Who are the people paying attention to the anime “Frieren: Beyond Journey's End”? Analyzing reasons for its popularity

The story of “Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End” begins when four people, including the mage Frieren, the hero Himmel, the priest Heiter, and the warrior Eisen, defeat the Demon King. The four of them returned triumphantly to the capital after a 10-year journey, and were basking in the afterglow for a while, but for Frieren, whose lifespan is over 1,000 years, it was just a fleeting moment. After 50 years, the three of them meet again, and the time will come for them to say goodbye.

Frieren, who doesn't show much emotion and has no interest in other people, decides to go on a journey to get to know people after witnessing the death of his friends. While the theme is human life and death, from encounters with various characters and sometimes intense action scenes, and you will be drawn into an epic fantasy.

The anime adaptation was decided almost at the same time as the ninth volume of the book was released in September 2022, and it attracted attention, and as of October 2023, the cumulative circulation of the eleventh volume has exceeded 11 million copies. The first TV anime adaptation was aired as a two-hour special on “Friday Road Show” (Nippon Television Network), which also became a hot topic.

Now, let's explore the background behind the popularity of “Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End” based on online behavioral data.

*We will use VALUES' online behavioral analytics tool “Dockpit,” which can analyze competitors’ websites and research trends using online behavioral data that is updated monthly.

First, let's take a look at the trends in the number of users searching for “Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End” over the past year.

As shown in the graph below, the number of users searching rapidly increased in June 2023, and then quickly exceeded 560,000 UU (unique users) in September. In June 2023, when it was decided that "First 2-Hour Special: Departure Chapter" would be broadcast on Friday Road Show, the announcement video posted on X (formerly Twitter) was viewed more than 170 million times, and collected approximately 110,000 likes (as of November 2023).

September 2023, when the number of UU exceeded 560,000, was the month when its was broadcast on Friday Road Show. It also attracted attention as the first anime series to be aired on Friday Road Show.

Next, we will analyze the words that were searched at the same time as “Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End.” The top 10 words are shown in the table below.

The second most searched word “free” seems to have been influenced by the campaign making volumes 1 to 10 of the original comics available for free the manga app “Sunday Webry,” which was launched in conjunction with the Friday Road Show broadcast. The campaign was held for a limited time of 48 hours until Friday's broadcast time to commemorate the cumulative sales of over 10 million copies and 100,000 followers of the original work’s official X account.

“Friday Road Show” followed in third. The main episodes were made available one after another on each streaming service from midnight the day after the program aired, and it achieved the top viewing ranking on most streaming services including Netflix. From these things, it is clear that Friday Road Show was a major catalyst for the popularity of “Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End.”

Next, we will analyze the user attributes of people searching “Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End.”

It was found that 54% of users are male, with the largest number being in their 40s, followed by those in their 50s.
Comparing the user attributes of people using “Sunday Webry” as a whole, it can be seen that the ratio of women is high and the age group is also high (many are middle class).

Furthermore, we analyzed other keywords of interest among people searching for “Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End” and found the following rankings. There are many popular otherworldly fantasy stories that have been made into a TV anime, and it is assumed that the TV anime adaptation of “Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End” has been long-awaited by fans.

Next, check the number of customers on the official “Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End” website.

First, let's look at the trends in the number of UU. As with the number of people searching, you can see that it achieved approximately 800,000 UU in September 2023, when it first appeared on TV on Friday Road Show. The official website showed a slight decline in the number of UU the following October.

Looking at the traffic sources over time, organic search accounted for the majority of customer acquisition in September 2023. The number of people visiting referral websites, which was rarely seen before, has also increased.

The following three referral websites attracted a large number of customers.
1st: List of new anime programs “Autumn 2023 (September, October onwards)
2nd: Animate Times
3rd: Nippon Television Broadcasting Network (NTV)

In addition, social media that attracted the most traffic are the following.
1st: X (formerly Twitter)
2nd: YouTube

So far, we have analyzed the trends of searches and users visiting the official "Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End" website, but since the number of these users has increased rapidly since September 2023, we are curious about what kind of movements will occur in the future.

The following is a comparison of simultaneous search words in September and October 2023 from the latest Dockpit data.

In September, the majority of search terms seemed to be new users, such as "Friday Road Show," "TVer," and "broadcast date," but in October, search terms such as "characters (Fern, Aura, etc.)," "viewership ratings," and words that take a slightly more in-depth approach, such as "overseas reaction," are increasing.

▼Data from Dockpit was used in this case study. Dockpit is an online behavior analytics tool provided by VALUES, Inc., and it allows you to access online behavioral data (updated monthly) via your browser so you can research competitor websites and investigate trends. There is a FREE version of Dockpit, so if you are interested in using it, please register below.