Frieren is a gorgeous, melancholic anime set after the RPG adventure ends

destructoid.com:

Many stories portray brave adventurers in their quest across the land to retrieve an artifact or stop a great evil. It’s less common to see a story look at what happens after the quest ends. When, after the celebration and ushering in of a new era, the adventurers have to find a way back to a normal life. That’s where Frieren starts.

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is a currently airing anime series from Madhouse, adapting the manga of the same name. It centers on the titular Frieren, an elven mage returning with her party after a decade spent taking down the Demon King. For her companions—the humans Himmel the hero and Heiter the priest, and Eisen the dwarven warrior—it was a lengthy journey.

But for Frieren, a decade is much, much smaller. As she states very matter-of-fact, 10 years doesn’t chalk up to a hundredth of her life. And so the journey ends; the party will look to carry on with their lives, which sees Frieren returning to a lonesome journey across the land in search of new spells, promising to visit again sometime over the next century or so.

This is already a fairly unusual start for a story. We don’t see any epic battle with the Demon King. There isn’t much about their trip at all, barring a few comedic asides about Heiter’s frequent hangovers and Freiren’s penchant for getting tricked by mimics. Frieren and friends are introduced as their travels are coming to a close, at the most bittersweet moment of their quest.

As the party remarks on how differently Frieren must perceive the world, the story follows her back out into this unending search for spells. It’s a gorgeous montage. Frieren scales mountains and rests in ruins. The camera lingers on the stillness of each area, like little snippets of places, even