For full disclosure, at the time of this review the manga currently has 33 translated chapters, so this review is based solely off of the first 33 chapters of the manga. I cannot promise that this review will be relevant for the chapters onward from chapter 33, but I have high hopes that the writer of this manga will manage to keep this manga as sublime as it is.

Although I usually write my reviews containing spoilers, as it is hard to truly convey how I feel about a manga or anime without telling the better part of its plot, I omitted any major spoilers in this review as I felt that this manga truly deserved to be read with a blind mind.

Very light spoilers ahead

Perhaps my greatest criticism for Japanese manga as a whole is its lack of comprehensive story-telling when the plot takes place in a fantastical setting. Sure, I'm not the type of person to spend time playing Dungeons and Dragons, nor have I ever had any interest to, but I have a basic belief that if the setting takes place in a magical world, then the story-telling should likewise be magical. Instead, many of these manga that take place in a fantastical setting involve a massive interspecies harem surrounding the main character, unexplainable super powers that can end any fight with a single chat of a spell and a yell, and some incredibly lucky set of circumstances that lead the peasant protagonist to become the king of the world. Because of this, I had casted off any hope that a manga involving a fantastical setting would have any depth in plot.

Sousou No Frieren, in that aspect, blew my expectations away.

The manga starts with the introduction of the Hero's party. Now, many readers are aware of this basic setup of "the Hero's party", it was the party consisting of the main character, the Hero, and his group of reliable and quirky friends as they battle the Demon Lord (or whatever entity is causing the threat of global domination) and save the world. It's not anything too special to think about. However, this manga starts with the death of the Hero. The Hero isn't the protagonist of the manga, but rather Frieren, an Elf who was apart of his party. This manga wasn't a story about The Hero's epic killing of the beast who caused terror everywhere in the world, but rather the story of what happens after the Hero kills the beast.

It's a rather common trope in Japanese literature that the Elven race is one of the races that live the longest. While this aspect of the elven race is often brushed past my most manga writers, Yamada explores this theme and its effect on the Elven race. Through extensive yet alluring dialogue, we see how the prolonged lifespan of elves cause them to be melancholic about daily life. It's also the reason why Frieren's race is dying; the elves were simply too apathetic to possess any sort of sexual drive. At the time of the manga, Frieren had lived the better part of a millennium. We as humans of course can never understand how this fictional elf character truly feels, but Yamada paints Frieren's indifference to life vividly.

This is really as far as I can write without disclosing any major spoilers, so I'll end this review with a very important note:
This manga is truly beautiful.