Ranked #860

Freedom

You have probably already seen or, at least, heard about Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira. The movie was beautifully drawn, with complex characters and admired for its illustrations of technology. So, when Bandai Entertainment announced that Otomo was working on a new anime series, his fans were naturally excited.
Disappointment came in when I learned that Otomo was only designing the characters and the technological look of the series rather than writing the stories. However, after watching this OVA series with 7 episodes, I can now say I was impressed, although it could have been so much better plot-wise.

Freedom is set in 2267 in the moon colony Eden, after the Earth has been left uninhabitable due to an ecological disaster.
The world of the series really is impressive. There are no giant mechas or spaceships travelling at the speed of light. Instead of relying on useless fantasies, Freedom goes beyond your average anime series and presents us with a more realistic world, where people work and live in. And besides, you never see anything happening on the moon so that is definitely a plus.

The biggest fault in Freedom lies, without a doubt, in the plot.
Screaming Akira, this series follows a group of teenagers, led by Takeru, who spend their time racing and working on their “vehicle”, a three-wheeled motorcycle. Whenever they get in trouble, they are assigned to community service, or “volunteer work”, as the CAC calls it, which basically consists of walking along a tube on the lunar surface to check for leaks. It is during this tedious duty that Takeru witnesses a satellite smash into the Moon’s surface nearby and within discovers a photograph of a woman standing over a group of children on what looks like Earth. We will basically follow Takeru in his search for this woman.
It takes two episodes (out of only 7) for the story to take that important twist that moves things forward and, even after that, things seem to progress rather slowly. There is, in fact, too much talk and not enough plot.
Another negative aspect is that there was too much Cup Noodle product placement. Although Freedom was originally made as an advertising campaign, it doesn’t look good. If this was a TV-series, it would be alright, but not as an OVA.

The artwork and animation are two of the strongest points of Freedom.
The artwork is like an evolved form of Akira, since the style is basically the same.
Animation is amazing, but it might require getting used to. Freedom is one of the very few anime (that I know of) to be made totally in 3D cell-shaded CG. Most people will probably need to get used to the style, but once you can look beyond this, you’ll be rewarded by a great series.
The quality of art and motions is really well done. Their awkward motions are vividly portrayed. The racing scenes look like an upgraded version of the bike-chasing scenes in Akira, and they are also excellent.
The opening is fantastic. I specially like how they associate things, like the vehicle with a kid’s tricycle. And the race sequence is like a manga brought to life and evolves as important events take place along the series. Truly amazing.

If you’ve seen Ergo Proxy, you’ll probably detect resemblances in the soundtrack. Yes, the author is the same (Ike Yoshihiro) and the music style is also similar. I shouldn’t need to say anything else. The soundtrack is spectacular.
The opening was one of the best ones I’ve seen. The song matches perfectly with the animated sequences. The singer’s name also speaks for itself (Utada Hikaru). As for the ending, despite being just instrumental, it strengthens the powerful climaxes on the first three episodes.
As for the voice cast, it's not outstanding, but gets the job done (except maybe Sanae Kobayashi, who had a rather mediocre performance as Ao).

The characters are the biggest strength of this series, although they’re just a group of hot-headed teenagers. Freedom is what a shounen anime should be. Shounen animes often forget that every teenage boy is an idiot. Freedom portrays that in a pretty realistic way, as their personality is consistent throughout, as opposed to the regular shounen with random idiotic "filler" scenes that are used not as part of the character, but simply as comedic relief. This is much better than your regular lead who just wants to become the best in the world, which just leads them to brainless directions without any real goal in mind… not really that interesting for me.
Flaws in the character department mostly appear in the last episode because the creators decided to be too epic for their own good, and some characters become a bit unrealistic for the sake of a more "epic" ending.

The enjoyment department is incredibly subjective but, personally, Freedom has its moments. Those moments are usually action scenes and the climaxes of the episode, which are, without a doubt, breath taking. Past those parts, most of it is average.

Overall, Freedom is a very good sci-fi anime with great characters, a nice OST and a powerful animation and it's definitely a must watch for fans of the genre. read more

'Freedom' is a good short OVA that makes use of familiar themes to tell a short but sufficiently entertaining story about a boy on the moon who stumbles upon some startling truths. Definitely not a story of 'epic' proportions, but for a quick end-to end session, or if you just plain don't feel like watching either a longer anime or a movie, this is a definitely watchable pick. A few points that I've covered below, if you want to know more:

The setting is simple enough - a 23rd century Lunar colony where people live in peace and boredom, that is until three guys unearth something they shouldn't have. This probably sounds tedious for a long story arc, but for a simple short story like this one, it suffices very well. Not the most original setting one can imagine, perhaps, but its good enough to see a short seven-part show like this one through. The way the story is played out within seven episodes, though, is where this show scores. Each episode has quite a lot packed into it, yet not appearing too fast-paced for comfort. While each episode doesn't end 'leaving you wanting more' as it were, its still just enough to sustain your curiosity. The only thing that looks rather silly is the blatant product placement for Cup Noodles.

One other thing that stands out rather conspicuously is the animation - or should I say graphics, because that's what comes more to mind when you see the visuals. The backgrounds and landscapes are stunningly rendered and meticulously detailed, no doubt about that. But the animation of the human characters has an undeniably plastic feel about it, despite attempts at making the motions fluid and natural. Added to the fact that they've tried to capture every minute facial expression, the effect you get is that of a computerized puppet show. In all fairness though, this is more of a conspicuous quirk than a drawback, and doesn't in any way hamper the overall visual experience. If anything, you get used to it rather quickly.

All in all, this is not the kind of show that you will fondly remember decades later, but for a quick stretch of anime entertainment if you're too tired for anything more serious or involving, or just for a change of pace, this should just about do the trick. read more