So often in storytelling the topic of pacing is brought up, belabored upon, critiqued. But, to my experience, it’s more often than not in one direction: readers, viewers, or listeners telling the author to put the pedal to the floor and get moving, to stop getting side-tracked by self-indulgent curiosities and keep the story going. I myself have said as much on occasion. While I greatly enjoyed the novel Wind & Truth by Brandon Sanderson, I mentioned in my previous post how I thought some bits here and there could have been cut. I adore Stephen King’s novels, but I’d be lying if I haven’t said, whenever the topic of his novel The Stand makes its way into conversation, that the middle third felt a slog I struggled to read through. I thought of that middle third like a long distance run or multi-day hike: just one step – or word – at a time. Interspersed with beautiful moments, sure, but undoubtedly requiring an effort of mental focus to barrel through. I know my writing can be divisive as well. Either readers enjoy the frequent descriptions or they find it just too much, taking away from something good through overuse. So, I suppose, as with all things, there is a subjective aspect to all this. Nonetheless, I would argue it is still a fundamental truth that storytelling is at its best when it is done with purpose, with intention. That is a concept akin to pace but ever so slightly different. Stories should stay on track, moving according to a schedule, a pace, befitting their nature. But who decides on that track? On a story’s nature? In the beginning, the author, surely. But once the story is out in the world, the reader experience’s it on their own terms, with their own expectations. There is an interplay there, one both author and reader must be aware of. A thriller is expected to keep things moving. A cozy slice of life or an introspective literary novel not so much. I’m just about to finish up a writing class, and one bit of advice that showed up throughout was something along the lines of “write the fast stuff slow and the slow stuff fast”. Fantastic advice in general I think. But sometimes, writing the slow stuff slow is exactly what is needed. And here we finally get to Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End. It is an ongoing manga with one season of an anime adaptation out to date. I haven’t read the manga, but I did recently finish watching the first season. My favorite aspect of this anime? It knows when to keep the slow stuff slow, while still moving things along. The characters shine as a result.
So Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End. It’s general premise, at least at first blush, is a familiar one to any who enjoys high fantasy. We have a troupe of 4 adventuring heroes set out to destroy the demon king who has been plaguing the land for ages: a mage, a healer, a front line warrior, and the charismatic leader. But from there, things shift. Immediately, we learn that this group of heroes succeeded; they killed the demon king. This story, it turns out, will follow not these heroes’ journey of killing the demon king, not in the usual sense, but what comes after. Beyond the journey’s end, you might say. The throughline is the elven mage Frieren, the main character for whom the story is named and one of the party of four who killed the demon king. In this world, elves don’t age. They can die of violence like any other, but the ravages of time seem not to touch them. As a result, for Frieren, this journey to kill the demon king, though it took 10 years, was naught but a blip to her many centuries long life. She has trouble connecting with humans, with shorter lived species, of recognizing the importance of a quiet moment with a friend, of a shared sunrise, of a meal at a table whose seats are full. To put it clear, she has trouble valuing the small moments, the slow moments, because for her, there are simply too many. This story is about her going on a new adventure, one in which she learns to connect with those around her along the way. While still keeping the narrative flowing, it embraces the slow moments, and it is all the better for it. I give it a cozy evening’s, doing not much else than sharing time and space with loved ones, worth of a recommendation.
All the best,
M. Weald
M. Weald 