Freezing - Review

 The most interesting question in the world of anime has prevailed through yet another season: can the lack of a compelling narrative be compensated for with abhorrent amounts of fanservice screaming in unison with surprisingly bland characters? My inner being would like nothing more but to verbally mutilate the 2011 atrocity known as Freezing, but in a desperate attempt to maintain some sort of decency I eventually decided not to; although as you might have guessed, this review is a highly negative one. Quite frankly, I doubt I’ll ever rate anything lower than this…

Story: 1/10
When an extraterrestrial threat desires global supremacy in the world we humans inhabit, you’d assume that tanks, aircrafts and experienced soldiers would be put to diligent use; but that would be overlooking one of the most efficient resources we have at our disposal: abnormally large breasted teenagers who can be genetically modified and trained in the art of combat. Known as “Pandoras”, these female warriors are paired up with boys of similar age, and attend an academy where they improve on their fighting skills. This is where our protagonists are introduced.

Because the Pandora known as “The Untouchable Queen” resembles his sister in terms of appearance, wussy boy Kazuya is determined to become her partner, and his success is a fact, despite her tsundere personality initially forbidding it. Upon realizing that the Pandoras spend more time fighting and sexually harassing each other, than they do focusing on the actual threat, Kazuya’s pacifist persona is brought to light, allowing him to tediously stop fights and preach about the value of peace.

The overuse of melodrama, the lack of an actual storyline (emphasis on “lack”), and the crucial plethora of unoriginal characters made the narrative into a no-brainer, and unless your thirst for boobs and irrelevant violence is insatiable, I’d suggest you stay away from this pile of excrement. With a better approach matters could have been endurable; a lighthearted tone and deliberately exaggerated action sequences practically go hand in hand, but Freezing explains ridiculous scenarios as if they were highly realistic, and eventually ends up blunting them instead.

Animation: 7/10
Boasting a fairly successful symbiosis between traditional animation and CGI, the visual section isn’t entirely without redeeming qualities. Disregarding the character designs that are devoid of proportional accordance, I enjoyed the ending of the show from a technical point of view: an anime should refrain from depending too heavily on computer graphics, but Freezing features just the right amount to look fine.

Furthermore, the frequently occurring outbursts of violence are choreographed decently, despite recycling the exact same formula that commonly involves exposed mammary glands and plenty of injuries. They are made with care, if a tad too reliant on the use of still images.

Sound: 4/10
For a slice of life show the soundtrack would fit terrifically, but when it accompanies out-of-place melodrama it’s hard to appreciate it. The OP is standardized to the extreme, screeching out J-Pop with glee; respectively, the voice acting is not precisely top notch either. Kazuya’s persona is portrayed by an actor whose talent lies solely in his ability to invoke a strong feeling of hate from the audience; as he nasally chants for his female partner whenever she’s facing danger, you’ll find yourself yearning for the hypothetical scenario in which he dies…

Don’t misinterpret: the music in itself carries its own form of charm with beautifully applied piano music, but its mere existence in a sleazy show like Freezing shouldn’t be allowed. Worthy to note is the equally fanservice-packed Highschool of the Dead that at least realized its limitations and threw in some rock to support key moments: but the crucial difference here is that HOTD knew how to appeal to its audience, while Freezing desperately attempts to seduce both romantics and lovers of Anime explicitness.

I like how they went for
totally realistic
proportions!

Characters: 2/10
Attempts at character development accompany the narrative through various flashbacks and references, but much as I appreciate its presence, greater ambitions would be beneficial; the character studies don’t even try to strike you as realistic. Ecchi is known to derive female characters of their potential appeal, and so is the case here. The ladies in Freezing constantly abuse one another, and of course they merrily participate in the occasional boob-grabbing just for the sake of it. “The Untouchable Queen” is a beautiful title indeed, but its origin can be found in a plot device that’s not very compelling, and as a result her painful history seems less significant.

You can only sit through a specific amount of screen time in which the Pandoras sexually harass each other until you question the academy they attend. Their principal glances upon her school with a solemn and slightly hopeful look; she knows that her students are the only ones capable of saving mankind, but inexplicably refrains from stopping the horrible abuse that’s allowed to occur within school property. Perhaps she should lower the requirements needed to attend her school; independency and individual strength is a must, but is a huge set of bouncing assets really that vital?

To conclude the character section I’d also like to point out the lack of creative design that damage the potential appeal even further, right as the aliens are introduced. They look like poorly scratched together pieces of metal that, hypothetically speaking, my younger brother of seven years would be able to artistically improve. Furthermore, their motive regarding world domination is blurry; as far as I could perceive them, they come without any characteristics at all.

Overall: 1.5/10

Inadequate to be entertaining on all levels except for the animation, Freezing cruelly represents everything that’s wrong in the world of Anime; ecchi prioritized far above coherency, and a narrative whose ridiculous simplicity and lack of realism muddles whatever the show wants to say. A different and more lighthearted approach could have resulted in something endurable, but when the show takes itself too seriously it crosses the line to what the average viewer can tolerate.

Abstract and Symbolic Anime Part 1 - Angel's Egg

I recently realized that all I've done so far on this blog that nobody visits is rant on and on about the awesome moments of escapism that the Umineko Visual Novels provide. With this in mind, I've decided to introduce yet another aspect of Japanese entertainment that I absolutely adore; anime that tells its story through symbolism and an abstract approach. But before I begin, please hear me out before you shout "pretentious!"

As far as art-house goes, I'm usually not that interested. Whether it be the dangerously pretentious presentation of your average Art College moviemaker or the bizarre nihilism of "Begotten", this type of movies doesn't interest me. Why? Because in 90% of the cases all they do is justify bizarre and pointless (as well as overly sexual) content with fabricated allegorical claims. With this in mind, do note that anime has a tendency to eliminate the borders of pretentiousness and reach those heights of creativity I admire. It was with humble expectations that I decided to give Angel's Egg a chance and it turned out to be quite interesting.

Mamoru Oshii

Any anime fan that hasn't spent the majority of his life under a rock or his mother's basement is at least aware of the existence of Ghost in the Shell. It's a Cyberpunkish anime directed by Mamoru Oshii that is relatively notorious for having inspired the creators of The Matrix profoundly. What many people tend to overlook is one of his previous creations, the 1985 movie Angel's Egg produced by Studio Deen who rarely choose to lend their penmanship to titles of such obscurity. Is the movie a puddled mess of self-suffocating symbolism or a deep journey of personal interpretations? Let's find out! ^_^

In a gloomy and desolate city, a little girl wanders throughout the abandoned streets with a mysterious egg neatly placed underneath her clothes. She runs into a swordsman traveling in solitude and they end up visiting a bizarre and gothic place where the girl seems to live. Many questions are raised, most prominently regarding the contents of the egg, but also what has happened to their flawed memories and conceptions of identity.

The DVD cover of Angel's Egg

Mamoru Oshii has created a story that progresses at an almost alarmingly slow rate. Several frames are present on the screen for more than a minute each without any form of dialogue or change to speak of in a fashion that's far from as annoying as it should be. Where the infinitely abstract story momentarily fails to impress you, these moments are where the true strength lies. Said strength can be defined with the use of one single word: mood setting. The pacing is extremely slow, and the lack of a concrete story may strike some as unappealing, but few will deny that Angel's Egg exhibits a gloomy and ominous tone that few other titles can match.

Whereas the story comes off as interesting based on its ability to set an excellent mood, the animation is notable for its symbolism and sheer creativity alone. Basically, this is the experimental kind of anime that I'd expect from MADHOUSE, but never would I have imagined that Deen would be up for the challenge. But they were, in the year of 1985, and they made the wise decision to craft this little gem with a gothic color palette and a top notch budget. This benevolent creativity as well as the beautiful character designs results in a memorable ride that outshines most modern titles, not objectively but artistically.

The mysterious swordsman
who breaks the egg

For characterization, there is only one word and its synonyms that can be used to sum it up decently: irrelevant. Besides the metaphorical parallels one might draw from the non-existent characterization, the story follows a girl and a swordsman. That's all there is to it, and as such, it might be wise to implement your approach of this title with caution if this type of thing does not appeal to you.

Just like the characters themselves, the voice acting for each role is of complete irrelevance. Angel's Egg relies heavily on facial expressions to express the relatively muted amount of feelings and thoughts the characters may have, and dialogue is rarely put to use. 

As dull as it may sound, this reluctance to rely on verbal communication is actually one of the movies' greatest virtues that acts in accordance with the otherwise melancholic touch of the narrative and visuals. With music of such extravagance, and a plethora of suggestive sounds though, you don't need to worry at all; the soundtrack is haunting and creepily effective. 

After this overly long synopsis and semi-review all that is left is to finally feature my own subjective interpretation of the plot. Two things should be noted; first of all, there are more theories out there than could possibly be counted, and most individuals who choose to see this will interoperate the symbols differently. Secondly, I’m still not too sure about the allegorical function of the ending, but I might get back to it if I ever see this again.

My theory

The swordsman recites the story of Noah's ark for the girl and radiates a curiosity to know what's inside the egg. In the gothic depths of the mysterious building that the girl seems to inhabit, a tree is carved into the wall and strikes him as familiar. He then proceeds to say that he remembers the tree from somewhere but acknowledges that it's been so long that he cannot remember where and how it was. He even states that it might have been in a dream but mentions that the tree grows by consuming the life within the earth. At the top of the tree there is a mysterious bird that is directly linked to it, and in the same building there is a huge skeleton of a bird that the girl presents to him.

Later on, the girl mentions that she found the egg and believes that it contains a bird (that might be the direct reincarnation of the bird from the legend of the tree) and this causes the swordsman to steal and destroy the egg from her, despite having promised not to harm it. Why does he do this? I have two theories:

1: His intentions are merely to find out the contents of the egg. He mentions earlier on that one cannot know what lies inside it if one does not break it.

2: He believes that the bird in the egg is a direct reincarnation of the bird that shared a connection with the life consuming tree. He believes that if it is allowed to hatch, the tree will once again begin to consume the life of earth.

When the girl learns of his betrayal she runs out and ends up falling from a cliff in either a suicide or an accident. It's possible that the egg represented child-bearing, as the girl used to carry it around underneath her clothes which made her look pregnant. As she falls from the cliff she spots another version of herself that resembles a woman more than a girl. This might indicate that the egg represented her childlike innocence which was crushed by the then antagonized swordsman. This allowed her to perform a process of maturity that ends up producing a huge number of new eggs that gives further credit to the thought that the original egg might symbolize the virtue of child-bearing. 

Is it worth watching?

I was skeptical at first since these animated eccentricities usually attract the love of art-house lovers but fail to provide a more broad appeal. I ended up loving it though, thanks to the excellent production values as well as the surprisingly captivating story that opens up possibilities for an endless number of personal interpretations. This is absolutely a movie that gives birth to discussion, and I'd love to see what other theories might exist out there. If you're in the mood for something thought provoking and perplexing, I suggest you go watch it right now! 

I give Angel's Egg a strong 8 out of 10.