CRYING FREEMAN
Wow... They're naked... Again...
Review by: M.H. "Barenaked Ladies" Torringjan
Length: 6-episode OAV
Genre: Action, assassin
Watched: 5 episodes, dubbed
Back when I was a kid and just getting into anime, I walked through the video store, trying to find something that I could rent and get more of the sweet, sweet anime. I always noticed this title on the shelves, but never rented it because it was rated a mature title with two naked people on the front. Now that I live off of mature titles and naked anime characters aren't quite so taboo, I went ahead and watched this to see what it was about.
Plot summary: In Japan and China, a seedy underworld brews constantly, with the Yakuza and other mobs making money of off drugs and other undesirable markets. The Chinese mafia, the 108 Dragons, uses their top assassin, Crying Freeman, to take out undesirables who threaten the lives and stability of the group. When Freeman takes control of the 108 Dragons, will it fall or will it rise to be the strongest?
Artwork: The art style is well-done for the time this series was made, although it's nothing special. The realistic style of artwork is well-suited for the series, and the character designs, although not very distinct, are nicely done. The bodies are nicely drawn, almost on the level of hentai artwork; with the frequency that they get shown off, they bleeding well should be. The fight scenes are well-animated, as well. In volume 4, they kind of go a little bit crazy with the shading, but they seem to have worked out that problem by the next volume (hopefully by sacking the guy who did it and dropping him in a deep, dark pit).
Music: The music for the series is 80's synth music, which fits pretty well, considering the time the series was made. It supports the action on the screen pretty well, but wouldn't work on its own. We'll just pretend they didn't have a soundtrack.
Characters: You know, when you look at these guys, the mob really doesn't look like that much of a bad crowd to be with. The main man is Crying Freeman, or Yo Hinomura, the soft-spoken nice-guy who's been brainwashed to become the perfect assassin for the Chinese mafia, with the only trace remaining of his humanity being in the tears that he sheds whenever he kills someone. He becomes the heir to the mafia's power through his faithful service and his desire to take a wife, Fu Ching Lan, or Emu Hino. Not too bad of an upgrade from the pottery artist struggling to make a living. Fu Ching Lan was a struggling painter before she saw Freeman carry out a hit, when he told her his name. After expressing her desire to be with a man (cue porn music) and her willingness to accept her fate to die, Freeman decided to take her as his wife. She has a strong sense of honor that fits well with her mafia-head role, and is good with strategizing and planning. Bayasan is the grand-daughter of the former heads of the 108 Dragons, who initially resents the head of the organization being handed over to a pair of Japanese, as opposed to her or someone else Chinese. She eventually warms up to them and becomes eager to help her "Big Brother," Freeman. Her zeal sometimes overcomes her good sense, however, which gets her in trouble from time to time. The dub voices for these characters weren't too annoying, for the most part, and the ones that were really annoying got killed in quick order. Thank goodness.
Plot: There is no real plot that reaches through the entire OAV, making it seem like a bunch of shorter movies about the same thing. However, the plots of the individual parts are interesting and chock full of assassin fun. The plots were all very straight-forward, with little in the way of twists. One thing I would have liked to have answered, however, was why do the characters, especially the women, have to strip naked for fight scenes or at other times for no reason? Not that I'm objecting (except for Bayasan), but I just think it'd be something that they should have mentioned. Maybe the clothes restricted their movements or somehow kept them from attaining their full battle power or something. I mean, I know that naked women would give me more strength, but they didn't say anything about it.
CHICKS!! The chicks of this series were all easy on the eyes, had great personalities, and got naked at the drop of the hat, which makes this series okay in my book! Fu Ching Lan is the highlight of the series (which would be why she's on the cover in her naked glory), with a strong, loyal, caring, loving personality that's strong enough for any man while still having room for some tenderness. She doesn't demonstrate much in the way of house-hold skills, but having been a bachelorette (and a virgin at that) until she was 29, she's got to have something. She wears glasses, which automatically gives her about 5 points on the chick scale. Plus, she's got a body that would launch ships, including an ass that you'd write hymns about. You may find yourself unable to get past some of the battle scenes where she fights naked with her katana (without glasses, unfortunately). Let's see Uma Thurmon try *that!* Dark Eyes is another pretty decent addition, for those of you who like the "World's Strongest Woman" type women. She's got a nice figure and is chiseled like nobody's business. She has an inexplicable crush on Freeman and is very loyal towards him and the 108 Dragons. If you try approaching her, be careful, because she fights with very sharp objects and could easily benchpress you and three other men at once. Bayasan... I'm not even going to talk about Bayasan, since I'm trying to erase the memory of seeing her naked from my mind forever. Whoever decided that was a good idea needs to go to the same pit mentioned before.
Overall: This series is an older series, and at some points it really shows its age. However, when judged against a number of series from its own time and some more recent series, the quality of Freeman can't be denied. The strength of the characters and the simple plot-lines that focus on what we really want to see (half-naked people fighting with knives) makes the series an enjoyable watch. So, if you like action and you want some good old-fashioned naked-time without the guilt of having to say you watched a hentai, pick up this series.
In a Nutshell:
+ Great characters
+ Simple plot-lines
+ It's NAKED TIME!!
- Music and art could be better
- Shows its age
Final score: 8.5/10
NOTE: You have no idea how hard it is to find images for this series. So, the images that I used were from Anime Art, and I used them without permission. Go give them some traffic, since they like visitors and have a bunch of image galleries.
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