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「Accelerating Turn」
Covering what I deemed the most hazing-filled and risque part of the story in the first four volumes of the manga, this episode surprisingly didn’t come off that poorly in taste. I was actually anticipating it to be much worse than it was, even though I still feel that if this is the episode that’s most likely to turn off many viewers. If you can look beyond the obvious fan-service, then it might be somewhat reassuring to know that this is about as “bad” as it gets, and that things are set to pick up in a much more agreeable way hereon in.
Naturally, this is in reference to the antics of third-year Kannazuki Miyabi (Kuwatani Natsuko), who’s a very vain and condescending senior that enjoys making playthings of first-year Limiters. For all intents and purposes, she’s pretty much a bitch and someone that we’re all supposed to hate shortly after she’s introduced. Unlike Ganessa who has a grudge against Satellizer for ranking purposes, Miyabi’s character has far less redeeming qualities and primarily serves as a catalyst to awaken Kazuya’s latent abilities and emphasize the military rank-like distinctions between grades. The extent of the aforementioned hazing is merely Miyabi and her three Limiters picking a fight and then subsequently fondling Satellizer’s breasts and taking embarrassing pictures of her while she’s under the paralysis effects of Freezing. In contrast to the manga, the anime didn’t dwell on those scenes for very long, hence why I didn’t feel it was as bad as it could’ve been. In fact, the way it was adapted made it seem like it was simply included for canonical sake, and I felt it was done relatively well given the questionable subject matter. It’s also worth noting that the anime toned down the violence, as Satellizer did drive her Nova Blood volt weapon through Miyabi’s chest in the manga.
Anyway, what I got a really good taste of this time around that I didn’t in the first two episodes was the action in the series. I mentioned back in the Winter 2011 Preview it has a very shounen-like feel, and one of the reasons for that is some of the Pandoras’ abilities like the Accelerating Turn, a.k.a. Accel Turn, shown this week. It’s the first of many “high-level” abilities that will be introduced and basically allows a Pandora to move at blazing speeds faster than the eye can see, giving off a very Dragon Ball Z feel when it’s used to get behind an opponent. That feeling is compounded when Satellizer counters with an Accel Turn of her own — an ability that only third years should have — and returns the favor to Miyabi. Then there are the enormous shock waves when Pandoras clash, as well as going “Super Saiyajin” when they use Pandora Mode, the latter of which has been changed in the anime to have hair and eye color changes to match. The sense of speed in the battles is what I attribute most of the shounen-esque vibe to, which is a compliment to Freezing since those type of series tend to depict action really well.
In terms of progression, the anime has been more or less faithful ever since the anime-only premiere that provided a bit more backstory for the series. On top of briefly highlighting Satellizer’s love for hamburgers, Kazuya’s shown some toughness by unleashing an extremely powerful Freezing field without being “baptized” and having the help of a Pandora’s Ereinbar Set — a unique ability of his due to his natural affinity to Stigmata like his sister. Incidentally, this was supposed to be his moment to shine when he single-handedly neutralized the Freezing area of Miyabi’s Limiters and paralyzed everyone, but it’s a bit more difficult to do so when he’s been portrayed as such a forceful yet incompetent character thus far in the anime. My impression of him had positive precedence coming in, so I naturally don’t perceive him as weak of a character as anime-only viewers probably do. Whatever the case, he did establish his forwardness with Satellizer and made himself out as the only one who sees her for who she truly is, paving the way for him to eventually become her Limiter. There was also more foreshadowing of Satellizer’s traumatic past and why she can’t stand being touched, as well as some setup for the additional attention she’s drawn for defeating a third-year Pandora in battle.
To that end, we have third-year Attia Simmons (Ueda Kana) sending Ingrid Bernstein (Koshimizu Ami) to teach Satellizer a lesson on seniority, the latter of whom has shown us actual Nova battle experience and another high-level multi-image skill, Tempest Turn. The difference with Ingrid is that there’s a lot more depth to her character than Miyabi. She’s actually one of the reasons why the manga got me hooked so easily, being the first character to feature a detailed backstory that gives us a better understanding of where her strong beliefs stem from. It also makes it harder to see her as a bad person, much like most shounen series tend to do with enemies. It’s definitely something watching a little longer for if you’re still on the fence about this series, as these first three episodes still haven’t shown everything that it has to offer.
After hearing the voice Koshimizu Ami used for Ingrid, it’s a very different tone than the one she could have used for Satellizer if she were cast in the starring role. I mentioned in the comments back in episode one that I could’ve pictured Ami playing Satellizer since her character reminds me of Nia in Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls, but I’m looking forward to how she plays Ingrid in the upcoming episode after hearing a bit of her here. There should be a lot of emotions and the acting will go a long way bringing them out.
Preview
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more royal battle between chicks LOL
Quite happy with the anime adaptation thus far. Though with only 12? episodes, I highly doubt they’ll get very far in the story…maybe Cassie’s arc will wrap it up -.-
Why does satilizer always get bullied?…=_= It pisses me off,1st she get beaten up and now it’s black mailing…and t’s gonna get worse?…
I love the battle scene this episode, lighting speed is cool 🙂
the hazing part… well, it wasn’t that bad, but could be the source material for dojinshi I guess…
so we might see the the two make a contract next week according the preview? can’t wait to see how bad-ass Satellizer will go after that…
ps. so hamburger help girls to grow like Satellizer? guess that is the defied physics there… XD
She’s very active so she could use all the carbs.
And if she had the eating habits of a normal Japanese girl so would it be noway for her to get the curves she do have.
It’s the Michael Phelps diet.
Not possible since they didn’t even do that in the manga yet thanks to a very funny pandora that will be introduced later if she is gonna be introduced at all ^^
oh now i see. Super Saiyajin and super speed, really feels like dragon balls.
There are scenes completely missing in the anime wich are in the manga. I can’t understand why did they made it like this but i don’t like it. Had high hopes at the beginning, now i’m pissed for real….
Well, the series is slated to be 12 eps so that have to cut stuff. IMO, they’ve been doing a pretty good manga to anime adaptation given the episode constraint. I was just surprised by the fact that they upped the fanservice. I’ve seen much, much worse manga to anime (i.e. anime gives the manga an unnecessary facelift in the adaptation).
The fan service seems out of place because this anime is too serious.
Satellizer is pretty strong especially for a 2nd year without a limiter. There’s been a battle every episode, wonder if there is going to be a fight in every episode.
lol Burger Queen, I thought it’s gonna be Sandwich Queen, since there’s Burger King.
It’s really strange how Satellizer is the one with the bad reputation when her sole “faults” are her hate of being touched and excelling in battle when you have all those others who enjoy torturing and demeaning people and who are cruel and brutal on a mere whim.
You have to question what kind of an idiot would establish a system which cultivates such an environment when ultimately the goal is for the pandoras to fight side by side against the nova. Rivalry is one thing, but half the series those girls try to kill each other and show absolutely no remorse for their actions.
I wondered the same thing. I love this series but thought it weird how so many of these girls we just met seem homicidal.
I’m glad that Kazuya is borderline genius at freezing. When he forms a contract with Satellizer they are going to make a very powerful pair. He broke 3 freezings (at the same time) and used his to freeze all those enemies so Satellizer could destroy them.
The manga explains Satellizer’s past and how she ended up with her reputation.
And the problem isn’t solely the system, but how some people USE that system; primarily some of the seniors who pretty much abuse it and end up growing extremely arrogant because of it.
All those seniors and those Ganessa Rolands were bred by the system. They weren’t taught to repress those tendencies, they weren’t punished or anything. They think it’s ok to act that way.
They aren’t really homicidal. Note how nobody have actually died yet despite being stabbed in the chest, limbs and heads cut off. The girls super natural regeneration combined with future tech medicine makes them able to fix any damage basically.
Also remember that they are training to be soldiers. Thus kindness aren’t as important to the higher ups as obedience and aggression are.
as far as I know all the armies in the world put a lot more emphasis on teamwork and discipline than on aggression. Soldiers can only be effective when they work as a cohesive unit, no one wants a group of individualistic Rambos. The Pandoras don’t regard each other as comerades they regard each other as enemies, whenever they don’t fight Novas they fight among themselves.
So… Divine, are you still going to cover this series despite its faults?
What faults? There isn’t anything in this series that I wasn’t expecting.
He’s maybe refering to the completely missing / modified parts. This episode skipped half of the manga wich it tried to cover.
It’s like they felt guilty for the gore level or something after the first episode. The only thing left is the pantsu and boob level..
Show Spoiler ▼
They actually cut some fan service as he actually poked Satellizer’s boob somewhat thoughtlessly to test if she really didn’t mind him touching her.
Well,
Show Spoiler ▼
Divine, is there going to be some major common enemy that’s going to show up soon, or has the manga so far just been intra-academy conflicts?
The manga did show the common enemy where everyone works together, but the anime still has a way to go to reach that. There’s still quite a few more inter-academy fights till you reach that point.
Thx for the info.
God, this show is terrible. It’s just so unbelievable. Unbelievable in the bad way.
So don’t watch it. Go and watch something else you might find better like Mitsudomoe, Cardfighter, or Hourou Musuko.
And since when is a majority of anime MEANT to be believable beyond some ability to relate to a character(s)? (And even that is a stretch lately with how exaggerated they tend to make some of them personality-wise.)
It’s already 3 episodes in. Why are you still here, to bother commenting on it?
Just sayin’, kids.
By unbelievable I mean its use of the characters. Unbelievable in the way they present a character in one way and then go the opposite direction a few episodes later. Unbelievable in the situations presented with the characters that have been established.
The episodes before were just boobs and gore. That’s whatever. What’s bad is when you can’t even tell a story in a believable way at a FUNDAMENTAL level.
I realize anime is in and of itself absurd but a ~serious~ plot (I use this term loosely) shouldn’t derail itself so much so that its absurdity becomes so obvious. The hazing situation was exactly the kind of awful plotting that SHOULD turn people away from a show.
I don’t plan on watching anymore. But I don’t need to be told to do that. I’m not going to torture myself. I just wanted to express that I think it is terrible. Or at least on the lower tier of the shows airing this season.
i’m sorry, KID
this is going to sound snarky but there’s really no way around it.
a fictional storyline should be internally consistent with itself, not with standards you apply to it from a real world perspective.
yes Freezing is full of absurdities, but its set in a fairly absurd world.
that having been said, of all the absurdities you could complain about as being overly absurdly unreal, the fact that you picked hazing is fairly absurd.
KID, you clearly don’t know much about how bad REAL bullying in REAL schools can get (obviously minus the sci-fi military academy and weapons) if you thought the way they were hazing Satellizer is that absurd.
I wholeheartedly disagree, but as I mentioned in my post, I expect most people who were just getting their feet wet with this series to drop it after this episode anyway.
Those who continue watching will see the better aspects it has to offer in the upcoming episodes, and discussion on “Am I going to watch this/Am I going to drop this?” will finally come to a stop.
I absolutely agree with you its terrible!!!! Will stay away from this anime
Yet you still watch it
I agree with you Divine in how Kazuya has changed in the course of three episodes. In the first episode, I casted him off as a useless male lead that won’t do anything significant till the ending arc. Yet in the second one, he manages to confirm his goals and attempts to help Satellizer. Here in the third, he not only fights back, but manages to develop a connection and determination with her as well.
Yeah that’s some prime A character assasination…I was already planning on dropping this and this Episode was the final nail in the coffin.
next episode SPOILER:
somebody walks away but gets grabbed by the arm from behind.
Read the manga and i’ll probably keep watching this. even if certain aspects of it are annoying
So the saying goes: With friends like these who needs enemies lol? 😀
Considering that the Pandoras place seem to spend most of their time trying to kill each other, beats me how they ever get their act together to protect the earth against powerful giant evil beings.
I don’t think they were friends to begin with…..but fighting against allies is a great way to train, especially when you can just heal right back up to perfect form (reminds me of a good ol’ Senzu Bean), but the third year and Sattelizer definitely weren’t friends. Acquaintances at best
Was it me or did that senior just get spared from being impaled by the Satellizer?
So they tone that the violence but not the nudity? hmmmmmm……
As mentioned in my post, both were toned down.
I can watch this but not Samurai Girls. That’s what’s up. I blame that hot ass Opening Theme. The Ending Theme is something I could watch over and over too~ Ugh.. lovin’ it! <3
That’s really odd because of the two, Samurai Girls is the easier one to watch. There’s no nudity in the TV version and no gore whatsoever, plus it’s a lighthearted comedy at heart.
Agreeing with Divine here. Unless of course, the reason you watch anime is for the gore and nudity, in which case there may be something wrong >_>
Harmoni-… I mean, Tempest Turn.
I don’t see how people can get turned off from this; there’s fan service, a relatively low amount of blood/gore, and it still retains a plot whilst slowly advancing it — sure, it may be slow to start but you have to give it some leeway. There should be something for everyone.
I think I have a problem ._.”
nosebleed…
slowly dies….
As for me I am in for the fights, ok with the fanservice, and hungry for more character development, especially for why exactly Bridgett is so untouchable…
The “cherry eater” eyecatch for Miyabi was hilarious btw, as well as Class Rep stopping Arthur from naming her for what she is…
It seems that Bridgett’s motto is:
You can never have too many enemies. The more you’ve got, the more likely they are to get in each other’s way.
What makes me wonder is relative lack of discipline with all the Pandoras infighting, no military could survive that level of rivalry going on the wrong track. How can you expect them to cooperate later on the battlefield?
I havent watched the episode yet, But I have a feeling that the episodes I havent watched would just pile up, leaving me no choice, but to drop it sometime in the near future.
The episode wasn’t so bad. The first episode was worse on the turn off scale, in my opinion. The breast massage was pretty much what you would see in hentai anime but that was about it
The series does get quite amazing as it progresses. Once a certain event happens Show Spoiler ▼
I could not put the manga down. I don’t know if they will even get that far before this season ends. I’m guessing based on the pacing they have it will end on a cliffhanger (see spoiler) and hope enough people watched this to get a 2nd season.
I’m kinda surprised that the series got animated in the first place as the manga only has 36 chapters and is on going (unless there are light novels or more chapters that have not been subbed yet).
@Karmafan
the manga is currently over 56 chapters iirc.
While I can’t say the anime was all that interesting to me, it was enough to get me to go find and read the manga, and boy, it was pretty damned good.
I will have to find the rest then. Mangareader just has 36 at the moment.
The rest aren’t translated yet. There is a reason for that if you want to be spoiled…
Show Spoiler ▼
Oh my. This show is a combination between the fanservice violence of HotD and the unbridled smut of Yosuga no Sora. In other words, avoid at all costs.
There’s a reason this show is known for some of the widest-reaching censorship of the past few years.
I just hope you realize that’s a completely unfounded statement and solely your opinion that you’re trying to cast off as the truth. Too often do we see people trying to interject their two lines of thought like they’re connoisseurs of anime.
Meh. I love this show. More than the manga actually. The anime is more gentle. I’m so grateful Satellizer didn’t break the girl’s stomach open like in the manga.
mmm why this anime is in a Full Screen Resolution and not widescreen??
The answer to your question can be found in the first post about FREEZING.
I already read the entire available manga chapters and i liked it. but for some reason i can’t get into liking the anime and not because of the overblown fan service.
Whenever Kazuya appears or talks, i get extremely annoyed and actually skipped over some of his scenes.
just hope i can get over it because i don’t want to drop it.