Boshaft is a flowery German adjective meaning “evil” or “bad.” In the universe of Frieren, it’s a noun: a particular type of grain-based alcohol. The word more or less fits considering the true nature of the liquor, which we learned in this episode. The first half of Frieren season 2 episode 5 was about a dwarf in search of the legendary Boshaft alcohol. The second half of the episode showed us Frieren’s misadventure of being enslaved after she couldn’t repay a debt from decades ago. As usual, I really enjoyed this installment of Frieren season 2. My recap and notes are below.
Episode 5: Logistics in the Northern Plateau
Episode Rating: 8/10
In a city in the north, the group met a little Dwarf named Fass. He was younger than Eisen, but still at least two-hundred years old, because he supposedly spent the last two centuries trying to find the world’s best alcohol. His search led him to hear about the fabled alcohol Boshaft, the world’s best alcohol. Fass believed he was close to discovering it. Frieren had met Fass before on her journey with the Hero’s Party. At the time, Heiter desperately wanted to help Fass, but Frieren insisted it was not a good idea. Himmel agreed, so the heroes never helped Fass. Frieren seemed reluctant even in the present. However, she agreed to follow and see what he needed.
Frieren, Fern, and Stark followed the dwarf to a mine he built that connected to some ancient underground ruins. Within the ruins was a stone engraving proclaiming that Boshaft was the world’s best alcohol. It was written ancient Elvish and signed by someone named Milliarde. Fass remarked that it was impressive that Fern could read ancient Elvish at her age. Fern explained that she needed to learn it young in order to read most magical Grimoires. Anyway, near the inscription was a storeroom that should contain the wondrous Boshaft. However, it was behind a door sealed with magic.
They needed Frieren’s magic to open the door to the Boshaft, but she wouldn’t agree to do it at first. Her main reason seemed to be that it would also take three months of work to remove the spell. But there was something else she wasn’t saying. Stark and Fern felt bad for old man Fass and urged Frieren to stay and help. Fass had also offered to pay a generous sum of gold. Frieren finally agreed, but said not to blame her for what would happen. One day, on the way home from the ruins, Frieren explained the truth to Fern.
The disappointing truth was that Boshaft tasted terrible. Frieren knew this from a conversation she had with Milliarde the elf many centuries ago. I believe this was when Frieren lived in a village of elves before it was destroyed by demons. Regardless, Frieren found Milliarde sitting by a pond, staring into the forest and sipping alcohol. When Frieren asked why Milliarde never did anything with her life, the presumably older elf girl didn’t give a direct answer. She asked if Frieren could imagine spending a lifetime on something useless, which gives us a hint about her past. Milliarde also said elves were desperate to make a mark on history because they didn’t want to end up like her.
I relate to that statement a lot as someone who feels like a useless failure in society. On the other hand, I also don’t particularly care what others think, and my outlook is fairly nihilistic. I might have some things in common with Milliarde. I really like this character and hope we see more of her. Given her name, she could very well have been the oldest living being on the planet. (Milliarde means “billion,” by the way.) I wonder if she is still alive. Fun fact: this awesome but minor character was voiced by Mamiko Noto, a seiyuu I’ve loved and followed for years. She’s an amazing actress.
Randomly, Milliarde decided to spend her free time carving an inscription that wasn’t true. She wrote that Boshaft was the world’s finest alcohol, but it was actually a cheap, foul-tasting liquor served to guests who attended a certain royal coronation. Frieren asked what the point was of that action. Milliarde said there was no point at all. I love how this anime plays with the concepts of time and long-lived characters. I also love how this show is so good at characterization. We saw Milliarde for less than five minutes, but she felt nearly as deep as any important recurring character. I love the idea of an ancient, nihilistic elf girl. Anyway, that was the truth about Boshaft.
Back to the present, three months passed and Frieren was finally able to undo the magic barrier over the door. The storeroom was now open. It was full of well-preserved booze, but everyone quickly found out it tasted horrible. Nevertheless, everyone had fun that night. Frieren remembered that Heiter said the best thing was to laugh it off and enjoy bad booze with good friends. Fass seemed to feel the same way. If he was keenly disappointed, it didn’t last long. He shared the alcohol with the whole town and said he had never had such a fun night. That wraps up the first half of the episode.
I’ll be going through the second half of the episode in less detail because I’m in a hurry and because it didn’t catch my interest quite as much as the first half. Frieren and her party arrived in a fortress city run by the Norm Company. This trading business was responsible for much of the transportation and distribution of food and goods to the Northern Plateau. In the past, the Norm company boss loaned a few gold coins to Himmel and his party. The group was told they could pay it back at any time. Now it had been decades and the loan had collected interest. The grandson of the noble now wanted Frieren to pay the debt back in full.
Frieren didn’t have nearly enough coins to cover the debt. It would have been 300-500 gold coins, and Frieren had less than a hundred. Long story short, Frieren got enslaved and told she must work in the mines for 300 years to pay off the debt. They even took her clothes and most of her belongings as collateral. Fern and Stark wanted to help, but they were at a complete loss about what to do. As Frieren gave a sad, pathetic farewell, she was carried away by a pair of buff men from the mines.
In the mine, Frieren used some kind off cool magic to tell the miners in which direction to dig. That night, she was visited by the boss of the Norm Company who told her that if they could strike silver, they could turn a profit capable of paying the debt several times over. The Norm Company had fallen on hard times, having lost a third of their military force to demons. They couldn’t open trade routes without proper defense and manpower. But if there was silver in the mine, the company would rebuild without any issue. The trade routes would reopen. The people of the north would be fed again as fresh bread was distributed. The boss of the Norm Company may have seemed scummy, but he was trying to save as many people as possible. Naturally, Frieren found the silver on her very first night in the mine.
All’s well that ends well. Frieren continued her journey with Stark and Fern. I don’t have more to add except to restate that I’m still thoroughly enjoying Frieren Season 2.
~Thanks for reading~
Written by Mono (7Mononoke)
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