Freedom V1 [HD DVD]

This is part one of a six-part Japanese anime series that was released direct to video in Japan starting in October 2006, with the last episode released in July. That's about one episode every six weeks. The studio, Bandai, for some reason is releasing the series in the U.S. at an even slower pace, with part one released in June 2007 and part two scheduled for September. It is a bizarre choice. Who is willing to wait over a year for a series that clocks in at about two hours long? And who is willing to pay nearly $180 for that series, even if it is in high definition?

Various reviewers have already complained about the price. Some have said that you get both DVD and HDDVD formats on a single-sided disk. But I don't see why it is worth extra money just so you don't have to flip the disk over for the HDDVD format--if you have an HD player, you are only going to play one side, if you don't you will just play the other side, right? Why does it matter that both formats are on the same side?

What the reviews have not made clear is that the "special features" are not on the disk itself, and cannot be accessed on a regular DVD player. They are apparently all online and can only be accessed if your player is hooked up to the net. If you don't have HD, or if your machine is not hooked up to the net, then all you get is a single 22-minute episode for a lot of money, and then a long wait until the next release. Why Bandai thought that this was a successful marketing strategy is beyond me. My guess is that at some point they will realize that this a) is not the way titles should be released in the US, and b) is stupid, and will do the smart thing and release the entire series as a single collection.

Nobody has yet reviewed the story, so allow me. The story follows the exploits of a bunch of teenagers who live in a moon colony. They get into some minor trouble and are sentenced to community service. There's also a motorcycle race in a tunnel. That's about it for the story for episode one--with one important twist at the end (which I'll get to in a moment).

Katsuhiro Otomo designed the characters and the technical look. Otomo was responsible for the highly-regarded 1980s animated movie (also manga) Akira, and the look for Freedom is similar. The first episode is beautifully illustrated and nicely-paced, but it features a number of typical anime cliches such as the teenage bikers (taken from Akira), the crazy older man, and the girl in the short skirt who is the object of affection for the socially awkward boy.

It was only the colorful animation and the tantalizing glimpses of this high-tech colony on the moon that kept my attention and by the end of the first episode I wondered if this was enough to make me watch more. However, right at the very end there was an intriguing hook--a hint that Earth, which humanity abandoned centuries ago, may not be empty after all. This also hints that maybe the government is hiding something from its citizens. This mini-cliffhanger ending did indeed leave me wanting more. But it also means that I'll have to wait a long time for the next installment, and the next after that. I'd rather be able to buy the entire series at once--and at a reasonable price. Right now, I'm waiting for it to show up at Netflix.

Your best bet is to wait and hope that Bandai comes to their senses and releases this properly, as a complete series, with extras, and at a decent price.

A friend of mine dropped 30 bucks on this so I watched it (if you had a chance to watch a $30, 25 minute anime show for free wouldn't you?). Repeat this in your mind: one disc, one episode, 25 minutes, 30 dollars. Red Alert! As for the show itself it was decent with nice animation. My question is who is the target for this? I'm guessing it is the over 40 Wall Street types with a penchant for watching anime in their Rolls Royce limos. I know that was a little over the top, but I'm venting. Honestly, who is going to spend roughly $180.00 to buy the entire "series" which is supposedly 6 eps long? I know I won't and my friend isn't buying anymore either. Think about it and you'll realize that you're paying over a dollar a minute for about a 150 minute series. In today's DVD anime world where you get at least 3-4 entire episodes in one disc for $20-$30 this is just ridiculous. Just when I thought iTunes was nutty for charging $1.99 for individual 11 minute episodes of Adult Swim cartoons these guys have gone and surpassed them. I mean it's a HDDVD-DVD combo disc, but who does that really help? Most likely them since they save on packaging, charge an over-the-top price for the disc and then get the people who don't have HDDVD to pay the (more than) HDDVD money for it. I hate to see any good anime flop, but if they're trying to start a new trend with this junk I hope it does. Bravo guys, bravo!

I've been waiting on this disc for some time now and finally had the chance to check it out today. Unfortunately, I have to say I'm a bit disappointed in it while at the same time impressed.

Below I'll include a (+) next to any positive comments and a (-) next to any complaints with the product.

The first thing you'll notice is the price this disc comes at. A retail price of $39.99 (selling for about $29.99 online (-)) is quite a bit for any movie, especially a single 25 minute anime episode (-) that is part of a series (6 episodes total, and I'm sure they'll release them as 6 individual releases (-)). I don't mind spending this type of money if I feel the product is of high quality and something I would rewatch from time to time. Unfortunately, this isn't the case with Freedom (-).

1-episode OVA releases are very common in Japan (and used to be common in the US back in the VHS days) but nowadays you come to expect more for your money.

Part of the price tag comes from the fact that this is a combo disc. Unlike others, however, this is a single-sided "Twin" disc which means you can play it as an HDDVD in an HDDVD player or play the same side as a DVD in a traditional DVD Player (+). I find this much nicer than double-sided discs as there seems to be less of a chance of damaging the disc.

The product comes in a DVD Jewel Case (not an HDDVD case or even a standard DVD case, but rather one of the DVD jewel cases used on earlier DVDs) (-) The jewel case comes housed in a thin cardboard slipcover with the cover art on the front and a black and white text-only description on the back. My biggest complaints with the case are that the DVD Jewel cases tend to break very easily and can be hard to find a replacement for plus the fact that it's the same size as a DVD case which makes it taller than an HDDVD case (this is similar to the Discovery Channel HDDVD releases).

I won't go too much into the story of the series but from the first episode I wasn't terribly impressed. I didn't care about the characters and found myself looking at the running time remaining throughout the episode. There didn't seem to be anything "new" with this series, especially something worth justifying the high cost of the product.

With that said, this is a very well done HDDVD.

Aside from the twin-disc format, the HD video is encoded in VC-1 1080p (+) with Japanese Dolby Digital 5.1+ and Linear PCM 2.0 audio (+). Unfortunately (or fortunately, for some) there is no English dub on the disc (-). Video quality is very good as its a direct digital-digital transfer (+) unfortunately I did notice some aliasing ('jaggies') during a few scenes (this was rare and only for a few seconds though).

Extras include the ability to bookmark scenes for later viewing, multiple picture in picture elements (cast credits, storyboards and a side by side 3DCG Simulation video. This disc allows you to adjust the size of the PiP (7 levels) adjust the transparency of it (4 levels), flip PiP and the main video (so you can watch the PiP content in fullscreen and the episode the PiP window. You can also move the PiP window using the arrow keys. You can connect online to download new content through your HDDVD player from the disc (I haven't had a chance to try this yet as my player has trouble connecting online for some reason). Lastly, theres a preview trailer for Episode 2. Overall, great extra features, many of which have not been done before on HDDVD.

With all said and done, the show didn't impress me and neither did the price. This is a nice demo disc to show off features of an HDDVD player but overall not something I can recommend purchasing at the asking price. $15, while still expensive, would've been a different story - the same would be true had they included more content (at least 2-3 episodes per disc).

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 11 reviews  2.3 out of 5 stars