In Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, we’ve come to appreciate this series as much more than an epic fantasy tale. However, at its heart, it’s a quiet and melancholic story that touches on time, memory, and regret.

To put things in perspective, Frieren’s character in the series is an elf. She’s been living for over 1000 years, and for her, she processes time and emotions quite differently from humans. If you’re wondering if Frieren loves Himmel, this guide has all of the answers you’ll need.

Does Frieren Love Himmel? Explained

Yet, among all the humans Frieren has met, one life lingers longer than the rest: Himmel’s. Himmel’s death became a driving force for Frieren’s tale to confront the feelings she never took the time to understand while she was alive.

But we know without question that Himmel loved Frieren, expressing it both openly yet so subtly towards her as seen in flashbacks. Frieren, on the other hand, has never thought more deeply about her feelings until it was too late. With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at Frieren possibly loving Himmel in Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End.

At the Start of a Journey Meant to End

Himmel and Frieren’s relationship began as party members when the latter was invited to join the Hero Party to defeat the Demon King. During that time, Frieren was still less emotive and was very callous towards her fellow party members. But this didn’t faze Himmel at all, especially when he would playfully tease Frieren, make thoughtful gestures, and trust in her completely.

Over time, this led Frieren to slowly change. While she didn’t express her emotions outright, there were small shifts in her behavior, such as appreciating the mundanity of life, applying Himmel’s philosophies, and subtly responding to his kindness. These acts may seem very small, but they do build a foundation of Frieren’s character long after her journey with the Hero’s Party ends.

Himmel’s Unconditional Love

Throughout season one, we learn, through Frieren’s flashbacks along her journey, of her regret for not taking the opportunity to get to know Himmel better. She sees Himmel in the statues erected for her, taking on quests with rewards to be paid off far into the future, and, of course, the famous mirrored-lotus ring Himmel gave to Frieren, in which he got down on one knee and proposed to her with it, an act Frieren didn’t realize was part of human customs.

These moments make it clear that Himmel fell in love with Frieren long before she ever understood what love meant. He had the consistency to choose Frieren again and again, despite knowing that Frieren’s perception of time and emotion might never align with his own. Himmel even loved Frieren for who she already was before integrating her into the Hero’s party.

Moreover, Himmel waited for Frieren’s return even as he grew very old. He waited years to witness the Era Meteors together with Frieren, Heiter, and Eisen. To Himmel, it was a moment that signified the end of their journey as a party and perhaps a quiet hope that Frieren would come back. To us viewers, it feels like another way of Himmel showing his love for Frieren, waiting for her all those years, despite time taking a toll on his body.

Does Frieren Love Himmel?

For Frieren, however, these gestures of Himmel only gained meaning in retrospect. She thought that Himmel’s idealism, comedic vanity, and acts of kindness were purely out of his heroism. However, it’s in his death that Frieren begins to realize how deeply those moments and acts Himmel had done were also rooted in his affection for her.

We see in the following years, post-Himmel’s death, that Frieren is left with some lingering regret, which has encouraged her to revisit her memories of Himmel as more meaningful experiences she wished she had treasured more. This is mainly seen during the tears she left at Himmel’s funeral, a huge emotional response that surprises even herself as she only spent a humanely brief moment of her long life to know Himmel.

Frieren has never actually verbalized her “love” for Himmel the way humans do. As we can see in the series, her actions mainly speak of her feelings. She continues to reflect on her experiences with Himmel and begins to pay closer attention to the people presently around her, such as Fern and Stark. And that’s something she rarely did before.

So, yes. Frieren did love Himmel, but not in the way we humans expect her to. Her love is subtle, delayed, and shaped by her long lifespan. It isn’t also defined by immediate realization, spoken works, or grand romantic gestures. Frieren’s quiet moments of reflection and remembering reveal a love that was never absent at all from her. Perhaps her love was only unrecognized. Her understanding of love came too slowly, and by the time Frieren realized what Himmel truly meant to her, he was already gone.

In the end, Frieren’s love for Himmel is everlasting. It’s become defined through remembrance, growth, and the influence Himmel had on Frieren’s views on time, life, and the people she’s experiencing her current journey with.