Translated by Misa ‘Japanese Ammo’
188 pages
Published 2022 (English translation published 2023)
Read from November 11 to November 12
Rating: 2 out of 5
Wow, it’s been about two years since I read the previous volume of Frieren. Tumultuous fucking couple of years, wouldn’t you say? I barely remember anything about where we left off. I had to peep at my review of Volume 7 to recollect that the magical licensing arc had concluded, and our little party was heading off into the northern wilds.
This was not the place to resume the story. The episodic structure feels almost like a montage here, sketching out encounters with demons and capitalists and rushing to resolve them as if even the author didn’t care beyond filling a quota. (Knowing the pressures of the manga industry, I wouldn’t be surprised if that were the case.)
This volume also makes it harder to ignore the story’s more dubious ideological elements. The conceit of ontologically evil “demons” who disguise themselves from human eyes just long enough to kill and devour innocents has made Frieren a favorite of the internet’s right wing slop factories, fitting in neatly with their weird race fantasies (“Everyone hates us just because we’re superior!”) and antisemitic brain rot (“They are financing the race war to supplant us good white people!”). The introduction (or maybe reintroduction, I don’t give enough of a shit to check) of Genau, a moody Aryan demon-slayer in a black trenchcoat, is rather off-putting in this context. It’s hard to imagine any context, in fact, in which the narrative should paint Genau as a good guy.
My library has one additional volume after this one. I’ll read it because I have it checked out (and I’m trying to bolster my numbers after a very disappointing reading year), but I’m not holding out much hope for a revolutionary improvement. I only wish I’d read this tankōbon before I bought that Frieren t-shirt from Hot Topic.
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