Yoasobi’s Frieren CD Treasure Box Includes Original Short Story — Written on a Paper Scroll

The official CD single for YOASOBI‘s “Yūsha” (Hero), the opening theme song for the Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End (Sōsō no Frieren) television anime, is truly and literally a treasure. This limited-edition treasure box includes an original short story “Sōsō” written for the song “Yūsha” and supervised by series’ author Kanehito Yamada. If that is not enough, the story is written on a paper scroll, cementing those evocative nostalgic feels.

The treasure also includes illustrations by series’ illustrator Tsukasa Abe and a Digipak case in the style of a magical grimoire. The limited-edition single launches on December 13.

The music video for YOASOBI‘s theme song has nearly 30 million views on YouTube.

The Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End anime, based on Yamada and Abe’s manga, premiered with a two-hour special on September 29. It is the first ever television anime series to premiere in NTV‘s “Kinyō Roadshow,” a Friday evening programming block usually reserved for feature films. The anime then started airing later episodes on October 6 at 11 p.m. JST in NTV‘s new anime timeslot, “FRIDAY ANIME NIGHT.” The anime will run for two consecutive cours until March 2024. Crunchyroll is streaming the anime as it airs, and it is also streaming an English dub.

Viz Media has licensed the manga, and it describes the story:

The adventure is over but life goes on for an elf mage just beginning to learn what living is all about. Elf mage Frieren and her courageous fellow adventurers have defeated the Demon King and brought peace to the land. But Frieren will long outlive the rest of her former party. How will she come to understand what life means to the people around her? 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…

Yamada and Abe launched the ongoing manga in Shogakukan‘s Weekly Shonen Sunday magazine in April 2020. The manga has won several awards, including the New Creator Prize for the 25th Annual Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2021 and the 14th Manga Taisho Award in 2021. In addition, the manga was nominated for Best Shōnen Manga for Kodansha‘s 45th annual Manga Awards in 2021 and the 46th awards in May 2022. The American Library Association’s Graphic Novels & Comics Round Table (GNCRT) included the manga in its top 10 list of 2022 Best Graphic Novels for Adults Reading List.

Sources: Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End anime’s website, Comic Natalie