'Freedom 5' - High-Def Digest Review

[Attebery]

Kenneth's review of 'Freedom 5' has been posted. He's not enjoying the series since a sudden shift in the previous episode. Sadly, things aren't improved in this installment. On the technical front, this HD DVD flaunts stunning video and solid audio. The supplements package is also well done. This one is still for fans only.

Full review here:
http://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/1348/freedomvol5.html

[tibbydriver]

Its a good thing I waited to pick these up.I originally wanted to see how the series turnedout as a whole. Glad I waited.

[Dragoncrest]

I hope they release this series as a boxset at a reasonable price, I really don't want to pick up one and one episode for that stiff price.

[tsb]

Makes me wonder how closely the author watched the series. The first episode makes it abundantly clear that his interests are racing and girls.

I've only watched the first episode but have all the released episodes on my server. I'm going to watch them all together. Good things come to those who wait.

[Ken Brown]

Originally Posted by tsb

Makes me wonder how closely the author watched the series. The first episode makes it abundantly clear that his interests are racing and girls.

I've only watched the first episode but have all the released episodes on my server. I'm going to watch them all together. Good things come to those who wait.

I definitely understood his interests from the beginning of the series -- I guess I was just expecting him to develop or evolve as a character, especially as he became more aware of Eden's deception and his duty to a world drowning in lies. For the first three episodes, he was progressing towards adulthood and 'Freedom' was quickly emerging as a coming-of-age tale. But in the last two episodes, the writers seem to have abandoned his maturing process and allowed him to devolve back into the racin-n-girls kid he initially was.

Maybe it's just me, but it seems to be a disappointing and terribly anti-climactic turn of events. But that's just me -- I really hope there are people out there who are still on board with the series. Thanks as always for posting!

[tsb]

hopefully I'm not disappointed as well once I finally get the last disk and watch it all

thanks for explaining it

[bruceames]

Frankly if it's bad or mediocre, I'd just as soon not know about it, since I already own the first 5 discs and I'm not about to pay $170 for an incomplete series so I'm getting the last two regardless. Besides, I mainly got this because they're the only twin discs ever made AFAIK.

[kannisto]

Originally Posted by bruceames

Frankly if it's bad or mediocre, I'd just as soon not know about it, since I already own the first 5 discs and I'm not about to pay $170 for an incomplete series so I'm getting the last two regardless. Besides, I mainly got this because they're the only twin discs ever made AFAIK.

There are a bunch of other Twin discs available in the Japan market, all the "Virtual Trip" HD DVDs and some other variety content discs, like "Railway Story" discs etc.

I have also all the five volumes and I haven't started watching them yet, I'll watch the 6 when I get the next one. I understand the 7th one will be a kind of an additonal special episode that wasn't originally part of the series.

[bruceames]

Originally Posted by kannisto

There are a bunch of other Twin discs available in the Japan market, all the "Virtual Trip" HD DVDs and some other variety content discs, like "Railway Story" discs etc.

I have also all the five volumes and I haven't started watching them yet, I'll watch the 6 when I get the next one. I understand the 7th one will be a kind of an additonal special episode that wasn't originally part of the series.

Thanks for the info. So the other ones are pretty much all documentaries? I always thought the Twin had a lot of potential and it's too bad that it and the HD DVD format never had the chance to fulfill it.

I'm a little confused about Bandai Visual, are they a Japanese studio? If so, then why are the Freedom series and Wings of Honneamise considered US releases while Patlabor 1 and 2 are Japanese releases? Wasn't Freedom released in Japan?

[kannisto]

Originally Posted by bruceames

Thanks for the info. So the other ones are pretty much all documentaries? I always thought the Twin had a lot of potential and it's too bad that it and the HD DVD format never had the chance to fulfill it.

I'm a little confused about Bandai Visual, are they a Japanese studio? If so, then why are the Freedom series and Wings of Honneamise considered US releases while Patlabor 1 and 2 are Japanese releases? Wasn't Freedom released in Japan?

Yeah, the other twin discs are documentary / special interest type of content. I think because the twin discs were all HD-15 + DVD-5 and multi-layer twin discs were not realized yet, they couldn't put full length movies out in that configuration.

Bandai Visual has a U.S. section as well as the Japanese one and they released some of their discs in Japan only and some in both countries. Freedom series are marked as Bandai Visual U.S. releases. They sell them in Japan as kind of U.S. imports only through BV's own online shop. DVD only versions of Freedom have been released as Japanese releases and are available widely though.

[Ken Brown]

Hey all -- I came across this listing which may interest some of you who have been waiting for prices to drop before checking out 'Freedom':

http://www.discountanimedvd.com/Prod...-HDDVD-DVD.asp

It's a 'Freedom Volumes 1-3 Giftset' for $65. It's still not cheap, but it's much more affordable than it has been.