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Freedom: Volume 5 (HD DVD)
Bandai Visual USA // Unrated // April 22, 2008 // Region 0
List Price: $39.99 [Buy now and save at Dot-anime]
Most studios shrugged off their HD DVD release slates after Toshiba bowed out of the format war, but it's to Bandai Visual's credit that they're seeing Freedom all the way through. As I write this, the final installments in the series are scheduled as the very last HD DVD releases on these shores. If this volume and the one before it are any indication, though, it doesn't look all that likely that Freedom 
will be going out on a high note.
Freedom is literally a world removed from where the series began. The first half of the OVA revolved around a futuristic colony on the moon where an Orwellian government insisted that Earth was long dead, leering electronically at the citizenship for any threat that might topple the conspiracy. Dizzingly fast underground races, legions of skittering spider-robots, a fistful of pages ripped straight out of 1984...Freedom quickly grabbed my attention, but then teenaged Takeru and his pal Biz took off for Earth. They hopped into a space shuttle long in disuse, risking their lives and their freedom -- traveling hundreds of thousands of miles in space -- simply because Takeru is fawning over a girl in a photograph he found on the lunar surface. Volume four shifted the stage to what's left of the U.S., basically rewriting Freedom as a road movie as Takeru and Biz tried to trudge their way from the stifling desert of Las Vegas all the way to sunny Florida. That episode did have its bleak moments as the two of them struggled against life in such an unfamiliar and unforgiving world, but it was overall pretty breezy and upbeat. I assumed that after so much unrelenting chaos, Freedom wanted to give Takeru and Biz a chance to catch their breath.
This volume follows Takeru and Biz now that they've settled into the village at Cape Canaveral. Once Takeru scrapes his jaw off the floor, he gets a chance to chat with Ao, the girl whose photograph was so entrancing that his hormone-fueled, planet-hopping overreaction could upend two worlds. He learns of the yearly celebration that sent that photo to his doorstep, and a hurricane threatens not just that launch of prayers and letters to a colony long thought lost but the life of one of the young children that Ao cares for.
I assumed volume four was a transitional episode, letting both the audience and these reluctant space travelers get a chance to orient themselves in this new world. I kind of appreciated that break, but volume five still feels like I'm watching a completely different series. I'm sure that's the point, even: to contrast the mistrust and cold technological bent of the lunar colony of Eden to the almost archaic but practically Utopian Earth. It just seems awfully anticlimactic to have swarms of teenaged racers careening around underground tubes, outnumbered and outgunned by an army of oversized robots...to have dozens of heavily armed soldiers converging on a dusty space shuttle aimed towards a planet the government had long claimed was a smoldering wasteland...only to spend the next two volumes tooling around on tractors, scarfing down squid, making goo-goo eyes at Earth gals, throwing alien-themed dance parties, and goofing around in a VW van with a guy in an ape costume. It'd be one thing if Freedom had fifteen or twenty episodes to tell this story, but with just two volumes left go after this and so many plot points still dangling, Takeru and Biz's stint on Earth seems like kind of an uninvolving waste of time. If Freedom hadn't been expanded to seven volumes from the initially planned six, it'd be even more disappointing. The series isn't a complete waste of time, but Freedom isn't doing anything to really grab hold of my interest anymore. The most credit I can give this installment is that Takeru does acknowledge the ridiculousness of risking life and limb in a 200,000 mile trek just to meet a girl in a picture.
Hopefully Freedom's final two volumes can right this rickety ship, but it's awfully disappointing to see such an intriguing series take this sort of tailspin into complete disinterest.
Video: Like the other discs in the series, this fifth volume of Freedom is a twin format release: a single-sided disc with one HD DVD layer and one traditional DVD layer. The standard definition side of the disc will work in any DVD player, rendering the 25 minute episode in anamorphic widescreen. The HD DVD layer is presented at 1080p and, like the other four discs before it, has been encoded with VC-1. Freedom once again looks outstanding in high definition, with its crisp, clean linework, flawless contrast, and robust palette easily trumping the standard-def version. The aliasing I infrequently spotted in some of the earlier volumes is nowhere to be found here, and there were just a couple short seconds of heavy banding at the very close of the episode.
Audio: Freedom shies away from any dubs or alternate soundtracks, presenting this fifth volume in its original Japanese. Viewers can choose between the default Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 mix or a stereo LPCM track, and optional English subtitles have been provided. The emphasis is placed heavily on atmospherics this time around, from the light rustle of grass in the breeze to a hurricane that ravages the camp. The storm in particular takes full advantage of the six-channel setup, teeming with discrete effects and bolstered by a thunderous low-end. A couple of particularly quiet moments scattered throughout don't come through quite as cleanly as the rest of the episode, but the remainder of the sound effects and voicework throughout this volume of Freedom are reproduced flawlessly.
Extras: Fans of the
series should know the extras chapter and verse by this point. A picture-in-picture "computer graphics simulation" overlays early renders and roughly sketched backgrounds over the high definition image, and the size, opacity, and placement of the window can be freely adjusted. Other extras enable users to place storyboards and English credits in a separate column while a downscaled version of the episode plays. Up to seven scenes can be bookmarked for easy access, and a high definition preview for the sixth installment of the series has also been included. The rest of the disc's extras require logging the HD DVD player online. A highlight reel for Freedom's fourth volume is included on the disc but can only be unlocked after downloading a key, and a rough looking 15 second TV spot is only available online.
Once again, all of these extras are available exclusively on the HD DVD layer. The disc itself comes packaged in an oversized super CD jewel case that's tucked inside a thin cardboard sleeve.
Conclusion: The conspiracy bent and dystopian paranoia of the first half of this OVA have been chucked out the window now that Takeru and Biz are puttering around on Earth. The intrigue of those first few episodes has faded away, and Freedom now seems to be limping towards a conclusion I really couldn't care less about by this point. I'm invested enough in Freedom to want to see it through, but I can't help but feel disappointed by how drastically it's falling apart at the end. The $39.99 sticker price for just over twenty minutes of material make this fifth volume that much tougher to recommend. Rent It.
Related Reviews: DVD Talk also has reviews of the other four volumes of Freedom, along with detailed looks at Bandai Visual's other HD DVD and Blu-ray releases.
The images scattered around this review are culled from the DVD layer of the twin format disc and aren't meant to represent the way the episode looks in high definition.
will be going out on a high note. Freedom is literally a world removed from where the series began. The first half of the OVA revolved around a futuristic colony on the moon where an Orwellian government insisted that Earth was long dead, leering electronically at the citizenship for any threat that might topple the conspiracy. Dizzingly fast underground races, legions of skittering spider-robots, a fistful of pages ripped straight out of 1984...Freedom quickly grabbed my attention, but then teenaged Takeru and his pal Biz took off for Earth. They hopped into a space shuttle long in disuse, risking their lives and their freedom -- traveling hundreds of thousands of miles in space -- simply because Takeru is fawning over a girl in a photograph he found on the lunar surface. Volume four shifted the stage to what's left of the U.S., basically rewriting Freedom as a road movie as Takeru and Biz tried to trudge their way from the stifling desert of Las Vegas all the way to sunny Florida. That episode did have its bleak moments as the two of them struggled against life in such an unfamiliar and unforgiving world, but it was overall pretty breezy and upbeat. I assumed that after so much unrelenting chaos, Freedom wanted to give Takeru and Biz a chance to catch their breath.
This volume follows Takeru and Biz now that they've settled into the village at Cape Canaveral. Once Takeru scrapes his jaw off the floor, he gets a chance to chat with Ao, the girl whose photograph was so entrancing that his hormone-fueled, planet-hopping overreaction could upend two worlds. He learns of the yearly celebration that sent that photo to his doorstep, and a hurricane threatens not just that launch of prayers and letters to a colony long thought lost but the life of one of the young children that Ao cares for.
I assumed volume four was a transitional episode, letting both the audience and these reluctant space travelers get a chance to orient themselves in this new world. I kind of appreciated that break, but volume five still feels like I'm watching a completely different series. I'm sure that's the point, even: to contrast the mistrust and cold technological bent of the lunar colony of Eden to the almost archaic but practically Utopian Earth. It just seems awfully anticlimactic to have swarms of teenaged racers careening around underground tubes, outnumbered and outgunned by an army of oversized robots...to have dozens of heavily armed soldiers converging on a dusty space shuttle aimed towards a planet the government had long claimed was a smoldering wasteland...only to spend the next two volumes tooling around on tractors, scarfing down squid, making goo-goo eyes at Earth gals, throwing alien-themed dance parties, and goofing around in a VW van with a guy in an ape costume. It'd be one thing if Freedom had fifteen or twenty episodes to tell this story, but with just two volumes left go after this and so many plot points still dangling, Takeru and Biz's stint on Earth seems like kind of an uninvolving waste of time. If Freedom hadn't been expanded to seven volumes from the initially planned six, it'd be even more disappointing. The series isn't a complete waste of time, but Freedom isn't doing anything to really grab hold of my interest anymore. The most credit I can give this installment is that Takeru does acknowledge the ridiculousness of risking life and limb in a 200,000 mile trek just to meet a girl in a picture.
Hopefully Freedom's final two volumes can right this rickety ship, but it's awfully disappointing to see such an intriguing series take this sort of tailspin into complete disinterest. Video: Like the other discs in the series, this fifth volume of Freedom is a twin format release: a single-sided disc with one HD DVD layer and one traditional DVD layer. The standard definition side of the disc will work in any DVD player, rendering the 25 minute episode in anamorphic widescreen. The HD DVD layer is presented at 1080p and, like the other four discs before it, has been encoded with VC-1. Freedom once again looks outstanding in high definition, with its crisp, clean linework, flawless contrast, and robust palette easily trumping the standard-def version. The aliasing I infrequently spotted in some of the earlier volumes is nowhere to be found here, and there were just a couple short seconds of heavy banding at the very close of the episode.
Audio: Freedom shies away from any dubs or alternate soundtracks, presenting this fifth volume in its original Japanese. Viewers can choose between the default Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 mix or a stereo LPCM track, and optional English subtitles have been provided. The emphasis is placed heavily on atmospherics this time around, from the light rustle of grass in the breeze to a hurricane that ravages the camp. The storm in particular takes full advantage of the six-channel setup, teeming with discrete effects and bolstered by a thunderous low-end. A couple of particularly quiet moments scattered throughout don't come through quite as cleanly as the rest of the episode, but the remainder of the sound effects and voicework throughout this volume of Freedom are reproduced flawlessly.
Extras: Fans of the
series should know the extras chapter and verse by this point. A picture-in-picture "computer graphics simulation" overlays early renders and roughly sketched backgrounds over the high definition image, and the size, opacity, and placement of the window can be freely adjusted. Other extras enable users to place storyboards and English credits in a separate column while a downscaled version of the episode plays. Up to seven scenes can be bookmarked for easy access, and a high definition preview for the sixth installment of the series has also been included. The rest of the disc's extras require logging the HD DVD player online. A highlight reel for Freedom's fourth volume is included on the disc but can only be unlocked after downloading a key, and a rough looking 15 second TV spot is only available online. Once again, all of these extras are available exclusively on the HD DVD layer. The disc itself comes packaged in an oversized super CD jewel case that's tucked inside a thin cardboard sleeve.
Conclusion: The conspiracy bent and dystopian paranoia of the first half of this OVA have been chucked out the window now that Takeru and Biz are puttering around on Earth. The intrigue of those first few episodes has faded away, and Freedom now seems to be limping towards a conclusion I really couldn't care less about by this point. I'm invested enough in Freedom to want to see it through, but I can't help but feel disappointed by how drastically it's falling apart at the end. The $39.99 sticker price for just over twenty minutes of material make this fifth volume that much tougher to recommend. Rent It.
Related Reviews: DVD Talk also has reviews of the other four volumes of Freedom, along with detailed looks at Bandai Visual's other HD DVD and Blu-ray releases.
The images scattered around this review are culled from the DVD layer of the twin format disc and aren't meant to represent the way the episode looks in high definition.
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