Freezing Review

I’ve been feeling rather bored lately. There are the things that I have to do during my daily life that my obligations lie with, but sometimes, I just wanna lay back and do nothing. Sometimes, I wanna sit down and either watch something I like, or look for something crappy to watch so I can bitch about it in writing and post it for all to see. Then, along comes Freezing, yet another flashy-nudy fanservice title under Funimation’s license that they announced came from the same studio as Ikki Tousen. Yes, it has a main character and a few others with relatively large boobs. Yes, it takes place in a school, yet forsakes the concept of a good education in favor of girls killing each other and ripping each other’s clothes apart, leaving them in their underwear or the buff, and yes, it has another one of them irritating love triangle protagonists. However, this isn’t the scapegoat for complaints that I had in mind. In fact, it’s better than I thought it was going to be. That doesn’t make it spectacular, though. In a slightly futuristic world, earth has been invaded by aliens from another dimension called the Nova. Think about this for a second, because this plot point literally goes away until the last few episodes. In order to counter them, Pandoras, genetically modified girls with super fighting skills and their male partners, called Limiters, who use special "freezing" powers to limit their opponent's mobility, (I don’t know why that was worthy of being the whole show’s title, either) are made to fight against the Nova. Kazuya Aoi, a Limiter whose late sister was a Pandora, and Satellizer el Bridget, a powerful Pandora with a cold personality are enrolled at the West Genetics Academy, one of the many academies where Pandoras and Limiters are trained. (Whatever happened to Math and Geography?) In spite of the warnings of all his friends about Satellizer, who has intense aphephobia (fear of physical contact of any kind), Kazuya decides to be her friend and Limiter. They are later joined by Rana Linchen, a Pandora from Tibet in search for her Limiter who believes Kazuya to be her "soulmate", sparking a rivalry with Satellizer (and groaning from me).

Okay, I’m gonna get the biggest flaws out of the way first. Primarily, this series’ biggest problem is that it cannot maintain plot devices very well. Aside from showing the aliens through flashback, it seems to focus mainly on the Seniors and some other students trying to trounce Satellizer for being “obnoxious, uppity and pretentious”, but constantly getting beaten by the good guys. It’s not a very good niche, and it really overstays its welcome. The aliens honestly seem to be just plain forgotten until about episode 9, when they randomly come back, and all of a sudden, our focus is on that and the prior animosity is forgotten instead. Yes, you can argue that there’s a greater cause that needs attention at the moment, but the apparent villains among the students never get their comeuppance and the conflict is never resolved.

And yes, there’s the fanservice, too. I did also state that there’s a needless amount of clothes getting torn to shreds, thus resulting in bare boobs, ass or poon teasing, and yes, there is far more of it than it really needs (especially as far as Satellizer’s stout pair goes), but honestly…I’m not as bothered by it as I should be. Maybe it’s because in so many of these series I’ve watched and/or reviewed had so much nudity, stripteases and bouncing that I’ve given up on trying to fight it (the joke was getting tired anyway), or maybe it’s like Sekirei, where the main characters are a lot more likeable and some plot devices and character interactions are much more satisfying that I’m able to overlook it. That also means I’m not gonna defend any negativity towards it. If you hate it, fine, if you like it, fine. I won’t verbally assault you for having an opinion. This is just the way I see it. The fact that not every girl is above a D-Cup in this show helps, too.

“Hey, weren’t there supposed to be aliens in this show?”

Okay, I’ve got one serious grudge with this show, but I’m gonna save that for last, because I want to be more analytical than bitchy this time. But trust me, it’s a big one, and it’s best held onto until a good moment. All good comes to those who wait, my friends.

So, what’s good? Well, the animation is nice. It’s clean, it’s refined, it makes good use of cel- shading. It can also be clever with the censoring, but to a certain degree, like glares of sunlight or pitch blackness to cover up nudity or gore. I forgot to mention how bloody this series was, didn’t I? Well, the manga this is based on is written by the author of Black God (Kurokami), which I rather enjoyed, so that makes it worth something. Sometimes, the censoring looks fitting, but others, it’s like Manyuu Hikenchou or Deadman Wonderland, where it’s just a hunk of intensely focused light there for no other reason, and/or covers up so much of the action taking place, that you can’t even see what’s going on. At least Sekirei made use of debris or steam for that purpose (and obligatory cartoon flowers).

I think we can forgive the former example for that. And yes, I did black out their nipples. Shame on you for expecting naked titties.

Now for the characters. The main three have something to offer, while the rest of the side characters, while interesting and innovative in the way of combat abilities, are pretty bland, uninspiring and kind of annoying otherwise.

Starting with Kazuya, he’s pretty likeable. He’s pretty likeable. He’s one of those “I have a life philospophy I follow, and I’ll pass it on to you” kinds of guys, and it’s not really shoehorned or overused in any way. Not to mention his relationship with Satellizer is very convincing. It’s not like Naruto’s feelings toward Sakura where it’s just some dumbass crush on a bitchy bitch that whacks him for his dumbassness of dumbassitude. No, he can actually see that the infamous undertaker who’s actually hurt people is just misunderstood, and he’s throwing all caution to the wind to try to get to know her better and empathize with her. This is how you write a fucking love story, Stephanie Meyer.

Satellizer, despite that rather goofy name, is likewise a very likeable character. In fact, I really enjoy the way she was written. She’s viewed and feared for being the badass slasher that no one can touch, and like I mentioned with Kazuya, it’s only because she’s afraid to open up to people. When she’s around Kazuya, she becomes very shy and innocent, and…really cute, too. For those of you who haven’t seen this show and might want to, I won’t spoil it for you, but, her backstory and how she grew to fear being touched, let me tell you…that is some pretty tragic, rather realistic and gruesome shit there. And we really can sympathize with it, considering the way abusive relationships work. (Dammit, VGA, don’t give em clues!) Then there’s our third hero, Rana Linchen, who I find pretty annoying. If there’s one thing about harem anime that bugs me, it’s love triangles. Especially in this case, where you have this honest budding romance between these two main characters, then all of a sudden, this cheerful bitch comes along and tries to take him for herself. She goes with it and tries to make it a contest, he doesn’t try to fight it, yada yada, I really am fed up with it. I’d be lying if I said that’s all she was, though. Her fist/feet based combat is impressive, and she is present to give Satelli (I’m gonna call her that for the rest of this) some confidence boosts or knock sense into her when she needs it, so she’s okay to have around, at least.

“I may not like to touch, but I can still dish out a good Bitch Slap!”

Dub or Sub? Well, as of now, only two episodes have been released with English voice actors, and it’s pretty much the standard Funimation voice cast we’ve all come to expect by now, and they’re good, but unremarkable at this point. Josh Grelle gives Kazuya the right portrayal he needs, and I do enjoy Caitlin Glass as Satelli. Really, it’s just a matter of preference whenever Funimation’s casting is involved.

Okay, now it’s time for me to come back to the point in this show that really pisses me the fuck off, and like with my Kung Fu Panda review, my hatred is really only invoked by one episode. It’s Episode 3, in which case a Senior Pandora named Miyabi with three Limiters ambushes Satelli to try to take Kazuya for himself. Naturally, both refuse, and a fight between the girls is invoked, with Satelli on the losing side. To add insult to injury, simply for the unforgivable crime of cutting her cheek, this Cunt sees fit to rip the chest of her clothes, fondle her boobs while the three guys are kicking Kazuya down, knock her over, pull down her underwear, and threaten to send pictures of this image to everyone in the school. Kazuya invokes his Freezing for the first time, and Satelli gets the upper hand back, and prepares to kill her for humiliating her so much, with some school staff and Student Council higher-ups coming in at that point. And, of course, Kazuya makes her stop by relaying his life lesson that his sister taught him.

But what pisses me off isn’t the lack of murder. It’s that in the very next episode, Satelli’s incarcerated in “the Brig” for apparently a week, with no sign of Miyabi having been punished as well. WHAT. THE MOTHERFUCKING. GODDAMN. SHIT?!? There were three witnesses to this entire event, two of which were hidden on the sidelines, and you mean to tell me that NOT ONE OF THEM spoke up about what really happened? Not even the douchebag who I like for giving me an honest love story? SERIOUSLY? Are you fucking kidding me? In the episode beforehand, Satelli’s punished for invoking a Bankai on a fellow student, despite that fellow student having picked the fight, and another senior is shown to have to have witnessed the event, inspiring another to pick a fight with her in Episode 4, but they don’t even acknowledge the attempted filming of rape. They’re just concerned about their “Honor” and “Protecting Order”. In fact, the teachers don’t even make note of what happened, and Miyabi lives to see another day with no sign of having owned up to what she did, or even punished for it. Yea, she apologizes, but that’s only because she was facing the possibility of death. People like this in that situation don’t learn their lesson, think back to having done that or even pretend they regret it. They just prepare to do it again. And are you seriously telling me that Satelli’s reputation is so rough that no one is willing to stand up for her when the evidence is right in front of her? Not even the guy who’s decided he wants to spend the rest of his life with her? She’s punished for something that’s entirely not her fault, no one defends her, and the very next episode, they just go on like it never happened. This is to me what Wichita and Little Rock in ZombieLand are to my friend, Casundia. It’s unjust, unfair, and unbelievable BULL SHIT!

But, no amount of complaining is going to fix this. I want to punch whoever wrote this event in the dick so badly, I just can’t believe this is allowed to pass…I’ll just move one with my life and finish this review. No worth lingering on it now that I got to vent.

All in all, this series is just okay. The main characters are very enjoyable, the animation’s very good, the action is pretty cool, but it suffers from obnoxious fanservice up the ass and inconsistent storytelling. And if you do watch this series, I only ask that you think about the attempted rape and what happens following it, because it really does threaten to ruin the whole show for me, and it gives me so much of a headache trying to wrap my head around it. Or, if my words were enough for you, then I say skip Episodes 3 and 4, because better to wipe it from existence than sit there angrily while the show tries to, and the backstory for Episode 4’s antagonist really does mean nothing to the entire show. Don’t suffer like I have. Freezing is owned by Dall-Young Lim, Kwang-Hyun Kim, Kill Time Communication, A.C.G.T., and Funimation Entertainment. Please support the official release by purchasing the DVD wherever available or by watching it online on Hulu, YouTube or Netflix.

Oh, and this event right here is part of what’s called a “Baptism”. Yea, this won’t fly today…