Freedom- First Impressions

The picture has nothing to do with Freedom. I should probably find one that does.

So here we have my first "first impressions" post of the winter. I actually have no idea what this is or even if it's new, though. I was just minding my own business, wondering why no one was seeding Digimon Adventure, when I came across this download and figured I would check it out. Turns out Freedom is a racing anime set in a restricted society on the moon. Fun!

300 years in the future, Takeru dreams of racing a... weird-looking vehicle he and his friends are working on, and of impressing his longtime object of admiration, Chiyo, and beating his rival, Taira (who has a bandage on his nose all the time for some reason). He's about to graduate from a school that puts a curfew on its students enforced by monitor bracelets and reinforced metal gates, takes career aspiration sheets from students and puts them in completely different fields for the rest of their lives, and treats every step out of line as a major Crime Against Society. Citizens' lives are completely regulated once they're in their jobs, just like in the school. The period in between is called freedom, for obvious reasons: it's the people's one chance to do what they want to do. Oh, and... they're on the moon. Turns out that 160-some years ago, global warming killed off everyone on Earth. The colonies on the Moon created their own messed-up society called Eden, which will forever remind me of EDEN from Galaxy Angel. It's supposed to be a replica of the live-on-able Earth. (Brain too tired to conjugate.)

Takeru's got a bit of trouble with his modified vehicle, making him crash- the higher-ups force him to do community service for "endangering the colony". There was no one else on the road!- An old man with a love of the past shows up and gives him a new engine. Takeru almost wins! ...of course, he uses the unstable boost, goes down the wrong path and loses to Taira right in front of Chiyo-Blob. Next time. In a fit of anger, during solitary community service, he looks up to rant out the sun... and sees a tiny metal pod fall from space. Inside is a note that reads "We are safe. Is anybody out there?" On the back is a picture of a girl looking after a bunch of kids... and Takeru seems to have forgotten Chiyo already. Men.

The animation for this is really unique. Very western, and cel-shaded. If I saw this on TV, I wouldn't mark it as anime. It's more like that Skyland thing on Teletoon that I need to get around to watching because it looked cool. The animation's decent, too, besides being unique. There was just something about Chiyo's character design that struck me as off, though. Well, she's a moe blob, whatever.

That was an interesting excursion. This OAV better stay this good, or get better. Until next time~