This review is more than a week late. But, sometimes, it is what it is, real life can get busy, and you temporarily must put your online presence on hold. Speaking of putting stuff on hold, man, I feel like both anime that I write episodic reviews about are intentionally giving me cliffhangers at the same time.

I thought when I watched episode 19, this is it, episode 20 will show the fight between Frieren and Denken. But no, it’s for episode 21, apparently. I remember I read the manga up to chapter 80is or so. It was months ago, so I can barely remember.

However, at least we get the aftermath of Fern’s and Wirbel’s group fight. We haven’t got to what’s the deal with Übel. Is she just a criminal? Does she have any backstory at all? Who knows. But, she is facing an opponent that can’t be underestimated, let’s start with that.

Two Cold-Blooded Mages

Somehow, my imagery of mages and wizards is stuck as scholars who occasionally fight. Maybe it’s my creeping nostalgia about Harry Potter. But, even in the movies, we have Bellatrix who’s utterly insane. Now that I think about it, Übel kind of reminds me of her.

While Übel is not insane, she’s surely merciless. She constantly goes for the kill, so to speak, when attacking Wirbel. Her cutting magic is lethal as long as her target is within five meters radius. Moreover, she is a bit like Linie, she can copy any magic that she has observed.

Her opponent, however, is equally ruthless. Although, Wirbel a bit more complex character, at least for now. Wirbel has seen the ugly and dark side of magic, especially when he fought off the remainder of the demons.

Demons in this universe are truly evil and would use the most despicable and underhanded tactics, like making captured human children as meat shields. In turn, Wirbel sort of adapted and picked up a few tricks for himself. However, he hasn’t completely lost it. Übel makes an interesting remark on Wirbel’s magic.

Wirbel has a unique spell where he can make his target essentially paralyzed as long as he keeps looking at it. Übel says that his magic is an excuse for his hesitation before killing his enemies, which he actually admits. Curiously, both of their specialized spells have inconvenient, which brings me to the next point.

This Is Why Fern’s Ordinary Magic Is Superior

Throughout this anime, we have only seen Fern using a few kinds of magic, Zoltraak or ordinary attack magic, defense magic, the bird catching spell she learned from Frieren. While she is occasionally exposed to Frieren’s hobby of collecting quirky spells, her choice of magic is, to put it in their term, ordinary.

This is a much different doctrine than the other mages. Fern got this from Frieren, of course, who simply think that ordinary spells would work just fine against other mages of this age. It’s not a strange teaching at all. In fact, there is always a big caveat for these modern spells.

Lawine’s and Kanne’s only really work when there’s water around, Übel’s and Wirbel’s only work in close combat quarter or if you have a direct visual on your target. Ehre’s earth spells can work as long as she’s not on the beach or in the middle of the sea. However, the most inconvenient magic must be Scharf’s since he needs essentially an entire garden to arm himself.

On the other hand, as long as there is mana, ordinary spells can work fine just about anywhere. How Fern fights off Ehre in this episode really shows both the effectiveness of simple spells and Fern’s large mana pool. More importantly, Fern’s swiftness in casting and controlling multiple spells really shows her real combat prowess.

Finally, Someone Recognizes Frieren!

There is one thing that irks me the most in the whole anime. Firstly, it’s established that elves are rare, and they’re actually close to extinction. Second, Frieren is one of the most influential figure in the last century. But, nobody seems like to recognize her.

It’s either the history class there is so bad, or the tales of Himmel and his party isn’t really widespread like I thought. Either way, it felt satisfying when Denken mentions her name when confronting her. Even Lawine and Kanne haven’t realized it until now, which is an easy chance to make a “these young people” joke.

I think Denken will be, or already is, that one character who appear late in the show, but everyone absolutely love him. Frieren aside, Denken probably is the more senior mage out of all participants. He might’ve seen more than even the exam proctors, who are all first class mages.

The Meaning Of A First Class Mage And The Most Powerful Elf

Speaking of the certification, what’s the point of being a first class mage? Honestly, I’m with Frieren here. Administrative things like this sometimes can feel so tiresome. Maybe to Frieren, it’s like renewing her driver’s license, but she’s born before the police department existed and will outlive it anyway. So, why bother?

However, every first class mage is entitled to a privilege of meeting the arguably strongest mage to ever live, Serie. Apparently she has a connection to Frieren and Flamme, so that’s a sign Serie is also a living relic. Whoever passes the certification can ask her for any magic they could imagine. So, of course, the allure of that offer is immense for any mage.

I still wonder, though, what was she doing all these times? Elves are pretty much immortal, so why didn’t Serie fight off the demon king? Perhaps, she never had an intention to protect humans after all. Like a demented arms dealer in a global scale conflict. In any case, everything about her is still shrouded in mystery for me, and this episode’s cliffhanger really doesn’t help at all.