This is review number two hundred and seventy six. This anime is part of the Fall 2013 lineup. This is also one of the Ecchi shows of that particular lineup. The show I’ll be reviewing is called Freezing Vibration. It’s a twelve episode anime about sexy big breasted girls fighting each other while they tear each other’s clothes off. The first season is great because it’s so damn dirty you can’t stop watching it. The second season is…well…not that great. Let’s read on.

Story

The second season is about Satellizer and some select Pandora of West Genetics Academy being asked to take part in a revolutionary project called the Evolution-Pandora project. It’s a promising project where normal girls can be injected with the stigmata that gives Pandora’s their power. The problem of the world having only a handful of Pandoras protecting it can now be resolved when this project succeeds. A lot of Pandoras from the rest of the world also gathers in Alaska to participate in the project. Something doesn’t feel right though. E-Pandora seems a bit suspicious and a group of Pandoras now wonder if they should voice out their concern or just follow their orders. Some of them decided to face Chevalier, the organization responsible with creating Pandoras and the E-Pandora project, despite the huge risk involved. Satellizer is in a tough position. Does she follow her orders or does she do the right thing in this situation? It’s easier said than done when you’re up against one of the most influential organization in the world.

Taking the Pants Off

Freezing is an old anime for me. It belonged in the very first lineup I ever reviewed way back in Winter 2012. I was a young and green reviewer back then but I was determined to soak up as much as I can so I can improve. A couple hundred reviews later, the second season was released. I really didn’t think this show needed another season. There was really nothing left to do other than traumatize viewers again with its unique brand of trashy Ecchi. I also groaned a bit when I saw the title. “Freezing Vibration” sounds like a show that threw subtlety out the window and just really aims to freak people out. Along with Highschool DxD, this is actually the only Ecchi anime that fully exposes female breasts. In every episode, there is always one character with plump nipples walking bare or fighting until their clothes are ripped off. This is honestly one of the best contributions of 2012 for me but, as you can tell, it didn’t catch on. Bringing it back again is a nice idea but a part of me didn’t really want to sit through another Freezing anime. Honestly tell yourselves if you want to as well. The second season is surprising though. It changed. It still had exposed naked breasts but it also had a story. This Ecchi show had a plot that was unlike its first season. It was complex and deep with a few thought provoking elements. It really caught me off guard because, yknow, I was expecting boobs. I didn’t see a story about human morality, social politics and existentialism being a huge component of the show. I was naturally intrigued. It does pose a question though. Would you really want to watch an Ecchi show with a strong plot when the first season had nothing but half naked girls? Is it even going to work? I have seen it done before. Highschool DxD also had an improved story and it looks like Freezing is doing the same transformation. For DxD, the change was interesting and nicely transitioned. Freezing didn’t have the same luck though. This particular Ecchi show was convoluted and directionless. I particularly felt that it was a bit forced and it didn’t convince me into watching an Ecchi show with a strong story. It had a lot of problems that stems all the way back from its first season. I appreciate the effort giving us an interesting story but the execution is horrible. It gave the audience a pretty bland anime experience far below anything the first season has ever given us.

I honestly don’t remember much from the first season so bear with me. I know it’s about super powered girls fighting each other. There is this dude named Kazuya Aoi who recently entered this school that specializes on training girls called “Pandoras”. They fight monsters called “Nova” that basically wreak havoc on Earth and they’re the only effective weapon against them. They were implanted with some stigmata or something that makes them power up but also has a huge risk of shortening their lives. Anyways, only girls can become a Pandora and guys like Kazuya are there for support. The guys are called Limiters and they provide healing or shield and even freezing their enemy to their Pandora’s advantage. A Pandora always has a Limiter and Kazuya will eventually be chosen by one. His interest is sparked by this cold girl named Satellizer who refuses to have a limiter. She doesn’t want to be touched mainly because she had a tough childhood and she covers it with her bitchy attitude. Unfortunately, her bitchy attitude rubs people the wrong way and a bunch of Pandoras soon started challenging her to a fight. They want to make her suffer. Throughout the first half, Satellizer engages in half naked battles with a lot of sexy woman. Seriously, there are way too many to forget. Kazuya is special because he can use his limiter power without conjuring spells that activates them. This proves useful during Satellizer’s fights. She eventually caught the attention of the top three or something Pandora and they want to see how far she can go. The second half introduced us to a Nova though. All the characters from the first half now engage in a bloody battle with this Nova. They won. Kazuya and Satellizer entered a satisfying relationship. The world is safe and the anime ended. The tricky part about the show is the terminologies but everything else is easy to follow. The story itself is actually pretty straightforward and the Ecchi is what makes the show unique. The light brush of Sci Fi is also pretty decent but you’re really just watching the show for the boobs and there are a lot of them here.

The show second season didn’t have any refresher. Despite the two seasons being a year apart, the anime just jumped into its story. The audience is asked to just fill in the blanks. I was personally lost when I first saw the show because it’s been so long since I watched the first season. Characters do sound familiar but the overall content of the show is lost on me. It really just asks you to watch the first season first to get a gist of the story. I don’t really want to do that though so I just rough on. Also, you don’t have to worry. Even if you saw the first season, I doubt it’ll help. It opened with Satellizer, Kazuya and another chick, stuck in a boat going to Alaska where E-Pandora is being done. They were asked to participate in the project and they gladly obliged because it can only benefit humanity some more. At this point, you’ll learn that a bunch of the significant characters of the first season aren’t in the second one. The general story of the first season doesn’t apply to the second. Anything established in the first season is disregarded in the second. It’s like watching a different show. The story is slow but precise. There are a lot of new characters and there is a new status quo to consider. Moving the show away from the familiar academy to a research facility in Alaska is an odd move but the way the story is being built looks interesting. Soon, the characters are introduced to the E-Pandora project and the various people running it.

This show has two plot points. The anime was very intricate in the way the story was presented that it really doesn’t feel like the familiar Ecchi show you once saw. I’ll talk about that in detail later on. For now, let’s talk about the first plot point. It’s about the E-Pandora project. It’s a promising project where normal girls can become Pandoras. This can bolster the ranks in fighting Novas and it’s a more efficient way to produce soldiers. The project is in its embryonic stages at this point though. The researchers need more data to move on. They decided to pit the E-Pandoras with the super powered Pandoras to collect that data. The E-Pandoras has their own story going on though. They come from tragic places and ended up as research subjects for this project. They all volunteered though but they also have this disdain for the Pandora girls because they all come from influential families. The E-Pandoras think that they seem to have things going good for them. The E-Pandora girls are given some privileges as well but they know deep down that the spoiled Pandoras are their enemies. This makes their fights all the more interesting because of this stupid conflict between the girls. When they entered the ring though, it was obvious that the project needs more work. The head researcher, Scarlett Ohara, plans to collect more data and tweak a few loose ends. However, the project is under strict scrutiny and the higher ups are demanding results. They don’t want Scarlett to just waste time. They want something to quell the public and gain support. They want to push the project through drastic measures and this just sends red flags through everybody. Scarlett is adamant that this project is the wave of future so she decided to hang on despite the pressure crushing her down. The E-Pandora girls are willing to do anything to become stronger but things become sour when their lives are being put on the line. The Pandora girls are also torn. They know the project is iffy but they have orders to follow. Do they just disobey their orders to follow what their heart tells them? The E-Pandora project is clearly turning into chaos.

The first plot point has a lot of sub stories in it. These small stories basically make up the first plot point. They actually progress a bit randomly but they all culminate into something big as the anime progresses. The first subplot is about the fate of the E-Pandoras. They joined this project because they had a crappy life and they wanted to be more than that. The subplot focuses on three E-Pandora girls. Amelia Evans, Gina Papleton anda girl simply named Rattle joined the project hoping to become strong and help the world just like the strong Pandora girls. They have this tragic thing going on because they know that they can’t be as good as the Pandora girls but they have strong faith in the project. They hope to beat them one day and become the underdog champions they always dream of. When the project churned out its first failure, the E-Pandora girls took the blunt of it. The higher ups wanted more results and they want the E-Pandoras to be experimented some more. The whole situation turns a bit gruesome but Amelia and the girls always believe that head researcher Scarlett has their back. She won’t let anything done to them that will do them harm. They know that she share the same frustration they have so they participated in the project some more knowing Scarlett can keep them safe. The E-Pandora girls are sadly just guinea pigs in this situation though. They’re expendable and they shouldn’t expect anything more. They volunteered in this project so they can’t back out. The fate of these girls are about to be toyed with. For the success of the project and for mankind, the girls will have to experience a lot of cruel things that they didn’t expect coming to them. Reality is harsh though and this project tells us just how evil humans can be. The E-Pandora girls have spent their entire lives on the cruel side though. They have grown resilient and determined. When faced with the fact that they’ll die, you can expect cornered rats to fight back.

The second subplot is about Scarlett Ohara and her dream of wanting the E-Project to succeed. She was a student of Gengo Aoi, the pioneer scientist behind the Pandoras. He believed that the E-Pandora project just breaks a few morality codes and he does not support it. For Scarlett, she wanted redemption and to prove her mentor wrong. E-Project will change the world and Gengo is a fool for not believing in it. Gengo disliked Scarlett’s ideals so much that he immediately fired her when she was able to extract the original Pandora girl’s data to improve the Pandora research. Gengo compared her ideals to the Tower of Babel. Humans built a tower that will reach heaven so they can be equal with God. This pissed the big guy so much that he destroyed the tower and he put up the language barrier so humans cannot do the same thing again. Humans received divine punishment for trying to be equal to God. Gengo thinks that Scarlett’s ideals just cross the line too much and it’s not long before she receives divine punishment. Scarlett is stubborn though and she believes that the whole Tower of Babel thing is just exaggerated garbage. To improve mankind, certain rules must be broken. The way she pushes the E-Project poses some interesting questions. It asks us just if one should sacrifice morality for the improvement of science. Do you really just drop all the ethical things so you can achieve your goal? Is it really worth it to cross that line for the goal you are trying to achieve? Scarlett often reasons that whatever she is doing is for the sake of mankind but she often doesn’t believe her own dribble. The woman is so goal oriented though that she is willing to play with other people’s lives to achieve her goal. Being pressured by higher ups doesn’t help as well and you can only watch until the whole thing just explodes in her face. All of her stubbornness and goal oriented beliefs really can’t cut it when God delivers her divine punishment though.

The last subplot is about the Pandora girls. A lot of strong ones have gathered in the research facility including the top five strongest Pandoras in the world. After realizing how evil the E-Project is, a few of them decided to find a way to stop it. This means disobeying their orders though and the rest of the Pandora girls won’t allow that. After some brooding, some of the girls decided to use their family’s wealth to fight back. They all came from nobilities so it’s not that hard to secure support. Others are bounded by rules though and abandoning it isn’t something they can do. They plan to force the other girls to follow the rules while some girls are looking for ways to expose the horror of the E-Project. There are some talks about duty vs belief that was explored by the anime. Pandora girls are born out of duty so they really have no right to intervene with the higher ups. On the other hand, they’re all human as well albeit super powered monstrosities. They still possess the beating heart and the thinking mind of a human so it’s hard to turn a blind eye on things you consider wrong. Things become a lot more complicated though when the same entity that gave the girls their duty is the one that they are fighting against. Chevalier isn’t just the group that created Pandora girls, they also have influence on a lot of things and they have the power to shut any opposing force up. They aren’t afraid to crush any Pandora girl that challenges them. So between shutting up and following orders or following your heart on what you think is right, any girl that is willing to take the risk is destined for some serious beating.

It was a decision that Satellizer chose despite the consequences. After things got progressively dark in Alaska, Satellizer decided to ask for her family’s help. This can only mean one thing. Satellizer is to be reintroduced to THAT guy. Yknow, that guy. I’m talking about his incest raping brother. It’s something that was carried over from the first season. I think it’s the only element of the first season re-introduced. Satellizer has a sadistic brother that turned her into a distant person. He did some evil things to her. He did stuff like this:

Now, Satellizer must deal with this while trying to gain support from her family. This is a complicated matter for our main character but it’s about time she grows a pair. With Kazuya by her side, can she finally have the guts to say “No! I don’t want my brother to incest rape me anymore!” to the guy that emotionally turn her into aerosol cheese?

The second plot point of the show is about the Pandora girls fighting. There’s nothing complicated about this one. It’s just two girls fighting each other while they try to take off as many layers of clothes they can from their enemy. It’s another thing the second season picked up from the first but this one is a bit different. This one involves the top five strongest Pandora girls in the world. That’s right. When some girls want to side with duty and others want to side with belief, they’ll clash. It’ll feature a fight amongst the best of the best. It’s an insane plot point with some significant fights to present.

Anyways, all of these subplots and plot points eventually build up into one climactic moment. The divine punishment, the E-Pandora girls fighting back, the project being exposed of its sins and the strong Pandora girls fighting eventually culminate into something outrageous. It’s so complex and convoluted that you seriously can’t take it all in. I mean that in both the good and bad sense. You see, even though the various plot points of the story is clear, the story itself is so damn boring and predictable. I actually see the problem. The first season was a trashy show full of boobs and half naked girls with a linear plot that you don’t really care for. It’s just there and you’re alright with it. It had a direction and some decent conflicts. You can’t ask more from an Ecchi anime. The second season is different. It wanted to focus on the story a lot that the energy of the first season is lost. The audience is asked to transition along with the show and it’s hard to do that when you’re expecting something that’s just trashy and stupid. I was seriously waiting to see what “Vibration” we’ll see in this anime. Instead, the Ecchi is reduced, the trashy appeal of the first season is abandoned and it was replaced with a convoluted story that’s both predictable and bland. I’m a fan of a good story no matter what show I’m watching so it’s off putting to see a story like this one. It had all the right component but it didn’t live up to the spirit of the first season so you’re feeling a bit confused at why the second season is so serious and plot heavy. At some point, I was craving for action and the show just bombards you with exposition. It kept info dumping and it just annoys me. Nothing in the first season told me that the next season would be story centered. What’s the point of all the naughty boobs play the first season subjected audiences to if it wasn’t going to be utilized in the second season? Instead, it dumped unprepared viewers with a story so complex that I’m sure no one can comprehend it.

Another big problem is that the story is too condensed. There are a lot of things happening in a single episode that you can’t really follow any of it. The plot points are all mixed together and certain important events doesn’t have the proper build up to it. Certain parts of the story are a bit forced. Combine that with the boring dialogue and lack of significant action then you have a really bad show. The anime really just need a few more episodes to make sense of it all. As you can see, the subplots have their own individual progressions despite sharing the same premise so the focus jumps from one thing to another. I think the arc of the manga the anime was adapted from was indeed too huge so fitting it in a twelve episode anime just over complicated matters. While the basic gist of the subplots is presented, it lacked a decent build up and an exciting progression that was supposed to come along with it. The drama behind the lives of the E-Pandora girls felt flat and uninteresting despite the wonderful notion of living as guinea pigs for science. Scarlett Ohara’s divine punishment didn’t felt deserved because it lacked the character buildup to convince us that she truly is a woman building a Tower of Babel. The Pandora project itself felt like a Tower of Babel so the whole thing just felt a tad hypocritical that the show is singling out the poor woman. Just like the first two, the whole incest rapy brother also lacked some good progression. Satellizer’s traumatic emo moment felt hollow because it’s as if the second season denied whatever emotional bond she had with Kazuya. She just fell on her knees helpless and I know it’s for dramatic storytelling purposes but it wasn’t established that well. So the whole incest traumatic angle was lacking of a really good build up that could’ve made the whole experience better. It makes me wonder why they even attempted a second season if the result was a boring, lacking, convoluted story deplete of the appeal that made the first season successful.

One major problem I have with the anime is the lack of a main character. Rather, there are a lot of main characters. The focus is widespread that you aren’t really sure who the main character is. Satellizer is the safe bet or maybe even Kazuya but they were only part of the story in three significant episodes. The first season focused on Kazuya and Satellizer so it feels a bit mean that we don’t get to see the outcome of their progressed relationship. There was an issue of the baptism Kazuya is supposed to get from Satellizer but it wasn’t really part of the story. It was just mentioned for context. The rest of the episodes featured many more characters with different roles. Amelia of the E-Pandora was highlighted for majority of the anime for the first subplot. Elizabeth Mably, the main baddie from the first season, has a few episodes centered on her to explore the third subplot. The focus was all over the place that the last episode didn’t even feature Amelia or Elizabeth or Satellizer. Instead, it focused on another girl. It was annoying seeing so many people act as the main character. I’m guessing the story of the manga is really huge that these characters truly needed to take a lead role on some of the story but it doesn’t make sense in the anime. I came off watching the first season so I am expecting the same structure for the second season. Everything was so drastically changed for this anime that I just can’t quite follow it. With it being boring, bland, forced and complex, the addition of the lack of a lead character damages the entire anime further. I’m supposed to talk about the characters at this point but I don’t really know how to describe them. Side and main characters share the same importance so it’s hard to distinguish who the most important character is.

Now I’ll be fair. This anime is good. The sole reason it failed is because it’s called “Freezing Vibration” which sets people to thinking it’s another trashy anime with a lot of Ecchi. If it was not a second season of an already established show then maybe the whole thing wouldn’t be so bad. You won’t feel the abrupt change the anime undergone and you can excuse the lack of cohesion with the show trying to be unique. Instead, the show is just too sudden. I seriously wanted to see the same level of absurd trashy entertainment the first season gave us. It made the show great. It’s a shame the people behind the anime didn’t think so. They decided to improve the story and just turned a “so bad it’s good” thing into just plain bad. ACGT is a quiet studio. They mostly provide their service on other studios so they have a small amount of releases. This particular studio is responsible for giving us the best light novel anime you can ever experience though called Kino’s Journey. Yeah, the studio certainly needs a few more time to grow. They mostly need a niche to cater to. Potential is something most studio have and it takes a really talented one to make that potential grow. ACGT has potential and an ambitious drive to turn an Ecchi anime into a deep intellectual show so you really just have to wait to see them grow. ACGT can give us another Kino’s Journey and I will be drooling in excitement when it happens. For now, I’ll have to say that Freezing Vibration sucks. It’s one of the worst 2013 anime I’ve seen next to two Gonzo releases (Zettai Bouei and Inu Scissors) and a pedocentric show about highly sexualized power rangers (Vividred Operation).

Sight and Sound

Character deign is pretty much the same. Kwan Hyun Kim really knows how to make seductive characters with a lot of curves and even more mass on the chest. The way the characters look is pretty generic though. There aren’t a lot of elements to set them apart from other Ecchi female characters. The faces aren’t that outstanding and it lacks some good details to make them stand out. Despite being generic though, the designs are still pretty great. The strong bold lines and the clean designs on the hair and the face compliment the sultry bodies of the characters. You see, you aren’t really looking at a character for her face. You’re really more drawn towards the rest of her body and this is where Kwan’s design shines. The way he exaggerates the breasts and put sexy curves on the characters is effortless. The details accompanying the sexy body parts are also really amazing. The proportions of the characters are really on point that you can admire their sexy bodies even if their entire body is covered. The muscle tone on the limbs and the small corners of the body is also a nice touch. It’s a minor thing but I really love how Kwan adds small details like these to make the characters even more appealing. Combine the masterful proportions with the sexy curves and the nice clean face then you have a character design rooted in generic-ness but excel in the attention to small details. I also like the color palette. It’s weirdly on the brownish yellow side which adds a unique sheen on the characters legs that I seriously can’t get enough of.

Animation is pretty great. The girls do a lot of big moves that makes them pretty fierce like those stunning overdrive moves. I forgot their names. Anyways, the show utilizes a lot of smart camera angles when they fight and uses a lot of special effects to make every match up amazing. The way the fights interact with the environment is also pretty outstanding. The way the clothes are ripped off and the way the characters bleed is also a stand out moment in terms of animation. The anime lacks a good storytelling in the fights though to truly elevate them. It’s a plague that even destroys the awesome matchups of the show. Majority of them has some story tucked in between the beat downs but they are all forced and hollow so the experience is a bit muddled. I like the fights but I don’t quite like the dialogue exchange. It has no place. If the story was improved then the fight scenes would’ve been ten times more awesome. Animation-wise, it is pretty outstanding. Even though the fights are a bit short, the action is still great. Normal scenes are also pretty decent. I remember one time a naked character dived into a pool and I still remember it because of the wonderful animation it had. Also, the boobs. I love the boobs.

Speaking of the Ecchi, the show is a bit minimal on this. It was the biggest shock in the anime for me because I couldn’t believe they reduced it. It still had half naked girls and plump nipples to showcase but it’s not as trashy as the ones in the first season. The only remnant of the dirtiness the first season had can only be seen on the title pictures in between commercials where the characters are cosplaying and being naughty. There are also some dirty moments but it’s not as blatant as the first season. The story prevents the anime from doing anything dirty. It was supposed to be a good thing but the story was awful so it needed some trashy moments. The way the clothes rip off when the girls fight is still a huge part of the anime though so I guess that’s a great plus. It’s a shame the fights are not as long as the ones in the first season.

The anime’s OP is “AVENGE WORLD” by Konomi Suzuki. This singer has a really high and mature voice that it’ll set you aback. Her voice easily made the song amazing and the way she hits those high notes is really outstanding. The song is a bit nihilistic about facing the helpless situation you’re in. It’s a nice compliment to the sad aspect of the story. The OP sequence features a small montage of the events of the anime and a decent introduction of the characters. It also featured some decent animation but I particularly hate the shaky animation in some parts. It cheapens the whole thing. The anime’s ED is “Sekai wa Kizu wo Dakishimeru” by Konomi Suzuki. It’s pretty much the same as the OP. It features Konomi’s amazing voice that easily gives the song its great personality. Contrast to the OP song though, this one is actually more positive as it talks about hope and enduring pain for a brighter tomorrow. The ED sequence features a ton of fan service. The characters are being all naughty and dirty as they pose in different costumes and it ends with the characters bod painting each other. It’s too bad this element wasn’t actually part of the anime itself.

Overall Score

4/10 “The story is convoluted and the Ecchi was reduced which means the experience is actually better in the first season.”

I would’ve loved to see some trashy goodness the first season had but the anime attempted to be something it’s not. Maybe the manga is actually deep and thought provoking but the only plot I want to see in this anime involves two pairs attached to a girl’s chest. Anything else is excessive and overwhelmingly bad. If you saw the first season then try the second one only to appreciate how good the first one is. That’s it. This anime is bad. I’ll give some good points on the animation but the story ultimately brought it down. I do not recommend this.