From Tibet, Rana Linchen arrives at Genetics looking for her soulmate, thus forming an unusual love triangle of Kazuya, Brigette and Rana.
I can’t remember what my early impressions of Rana were when I read those chapters in the manwha, but I really enjoyed her presence in this episode, and a part of it goes to Kana Hanazawa for what I think is a great casting choice. Rana does bring a Naruto-like “-de arimasu” which she adds after most everything she says, so hopefully Funimation’s streaming and other fansubbers avoid adding it to the subtitles. The understanding of Stigma seems to be different across the world, as she calls them the “Tears of Kunlun” role for her culture than the more scientific approach that we’re familiar with when discussing Stigma in Freezing; there’s also the fact that she’s looking for a soulmate and relies on the Tears of Kunlun to guide her. She’s a second year student, and shows her strength during the middle segment’s action/hazing sequence.
The episode took a different route in the middle, as it opted to replace a scene in which Arthur, Hiiragi and Kazuya meet Rana while out on the town and instead go with another scene of second years obsessing about seniority and putting freshman in their places. As I type, I’m debating with myself whether it’s acceptable or if I’m disappointed in the show’s first true breakaway from the manwha. The manwha involves Rana and Hiiragi being forced to strip and even taking a gunshot or two, and it was maybe a little cringing for readers to see some ordinary morons violate these much stronger women, so I think I lean toward the side of being alright with the minor change in story. With the obsession of seniority being some kind of central theme of the show so far, it probably makes a bit more sense to have idiots like Aubrey Duval harass Kazuya and friends. I mentioned on the preview podcast that Kazuya will be who you think he is, and that’s quite apparent this week as he activates Freezing for 5 seconds and then faints. What’s most frustrating about it all is that, in the conversation with Hiiragi and Arthur at the start of the episode, he seems to not be concerned about harnessing his power. Fuck! Do something in school besides stare at Brigette while keeping the memory of your sister in the back of your mind!
Brigette is finally dropping her guard and getting kinda giddy about being with Kazuya. She doesn’t want to go through the process of Baptism, though I feel like if she’s already ok with him touching her at some point, she’s going to want to take things to the next level. Watching her get ready for a date night is one of those things that really ups the sexy factor for her, but let’s hope when the magic happens that Kazuya can at least reach first base with her. I don’t even think Arthur got from the on-deck circle to the batter’s box before he fell asleep on Genessa’s breasts. As Hiiragi said, that’s just pathetic.
Toward the end, we meet what will be the next enemies of Satellizer-senpai. Macmillian, Cleo and Mayberry are ranked #4, #5 and #2, respectively, and are definitely interested in the arrival of Rana along with the new duo of Satellizer and Kazuya. Also, um… hot damn at Elizabeth’s body! She hadn’t gotten such skin exposure in the manwha, and I’ve come to like her character as I read more, so nice of Media Factory to add some extra fan-service there at the end!
News Release: The Freezing manwha to be covered on the Anivision Blog
As I enjoy the anime and enjoy blogging about it, I’ve decided that I will soon start covering the Freezing manwha on the Anivision Blog. Instead of jumping to the manwha’s current point (ala Sekirei), I will focus on previous chapters in bunches before going into current chapters. I hope you check it out when I start work on those in the near-near future!
Breast of the Rest:
*Technical Difficulties with NGG. Galleries will be viewable hopefully in the near future. *
[nggallery id=38]