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REVIEW: Freezing BD+DVD

Megiddo wrote:

I wouldn't say that I was outright enjoying Freezing during the first episode, but with about 5 minutes left I was thinking that I would definitely give it the benefit of the doubt with the three episode test. Then in those last 5 minutes of the first episode the show goes off the deep end with the bland male protagonist stumbling into Satelizer and then groping her, causing the up-to-then brash and violent Satelizer to blush and moan a little. Needless I say I couldn't click the 'X' button in my media player fast enough and never bothered with any of the rest of the series. Up until that point it was a decent show, but then it just had to shoot itself in the foot.

There are two reasons why I dropped this show before the end of the first episode. The above is the second and main reason, which exactly echoes what I thought and how I felt.

But the first reason is the cruelty that the writer seems to enjoy inflicting on women. Other instances of this that I've come across are 'Master of Martial Hearts' and 'Kurokame: the Animation'.

I contrast the three of these series with the case of Videl in DBZ. Videl enters the World Martial Arts Tournament and ends up getting the everliving crap beat out of her by Spopovich. No one in the audience thought the cruelty showed by Spopovich was acceptable, none of the Z fighters did, either. I never got the impression that the writer enjoyed writing the scene.

The lavish brutality shown in the first episode of Freezing, OTOH, was not just considered acceptable, but was intentionally set-up and was part of "training" for those involved. I didn't buy it. Training? Really? Training -- particularly military training -- is supposed to both improve individuals *and* improve teamwork within the group and organization. I saw none of that, just an excuse to show young women either in pain or sadistically administering it. Not my idea of entertainment.

But, as with Meggido, I was still on-board, mainly because I liked Bridget. But then they assassinated her character with that moron male lead, and after that, I couldn't drop the series fast enough. I guess there are people who like this sort of thing, but I'm definitely not one of them.

The lavish brutality shown in the first episode of Freezing, OTOH, was not just considered acceptable, but was intentionally set-up and was part of "training" for those involved. I didn't buy it. Training? Really? Training -- particularly military training -- is supposed to both improve individuals *and* improve teamwork within the group and organization. I saw none of that, just an excuse to show young women either in pain or sadistically administering it. Not my idea of entertainment.

So neither of you bothered to stay and watch anywhere near long enough to find out that there was actually an extremely good and logical reason that Satellizer responded to the "moron male lead" the way she did. Sometimes stories, even ones that are mostly about boobs and violence, have a few layers that take a bit of time to figure out. Sometimes it takes multiple episodes, perhaps even an entire season, to find out why a character behaved the way they did in the first episode. That generally makes the story better, not worse. I remember everyone flipping out when Freezing first aired, saying that the last 5 minutes of the first episode totally destroyed the character of Satellizer as she had been built up in the episode and ruined the show for them. I thought that was a stupid complaint then, too. Instead of thinking, "Well, they tossed that in just for stupid fan-service reasons and it totally destroys the character and ruins the story", my thought process was more along the lines of "Why is it that the 'untouchable' queen is able to be touched by this guy? Is there something special about him? Or maybe about the two of them together? Hmmm... Intriguing use of a cliche moment to add a little plot twist. I wonder how it will be explained..."

The explanation didn't disappoint me. It is also the explanation of why Satellizer is so freakin' strong compared to the other Pandoras.

Very nice and thoughtful review Theron. I hope you draw the straw for the Qwaser reviews and if anyone ever licenses it, Manyuu Hikenchou.
I want Funi to license Manyuu, just to see what terrible ad campaign they would come up with.

The actual reason why she behaves the way she does is because she was written that way. The plot reason for it also exists because it was written that way.

The fact that the plot was written to explain her behavior doesn't really change anything.

I watched the whole thing, and those five minutes didn't become any less stupid for it, because someone decided they wanted those events to occur.

Do you go to critics of the politics behind Atlas Shrugged and say "Well, you know, in the context of the book, their behavior works out, and makes sense, so it's really silly to criticize the political viewpoint being presented"?

At an early stage of the writing process for Freezing, someone said "I want to present high school girls gratuitously suffering, but also want to have a cutesy awkward romance that follows all the genre rules" and wrote accordingly. There's no way around that, and criticisms along those lines aren't in any way blunted by pointing out how the plot justifies it.

If the criticism is that the actions of a character are not justified then having the story justify the actions does blunt the criticism.

Touma wrote:

If the criticism is that the actions of a character are not justified then having the story justify the actions does blunt the criticism.

Yes, but that's not the criticism.

Except on her breasts, which when groped she gets all blushy and moans out loud.

Yep, that's someone who doesn't like to be touched alright.