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This article is part of\u00a0<\/i>Upstream,<\/i><\/a>\u00a0The Daily Wire\u2019s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories \u2014 from our featured writers to you.<\/i><\/p>\n ***<\/i><\/p>\n Few TV shows illustrate the heart of the culture war like \u201cFrieren: Beyond Journey\u2019s End,\u201d a Japanese anime whose hit second season just wrapped up. Centered on the adventures of elven-mage Frieren and her traveling companions over several lifetimes, the show has garnered immense<\/a> popularity in America since landing on Netflix in March 2025. Frieren\u2019s singular focus is slaying demons, and as she performs this duty from one century to the next, the human friends she makes must learn what Frieren has come to know with time, and it\u2019s very controversial: Demons are irredeemably bad.<\/p>\n I cover the intersection of philosophy and culture on the\u00a0GeekyStoics<\/a> YouTube channel, and our predominantly Christian-Catholic audience wouldn\u2019t stop recommending \u201cFrieren\u201d in the comments. So I caved. Upon looking into the show, I found analysis after analysis claiming this show was racist<\/a>,\u00a0genocidal<\/a>, and\u00a0fascist<\/a>, which is a signal that fringe weirdos don\u2019t approve and, therefore, it might be worth watching.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, in right-wing pockets of X, \u201cFrieren\u201d litters feeds with conservative and MAGA-themed memes depicting the elf and her companions as ICE<\/a>\u00a0officers<\/a>,\u00a0Crusaders<\/a>,\u00a0stained-glass<\/a>\u00a0iconography, and quasi-missionaries\u00a0wielding<\/a>\u00a0Bibles<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cFrieren\u201d is polarizing because the show\u2019s central claim is that man-eating demons cannot<\/a>\u00a0coexist<\/span>\u00a0with other species. It violates the most sacred dogma of progressives raised on moral and cultural relativism, the belief that no one idea or set of values can be proven superior to another.<\/p>\n It\u2019s Frieren\u2019s mentor, Flamme, who\u00a0tells<\/a>\u00a0her of demons: \u201cThey are nothing more than monsters capable of speech.\u201d It\u2019s a black-and-white view, and depending on the viewer\u2019s biases, it\u2019ll come across as either a statement demanding evidence or an obvious truth. One of Frieren\u2019s idealistic companions, Himmel, needs evidence.<\/p>\n In a\u00a0pivotal moment<\/a> from the first season, Frieren recalls arriving with Himmel at a town where a demon, presenting as a child, has eaten a young girl. Despite the grief and rage of the victim\u2019s family, Himmel can\u2019t slay the demon once it calls for its \u201cmommy.\u201d When the village chief offers to take the demon under his roof and raise it alongside his children, Himmel accepts this plan, hoping the creature can be reformed.<\/p>\n Frieren knows better but allows events to unfold \u2014 and is proven right when, eventually, the demon child brutally kills the man who adopted it and burns the house to the ground.<\/p>\n Frieren intervenes and uses her magic to kill the demon, and just before dying, the demon calls out again<\/a> for its mother. Frieren points out that demons aren\u2019t raised by parents and asks why it would<\/span> use such a word. The demon answers: \u201cIt stops you from killing us, doesn\u2019t it? It\u2019s a wonderful, almost magical word.\u201d<\/p>\n Language is neither natural nor necessary to demons. They use it only for the purpose of deception, knowing that human empathy can reach almost suicidal proportions. It\u2019s also a reminder to viewers that, in the context of \u201cFrieren,\u201d demons might not even be \u201cevil\u201d in the way Westerners understand it.<\/p>\n These demons do not perceive good and evil and then consciously choose evil. They\u2019re not trying to lead you to ruin like C.S. Lewis\u2019s Wormwood and\u00a0Screwtape<\/a>; moral order is unknown to them. In that sense, they are less like rebels and more like predators.<\/p>\n A wolf is not evil for killing cattle \u2014 or even devouring a human child. It acts according to its nature. The human task is different. Because we are endowed with moral reason, we are responsible for recognizing what wolves do, restraining them, and, when necessary, killing them.<\/p>\n \u201cFrieren\u201d provokes backlash by being clear-eyed and confident about a threat to human life (demons), much like \u201cK-Pop Demon Hunters\u201d drew<\/a>\u00a0consternation from writers\u00a0who wondered<\/a> whether it was \u201cproblematic\u201d to celebrate the genocidal killing of demons.<\/p>\n They say these stories embolden \u201cfascists\u201d in the real world who might seek to\u00a0characterize<\/a> illegal immigrants, Muslims, and \u201ctrans\u201d people as somehow less than human. This is mainstream liberalism\u2019s fatal conceit: the\u00a0slogan<\/a> \u201cdiversity is our strength,\u201d hinging on the belief that all cultures yearn for freedom, universal rights, and coexistence.<\/p>\n Any violence that breaks out between groups isn\u2019t seen as evidence of incompatibility between certain cultures, but as evidence of bigotry, intolerance, or some other academic nonsense meant to shame and weaken the majority group\u2019s confidence in defending its own existence.<\/p>\n So, to the credit of \u201cFrieren\u2019s\u201d left-wing haters, the uncomfortable truth is that the show\u2019s clarity does provoke some real-world questions.<\/p>\n For instance, America has incurred\u00a0at least<\/span>\u00a0four<\/a> Islamist terror attacks since the start of its war with Iran by individuals originally from Turkey, Lebanon, Senegal, and Sierra Leone. Progressives will sloganeer and say \u201chate has no home here,\u201d but they don\u2019t seem to believe that hateful ideologies can be imported.\u00a0 They reject any responsibility to screen for views that might be incompatible with American life or threaten the safety<\/a> of our people in the event of, say, hostilities with an Islamic terror state such as Iran.<\/p>\n Being confident in your knowledge that there are two biological sexes, male and female, necessitates boundaries between men\u2019s and women\u2019s spaces; \u201ctransgender\u201d identity doesn\u2019t trump reality. Borders exist, as does immigration law, which means you should either enforce those laws or simply abolish them.<\/p>\n Clarity and boundaries are what progressives find most threatening, so it\u2019s natural that \u201cFrieren\u2019s\u201d simplicity in handling demons rubs some the wrong way and excites conservative anime fans (yes, we do exist). And for conservatives who aren\u2019t usually into anime, \u201cFrieren\u201d might just change their minds.<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n Stephen Kent is the co-creator of GeekyStoics<\/a> on YouTube, a conservative columnist, and author of\u00a0How The Force Can Fix The World.<\/a> Follow him on X @StephenKentX<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n