Frieren Season 2 Episode 1 is a Masterpiece!

Published on January 19, 2026

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A lot of Fantasy anime have come and gone but not many have stood the test of time. We had shows like the Scrapped Princess and Grimgar which a lot of people have forgotten about and some don't even know existed, but when people think of fantasy now, none come to mind, only the recently release series, HOWEVER Frieren has been on the top of almost all charts since it was released, being number 1 on sites like myanimelist. Now currently as of the date of this post, the top spot has been taken from Frieren season 1 and replaced with Frieren season 2, which is unheard of. And Frieren didn't just become popular because of coincidences or a stroke of luck and Frieren season 2 proves that. The story is focused on the little things rather than big epic battle or fight scenes. I'm not saying that doing less is better, rather showing off the little things in high quality animation and detail adds an extra layer to the series that doesn't necessary build the world, rather adds that sense of adventure for example in season 2 episode one we see Stark fishing randomly and Frieren and Fern cooking and hanging out. This adds a sense of adventure to the series showing the breaks and waiting periods between each big arc, similar to Lord of the rings slice of life moments with Frodo, Sam and Golem.

Season 2 review

The second season of Frieren starts off in a peaceful way with Frieren, Fern and Stark continuing their Journey North to the resting place or "Heaven", The one thing I love about this episode is that there is no big hyped up start moment to sell the first episode such as a big fight or sparkling visuals, rather the first episode shows what the series does best and that's to invite you on a journey. The first few minutes of season 2 episode 1 was calm and showcases the journey in-between, with a little break and the the slice of life of the story with the party resting before taking on the journey ahead and not only did the series pull this off, the music only ads to the masterpiece of episode 1. Another good thing is it reminds you very early that Fern just became a first class mage, and if you forgot how the first season ended, just this one sentence from the old merchant man instantly reminds you of how season 1 ended ("Don't mention it. It was reassuring to have a first-class mage along") This episode, just like the previous season also scatters around landscape views and nature inspired images just to remind you of this fantasy world, for example the camera showcases a far ahead mountain showing you that they aren't anywhere near a city rather they still in-between, this makes the world feel much larger, and then instantly from this camera angle it points towards a fish and shows the party taking a break and Stark fishing, but the show isn't without its humour that we all so loved from the previous season. The fishing rope breaks and stark only returns a very tiny fish to Fern, not only is this a realistic approach to an adventure, it showcases how much love the animation studio and the director put into this season. Normally shows would add these small breaks in to add filler, but funny enough, this does not feel like filler at all because during this break they find a magic nullifying crystal and this sets up the rest of the episode and it just worked so well together with the party taking a break and finding this crystal, but the most important part is that this is where the crystals abilities are explained (it nullifies all magic around it) and sets up the rest of the episode where they do encounter a cave that has these crystals everywhere and not much explaining needs to be said, this get them instantly into the action and OMG the animation is just perfect a 10/10! This also sets up the flashbacks from when Frieren was in her previous party and it somewhat takes the main focus off her, because obviously we know she can annihilate anyone with her magic, but with this crystal in effect this switches the focus to Stark who doesn't use magic and relies on pure strength. This episode also showcases that this party doesn't intend to be the heroes party to win every fight, and running away is also fine, BUT the entire party needs to run away together. The story-telling of this first episode flows beautifully into each other and tells a proper story, not like your average fantasy low budget series. There's just something about the story telling that is on another level and it's easy to see why Frieren was put at the top of My anime list and I have to agree the way the pacing was in this first episode really done the manga justice. The first 10 minutes of the episode tells you a lot without shoving everything at you at once, its honestly just a masterpiece. After Frieren and the party escape the dungeon the show rebuilds up again with a break and lots of humour again being targeted at Stark. While some other shows you cant wait for these small filler pieces to go so you can get to the action, i actually welcome these small slice of life moments with Frieren, Fern and Stark in the wilderness. This episode also introduced an old character from the previous season, more specifically Wirbel who is a former second class mage and the leader of the eighth part during the exams for the first class mage shown in season 1. He tries to recruit Stark to their party but without fail he always declines, this just shows how far Frieren, Fern and Stark have come that their bond right now is unbreakable. We also learn why Stark wants to stay in the party and it pretty much comes down to Fern. Could this be a love interest? Well, it's still too early for all that, but my guess is "MOST DEFINATELY". This episode ends with Fern, Stark and Frieren saying their good-byes to Wirbel's party and acknowledging that they don't want to go straight to their destination, rather they want to have an adventure and meet/help people along the way, a true and mesmerising end to a masterpiece of an episode and i cant wait for episode 2!

The detail and animation

Like I said in the episode review, the landscapes that are shown and different camera angles that were used truly makes this show stand out from the rest, it reminds me much of Mushoku Tensei where the studio wants you to see more into this world that you are witnessing your favourite party venture. Like showing landscapes to portray that you are still in the wilderness or showing a village from a-far to show you that either its a small little village in the middle of nowhere or some big main city hub. The director and staff at the studio really made this season shine. The animation is beyond perfect, the style is something that can only be for fantasy anime's. I cant picture Frieren with a different animation style so i think the studio pulled everything off down the the last frame. So that's my entire take on this first episode and I have no doubt it will be the same for the rest of the season.

Frieren Season 2 is Streaming Exclusively on Crunchyroll

What will Frieren season 2 be about

This Season will continue to see Frieren and her party continue traveling north. This is called the Continue Northern Travels arc which is the fifth arc in the story and will feature much more adventures, although what will really make this Season turn is the Divine Revolte arc which is a significant part of the Northern plateau journey and will focus on the party helping others but I don't want to spoil it too much so I think just giving the arcs name is sufficient, but all I can say is that we are in for something truly special, although the only downfall about this season is that there will unfortunately only be 10 episodes, but the up part is that each episode could cover each chapter faithfully and not drag the series out because as we know the manga isn't doing so well with it going on and off hiatuses.