fern, this deck profile focuses upon playing around trying to get events into your waiting room. Frieren, as a grand mage, accesses her immense library of spells (lore), and is able to cast a variety of different effects based on the situation as needed. Her young disciple, Fern, travels by her side and gathers the necessary materials to prepare for her master’s grand entrance.

As described earlier, the yellow colour is represented by characters and events that depict the adventures of Frieren’s past party members. At the top end, Himmel’s clairvoyant predictions scour and mill the bottom three cards of your opponent’s deck and deal two damage for each climax revealed. Perhaps the greatest charm of this deck profile lies in the fact that it may feel as if you are reliving Frieren’s memories along with her, imagining your opponent as the Demon King and your deck as the team on their mission to slay their foe.

If you’re interested in the subplot and cute, innocent budding relationship between current members of Frieren’s party, Fern and Stark, you may be interested in the eight standby deck profile. The main gimmick plays around reliving the moments of Stark’s awkward moment as he struggles with figuring out which present to get Fern for her birthday. As you fumble your way towards the late game, you’ll surprise your opponent with an explosive bomb from Fern’s silent tantrum.

Perhaps, arguably, one of the strangest combinations of characters. Green is probably the least flexible of all the colours with a strange group of collected individuals. For one half of the deck, you have Aura and her volley of minions while featuring Frieren’s old master, Flare. For the other half of the deck, you have the magic association test participants that work very well in conjunction with that of Aura and company. The goal of this deck profile is to goad your opponent into a false sense of security by offering low powered cards in front in hopes of then playing a mini-game with your opponent where Aura will compare her soul to that of her opponent’s (power comparison). The loser of course, in this competition, will be sent directly to clock.

If you haven’t gone ahead and watched the show or read the manga, I would highly recommend you do so. Frieren feels like a fresh series that doesn’t reinvent the wheel but looks to improve upon it. It is, in my opinion, simplicity done right. Doing away with a lot of what my “old man” perceptions on modern anime are, Frieren feels like it digs back into the roots of a good fantasy series, a story full of life and connection between characters with tons to explore and see.