Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End made history when it aired in October 2023. In a nuanced, emotional, and intense story about grief, love, and life, the anime has reached fans all around the world, breaking records held for decades by older titles and winning the Anime Trending of the Year Award. Praise for the animation, music, voice acting, and themes poured in from every corner, making it one of the most critically acclaimed anime of the modern era.
At Anime Expo, guests Evan Call, soundtrack composer, and Yuichiro Fukushi, animation producer, came to watch the release of the first full trailer of the second season. Anime Trending was given the opportunity for a fifteen-minute interview to discuss their work, their feelings towards the series, and what to look forward to in the second season.
Thank you both for joining us today! Frieren has become a cultural phenomenon worldwide. For both of you, how has it felt seeing your contributions to this series make such an impact to the point that people have claimed Frieren, as an anime, has changed their lives for the better?
Evan Call: One thing that I’m really happy to see is the reaction to how people enjoyed the anime as a whole. Specifically from a music perspective, for the way I composed the soundtrack, I was trying to keep it feeling timeless rather than going for what sounds cool. These days, there are a lot of shows that have a lot of action focus, are pretty busy, and fast paced. The fact that this kind of anime which takes a step back with a lot of laid back, atmospheric, and relaxing scores can still resonate in the hearts of the viewers makes me very happy.
Yuichiro Fukushi: My life changed through the Frieren manga. What I felt through that change is what I wanted to deliver to all fans. The result was season 1. The production staff had a very delicate process of preserving the allure of the manga and kept it in mind so that many people could enjoy it, and we also wanted a lot of people to enjoy it.
Evan, you mentioned how you wanted your music to be timeless. As an anime, Frieren is unique in that there are not many lines of dialogue. Because of that, music is often used to communicate — especially through montages. How did you work on the music in preparation for so many silent scenes? Did you know beforehand what was going to happen? What was your process behind that?
Evan Call: I didn’t know the specifics about how silent the scenes would be, but I was told during the first meeting that there were going to be a lot of scenes that they wanted to do with no dialogue and let the music tell the story. When I’m writing these songs for the montage scenes, for example, I’m not really sure which montage the track would be used in, so it was mostly a general use thing.
Aside from the first four episodes and a few other scenes here and there, those are all film scores. Everything else was through a menu. So, I’d write the song about a certain feeling that I’m trying to depict, and then the sound director would put that into a scene later. I was trying to approach it by keeping the same feeling throughout the world. A sense of nostalgia, a sense of melancholy, but not always melancholic. It was also joyous, happy, and just a nice feeling overall. [The characters] enjoyed being around each other, and I wanted to reflect that in the music about the way they feel about each other.
So, I approached it with a more melodic sense. If there’s no dialogue, there’s nothing to watch out for when you’re composing. With dialogue, maybe the music will be too loud or too busy, and it can take away from the scene. If there’s no dialogue in some of those scenes, it’s okay to be very melodic with it. I don’t want to say sing-songy necessarily, but you can write something that has a proper melody, chorus, and structure that feels nostalgic when listening to it.
I definitely felt the impact of that when watching it.
Fukushi-san, can you describe your involvement with the Frieren production? What are your responsibilities, and what kind of people do you work the closest with?
Yuichiro Fukushi: My job as the animation producer is to facilitate the manga adaptation into an anime. I talked with all the partner companies, like TOHO, TV [partners], and all the other companies in the production committee. I pitched the proposal for the kind of animation project we’re looking at. Once that gets greenlit, I’m basically in charge of attending to the entire staff, from the director to the cast, the composer, and all the animation staff. I have worked with every name in the opening and ending credits crawl.
Wow, that’s a lot of work! Bouncing off of that, Evan, how closely did you work with the whole production staff? Did you receive feedback from others, and how did their feedback change what you’ve composed?
Evan Call: My work is a little bit separate from everybody else. In the production of an anime, it takes a lot of people. There are a lot of moving parts that are all supervised by people like Fukushi-san and Saito-san (the director). But for me, I’m a little bit more on my own. I do have the initial meeting with everyone — Fukushi-san and Saito-san are there, Hata-san (the sound director) is there, and other people too. At that point, we go over just the general guidelines, like, “Here’s how many songs I want,” and “Do you have any questions about it?”
Before we had the first meeting, I wrote what I thought would be an appropriate main theme — “Journey of a Lifetime.” I presented that to them, just because I wanted to show what I wanted to do before being told what they might want to do, and see what they think about it.
From that point on, after the first meeting, I was mostly just by myself. I wrote my music. First, I’d have it done on a computer, so I’d use a keyboard to synthesize everything — the full orchestra, the entire arrangement, and everything. Then I send those demos to my clients and see if they like it or not, and get their approval. If there are any issues they’d like to fix, then I’d go and fix them. If there are any retakes, I’d do the retakes.
But for this show, there was only one light adjustment. It was in the first or second episode. It’s the scene right after Himmel’s funeral, where Heiter says goodbye, gets in the horse carriage, and takes off. For film scoring scenes, [the team] tells me what cut-number this scene is, like C102 or something. But there’s also something called time code. It’s very specific. Each frame has a new code on it, and there are 24 frames in a second. So I had a cut number, but it was a long cut. [The team] thought, “Maybe let’s start the music a little bit earlier,” and that was the only adjustment.
Other than that, the feedback was just, “Hey, sounds great!” At that point, my work is less involved with them and more involved with the musicians and performers. So I prepare all the scores for it, the orchestra will record it, and then we have a mixing agent who we hire on our end. A guy I work with all the time — he takes all the stuff that’s recorded and all the other data to make the final product, which I go back and forth with him and check several times. Then, I go in person for the final check.
That’s incredible. Thank you for the detailed description.
For Fukushi-san, many of Frieren’s scenes have gone viral, not just for flashy moments, but for subtle reasons. In Episode 9, while people loved the fights, what people loved the most was how Fern walked towards the demon calmly that they’ve dubbed it as “Fern’s catwalk.” How deep is your involvement with such subtle yet effective choices in animation, such as that one?
Yuichiro Fukushi: I wouldn’t say it’s my doing because the actual visual progression is because of the director and the animation staff. It’s their job, and the fact that it’s going viral on social media means that their work is being credited. They’re being valued for what they do, and that viewers are actually enjoying the show.
It’s not like the staff was aiming for things to go viral, but because they want to find the best expression for each manga scene, sometimes among the staff, they go back and forth and review which way is better. They’re always doing their best, and that effort is being portrayed to fans as something they can resonate with so much that they make it go viral.
On that note, with the whole virality and the soundtrack now being considered iconic online, Frieren was voted “Best Anime” at the 11th Anime Trending Awards. Did you hear about it? Were you surprised to hear about it being voted not just #1, but also in various other categories?
Evan Call: I heard about it, yeah! I’m very happy to hear that. The anime is a timeless story, and no matter what time people watch it, it’s something that they’ll enjoy and find great value in. I was happy to see it because there’s a lot of anime that come out every year. It’s stiff competition, and to see people choose Frieren above the rest felt really nice. It’s a bit of a different approach on anime, compared to a lot of stuff going on in current years, and I’m just really happy to see it valued.
Yuichiro Fukushi: Thank you very much for the award. Each time Frieren receives an award, I feel honored to be working with the staff. I’ve watched them work and was right next to them. I know more than anyone that the creators and all the staff poured their hearts out into this project, and I got to see that first and foremost. Their work resonates with so many people all over the world. It’s just a very honoring and humbling experience.
What can people look forward to in the second season of Frieren?
Evan Call: I don’t want to get into the story [or] spoil anything, but musically, I think there’s a lot to look forward to. A lot of new music. Some of the music is very intense, and some is much less. There are motifs and beautiful themes that I brought back in from the first season, as well as several new ones. I think that everyone’s going to enjoy how the music interacts with the world as well. I’m super looking forward to it! It should be good!
Yuichiro Fukushi: The music.
So what everyone enjoyed in season one, hopefully they can enjoy it even further in season two. I’m hoping that happens. The staff is challenging themselves to further evolve, because we’ve heard the evolution in the music already. We want to make sure everyone is working together, and we’re working really hard to make it even better.
Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End second season will air Winter 2026.
