Frieren: Beyond Journey's End

What’s it about?

Follows a long-lived elf named Frieren after her party of adventurers defeated the Demon King. As her friends retire and begin to die of old age, Frieren helps tutor a young mage, only to end up mentoring a new group of adventurers.

The facts

• Directed by Keiichiro Saito
• Written by Kanehito Yamada
• English and Japanese languages
• 16 episodes, 24 minutes each

Why did it get this rating?

This film was classified by Te Mana Whakaatu, Classification Office. You can find out more about classification process and ratings here.

Violence

This series contains combat scenes where characters are injured, leaving them slightly bloodied, with some depictions of blood splatter. Most of the violence is towards demon’s that take on human-like forms.

Some of the strongest moments of violence include:

• A demon axes a character in the shoulder, and later in their side, leaving bloody but undetailed wounds. The demon is killed with a powerful blow which splits them from shoulder to torso. A smoky effect hides the wound, but the shape of the wound is still clear.
• Some scenes depict armoured characters being decapitated by magic. Helmeted heads are shown detached from bodies, with some blood trails and wounds that are partly hidden. A character is shown in a pool of blood, but the wound is not shown.
• A demon bites their own hand and runs a finger down a sword to spill their blood so they can access a magical power. We see the blood spill, pool, and shape into a weapon, but the magical context limits the weight of the violence.
• One demon has a large hole blasted in their torso, with some blood dripping and splattering. Another’s severed arm is shown with limited detail.
• One flashback story involves a demon pretending to be a child, later killing their host family and holding a child hostage. They are killed and the child is saved.

Sexual themes

This series contains some sexual innuendos, such as when a character casts a spell allowing her to see through others’ clothes. She looks at a male character and says, “so small”, in reference to his genitals.

Sexual themes are also depicted, mostly for character development, such as when a character identifies a cloud as looking like “a lady with huge boobs”.

 A male character repeatedly says he wishes to travel with a “sexy older lady”, saying his group is “vixen-less”.

Horror

Supernatural themes and imagery are depicted but are dampened by the anime aesthetic. Demons appear as menacing animals, fantasy creatures, or humans with horns. They threaten the main characters but are not particularly frightening.

One demon commands an army of decapitated human warriors, whose bodies rotted away over time.

Low level suicide themes

A main character gains control of a human-like demon and orders them to kill themselves. With a panicked expression, the demon unwillingly puts their sword to their own neck causing blood to trickle. The scene then cuts to the demons’ head falling to the ground. Overall, the scene is low level and not a harmful depiction of suicide, largely due to the magical context. It could be upsetting for viewers who are particularly sensitive to this type of content.

In a flashback there is a low-level suicide reference. It is clear this character does not die by suicide as they are alive in present time.

Coarse language

This series contains infrequent use of mild offensive language, with words like “sh*t” and “b*tch”.

Helplines:

The suicide themes could be upsetting for some viewers, especially for those who have gone through similar experiences. If you are struggling with what you have seen on-screen please reach out for help. If you or someone you know needs to talk:

• 1737
• Safe to talk
• Lifeline
• Youthline

Further information

• Why are ratings and content warnings important for me and my whānau?
• Brain development – how it works, why it matters