FREEDOM was a “special project•bCrLf to the people who made it, so here is a special review, written in real time, minimally edited, with the aid of a six-pack of Anchor Steam Liberty Ale.

Heads up! Here comes an opening sequence: cell shaded screen tone images paired to random live action inserts. Utada Hikaru sings over a merry-go-round, a tricycle, and an old abandoned building. Random stuff.

Back to the anime! We are dropped inside a big yellow stripy tube where punk kid Takeru is strapped inside a sofa shaped racing bike, pardon me, LTV (Lunar Terrain Vehicle). There’s a big crowd and someone yells “don’t crash,•bCrLf which guarantees that someone is going to eat it soon. But it’s only a flashback to a pre-tube race between our • well, it’s hard to call them “heroes•bCrLf at this point • more like “protagonists with promise•bCrLf as they have to endure trash talking from a rival gang of riders called “Moonshine•bCrLf which sounds about as menacing as “Twinkle Toes•bCrLf but the leader, Taira, has a band-aid on his nose, so they must mean business.

 

Everyone is wearing a mysterious white bracelet that blinks and warns the kids back home for curfew. “It will soon be nighttime in Eden,•bCrLf the voice says, a bit like mom meets a department store greeter. Is it ever in anyone’s best interest to trust authority in a futuristic moon city called Eden? No way These guys are rebels and that means they are going to race anyway. And why shouldn’t they? Aside from the ticking clock there’s not much in the way of danger. The LTVs just bump into each other.

Still, something bad happens and Takeru (now wearing a big puffy Apollo jacket) and co. have to stand tall before the man—a trio of menacing adults in what looks like a sound recording booth. The boys apologize and are given menial tasks. What a drag! Naturally, they immediately go back to working on hot roddin’ the LTV for a rematch race.

Everyone is holed up in a greasy garage when Takeru‘s best friend’s sister shows up. I would accuse this show of going the “moe-moe•bCrLf route but the character designs are too realistic. Her pupils are smaller than Eggo Waffles and her voice doesn’t sound like someone stepping on a puppy. I like her already.

Everyone puts on a hazmat suit and makes for the lunar surface. Man, I’d forgotten this story was set on the moon; so convincing is that fake sky they have inside dome 6 or whatever. Takeru’s other chum has to help old people walk around in a circle as part of his menial task service. An old man in an Apollo jacket yells at everyone in a way that only cranky old men in anime can. Is this the way Takeru and the boyz are going to wind up? Living on the moon for gosh’s sake in fresh duds, but not having any fun? They get yelled at for slacking the second they think about hot sister and VTR racing.

Back inside, Eden looks like giant “PJs•bCrLf or those blocks of high rise apartments just outside of Tokyo. Takeru’s buddy Bismarck helps them break into some Zion-esque hotbed of hidden rebellion called DOM. People stand around selling French bread or sit around in bars. My kinda place. Gramps yells at everyone again, including the audience, for not knowing as much about the Apollo Missions as he does. Seems Earth is un-inhabitable now. What a drag. As if to compensate, Gramps hooks the boys up with what looks like a liquid jet fuel mixer that they promptly install into Takeru’s VTR.

Back to that opening race. Takeru is determined to win! Maybe a bit too much • the LTV all seem to glide through the tube. No one even tries any funny business with tire spikes or a lead pipe. Takeru does have a “secret weapon•bCrLf of sorts and the results of his employment thereof are most unexpected!

So are the last few scenes of FREEDOM, Vol. 1. Takeru is back on the surface of the moon doing menial chores. I’m beginning to think the eeeevil Eden government lets the kids race in the hopes that they go nuts on their LTV’s in the hopes that they will screw up and make more cheap labor to check the pipes for holes.

Then the shockeroo twist ending that may surprise you hits•

Wow, this one actually takes some time at the beginning to explain what people are doing living on the moon. The earth, it seems, got all jacked up as you probably suspect it would sooner or later. Okay, back to that opening sequence with the hobo playground inserts.

Takeru hasn’t changed much from FREEDOM 1. He’s still on the lunar surface, dreaming of being a speedy racer. The only change seems to be that he seems a little less enamored with cute sister than before.

Back in the garage with the LTV again. I like this vision of the future, even though Eden is supposed to be eeeeevil. People don’t sit around all day on the Internet quoting the Simpsons on message boards. Oh, wait. Someone does have a computer, but it looks, for some reason, like a suitcase nuke.

Takeru is getting all Creepy Stalker, approaching random people on the street and driving obsessively around town in the LTV like Muhammed Ali in Looville after he lost to Frazier. Who would have guessed this is what the survival of the human race really comes down to: a shot of a girl who looks like she’s romping on a beach in Guam.

Crotchety grandpa time. Again. He says Takeru’s pic was taken on Earth, which only the cheap seats haven’t figure out yet by now. Gramps waxes nostalgic about the Apollo Mission again.

He’s seriously an old school SF otaku about it. Remember when otaku wanted to go into outer space? Grandpa certainly has the gear to do it. He leads Takeru and company to a secret stash of vintage lunar modules, rovers, and stuff. Happily, no one says, “they belong in a museum•bCrLf because then there wouldn’t be all this nicely animated stuff of the gang zipping across the moon. Still, I wonder how real astronauts would feel about seeing a bunch of punk kids taking their place on the lunar surface •

Everyone is starting to speak in headlines. Exclamation points and labored breathing. Some mecha action is brought to the table. But then it’s all over with Takeru now in quite a pickle! But I’m finally free, that is until FREEDOM 3 arrives•.