Freezing - Reviews

Story (7/10)

In the genre known as ecchi, what is the first image that pops into your mind? If you find that you like that image your subconscious has so kindly displayed, you may find yourself attracted to the anime known as Freezing. If ecchi isn’t your cup-o’-tea or are scared of seeing breasts on your screen, don’t watch Freezing. Freezing is by all accounts ecchi, and it should be reviewed as such, trying to compare it to anything else not in its genre is like comparing apples to oranges. Both are enjoyable and delicious depending on what you’ve got a craving for.

The plot of ecchi anime can be quickly summarized as “Boobs: The Story” with little emphasis on the story aspect. Freezing goes further than most others in its genre and actually gives those boobs a decent story, the word decent being relative for ecchi.

Time for a little bit of backstory that’s briefly covered in the first two episodes. The story focuses on a group of extremely attractive, big breasted females known as “Pandora” with their very enthusiastic boy-toys known as “limiters.” These Pandora are essentially humanity’s last hope against the oncoming alien apocalypse. They have “stigmata” implanted in their bodies which allow them to materialize clothing (also called Volt Textures) and weapons (Volt Weapons) as well as various superpowers such as a high level regeneration. Good thing they can materialize clothing since it is ripped off of them in every fight, especially around the breast region. The limiters play their part by being able to use freezing, a power that allows them to stop an opponent dead in their tracks when they connect their minds to their partner called an “Orion Set.” The Orion Set is where the senses of both partners become one; very clearly stating in the anime that the power comes with an orgasmic like sensation. Where can I sign up?

The aliens actually happen to be extradimensional creatures known as “Nova” who phase into our world and wreak havoc on everything they see. You have no idea why they want to do this and you never will, at least not yet or in the near future. Apparently this isn’t important to the overall plot sequencing for “Boobs: The Story” which is a shame because the mysterious nature of them is quite compelling. I can only hope that if this anime gets continued the story of the Nova does as well.

The show starts with a bunch of Pandora competing in a carnival to determine their rankings for their class. Not the fun kind of carnival, but the kind where you hunt, fight, and proceed to violently vivisect each other while the military watches closely. The focus shifts to Freezing’s female lead, top of her class and nicknamed “The Untouchable Queen,” Satellizer El Bridget. After she is introduced, she proceeds to carve up the other girls like Thanksgiving turkeys.

Shift attention to Kazuya Aoi, the male lead. His sister died in battle with the Nova a few years back, giving him the reason to fight. She was also supposed to be one of the most powerful Pandora to ever live, and is held up almost as a messiah.  Their relationship hints at an incestual sister complex which holds true for a lot of anime today. This implied complex adds nothing to the story but actually detracts from it, giving a strange and creepy vibe.

There really isn’t anything out of the ordinary in the intro that would really make it stand out from other super powered female anime. The story itself doesn’t really pick up until mid-way into the season. But it does lead up to it with a decent amount of characterization, creating a better story experience.

You aren’t exactly sure how it happens, but the story goes on and Aoi decides he wants to be Satellizer’s limiter for some reason. They both slowly start falling in love with each other, the way it progresses is clichéd yes, but Freezing really makes it work. They are both slow to realizing their feelings, coupled with the nature of their relationship as Pandora and limiter makes it seem like everything they do is based on a mutual respect for each other. I found myself getting emotionally involved in how I wanted the story to continue, more than I thought I would with ecchi.  The love story runs parallel with the story of the antagonists who try to beat down Satellizer in an effort to punish her for a fight that happened in episode 3. The girls really hold a grudge.  Freezing really teases the relationship between them, dangling it in front of you before snatching it away. This was very effective at keeping me in my chair and watching into the wee hours of the night. But as much as I wanted to see more of the “love” storyline, the “grudge” storyline was quite enjoyable and really drove the story forward.  Besides, who doesn’t love excessive amounts of violence? While some of the characterization is exposed in the “love” storyline, most of the characterization is shown in the “grudge” storyline. Not to mention all the other things that got “exposed” as well…

As Freezing progresses, there becomes tension that builds up to feeling of dread as the climatic conclusion approaches. For being an anime based on a need to show large amounts of nudity, the progression of the story is better than most others in its category, I found myself enjoying it. The plot itself has as many holes as Swiss cheese, but it doesn’t stop it from being very tasty.

Animation (8.5/10)

Let’s start out with the characters themselves before we go into the background.  The characters in Freezing were all made to look “attractive” in the ecchi lover’s sense. The plethora of breasts that the animators have to draw is mind blowing. So it’s fair to say there was a lot of work that went into character design, to make them appealing to the eye in terms of color choice, shading, and details. The focus was not to make all the characters easily identifiable, not all of the characters were made to stand out from one pair of breasts to the other. I myself mixed up a few characters constantly and the minimal number of hair styles doesn’t do it any justice either.

The background is very well done, a lot of effort was put into making it look good. The metal textures look like actual metal, and the environment is very detailed. Everything in this anime is designed to appeal to the eye and it is pulled off very well. On that note, if there is a time to show breasts, breasts will be shown. If there is time where breasts wouldn’t make sense to be shown, breasts will be shown.

Sound (6/10)

The sound in this anime is extraordinarily average, fantastically normal, like that girl you sit next to that is generally nice but you don’t realize she’s there half the time. The soundtrack didn’t really stand out in the episodes but it did set the mood when it did. It was fine, I have no issues with it, but it just wasn’t a star player in the anime.

The intro music didn’t really convey any of the feeling of the anime so I found myself skipping it most of the time. I did like the outro music in a general sense, it was a catchy tune and I found myself listening to it before jumping straight to the next episode.

Characters (7.5/10)

This rating would be lower if it wasn’t for some of the backstory on Satellizer. The details of her surprisingly dark and abusive past are quite shocking. I started to feel for her as an actual human as opposed to a killing machine when I learned the whole story. Her personality is very strange; she can almost instantly go from being a badass to a shy, quiet girl with a crush.

The other characters each have their respective backgrounds and motivations, some more explained than others. Then there are other characters that remain an enigma for the entirety of the season.

I do have to say that the character development is what makes the story itself so good (for ecchi that is). There is distinct character growth between the two leads, making for a compelling and dare-say “realistic” relationship, given the circumstances.

Overall (7.5/10)

I don’t think you should see it as a “7.5/10” but more as a solid “C” or an average enjoyable anime. This is the anime that sat in the back of class doodling on its paper, but always turned in its homework, didn’t skip class, and studied for all of its tests. In the end, it didn’t do badly; it just needed to apply itself to get a better grade. Freezing was above average in some regards, but still an average anime in hindsight. I however really enjoyed this show and after watching it in its entirety, found myself looking around for news about if there would be a season 2 and reading all the manga created for the series. As anime goes, it’s fine and enjoyable. As ecchi, it’s by far the series with the best story. Given its background, this is one anime that it wouldn’t be that farfetched to say, “I watch it for the plot.”

 ~ The following review may contain coarse language and spoilers. Reader discretion is advised ~

Story:

Our words is in danger. Out of the blue giant demons called NOVA are attacking us and destroying our world. But there is hope. At Genetics Pandora's and Limiters getting trained. Pandora's are female girls who have things called Stigma in there back. These allow them to summon there volt weapons and fight the NOVA. The Limiters and call upon Freezing. This creates a field to Freeze every single living organism in range of this energy.

This is a very original Plot/Story 'couse no one ever thought of giant monsters attacking humans.

Characters:

The main Character of this anime is Kazuya. Who's a new student at Genetics. His sis is a well know Pandora who gave here life in the 8th NOVA clash. Kazuya is a normal boy who gets involved within a fight between two Pandora's one of those Pandora's goes under the name of: Satelizer El Brigitte. Who's also know as The Untouched Queen. As she's never touched by anyone and who gets close will die a slow and painful death.

These are the main characters. The supporting cast is also very nice. They give some nice touches and there some good voices involved. Both sub and dub. The dub was done by Funiamation. And I can say that they did a well job on it.

Music:

The music of Freezing is done by: Masura Yokoyama. One of my favorite Japanese music composers. He is the genius behind the music of Queen's Blade. The music of Freezing is a combination between Classic, Rock, Pop and some mix-jib-jab. The opening is done by: MARiA. The song is great and well executed. It's good and don't skip it. Same as the ending done by: Aika Kobayashi . Who also did Future is Serious from Queen's Blade Rebellion. Both songs are within J-Pop/Rock as I can't really put my finger on it what genre they belong to.

The Music of Freezing is great.
Sometimes I think that anime like these save some extra money to put most effort in the composer and the openings and endings. The music is great.

Development:

The anime is 12 episodes long. And a second season is green lighted by the time of my review. The anime is fast paste. And still enough time to make some filler episodes with a nice Prom-Queen contest with a "whole Lotta Serves"
The characters develop even faster and for me it turned my expectation of this anime bottoms-down. You'll find out yourself.

Animation:

The Animations are done by A.C.G.T.. The fighting scenes are great to say Fucking AMASSING. Same with the Pandora's using there power and the Animations of the Freezing are just great. The fighting scenes are just wow. Now there are few things that I can't stand. The blood just looks like Heinz diet tomato ketchup when people get killed. And sometimes it's just to fake... And I have a huge problem with it. The animations lagged a lot sometimes. But I guess that they lost mot of there  budget hiring: "Masura Yokoyama". I don't blame them for possible doing that. But you can see when the animations lag.

Final Verdict:

To be honest I really enjoyed Freezing. The build up to the end can be very quite irritating 'couse this is an anime that contains heavy fan-serves. But when you surpass the borderline hentai and you can watch it without any problem than you will enjoy this allot. And so the score of Freezing:

Story: 7,3 out of 10.
Characters: 7 out of 10.
Music 9 out of 10.
Development 7,7 out of 10
Animations 7 out of 10
Enjoyment 8,8 out of 10

Final Score of Freezing is a good 7,95 out of 10.

The full review can be found over @ King's Network

duh anime iz very gud k. i like ya. and i want ya. nao we can do diz da ez wei or da hrd wei. srsz tho, dis anime good af. 10/10 4 my blak pplz bak @home yo. sts plz watch this k

The animation is very good... for the most part.  Satella was mesmerizing and I cheered for her and her little house boy every step of the way.  I feel like the main story, or backdrop rather, which is dumb, confusing, and boring, kept getting in the way of the meat and potatoes of what could have made this show great.  I feel that if the main story weren’t there at all, it could have been a better anime, and they could have expanded on what I think make for a better show. 

This is one of the first shows I watched that got me into anime. I enjoyed it for what it was, and i have watched it a few times. I like Satalizers charcter and feel horrible about what she went through. And the arc she goes through with Kazuya. Id like to think shes changed by the end of S1 but that could be debated depend on who u ask.