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At the 48th Kodansha Manga Award ceremony on July 31, 2024, it was revealed that Kanehito Yamada and Tsukasa Abe’s Sousou No Frieren manga started as a completely different idea, with the initial concept for the manga being a “hero vs. demon king gag” comedy.
This surprising revelation was shared by Kazunori Oshima, the editor-in-chief of Weekly Shonen Sunday, who recounted the manga’s origins after it won this year’s shonen category.
Originally pitched in 2019 by Kanehito Yamada, the concept was to create a comedic take on the classic hero and demon lord trope.
“The plan for ‘Sousou no Frieren’ was submitted to the editorial department in 2019. Yamada-sensei, who had already experienced two serialized works, initially proposed a ‘hero and demon lord comedy’ during the first meeting with the editor in charge.“
He went on to reveal that the concept evolved significantly during development, with the initial draft submitted being completely different from what was expected.
Instead of gag comedy, the final version of the series followed Frieren, a long-lived elven mage, who embarks on a journey to understand humanity after the death of her human hero companion.
“However, the name (the initial rough draft of a manga chapter) that came up were the story you all see now, where a long-lived elven mage realizes the differences in the time axes of humans and elves after parting with a human hero and sets out on a journey to learn about humans. The first chapter, which stirred emotions, was created. Abe-sensei also read the names thoroughly and felt, ‘This is a very beautiful story,’ and it evolved into its current form.“
Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End started serializing in Shogakukan’s shonen manga magazine Weekly Shonen Sunday since April 2020, with its chapters collected in 13 tankobon volumes as of April 2024.
By June 2024, the manga had over 22 million copies in circulation.
The series is licensed for English release in North America by Viz Media and in Southeast Asia by Shogakukan Asia.
An anime television series adaptation produced by Madhouse aired from September 2023 to March 2024.
Source: Oricon
