Freezing (manga)

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. During his time there, he discovers that there might be a direct link between the two worlds with relation to Novas, Pandoras, and Limiters. There also appear to be several alternate versions of people he knows on Elca.

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 sexualization 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."[32] In a later review of Freezing: The Complete Series (which includes Vibration), Jones continued to praise the characters, storyline, and sexualization, writing that it "has the action, the gripping story and wonderful visuals it [Freezing] has come to be known for – Freezing will captivate you."[33] 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 Funimation English dub was also commended as being fitting, with Auxier concluding that "the intense and sexually 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."[34] 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.[35]

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.[36] Freezing ranked 14th on a list of "36 Titillating Ecchi Anime That Won't Let You Down" by anime website GoBoiano.[37] 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."[38] Carl Kimlinger, also of Anime News Network, complained that the mixture of the "serious" premise and storyline coupled with the gratuitous sexualization 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.[39] 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."[40]

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.[41] 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−.[42] 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."[43]

• Freezing at Comic Valkyrie (in Japanese)
  • Freezing: First Chronicle at Comic Valkyrie (in Japanese)
  • Freezing: Zero at Comic Valkyrie (in Japanese)
  • Freezing Pair Love Stories Archived 2013-04-01 at the Wayback Machine at Comic Valkyrie (in Japanese)
• Official anime website (in Japanese)
• Freezing Archived 2018-12-04 at the Wayback Machine at FUNimation
• Freezing at Seven Seas Entertainment
• Freezing (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• Freezing at IMDb