A Post Production Company

Freedom Project Episodes 1 and 2 by Morita Shuhei (2006)

An computer generated OVA project based on the artwork of the great Otomo Katsuhiro, this is a 6 episode OVA about a colony on the moon. The computer animation is top notch, though the cell shaders still have a little way to go before they can rival 2 D animation. The story seems pretty enjoyable so far, though you can see the Nissen advertising in everyone drinking Cup of Noodles throughout, but it isn’t too annoying. And so far I quite enjoy the story, though I must say, especially with the corporate advertising they should not be charging what they are for this series, at over $30 an episode for 6 episodes, that is a ridiculous price, and no series is worth that much.

The human race is on a moon base named Eden on the far side of the moon. It seems their was a disaster with an orbiting space station that destroyed the ecology of the Earth, and made it uninhabitable. Mankind had set up the moon base to colonize mars, but they gave up on it, and set up a system of total government control of all citizens, where people are punished for not doing what they say. This is the story of the teenager Takeru (Namikawa Daisuke) who wears an old Apollo jacket, and with his 2 friends he is modifying a cycle to race in the tunnels. Takeru’s 2 closest friends are the outgoing Kazuma (Shotaro Morikubo) who has a younger sister that Takeru likes named Chiyo, and the introverted Bisu (Yamaguchi Kappei).

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

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Takeru has a rival named Tairu who has a whole gang of racers with him, and Takeru dreams of beating him in the races, though his vehicle isn’t quite up to it, and they end up getting caught by the authorities and have to do “volunteer” work on the surface. On one of his stints on the surface, Takeru sees soemthing crash into the moon, and finds a photo of a young beautiful girl in a place that looks like Earth. He then tries to find where the photo was taken, but can’t find the girl, but Bisu takes Takeru to see Aran, and old man wears an Apollo jacket much like Takeru’s, and knows about the Apollo missions. Takeru and his friends want to go to the other side of the moon, and take a look, but the authorities won’t let them, so they borrow Aran’s moon vehicle and space suits to take the trip around the moon, and they not only find more messages from Earth, but they find see the Earth, which is not red and destroyed, but green and blue and beautiful, but just then the authorities show up to arrest Takeru and Kazuma, but they run for it in Aran’s moon vehicle.

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I like the story quite a bit, and love the artwork, but the animation is a bit strange. The Cell shading doesn’t quite work. I still want to see the rest of this series, but at these prices is more of a rental instead of a purchase (even though it is on HD DVD). Worth a rental for sure.

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