Freezing Episode #11 (

By:Chris Beveridge
Review Date: Wednesday, April 06, 2011
Release Date: Monday, April 04, 2011

The Nova are utilizing the Pandora warriors against each other as their goal is ever closer.

What They Say:
As the slave Nova-Pandora hybrids approach the Ravensborne Nucleochede, Satellizer and her comrades stage a desperate last stand in order to protect the source of their power.

The Review:
With the actual arrival of the Nova in the previous episode, Freezing became, well, interesting. After almost ten episodes of girls bullying girls and just being plain mean, the threat they're being trained to face has arrived and it's kicking their pretty little asses rather hard. So much so that they've taken down most of their first and second line defenses and absorbed many of them into their ranks, using Pandora Warriors against each other. It's actually a rather nice, chilling sequence we had in the previous episode as the young women realized that their comrades were being used against them now in a very deadly way. It's a difficult situation since you do want to hold out hope that you can save them without hurting them. Much.

Those that remain are now in a really bad position as they're instructed to protect the horribly named Ravensborne Nucleochde which has something very, very powerful in there because it's the source of all their power. When that goes down, well, they're all screwed. With a smaller group left to handle this, with Satellizer as the seeming elder amongst them with the most power, it's a pretty intense battle in the corridors and the few open areas that exist there. In a way, it's not terribly hard for them because so many of them have either been mean to these girls before or had been treated badly by them that having to go against those that have been taken over by the Nova is a bit of revenge or just another day at school, though it's taken a bit further. Of course, the Nova controlled warriors return to normal, unconscious, after they're beaten, so there's some softness to the script in the end. You do want to see a situation where one of regular girls just goes over and kicks someone hard that bullied them after saving them.

One of the best selling points of the show has been its strong action sequences, even if it was just girls beating each other up, and having them in this situation, with characters being taken down hard by each other, is definitely a highlight of the show. The choreography of the fights continues to be solid, though I do continue to wish that it was lit better since it employs a lot of dark corridors made worse by additional shadows and then glaring lights from their weapons, but the intensity of the fights and the power behind them is undeniable here. You just wish that you actually cared about the characters more. There was never enough time to really connect with these characters and what we did see didn't exactly lend themselves to actually be liked. But for the action component, this episode delivers handily.

In Summary:
While action dominates the episode, there are some nice moments for the characters to be had. Some of the fights do have some emotion to it because of their connections and while the viewer may not feel it, it is there on the screen and decently done. The bigger moments come in the form of Kazuya and Satellizer figuring each other out and what their relationship really is since it goes back and forth a bit here until she gets the clue. There's significant enough build up towards the end with it all, but for the most part, what really sells this episode is the action. There's no denying that Freezing does it and does it well and this episode is almost entirely about it. While it lacks a real background to all of it in order to make it resonate, it's definitely fun to watch, wonky science and all, just to see if they'll go as far as they have earlier in the series with how they beat each other up. There's definitely a lot to like when it comes to this part and Freezing delivers.

Japanese 2.0 Language, English Subtitles

Review Equipment



Mania Grade: B
Audio Rating: NA
Video Rating: NA
Packaging Rating: NA
Menus Rating: NA
Extras Rating: NA
Age Rating: 17 and Up
Region: All Region DVD
Released By: FUNimation Entertainment, Ltd.
Running time: 24
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Widescreen
Disc Resolution: 480i/p
Disc Encoding: MPEG-2
Series: Freezing