Originally portrayed through poignant anecdotes strung closely together, the titular elf in Frieren: Beyond Journey's End comes to view long life as a curse much like Tamayo from Demon Slayer.
Tamayo's suffering is deeply intertwined with brutal irony on numerous levels. Before becoming a demon, she catches a life-threatening disease that she endeavors to cure so she can see her children grow up. Tamayo is unfortunate enough to come across the Demon King Muzan Kibutsuji on her travels who transforms her into a demon. This causes her to lose control and slaughter the children she wanted to watch grow old. Although living with this knowledge for a lifetime is already agonizing enough for any parent, Tamayo is forced to bear the truth even longer, as demons are immortal. She carries these horrific memories for 200 years before Muzan eventually kills her. And even then, moments before her death, Tamayo still pleads for Muzan to bring back her children.
In Beyond Journey's End, the elven mage Frieren is a member of an adventure party that has finally vanquished the Demon King after 10 years. As their mission is complete, she, along with her comrades, can now go their own separate ways. On their final night together, the group witnesses a beautiful meteor shower that won't happen again in 50 years. So they all agree to come back to the very same place in 50 years to watch the celestial event again. Fifty years later, the group reconvenes, and Frieren is surprised by how much her former comrades have aged. Later, they meet again when Himmel, the human hero passes away. After the funeral, Frieren asks the dwarf Eisen to join her on a quest, as he still looks quite young, but, to her surprise, Eisen tells her that he is much too old.
Afterward, she visits the alcohol-loving priest Heiter to place alcohol on his grave, but he's still alive and requests that Frieren train an orphan named Fern whom he adopted. But when Frieren refuses because Fern is not strong enough, he then asks her to devote the next few years of her life to help him unlock the mystery of immortality so he can better protect Fern. It all turns out to be a ruse, however. He'd been stalling until Fern was strong enough so that Frieren would train her after he dies.
Although Demon Slayers' Tamayo undoubtedly suffers a worse fate than Frieren, Beyond Journey's End allows the reader to experience the passage of time through the eyes of a being who's nearly immortal as she watches her comrades grow old and die. It's frightfully poignant, especially as her understanding and concept of time contrasts greatly with that of her comrades. Even before her comrades pass, Frieren felt incredibly isolated as she considered their 10 years together as just a momentary blip in her life. This feeling of disconnectedness is only exacerbated when attending the funeral of one of her comrades. She breaks down not because he died but because she couldn't connect with him. Frieren isn't just lonely because her friends are dying but because Frieren feels as though she never knew them to begin with.
This makes her loss twice as devastating as she travels alone and with the orphan of her long-lost friend. The suffering of Demon Slayers' Tamayo is clear as she both lost and killed the ones she loved and is forced to live a longer life without them. Her pain is understandably tragic, but the reader is removed from her suffering as they didn't experience it themselves. Meanwhile, those reading Beyond Journey's End are forced to watch as Frieren loses those around her and grieve for never knowing them. And readers can't help but feel lonely for her.
source https://screenrant.com/frieren-demon-slayer-immortality-curse-manga/
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