Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Episode 26 Review

Hunting the Replicas

As expected, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Episode 26 was an amazing episode. It had a lot of great action, we got some of Übel’s backstory, and the music was epic. I can’t ask for more than what we got this week.

Okay, so we know that Frieren and Fern are fighting Frieren’s replica. But, what are the rest of the mages doing while that’s going on? Are they waiting for all of the replicas to come to them? No. That would be a bad idea.

Instead, they go out to preemptively hunt for the replicas. The mages split up and target the replicas that they have good matchups against. For example, Laufen goes after Methode’s replica because that should be an easy win for her. And, Richter and Lawine go after Lawine’s and Kanne’s replicas.

The mages are able to know where the replicas are thanks to Methode’s mana-sensing skill. But, her skill can only help so much. She’s unable to sense where Fern’s, Denken’s, and Sense’s replicas are. And, of course, those are the most dangerous replicas besides Frieren’s. It would be bad if anyone was ambushed by one of those.

Well, an ambush is exactly what happens. Unfortunately for Richter and Lawine, Sense’s replica finds and attacks them. And, as a result, they both have to break their golem bottles. So, they’re out of the exam. But, interestingly, we never saw Fern’s or Denken’s replicas during the test.

Something we did see, though, is that the replicas can reincarnate. Defeating a replica doesn’t mean it’s gone for good. As long as the Spiegel is alive, it can summon the replicas again. Unfortunately, nothing came of this. I thought it was going to lead to an all-out battle. But, no.

Übel’s Reelseiden

In this episode, we got to see two mages perform some pretty incredible feats. The first was Übel using her Reelseiden spell to kill not one, but two First-Class Mages. That’s seriously impressive considering Übel herself is only a Third-Class Mage.

According to Übel, Reelseiden allows her to cut anything she can imagine cutting. Now, that’s not too special when it comes to spells. All spells require that the user be able to imagine the spell working as intended. But, what makes this spell so special when Übel uses it is Übel’s unique imagination.

The first time we see her use this spell to defeat a mage is during the Second-Class Mage Exam. This is when she killed the First-Class Mage proctoring the test, Burg. Burg’s test was pretty simple. The mages had to make him take a step back with their magic.

What made this test so hard was Burg’s Immovable Cloak spell. This cloak is constructed of a lot of very powerful defensive spells. He’s never taken damage since becoming a First-Class Mage. That’s how strong his Immovable Cloak’s defenses are.

But, Übel sliced through both Burg and his Immovable Cloak with ease. How?

Despite seeing how many powerful spells the cloak was made of, that didn’t matter to her. At the end of the day, Übel viewed the cloak as nothing more than fabric. And, fabric is very easy to slice through. So, she had no trouble cutting right through it.

This is also why she had an amazing matchup against Sense’s replica. Sense’s hair is very similar to Burg’s Immovable Cloak. However, when Übel views Sense’s hair, all she sees is hair. And, like fabric, hair is something that’s easily cut. Sense didn’t stand a chance.

The Height of Magic

The second incredible feat of magic was performed by Frieren’s replica. And, this means it’s something Frieren can do, as well. Now, the fact that Frieren is capable of doing something amazing isn’t very shocking. This isn’t the first time she’s defied expectations.

But, what Frieren’s replica did in Episode 26 is something we haven’t seen before. It’s something that we don’t understand. Fern didn’t even understand what happened or how it happened. However, what she did understand was that she just witnessed “the height of magic.”

So, what did Frieren’s replica do? Fern managed to blast both of the replica’s arms off. But, before she could finish the replica off, she got thrown back by a powerful blast. This blast slammed her into the wall and shattered her staff. And, the craziest part was that Fern didn’t sense any mana or recognize it as a spell.

What happened here? What did Frieren’s replica hit Fern with? How was it able to use magic without Fern sensing any mana? As we learned during the first test, every mage releases mana when using a spell. According to Denken, that’s not something any mage can conceal.

Has Frieren mastered concealing her mana even when using spells? That could be it. But, again, Fern said she didn’t even recognize what Frieren’s replica did as a spell at all. And, if it wasn’t a spell, what was it? We really have no idea. It’s beyond our comprehension.

Anything I theorize right now would be a complete guess. So, I’m not even going to bother. But, what I will say is that Frieren said that was the first time “she” used that in about 80 years. This implies that the last time she did was against the Demon King.

Final Thoughts

What do you think of Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Episode 26? Did you think more was going to come of the replicas being reincarnated? Do you think Übel’s previous exam disqualification was warranted? And, what kind of magic do you think Frieren’s replica used to stop Fern?

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My review of Episode 27 is available now.