Frieren at the Funeral is the Best Manga of 2020

These days, I read a lot of manga. Sometimes it’s to prepare for an upcoming anime season. Sometimes it’s because of my need to consume every “reincarnated as a villainess” story out there. But every so often, I just pick something up based purely on the cover—and it turns out to be better than I could have possibly imagined.

At first glance Frieren at the Funeral (Sousou no Frieren) is nothing you haven’t seen before. It’s set in your typical high-fantasy world of swords and magic where an invading army of demons battles against mankind. Of course, as such stories go, a hero arises to push back the dark tide. However, he can’t do it alone. He is joined by an intelligent, bespectacled human priest, an ax-wielding dwarf warrior, and a stoic elf sorceress.

Image source: アベツカサ on Twitter.

But this is not the story of the party of heroes and their battle to kill the Demon King. No, Frieren at the Funeral is the story of what comes after—as told through the eyes of Frieren, the party’s immortal elf.

When the party returns from its long, ten-year journey to defeat the Demon King and save the world, each member of the party goes their separate ways—promising to come together once more to watch a meteor shower in 50 years’ time. Himmel the hero retires in the capital. Heiter the priest eventually becomes a bishop. Eisen the Dwarf warrior returns to his home in the mountains. And as for Frieren, she travels the world learning new magics both big and small.

Then, 50 years later, Frieren returns to find her companions noticeably older as they go on one final quest together and view the stars.

Image source: アベツカサ on Twitter.

Shortly after, Himmel passes away due to old age. At the grand funeral, she comes to realize something: while he viewed their time together as the most important of his life, she barely knew the man. In her immortal eyes, a decade together is no different than a day together. But all the same, she liked him. And with his death she feels a regret like none before—regret that she didn’t spend every moment of his short life at his side, getting to know him better.

It is this moment—this regret—that changes her forever.

Image source: アベツカサ on Twitter.

At its heart, Frieren at the Funeral is about Frieren’s struggle with her own immortality—the way it warps her view of time and her view of interpersonal relationships. No one, not even dwarfs or demons with centuries under their belts will live a fraction as long as she has. Spending three months looking for a flower? Six months cleaning a beach? Six years translating a book? This is but a speck of time to her—a small favor she’d be happy to grant. It’s simply hard for her to understand the hurry at which others live their lives.

And this is why personal relationships are so hard for her. To her they are ephemeral things—here one moment, gone the next. But with Himmel’s death, she gets the first inkling of how precious such relationships are. This manga is the story of her struggling to understand the friendships she had—that she didn’t even realize she had until it was already too late.

That’s the underlying melancholy of the whole thing—her slowly but surely understanding what she once had, long after she’s lost it. However, this is also where the joy in the story comes from. The true tragedy would have been if she had never realized what she had had at all. Because with enough time, there is always the chance to try again—to make new relationships to cherish.

Frieren at the Funeral is heartbreaking, depressing, soul-crushing, and yet wonderfully beautiful. It will make you laugh and it will sure as hell make you cry—even as it teaches you to cherish every moment while in the moment. And at the end of the day, it shows the true power of the fantasy genre by telling a tale in a way that only speculative fiction can.

It is not only the best new manga of 2020, it is the best manga of 2020. Period. Nothing else even comes close.

Frieren at the Funeral (Sousou no Frieren) is written by Kanehito Yamada and illustrated by Tsukasa Abe. It’s published weekly in Shogakukan’s Weekly Shōnen Sunday. The first three chapters are available for free (in raw Japanese) on Sunday Web Every.

Top image source: アベツカサ on Twitter.