The presentation ceremony of the 48th Kodansha Manga Awards was held at a hotel in Tokyo on July 31. As previously announced, Sousou No Frieren (Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End) by Yamada Kanehito and Abe Tsukasa won this manga award in the Shounen (Boys) Category.
At the award ceremony, Shonen Sunday’s Editor-in-Chief Ooshima Kazunori who serializes Sousou no Frieren said that “The Plan for Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End was submitted to the editorial department in 2019. Yamada-sensei, who already had two serialized works, said in the initial meeting with his editor『 “Let’s go with a gag story about a hero and a demon king!”』 “
He continued, “However, the name (the name means rough draft of the manga) that came in was the emotionally-charged first story that you have seen, in which a long-lived wizard elf, after losing a human hero, realizes the difference in the timeline in which the two races live and sets out on a journey to learn about humans. Abe-sensei (Illustrator of Frieren) also read the story carefully and felt, 『”It was a very beautiful story”』, he said, adding that the story has changed to its current form.“
Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End (Japanese Name: Sousou no Frieren) is a Japanese manga written by Kanehito Yamada and illustrated by Tsukasa Abe. It was serialized in April 2020 in Shogakukan’s Shounen manga magazine Weekly Shounen Sunday and is ongoing. There are a total of 13 volumes in this manga as of April 2024. The series is licensed in the English language by Viz Media.
This manga received an anime adaptation produced by Madhouse, released on September 2023. This manga won the 48th Kodansha Manga Awards in 2024, the 14th Manga Taishou, the New Creator Prize of the 25th annual Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2021, and the 69th Shogakukan Manga Award in 2023.
Viz Media licensed this manga in English and describes its plot as:
“Decades after their victory, the funeral of one her friends confronts Frieren with her own near immortality. Frieren sets out to fulfill the last wishes of her comrades and finds herself beginning a new adventure…“
Source: Oricon
