Jul 2 2011 12:06 AM Man...all I can say is boy did I overlook this show.
Freezing is an action ecchi show. A show that is guaranteed to center around girls acquiring the supernatural powers to go up against the villain, i.e. the Nova while the guys simply sit back and support using a "counter-freezing" to prevent immobilization of the Pandoras.
Freezing's plot is actually quite solid. It took a while to develop and really get into the heart of its story, but after episode 7, things finally took off from there and the show ended with a decent conclusion. The one pet peeve that I still have about this show is like most harem/ecchi shows, a key point is not fully drive home. In the case of Freezing, we don't know if the baptism between Satellizer and Kazuya actually takes place. The show leaves us hanging with Rana interfering (of course).
Animation is actually very impressive for this show. ACGT is the same animation studio that brought us Kino's Journey, Koi Kaze, and Initial D: 4th Stage. Their most recent work prior to this was Monochrome Factor, which was terrible so it's nice to see them come back strong despite the massive censoring this show received. Details were incredibly high quality and having seen the 1gb 720p blu-ray for even just a couple of episodes, this show actually deserves such a file size. The uncensored goodness is amazing as this show was not only massively censored in the opening and ending videos, but also throughout each episode, probably more than Seikon no Qwaser.
Music is very solid for this show. Incredible OP theme and decent ED theme. BGMs were great. Seiyuu is an issue however, Satellizer's tsundere personality was very well done coming from Mamiko Noto. While many other seiyuus could have easily done a better job, for someone who usually voices a quiet/shy character, it's nice to see the other side of the coin in this show. Unfortunately, it wasn't all fun and games. I absolutely loathe the male protagonist, Kazuya. Not only did Mitsuhiro Ichiki quickly become very irritating, but Kazuya overall was a weak character. See below.
Character and their development? Absolutely solid for Satellizer. From backstory to who she is now, the show did an incredibly good job at portraying who she was and why she became the person she did. On the other hand, Kazuya is a whiny brat who clings to his sister by literally treating Satellizer as a memento without realizing it. Despite him saying that he likes Satellizer the way she is as well as that he will help protect her and the people close to them, I feel in the end, he's still simply "using her" as a "comfort zone." Overall a shallow character from beginning to end. Everyone else in the show....really no development but of course, none of them were really recurring all that often.
Enjoyment? I stopped this show halfway before picking it up again recently and finishing it off. The first half of the show is really boring and repetitive. It simply involves Satellizer showing off how "good" she is and just how many people actually despise her or rather jealous of her good skills as a Pandora. They really could have shrunk that down for a number of episodes. Otherwise, the second half really had me going. Each episode got better and better, ultimately leading up to the climatic fight of the series in the final 2 episodes.
Overall, while the result of the fight was a bit more anti-climatic than I had hoped (was hoping a few characters who actually get killed off for some decent development and "realism"), the series greatly improved throughout the season. Had I actually followed this series regularly, I probably would have enjoyed it a lot more. The only major complaints I really had was the "medic and recovery center" being all too powerful of a "sanctuary" because we didn't see anyone "current" actually get killed off. We saw a lot of "past" people die but that doesn't really reflect anything since the current system makes it seem like the Pandoras are almost immortal...such as when Ganessa had half her body blown away or when Cathy got her limbs chopped off. The fanservice was a bit unnecessary and the snail pace introduction was also too lengthy. Nevertheless, I do look forward to a sequel if there is one being planned since the stage has now been set with all the introductions and a decent and interesting fight.
Preliminary Score: 6/10 Final Score: 7/10 *Note I have not read the source material, so I have no idea how faithful it was. Nevertheless, this series is truly an underrated gem from Winter 2010/2011
