Frieren as Transnational Manga
Through its combination of European settings, Western high fantasy, and Eastern manga storytelling techniques, Frieren offers readers a stalwart example of a modern transnational manga – one that bridges cultures and nationalities in a way that reflects the international scope of manga. #frieren 1/10
In the transcultural matrix through which manga is both created and consumed, it can be a little challenging to speak to the deeper meanings and symbols that are perpetuated when a noteworthy work of Japanese graphic narrative strikes a complex emotional chord with a Western audience. 2/10
There are two important things to keep in mind here; 1) that as Shige Suzuki and Ronald Stewart articulate in their 2023 volume, “Manga: A Critical Guide,” the study of Manga in translation for a North American audience is already a robust discipline (6) and… 3/10
2) the modern manga industry is an international phenomenon, created with an international audience in mind and consciously and politically buoyed by the support of the Japanese government who, since the 1990s, have viewed manga as an important cultural export worth supporting. 4/10
These facets are something that Frieren wears all over its tunic sleeves with obvious connective tissue to European folklore, Dungeons & Dragons, and Tolkien-esque High Fantasy. These pillars of the Western fantasy tradition are ably mobilized throughout the series to pointed effect. 5/10
At the same time, many of the manners and cultural mores displayed by the characters in Frieren are reflective of Japanese culture, an understanding of which can add nuance and depth to the ways that key relationships develop throughout the series. 6/10
In this, the series can have a two-way ambassadorial function when perceived along an East-West binary (a model that is, of course, a grotesque simplification). Japanese readers get to see an invocation of centuries worth of Western high fantasy cultivation and what it can do at the symbolic level… 7/10
While North American readers get a crash course on Japanese storytelling and relationship dynamics. Even in its simplest form, Frieren is a manga that is attracting brand new Western readers to manga – a door that is, put simply, very hard to close once opened. 8/10
As intimated previously, however, the world is bigger than East vs West and Frieren is sold throughout it. This does, however create a sort of three-body problem to which we could add German linguistic pieces, Austrian architecture, and Polish folklore. 9/10
The only logical conclusion, then, is that Frieren is a transnational manga – a story built (to their great credit) by Japanese creators that draws on a myriad of world cultures, but also one that gives back to those cultures in various intersectional ways with a story that belongs to the world. 10/10