One Great Panel: Frieren

All in the name of tone.

I’ve said this before, I’ll say it now, and I’ll say it many times going forward—nobody does tone like Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End. I have several drafts of Frieren-based articles sitting in my dashboard, but before I get into those, I want to present the jumping off point, which is this wonderful and wonderfully silly panel that captures everything Frieren is all about.

No matter what happens in the series, it never loses touch of the hilarious, almost childish tone. And I mean childish in the most complimentary way possible.

Case in point, this panel, from chapter 35, page 10.

Context: Stark is always crushing on Fern, but in a way fourth graders crush on each other. Here, the party has had to get a cabin to wait out the winter. Fern touched Stark with cold hands as a prank, and Stark got her back. Fern got mad. They’ve been fighting ever since, and now Frieren and Sein take it upon themselves to solve their squabble.

Even without the context, this panel thrives because of one simple thing—blocking.

Notice the manner in which Stark (far left) and Fern (far right) are sitting to mirror each other. And not just that, but the intentional way in which Frieren and Sein are between them highlights how they are in charge of bridging this gap. I also read way too much into the way they’re all facing. Fern can see no one, Stark can see everyone, but he’s focused on Fern.

That’s some kind of blocking. And that’s great and all, but it’s the humor of the panel that really captures the tone. I say this as someone who reads Frieren regularly, but I really believe that this panel on its own tells such a great story, no matter your knowledge of Frieren. Each character here carries such a distinct personality.

Stark, with the help of very descriptive sound effects, is rather down on himself.

Fern, with the help of sound effects and the rigid nature she’s sitting, is clearly being defiant.

Sein’s face is riddled with concern as he gives the only line in the panel. It is indeed worse than he thought.

And Frieren, our beloved Frieren, could be seen as a mixture of things. Concern? Condescension? Curiosity?

Frieren has already essentially saved the world with her previous party, and this is her new party, all here gathered together, facing their own challenges. So even though the humor is what makes this panel pop, there’s still some tension baked in too, even though the nature of how we got to that tension is funny. We still want to see Fern and Stark be friends again.

There are so many panels from Frieren that I’ve loved as one-offs, but this one takes the cake.