Freezing – 12 (Finale)

I think I see what they were trying to do with these twelve episodes of Freezing.  The staff had planned a second season from the very beginning (although there has been no announcement yet).

These first twelve episodes served mainly as an introduction to all the characters, the mechanics, and the essentials that Freezing has to offer while providing one plot-relevant battle to help bring loose ends together.  Should there be a second season in the near future, then this season will have been the foundation for the next season, allowing it to immediately launch into whatever it wants to focus on, be it relationships or Novas or girls losing their arms in battles or whatever else happens at that crazy, crazy academy.

However, all that we have right now is one season of Freezing.  And honestly, it wasn’t terribly impressive.  The first and the final three episodes were the best ones, featuring bloodshed and brutality, my favorite features of this series.   Those episodes effectively sandwiched a period of rather repetitive episodes examining each Pandora at the school and providing little information regarding the plot or other story points.  Sure, there were some fights and other stuff, but they could have introduced the characters in another way and made room for more episodes focused on battling the Novas.  However, the series did leave the possibility of a second season highly likely, so I might be able to forgive the series for wasting so much time on each character when all they did was simply disappear until the final battles.  But for right now, I’m left unsatisfied.

Anyway, regarding this final few episodes, I am pleased that all of the characters were able to do something.  After all, they took the time to introduce each character, so you figured they’d do something in the series.  Their role, although small and virtually insignificant, was a nice touch.  Having all the Pandoras cooperate in order to save their academy and source of power showed a dimension not seen during their introductions.  It showed how they’re all there to achieve the same goal and that’s to win the war against the Nova, not to humiliate Satellizer (although that’s a close second).

We were finally able to see Elizabeth, Ticy, and Chiffon fight.  It’s a shame they never really did more than a minute of fighting combined, especially since they are the top three third-year students.  The three also had some of the more interesting weapons in the series, especially Elizabeth’s.  However, it’s their abilities which put them above the rest at Genetics and not seeing them perform to their highest ability was a bit of a disappointment.  But I’m guessing they’ll play a larger role in the second season, both as characters and fighters, instead of fulfilling the roles of comedy or fanservice.

And while I’ve been mentioning a second season throughout this post, there has not been any word on it yet.  There is enough of the source material out there to produce a second season and with how the twelfth episode ended, it seems likely that they’re planning on continuing the series.  That and there are still a lot of unexplained phenomena, such as Satellizer’s wings of light, the corpse in the basement of their school providing their power, and Kazuya’s powers.  However, with nothing official yet, it’s all up to speculation.  They left some scenes readily able to connect to the second season but without any indication of if/when, then they look like loose ends right now.  However, I always think it’s a good sign when they leave the final episode open like that rather than slamming it closed with an anime original ending and providing no hope for a sequel.  But for right now, I guess we play the waiting game.