Frieren Season 2 is almost here, but studio Madhouse has to balance new staff and keeping Season 1 as a guideline

The new season of Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End arrives in just a few weeks, continuing the melancholy but touching adventures of our favorite elf adventurer who has lived long enough to see nearly everyone she loved pass from old age. While Season 1 was all about setting up Frieren with a new adventuring party, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Season 2 is focused on putting the main cast into increasingly dangerous situations. Meanwhile, the studio behind the anime is trying to juggle maintaining the same visual style with a new director for the second season.

During a recent interview with Mantan Web, three key people at Madhouse explained the delicate balance needed to keep Frieren Season 2 feeling like an extension of the first season. Tomoya Kitagawa, who is the director for Frieren Season 2 after serving as an episode director in Season 1, has changed jobs with Keiichiro Saito, who is now a directorial assistant. Meanwhile, Chichiro Suzuki has continued as the series composer and scriptwriter for Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End. 

Kitagawa explained that Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Season 2 is very much an extension of Season 1, with Frieren now focusing on passing the wisdom of Himmel to her new companions. That also extends to the visuals, which should emulate the high quality and distinct style of what fans have gotten used to.

However, Suzuki admitted that he wouldn’t have been upset if they’d allowed Kitagawa to influence the visuals with his own style. “Personally, I thought it would be fine to give it a new look with Saito-san and Kitagawa-san’s own style, but since the second season is modelled after the first season, I have mixed feelings about it. Of course, I’m also honestly happy that they’re using the first season as a guideline.”
“In the second season, the composition, detailed timing, and acting are a little different from my own,” Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Season 1 director Keniichiro Saito explained. “So, I think that’s Kitagawa’s Style, or perhaps a habit. At the beginning of the first episode of the second season, Kitagawa added parts that weren’t originally in the script, and I think that conveys what Kitagawa is trying to do with the second season.”

Kitagawa admitted that the new scene was added to “heighten the sense of anticipation that the journey is about to begin again,” but that doesn’t mean that we should expect too much to have changed between the two seasons of Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End. After all, the first season was so good, why change things too much?

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Season 2 starts January 16, 2025 and will stream on Crunchyroll.