By Mei Hachimoku and Tsukasa Abe, based on the manga by Kanehito Yamada. Released in Japan as “Sousou no Frieren: Zensou” by Shogakukan. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jenny McKeon.

I wasn’t expecting a second volume of these short stories, and it’s interesting to see what we get. Frieren is the obvious one who gets a story devoted to her in both books – it’s her series, after all – but Fern and Stark only appear briefly at the end of that story, and are not otherwise in this book. And while I’d love to get more of Methode, she too only has a small supporting role here. Still, there are a few things the author can do. The stories involving Ubel and Serie are clearly heavy hitters, ones that will automatically get in readers who just like them – especially Ubel. But the other thing the author can do is pick out a very minor character and flesh them out as they know the manga creators won’t be doing that. We get that here as well, and the results are heartwarming and horrific, respectively. Horrific in the horror way, not in the bad way. Frieren still has demons.

As with the first volume, we get five stories. 1) The receptionist for the Magic Exams, whose name apparently is Uhu, is asked to deliver something to Serie, and along the way asks everyone else connected with the exams why the world needs strong mages, and what that even means; 2) Ubel, after killing her exam proctor, leaves the city for a bit until they cool off, and comes across a kidnapped young boy who wants to be a mage; 3) That really upbeat demon girl we saw in the Divine Revolte arc doesn’t get a name, but they get a backstory, and this is it. It involves impersonating humans and killing humans; 4) We see Frieren, before she left her village, bored and at a loss for what to do with her life. She gets advice from other elves around her, who all have hyperfixations of some kind; 5) Serie trains a young Flamme, but the two of them, get in a fight over who should be learning magic.

There aren’t really any bad stories in this book, though the demon girl one was so grim I didn’t really enjoy it. The first one plays with Uhu’s role as “faceless minor character”, with the running gag that almost no one can remember her name – except, notably, Serie. Ubel’s story was fun, and reminds us that while she’s amoral and quick to kill, she’s not evil or psychopathic – and she also knows mages need to be able to kill in this world. Frieren’s story is sweet and touching until it gets tragic and we are reminded why Frieren bothered to start traveling in the first place… till it rolls around to heartwarming again at the end. The best story is the final one, as Serie gradually realizes she’s become a mom, and is not really sure how to deal with it. Flamme breaking off with her is handled well, and leads to my favorite bit of the book. “Attacking me out of nowhere, eh? How barbaric. Don’t you even know how to have a conversation?” “I’m afraid you only taught me how to use magic.”

As with the first book, don’t read this if you’re not caught up on the manga. But if you are, this is well worth the buy.

By Mei Hachimoku and Tsukasa Abe, based on the manga by Kanehito Yamada. Released in Japan as “Sousou no Frieren: Zensou” by Shogakukan. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jenny McKeon.

It’s another tie-in novel, and by now I think we know what to expect with these. The title says “Prelude” because it’s the safest place to play around it. You can’t change the story the original author is still getting to, and sometimes you can’t even tell stories set at the same time as the manga. But things that take place before the manga starts, or in the past, are fair game, provided you don’t change the future. As such, it’s no surprise this is a short story collection, and honestly of the five short stories three of them are really obvious: seeing Fern and Stark before they met Frieren is a gimme, and seeing Frieren with Himmel and party is also unsurprising. The other two stories are more interesting choices, and they’re also both pretty strong. I usually talk about whether a short story collection is front or backloaded, and this is the latter, which is good, as that means it gets better as it goes.

The five stories: 1) A young Fern practices her magic and worries about Heiter, who is not only very old but is also down with a cold, so she decides to go searching for herbs; 2) Stark is at the village with the dragon, which he “drove off” by being in its face when it decided to go away, and frets about his reputation, while also saving the one guy who doesn’t like him when he goes missing; 3) Kanne and Lawine are taking the test to prove they’re mages back in their hometown, but have to deal with a bratty rich girl mage and a stronger than usual monster; 4) Aura the Guillotine runs into the hero’s party and lives to regret it; while recovering from her wounds, she talks with other demons around her, most of whom are familiar to us; 5) Frieren wakes up on a wagon headed for… well, somewhere, and is distressed to see her friends getting off it and leaving her behind.

Fern and Stark’s stories aren’t bad, but they’re both very predictable and stay in their lane. Kanne and Lawine’s story is surprising in that it happens at all, but I enjoyed seeing them again, and their teamwork and bond is in full force here. Aura’s story may be the best in the collection. She’s a terrible… well, demon, not person, but you know what I mean. But the story is designed to poke around Frieren’s “all demons are evil and you need to kill them on sight” philosophy, as we see some demons trying o understand why humans do things and failing, and some continuing to make the effort regardless – we’ll be getting to that in the 3rd anime season late next year. Finally, the Frieren story is basically an “all things must one day pass” metaphor, but it’s well written and emotional, and works well with Frieren, who is coming to terms with people she cares about passing, bit by bit.

So yeah,k this is a solid book. Fans of the manga will definitely enjoy it. Casual buyers… read the manga first, OK?