Freezing Review

Synopsis:
Set in a slightly futuristic world where Earth has been invaded and is at war with aliens from another dimension called the Nova, the story follows the adventures of a Japanese boy named Kazuya Aoi who enrolls for training at a special school for genetically modified girls called Pandoras who battle the aliens, and their male partners, called Limiters, who use a special power called "freezing" to limit their opponent's mobility. The protagonist makes the acquaintance of an unusual older girl named Bridgette L. Satellizer who appears to be the most powerful Pandora in her class, but has not yet chosen a male partner to be her Limiter, and in spite of the warnings of all his friends, he decides to be her Limiter.

Review:

Since the very start of the 2011 anime run I have fallen in love with Freezing, though at times it has been a love/hate relationship. There is a great sense of beauty in the artwork and this truly helps progress the character development for the most part. The story concept is interesting to say the least, but it isn’t really something that we haven’t seen before. There are two versions both censored and uncensored, regardless the nudity is relatively tasteful considering some of the anime I have seen at this point and time. Out of every great thing about this anime the voice acting in Freezing is probably some of the best around. It truly helps to sell the characters and draw you in to the emotion the anime is conveying. 

If Freezing has any downside it is the lack of story progression, through a nice chunk of the series. Basically the entire first half of the season is just character development and introductions to an overall plot. The unfortunate part however is roughly half of the characters introduced are barely revealed, which sucks because there are some awesome ones. This story does get a bit rough at times; there are a whole bunch of allusions to rape and or sexual abuse which is a bit much at times. Also its not for those not very keen on violence there is a lot of carnage especially in the larger fights, and I’m talking people missing their limbs.

Overall I fell in love with Freezing especially Satellizer and her relationship with Kazuya. While I did get uncomfortable with some of the sexual abuse scenes, it was only because I truly became emotionally attached to the characters. The story was a bit sluggish although it is understandable considering the nature of the overall plot. I will be genuinely upset if the series does not continue, because they have plenty of material to work with considering there are 10 volumes of the manga out. Lastly, the OVA was completely pointless, just a whole bunch of breast and fanservice for all of the otaku in the world.

4/5

Studio: A.C.G.T  Genre: Sci-Fi/Romance Episodes: 12

Original Run: Jan 10, 2011 to April 7, 2011 Language: Japanese with Subs

Written by: Larry Harris