English Dub Review: Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End “Shall We Go, Then?”

Overview:

Frieren, Fern, and Stark leave the magic city of Äußerst behind and travel along a road in the northern lands.

Our Take:

When the winter storms delayed a lot of the dubs last week, I was most disappointed that we had to wait for a new episode of Frieren. This show was the best anime back in 2023; it even knocked Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood from the top spot. As you can imagine, that means the second season has some lofty expectations.

We’re only one episode in, and I think we’re on track for greatness. Mallorie Rodak and Jill Harris are back as Frieren and Fern, and as expected, they kill it! Jordan Dash Cruz is back as Stark, and I think he’s going to get a lot more work this season. I’m rewatching the first season to refresh my memory, but if I recall correctly, Stark wasn’t in the first half of the season much. So I’m looking forward to him getting more time to shine.

Speaking of Fern and Stark, you all know I’m a huge romance fan, and I think we’re going to see more romantic interactions between Fern and Stark. The group stumbled upon a cave with magic-nullifying stones, so they had to rely on Stark to protect them. Fern finds herself looking at the bracelet that Stark gave her for strength while running from a monster. This leads me to believe that the feelings are definitely there for each other.

Madhouse is handling the animation again, and it’s still amazing. My only negative thing to say so far is that while I was looking up information on the series, I came across the season two episode count. What I can see says that there will only be ten episodes this season. We got twenty-eight episodes in the first season, so that’s a bit of a disappointment. I’ll be surprised if there isn’t a third season based on how popular the series is, but with an almost three-year wait from season one to two, it is a bit disheartening.