Freezing

**Freezing** is an action, adventure, drama, tragedy, harem, ecchi, fantasy, romance, comedy, romantic comedy anime

    series.  It's based on a manga that was written by Korean-Japanese mangaka Lim Dall-young, illustrated by Kim Kwang-Hyun, and published by Kill Time Communication for the magazine Comic Valkyrie.  It started on January 27, 2007, and is still ongoing, with 31 volumes in total so far.  The anime adaptation was directed by Takashi Watanabe, written by Masanao Akahoshi, musically composed by Masaru Yokoyama, and produced by Shinsaku Tanaka, Takashi Tachizaki, and Studio ACGT.  The first season of the anime originally aired from  January 8, 2011 to April 7, 2011 for 12 normal episodes and 6 OVA episodes.  After that it got another manga, titled Freezing:  First Chronicle, which was written by Dall-Young Lim, illustrated by Jae-Ho-Yoon, and published by Kill Time Communication for the magazine Comic Valkyrie, which originally ran from September 27, 2011 to  January 27, 2012 with just 1 volume in total.  After that it got another manga, titled Freezing:  Zero, which was written by Dall-Young Lim, illustrated by Soo-Cheol Jeong, and published by Kill Time Communication for hte magazine Comic Valkyrie, and originally ran from March 27, 2012 to present with 7 volumes in total so far.  After that it got another manga, titled Freezing Pair Love Stories, written by Dall-Young Lim, illustrated by So-Hee Kim, and published by Kill Time Communication for the magazine Comic Valkyrie, and originally ran from April, 2013 to present for 3 volumes in total so far.  After that the anime series got its second season, titled Freezing Vibration, which was directed by Takashi Watanabe, written by Masanao Akahoshi, musically composed by Masaru Yokoyama, and produced by Shinsaku Tanaka, Takashi Tachizaki, and Studio A.C.G.T.  It originally aired from August 4, 2013 to December 20, 2013, with 12 normal episodes and 6 OVA episodes.

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## Plot

In 2065, Earth is in the middle of a war with extra-dimensional aliens called Nova. The military develops and trains Pandoras (パンドラ), girls who are able to use special genetic tissue called Stigmata (聖痕 *Seikon*) to manifest superhuman fighting skills and weapons. Supporting the Pandoras are male partners called Limiters (リミッター *Rimittā*), who use special "freezing" powers to limit their opponent's mobility.

One of these limiters is Kazuya Aoi, whose late sister was a Pandora. While attending West Genetics Academy in Japan, Kazuya meets Satellizer el Bridget, a powerful Pandora, nicknamed the Untouchable Queen, for her ruthless personality and her intense aphephobia. Despite warnings from his schoolmates to keep away from Satellizer, Kazuya befriends her, and asks to be her Limiter. After helping her through several fights against school rivals of varying ranks and classes, Satellizer agrees to partner with him, although she soon encounters a rival in romance named Rana Linchen, who thinks Kazuya is her soulmate. Their rivalry is put aside when the Novas attack their school using Pandoras under their control to access the school's underground lab.

Satellizer and Kazuya join a handful of West Genetics students to a research lab in Alaska, where they are to help with the Evolution Pandora (E-Pandora) project. The E-Pandora project allows ordinary girls to undergo Stigmata transplants and become Pandoras. When one of the E-Pandoras goes berserk, the others question whether the drugs in the experiment are safe, but are forced to comply with the director and the corporation's wishes. Upon discovering that they are to be used until they are expendable, the E-Pandora Amelia Evans leads a rebellion which escalates into a full-on Nova Clash.

Kazuya learns more about his family's connections to the Pandora and the Nova. Kazuya's grandfather Gengo Aoi launches a similar project, which puts Satellizer and Rana into a special team with girls called Valkyries. However, during the demonstration exercise with custom-designed dummy Nova, the Pandoras experience illusions, and the dummy Novas become a legion of hundreds of Nova that decimate Genetics. Gengo counters this by unleashing the Legendary Pandoras who are Kazuya's aunts. The Chevalier attempt to assassinate Gengo using a group of convicts called the Busters, but the mission falls apart when some of the Legendary Pandoras turn into deadly Novas due to the anti-freezing of the busters, but they are defeated by the power of Kazuya's special freezing, and Arcadia 01, Daughter of Cassandra conceived from Kazuha's father which awakens from stasis in response to her brother's awakened power.

Before Chevalier launches another attack, Gengo moves on with his main plan, which involves sending Kazuya to Elca, the world from which the Novas come from to learn the truth about them.

## Manga

1. Freezing
2. Freezing:  First Chronicle
3. Freezing:  Zero
4. Freezing Pair Love Stories

## Why It Rocks

1. Good voice acting in both sub and dub.
2. Excellent animation in all of the action scenes and dramatic scenes.
3. Very appealing art style and character designs for the girls.
4. Surprisingly interesting and sympathetic characters due to this being an ecchi anime, especially the main heroine, Satellizer.
5. Lots of character development.
6. Great soundtrack.
7. Fans of fanservice will be pleased becuase the artwork of the fanservice looks really good and appealing.
8. Engaging, well developed releationship between Kazuya and Satellizer.
9. The show is sick and twisted, yet it somehow managed to be sweet at times.
10. Amazing, heart-pounding, intense fight scenes.

## Bad Qualities

1. While the girls character designs are appealing, the male character's designs are very generic.
2. The fanservice in the series is a double edged sword.  While lots of people will like it, lots of others will hate it, and htis series is loaded with it.
3. Even to some people who like fanservice tend to dislike some scenes in this show such as early on when the main female character, Satellizer, is basiclaly rapped by a bunch of other students.
4. The story, while good, does have a few plot holes.

## Reception

The anime adaption of *Freezing* has received generally positive reviews. The series' animation, character development and soundtrack were frequently praised, though critics' thoughts on the series' plotline and fanservice was generally more mixed. Davey C. Jones of Active Anime lauded *Freezing* as a "fantastic series that is part sci-fi and a huge part twisted fan service", which, "despite all the gratuity, the story is solid and had heart." Additional praise was directed at the animation, vibrant characters (including the relationship between Kazuya and Satellizer), as well as the soundtrack, with Jones writing that "the anime was great [...] it’s sick, it’s twisted, yet somehow also managed to be sweet at times."[29] In a later review of *Freezing: The Complete Series* (which includes *Vibration*), Jones continued to praise the characters, storyline, and fanservice, writing that it "has the action, the gripping story and wonderful visuals it [*Freezing*] has come to be known for – *Freezing* will captivate you."[30] Although some criticism was directed at the series' plot holes, the positive reception was echoed by Brian Auxier of Anime Herald, whom praised the strong visuals, noting that "scenes burst with color as heroines speed through the air. The animation is clean, and the overall sense of speed is exhilarating." The Fumination English dub was also commended as being fitting, with Auxier concluding that "the intense and sexualy charged combat scenes are the real centerpiece of the series, and generally eclipse the major faults in storytelling. Fans of action and fan service need to look no farther than *Freezing*. This one’s definitely for you."[31] Sequential Tart too opined that the series was highly enjoyable, praising the "exciting" story, breadth of characters, and the action scenes, with "the battles [being] as exciting as they are bloody", for a rating of 8 out of 10.[32]

Theron Martin of Anime News Network gave the series a B- overall, stating "As is, the series is nowhere near as bad as its premise suggested it could have been, and comes off a little better in the end than the initial impression it gives, but its appeal is still not going to extend much beyond the normal crowd of fan service and graphic action aficionados." The writing quality and character development was critiqued as varied, though praise was directed at the visuals.[33] *Freezing* ranked 14th on a list of "36 Titillating Ecchi Anime That Won't Let You Down" by anime website GoBoiano.[34] Martin earlier gave *Freezing* a score of 3.5 out of 5 in his preview of 2011 winter anime, finding the artwork and animation to be very good at times though sometimes inconsistent; however, he opined that "any of the series’ other potential weaknesses aren't going to matter if you have a sweet spot for the fan service/violence combo, though, as on that front it scores big-time."[35] Carl Kimlinger, also of Anime News Network, complained that the mixture of the "serious" premise and storyline coupled with the gratuitous fanservice was "uncomfortable at best; disturbing at worst", and attacked the "creative bankruptcy, interminable explication, lazy characterization" of the series. Ultimately, a score of 1.5 was given.[36] Carlo Santos too gave *Freezing* a score of 1.5, finding it to feel "like the brainchild of that one person you knew in high school [who wrote a] Big Epic Space Adventure that no publisher would be dumb enough to accept because it was too unwieldy and confusing [...] Except that in Japan, someone actually did accept that Big Epic Space Adventure. And made an unwieldy, confusing anime out of it."[37]

*Freezing: Vibration* also received generally positive critical reception. Anime News Network's Theron Martin noted that "the content follows through well enough that this is looking like a largely satisfying follow-up to the original" for a final score of 3 out of 5.[38] Chris Beveridge of *The Fandom Post* commended the audio and storytelling capability of *Vibration*, and particular praise was directed at the humanity and relatability of the characters, including Elizabeth's character and Satellizer's backstory, with Beveridge finding the series to not be afraid of "screwing with" its cast. *Vibration* was summarized as "solid [...] across the board and it’s definitely a great second act to the story of *Freezing*", with a content grade of A-.[39] Sequential Tart rated *Vibration* an 8 out of 10, critiquing the "deeper and darker" direction of the plot (especially Satellizer's past relationship with her brother Louis), new characters, and storyline, finding the enjoyability of the second season to be "equally as well as the first, though in different ways. It has great characters and an interesting story."[40]