Fractale and Freezing Endings, Spring Anime Beginnings: Otaku Trauma

Of the four animes I watched regularly from this Winter season, I was the happiest with Level E (no surprises there) and shocked by Freezing the most (waaaay more fanservice than the manhwa, let me tell you).  In the coming installments of Otaku Trauma, I’ll be reviewing those four series in completion.  Plus a bit of FMA news I was happy to hear about!

First up is Fractale and Freezing; two more polar opposite series you will never find!

Fractale (11 episodes)

Despite the light-hearted beginning, Fractale got dark pretty quick.  Death, war, religious intolerance, and just plain crazy people made each episode feel discordant at times.  Some of this, I think, is because of the short length of the series versus the larger than life concepts the show was trying to get across.

In hindsight, given the choice Clain has in the last episode, it’s obvious the animators were trying to give an even-balanced view between the Fractale System and the Lost Millennium’s ideals.  However, while I give Sunda and the crew of the Danann credit for promoting a better way of life, I didn’t feel that from the other LM fractions.  And the Fractale System Promoters?  Cut-throat bastards every last one of them, so I didn’t like them at all.

The secret of Fractale and”‘God” wasn’t extraordinary or startling.  In a way it was, but it’s the case of a story being warped and altered to suit a group’s agenda.  Over time it became myth and gospel truth.  Which is really all religion is (but that’s not for this discussion), but these people took it way too far.

If this had been given a longer series, I think it could have developed both sides of the conflict equally.  The 11th hour expositions from Grandpa (on the Danann) and the Priest who claimed to be Phryne’s father…not enough, guys.  There is a manga however, currently being scanlated, which may or may not give a better understanding.  From what I’ve read on boards it seems the anime and manga have some character differences that might be a big deal later on.

Freezing (12 episodes)

I said this once before, but it bears repeating–Freezing is not for anyone under 16.  Heck, if this was a live action TV show, it wouldn’t be able to air except on HBO or the like because of the amount of toplessness that occurs.  The comic isn’t quite so brazen, thankfully.  At least, not visually (thematically and story wise, however…).

This let me down.  From the original description I thought it would be more…action-filled.  And I don’t mean the constant fighting between the Pandoras–that got to be ridiculous and frustrating pretty quick.  World is in jeopardy, and these girls (and guys) are being trained to protect the planet.  So it makes complete sense that they’d spend the majority of their time, effort, and energy on beating each other up.  We’re not just talking about the new people–the senior Pandoras, who should know better, are the worst of the lot!

Plus any hierarchy that promotes kicking a person when they’re down or defending a friend who was about to be raped, should really be taken to task.  Where the blazing suns were the teachers?!

That rant aside, the show decided to actually focus on the underlying threat of the Nova in the last few episodes (though there was still plenty of bickering to go around even during a full-on assault), and it was enjoyable for me then.  We got to see more of the depths to which Satellizer is deeply messed up (psychologically, her mom did a number on her that didn’t get better with her new “family”), and there was a buried lesson about letting kids choose their own paths (or they may turn out to be the worst nightmare the world has ever seen).

I’m partially hoping this gets another season, because the storyline following this–or at least what will become the storyline once we get past the family angst chapters–promises to be exciting.  I’m not seeing the early signs of the creators wanting to proceed with that storyline, though, but that may be to avoid having dangling plot threads they can’t tie up.

Spring anime:

X-Men (April 1)
Premise: Madhouse/Marvel’s third joint anime needs no real introduction, but who wants to lay odds the characters I like (Rogue, Jubilee, x-23, Gambit, and, hell, I’ll even toss in the Phoenix!) won’t be big deals?
Conclusion:  While I have no love for either the Wolverine anime or the Iron Man anime previously put out by Madhouse/Marvel, X-Men I’m more willing to try out.

Steins;Gate (April 6)
Premise: A group of friends modify a microwave to send text messages to the past.  So basically these guys must be related to Doc Brown, right?
Conclusion: I didn’t watch Chaos;Head (which this is related to), but I’m going to start this series before going to watch that one to see if I need to see it.

Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Boku-tachi wa Mada Shiranai  (April 14)
Premise: Six friends have grown apart as they’ve grown older.  With a last wish from one of their group, can they gather one more time?
Conclusion: This will either interest me from the first episode, or lose me too quickly to contemplate.

C: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control  (April 15)
Premise: I’m honestly not sure how to summarize this except to say Math Kills.  Kimimaro is thrust into a separate reality known as ‘The Financial District,” which seems to be some sort of fighting adventure quest?
Conclusion: It’s another hit or miss title for me.  We’ll see; the premise is intriguing enough, but I’m wary of such an off the wall concept.

Norageki! OVA (April 26)
Premise: Taking place in an isolated prison, five wholly different prisoners (and cat) are let loose during a blackout. With no guards and crazy happenings, what could possibly go wrong?
Conclusion: Assuming I get my hands on this, I’ll be watching just because it’s one episode, and I can afford to spend time on potentially uninteresting anime that’s so short.

(pictures and information from Anime Vice and MyAnimeList,  for more information about the Spring Releases check out WhyNot?’s spring anime chart)

Domestic Anime

In preparation for the new Fullmetal Alchemist movie (details below), I’m re-watching the original series (52 episode + movie) and Brotherhood (63 episodes + OVA’s).  I reckon about 13 episodes a week and I’ll have this done by the end of June.  At which point I’ll be rewatching Last Exile in preparation for the new series Last Exile ~ Fam of the Silverwing due out in the summer.  Plus with RideBack getting a domestic release I’ll watch that as well (13 episodes)….at some point.

I’ll write up reports as I go!

Anime News

Release date for the new Fullmetal Alchemist movie and new trailers are set!  The movie is due out July 2, 2011 (in Japan :sob:) and rock band L’Arc~En~Ciel, who’s songs have been in FMA before (most notably READY! STEADY! GO!) will be providing music.

The movie, Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos, will be the second theatrical release for the series, but is not canonically tied like the first one (Conqueror of Shamballa, 2005).  For those who can read Japanese, the movie site has character information as well as several trailers and production notes.

While I’m not worried that it’ll be brought to the states by FUNImation (who’s released every other facet of the animated series), I sincerely hope it gets here faster than its predecessor, because I don’t want to wait a year and likely won’t.