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Freezing (TV) (both seasons).

Freezing (TV)
Freezing Vibration (TV)[b]

Genres: action, science fiction
Themes: ecchi, fanservice

Plot Summary: 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.
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Right, so either this forum's search feature is bloody terrible (and I would believe it, because it uses similar software to the Encyclopedia Metallum forum, which also has a terrible search feature with terrible results), or no actual thread ever existed for this series in the first place. Having begun to watch it through episode four, I had some brief thoughts about it, so here we are. In light of the announcement of its second season, I also figured I'd preemptively indicate it here so that we can simply move right in to it once it airs. If a thread does exist, I apologise, and request that the relevant parts of this post be moved into it.

Considering this series' ecchi nature and focus on female combatants, I didn't come into it expecting much more than a [b]Sekirei knockoff. I own Sekirei as something of a guilty pleasure, but I am otherwise disinclined toward shows that are like it: all tits, little substance beyond the occasional charm. Sekirei is, of course, not the first of its kind, but it is the only one that I've actually seen.

With that in mind, I cannot make judgements on how well Freezing measures up to older titles like, say, Ikki Tousen (which, to my understanding, shares some of its writers), but I will say that I am pleasantly surprised so far, mostly at the serious tone, its rather visceral nature, the general avoidance of overly perverted characters, and, especially, the fact that the male characters aren't completely [expletive] useless, nor are they fawned over by the females for no reason. The animation quality during the fights is average, but passable, with the spoiler[Pandora Mode transformations] being the visual highlight, and serving as sort of an unintentional antithesis to Shana's Flame Haze transformation in Shakugan no Shana. I admire that the character designs and that of the Nova manage to avoid looking campy without being unnecessarily dark or complex.

Kazuya is run-of-the-mill for a male lead, though he gets points for not being quite as hopelessly clueless as most in the trope that he falls in to. This does not stop him from being an invasive and touchy-feely idiot: what sort of fool incessantly grabs the most dangerous and aphephobic female in the school, and then spoiler[strolls right into her room without so much as announcing himself? If she had killed him right then, I would have had nothing but praise for her.] Satellizer herself, though, is interesting, to say the least. I like how seamless the transitions are between her shy, insecure side, and the mercilessly cold and death-dealing side that she turns to in battle.

I can't offer praise to its other characters or its premise, though, for all the strengths it has so far in execution. I'm giving it a chance, since episode four is still early, but I have the sinking feeling that the backstory will merely serve as a thin excuse for busty young women to blow each other's clothes off. As a guy who appreciates a well-proportioned woman, I'm not exactly complaining, but I really hope that this has some depth to match its tone.

Last edited by Gatherum on Fri Aug 23, 2013 10:20 pm; edited 4 times in total

There is probably going to be a minor retcon to the close of the first season so there can be a proper transition into the second season, spoiler[ in the Manga "ending" where the anime's first arc ends, there is no Nova that comes close to the body of Maria with the main focus of Drama is on Satelizer loseing control and almost killing everyone in the room while in a Nova Form rage (this partially happens in the anime, but the focus is shifted to on how Kazuya has "magical powers" that have yet to manifest in any form of the Manga series) instead a few of the infected Pandora manage to infiltrate as far (in particular past our main protagonists line of defense), however the final line of defense is the most powerful Pandora Chiffon Fairchild, this is effectively a plot point for the upcoming story arc.
That said, I can see Chiffons side manga story being part of Vibrations overall storyline (that would take up 2-3 episodes easy) as part of showing how overpowered she really is. ]

I rather enjoyed watching this show and have had the intent to read the manga (just been somewhat busy).

I think that the only real complaint I had, was actually all of the fight scenes in the show. Not so much how they were done, but how often they seemed to occur. I didn't understand why there never seemed to be teachers or anything around. (maybe it was addressed and I just missed that part)

Plus, the amount of breasts shown is a little over the top. I think Sekirei had more, but this shows pretty close I'd say. Not a huge deal, but kind if silly.

Whatever arc this will adapt....I'll just hope it will be done right. It's been ages since I've seen anything from the Freezing franchise though. After watching the previews, I think it might be okay.

I like my smut and I like my violence so I was ok with this show and am looking forward to s2. Bonus points for Satellizer herself.

The only thing I wish it'd do is have more missions instead of more school stuff. I preferred the battling giant monsters content to the fighting school stuff. I had a hard time accepting the organization has any semblance of order when students were having a fight to the death every other day.

Also to somebody who's not used to anime or jRPGs (like a buddy of mine who got interested in it) the terminology wall is pretty hilarious. After an info drop scene he just threw his hands into the air and yelled "What the HELL are they even talking about!?"

Must remember to get him into Symphogear. LOL

OncelostLu wrote:

I think that the only real complaint I had, was actually all of the fight scenes in the show. Not so much how they were done, but how often they seemed to occur. I didn't understand why there never seemed to be teachers or anything around. (maybe it was addressed and I just missed that part)

My impression was that there were only 2 former Pandora as teachers at West Genetics which might make it a little difficult for them to be everywhere and stop some of the fights. The other thing was that like military academies in the real world "hazing" of students can occur and sometimes with the tacit approval of faculty. Satellizer is spoiler[seen as a loose canon and a lone wolf by her fellow students, while some of the faculty refer to her as a delinquent. Such a personality can be considered at odds with team or military unit dynamics and in need of correction. So she doesn't have a good rep--something she doesn't try to correct due to her personality--and its kind of expected that her seniors will administer the necessary correction. Of course things get out of hand because Satellizer isn't one to be "corrected"].

Personally I didn't care for the show. I did like Satellizer's personality and I liked some of the designs of the characters and their abilities. However, I felt that they went overboard with the fan service to the point that it sometimes interfered with the story. Plus blood and boobs at the same time is not sexy its squicky.

Based on the image posted in the encyclopedia it looks like vibration will be including the Alaska arc, which means Chiffon Fairchild should have a significant role in it. This hopefully means we should get to see why she's exactly called the "Monster".

Quote:

Plus blood and boobs at the same time is not sexy its squicky.

Arguably, that might be the point considering there exist more than enough panty fighter manga/anime that the peripheral appeal is that the audience isn't (always) supposed to get hot and bothered over young woman getting massacred by giant alien looking creatures.

spoiler[From the looks of it (at least as far as the lack of promo material is showing), they are going to overlook the "vacation" arc as it were, also known as the adoptive brother is a HUGE bastard arc, characterization wise it is an important arc as Satellizer overcomes one of the biggest emotional weights that has haunted her and for continuation of the manga series she becomes less openly hostile to her fellow Pandora for it]

I generally follow this set of rules on the topic of stuff like Freezing:
-Is a girl's boobs showing? If so, then yay! I'm a single guy and since I can't touch them either way I'd rather see anime ones than real ones online.
-Is somebody's right leg being blown into gibs? If so, cool! I long lament the neigh-disappearance of the stupidly violent anime of my youth like Black Lion or Genocyber.
-Is a girl's boobs showing while her right leg is being blown into gibs? If so, cool, but not AS cool as either individually.
-Is a girl having sex while her right leg is being blown into gibs? If so, I'll pass unless all other elements are exceptionally awesome.

So I'm fine with Freezing under these rules because there's no actual sex happening. It was one of the things that made playing Black Cyc's old games difficult for me (although they were so cool it was worth fighting through). As such, I find the gore+sex thing only works well for horror. But bare boobs or panties aren't sex to me so Freezing is ok. Or to put it in the words of a comrade of mine, "The Iron Paladin doesn't try to leave his denim church."

FenixFiesta wrote:

Quote: Plus blood and boobs at the same time is not sexy its squicky. Arguably, that might be the point considering there exist more than enough panty fighter manga/anime that the peripheral appeal is that the audience isn't (always) supposed to get hot and bothered over young woman getting massacred by giant alien looking creatures.

I'm not convinced that was the point otherwise why include all the other fanservice in the show. Plus I'm sure the creators know there is a subset of viewers that does find girl on girl violence and nudity appealing, which just makes it doubly squicky.

Quote:

spoiler[From the looks of it (at least as far as the lack of promo material is showing), they are going to overlook the "vacation" arc as it were, also known as the adoptive brother is a HUGE bastard arc, characterization wise it is an important arc as Satellizer overcomes one of the biggest emotional weights that has haunted her and for continuation of the manga series she becomes less openly hostile to her fellow Pandora for it]

I really didn't like how that arc was handled in the manga. The idea of that confrontation was fine, the unrealistic results were not. They might not need it as far as Satellizer's development as she was affected by her encounter with Godspeed and spoiler[Ganessa's sacrifice]. The idea of spoiler[team and comrades was starting to sink in]. Plus one of the themes is that Kazuya spoiler[is the one that helps Satellizer change]. But who knows I haven't seen anything on how many episodes they are doing this season, maybe they will have room for the spoiler[twisted brother arc].

So I've gotten through episode eight now. It's more or less as I figured it would be: very little in premise exposition, lots of tits, and a bit of high school drama wherein the students have super powers that they use to destroy the fudge out of humanity's worst enemy: clothing. Not Nova or other shit nobody cares about. Clothing.

But the drama? It's actually rather tame and somewhat controlled. Somehow, though having all of the parts that would make it as such, the show manages to avoid drowning in its own themes. Satellizer is a [expletive] godsend in this department, being perhaps the most tolerant and understanding main interest female lead I've seen in a hot minute, if not ever. So far, she's spoiler[walked in on Kazuya being encroached upon by Rana two or three times, and instead of going into tsundere mode and either yelling at or beating the shit out of him for no reason, she has her brief, internally perturbed moment, before politely asking him to follow her because she has something important to tell or do for him. This aside from catching him with his classmates at least once during a less-than-flattering conversation about her--that could have easily been taken the wrong way by your usual tsundere--in response to which, she did the same thing.] The best part about it is that Kazuya himself spoiler[really does prove to be a dedicated and resolute "almost-boyfriend" type of guy who already knows how much he favours Satellizer and genuinely does not want to damage their relationship.] This has the extra benefit of making Satellizer even more likeable because the viewer knows that spoiler[she is not just knowingly or unknowingly allowing her isolationism to crumble away for an obvious shitbag. She is a brilliant combatant, but she actually knows how and when to turn that shit off and be the cute woman that she is when she is around the man who is only trying to help her.] It's rife with oh-shit-something-bad-is-about-happen-to-this-couple-and-their-relationship moments, but holy breath of fresh air, Roger Smith, we're not in dumb harem/love triangle land anymore!

Rana herself proves to be a nice touch as well, despite my initial nervousness at her introduction: I knew at the moment I saw her face that she would spoiler[be the foil, and, despite some initial misunderstandings, she plays the part with utmost grace. One could easily chastise her for being highly disrespectful of an established relationship in romantic terms, but her execution allows her to be an ally, a source of romantic conflict, and an unintentional motivator for Satellizer to allow her relationship with Kazuya to progress in a meaningful way all at once.] I'm also rather overjoyed that the two women haven't fallen into the old, "I'm going to make a bento for you every day, and you will eat it, or I'll [expletive] kill you!" trope.

On the downside, spoiler[the villainous, order-obsessed, Vigils-like, third-year shadow government tends to be a bit over-the-top and comprised of too many members. If that isn't enough, they are joined in the cruelty department by a plethora of others, independent third-years and second-years alike, which would be okay if they didn't all share the same general thought processes and methodologies. The only one who seems to disassociate herself so far with these activities is their de facto leader and arguably most farsighted member: Elizabeth. There are simply too many antagonists, major and minor.]

What makes this somewhat worse is Satellizer's spoiler[uncanny, shōnen-level ability to pull crushing victories out of nowhere. Her comeback against Miyabi made sense as a showcase of Kazuya's uniquely refined and early-blooming abilities as a Limiter, and I can even accept her quick recovery after Rana nearly destroyed her innards, but for the two of them to emerge victorious against Arnett and Creo after essentially being massacred following their own killing of each other? Laughable! The fact that Satellizer refuses to lose is not an excuse to just hand her every victory--part of growth and maturity involves losing sometimes, so that you can address your own deficiencies accordingly. Moreover, as attractive as Satellizer is, both physically and as a character, she really did not need to win the Pandora Queen contest. It would have been far more believable for her simply to best Attia by winning second and forfeiting the crown to Elizabeth for the second straight year, especially since the latter employed similar attire and a more comfortable stage presence. But whatever. It's a beauty pageant, and I guess it's not impossible to think that the majority of that crowd were subscribed to the beautiful shy girl fetish at the time.]

Interestingly enough, the most obvious thing about this series serves as its double-edged sword: while initially being set up as a battle royal-type deal in preparation for a vaguely impending Nova invasion, more than half of this series' runtime is expended on sexed up (literally and metaphorically) high school drama. It's bad in the sense that it qualifies my initial fear of the premise being a thin excuse for busty brawling, one hundred percent (and in the sense that it really grinds my gears that we have yet another series alluding to an Earth-threatening crisis that is also set in [expletive] high school). On the other hand, I have to admit that, considering how limited (get it--durr har har) this series is in terms of total runtime (only twelve episodes in the first season, not counting OVA's), I am somewhat glad that they chose to make use of that time by exploring the possibilities of character development instead of diving straight into battle with giant extradimensional monsters. Once again, the development of the main characters has pleased me, and for that, I can say, begrudgingly, that Freezing has turned out to be a surprise hit for me. I say, "begrudgingly", because I am inevitably going to attempt to get my hands on the out-of-print limited edition blu-ray, which is going to set me back in time, coin, or both. But hey, I can't argue with a good series, and this is indeed a good one. I'll be finishing it soon.

Gatherum wrote:

I am inevitably going to attempt to get my hands on the out-of-print limited edition blu-ray, which is going to set me back in time, coin, or both

I have this problem with anime I'm late to the party to. For instance, "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time". I don't think I'll be getting that on bluray anytime soon, if at all.

Though, I had seen Freezing going for something like, $40-$50 on amazon. I don't recall if it was limited edition or not. However, with Vibration's eventual release, I was banking on the fact that they would possibly release both seasons together, in which case I would pick that up. Though, this is all speaking on a standard bluray release, I wasn't aware their was a limited edition version.

OncelostLu wrote:

Gatherum wrote: I am inevitably going to attempt to get my hands on the out-of-print limited edition blu-ray, which is going to set me back in time, coin, or both I have this problem with anime I'm late to the party to. For instance, "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time". I don't think I'll be getting that on bluray anytime soon, if at all. Though, I had seen Freezing going for something like, $40-$50 on amazon. I don't recall if it was limited edition or not. However, with Vibration's eventual release, I was banking on the fact that they would possibly release both seasons together, in which case I would pick that up. Though, this is all speaking on a standard bluray release, I wasn't aware their was a limited edition version.

I found it for ~$50 on DVD Empire. It was listed as "On Order", so I snagged it. I'll find out soon whether or not it is actually forthcoming.

Just wanted to come in real quick and say two things:

The first one is something I simply forgot: show has a great filmic orchestral soundtrack. Much better than most in its genre.

Second, spoiler["Godspeed of the East" is definitely one of the best [expletive] names, nicknames, or titles I've ever heard in anime].

That is all.

I apologise for the triple-post. I have just completed the series.

How they managed to spoiler[transition so suddenly from high school drama to extradimensional crisis as seamlessly as they did is somewhat beyond me. They did a good job of making shit real with a quickness.]

It's too bad that I can't say the same about the endgame. It was... okay, but it definitely felt rushed. This really came at the expense of the animation, which, while never amazing to begin with, seemed especially inconsistent and stilted here. This is aside from all of the bouts that were known to occur, yet were pushed off-screen, such as spoiler[Chiffon and Ticy's battle against Milena at the Holy Remains and the larger confrontation between the Pandora and the Nova topside]. Moreover, I don't really understand how spoiler[a hastily-assembled rear guard comprised of second- and third-years, talented as they are, could so easily stand against a marauding force of top-ranking third- and fourth-years from East Genetics! Indeed, Cathy seemed to be the only one to retain her vaunted skill while under Nova control.]

I am also somewhat peeved at spoiler[the resolution of the strife between Satellizer and Kazuya. This is probably just the romantic in me talking, but did anyone else feel like he never really seemed to get over the origin of Satellizer's stigmata? It would have been more meaningful, not to mention a lot easier, for him to have simply said that his motivation to become her Limiter transitioned from seeing his sister in her, to seeing a quality person all her own, regardless of where her stigmata happened to come from. As we've gone over, Satellizer is an awesome character anyway!]

Speaking of which, the very revelation that spoiler[the stigmata of Satellizer and Cathy once belonged to Kazuha could have been handled with more subtlety as well; as it stands, it feels like a last-minute thread strung up haphazardly in order to justify previous events that didn't truly need to be justified. Satellizer does bear a superficial resemblance to Kazuha, and such was quite acceptable as a reason for Kazuya's behaviour at the beginning of all this. Why muck that up?]

I think that the series could have benefited from just one more episode to allow proper exposition and pacing. In fact, I am certain of it. It's a shame that the final arc has to follow two previous arcs that, while not perfect, were pretty damned solid on their own!

But then, it's not like the ending didn't wrap things up and serve to set the course for the forthcoming second season, nor did it diminish my appreciation for the series as a whole, my eagerness to watch said second season, or my urge to own all of it.

I want to give this an 8 since it's a definite step up from most busty combat shows, but I'm just not sure that it can stand with other shows that I've rated 8, such as Eden of the East: The King of Eden, The Future Diary, The Garden of Words, and Mysterious Girlfriend X. I think it'll get a 7 from me.

Wait? Wasn't there already a thread of the Freezing anime created before?