 Buy it in HD!
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Technically any good? The story is cliche, but in a good way (for the most part). I am getting tired of the dorky hero who is somehow brave and daring but inept with women. However, the rest of the story elements make this mini-series fun to watch. You'll likely recognize the design style of Katsuhiro Otomo, the creator of Akira but the character and set designs and the lead characters' love of racing (what amount to) motorcycles, are the only things that reminded me of Otomo's work.
The animation, itself, is hit and miss--it's obviously CG-cell animation, which looks cool, but the motion capture looks a little stiff and unnatural at times. Plus, the titles are so cool and comic-book-looking, I found myself wishing the rest of the series looked like them.
How did it leave me feeling? Sadly, this show feels like it needed to be about seven episodes longer to better flesh things out. As it ends, things feel rushed (two years jammed into one episode? Yeesh) and there are more than a few things left unexplained. Things generally resolve, however, so I wasn't disappointed, just annoyed. I can't believe they didn't give Otomo a longer episode-run. I feel like the Freedom universe isn't boundless, but they could have done a lot more to make the characters more memorable and resonant than rely on cliches.
Final Rating? NFI - NetFlix It. This is a fun anime, but it's NOT worth the $82 Amazon wants for the Blu-Ray and it's sure as hell not worth $30 per episode for the combo SD/HD DVDs. Sadly, it doesn't look like Netflix has this on DVD at present.
Orignal From: FREEDOM (2007)
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