| Freedom | |
 | |
| Genre | Science fiction,Action-adventure,Mystery |
|---|---|
| Original video animation | |
| Directed by | Shuhei Morita |
| Produced by | Motoki Mukaichi (1–3) Jun Takei (4–7) Shinjirō Yokoyama Yasumasa Tsuchiya Hideo Matsushita |
| Written by | Katsuhiko Chiba Dai Satō |
| Music by | Yoshihiro Ike |
| Studio | Sunrise |
| Licensed by | |
| Released | November 24, 2006 – May 23, 2008 |
| Runtime | Prologue: 6 minutes Episode 1: 21 minutes Episodes 2–6: 22 minutes Episode 7: 45 minutes |
| Episodes | 7 episodes 1 prologue |
| Novel | |
| Freedom: Footmark Days | |
| Written by | Kō Furukawa |
| Illustrated by | Daisuke Sajiki Yoshihiro Sono |
| Published by | Shogakukan |
| Imprint | Gagaga Bunko |
| Demographic | Male |
| Published | May 24, 2007 – May 20, 2008 |
| Scenario books | |
Freedom Project is a Japanese promotional project byNissinCup Noodles for their 35th anniversary in 2006. As part of the project, the 7-partOVA series, titledFreedom, was commissioned with and designed byKatsuhiro Otomo (of the anime filmSteamboy and the mangaAkira and itsfilm adaptation) serving as the character andmecha designer. The series is directed byShuhei Morita, creator of the award-winning animation shortKakurenbo, and is authored by celebrated writerDai Satō, Katsuhiko Chiba and Yuuichi Nomura. The series openly displays its sponsor'sproduct placement in numerous scenes in which characters are shown consumingNissin Cup Noodles.
The OVA is animated and produced bySunrise and distributed byBandai Visual.[1] "Freedom Committee" is the collective term used for the entire creative team behindFreedom, which includes animators and production staff members who have previously worked onSteamboy.
The theme song for the series, titled "This Is Love", is performed by popularJapanese pop singerHikaru Utada. A second song, "Kiss & Cry", Hikaru Utada's 19th Japanese single, was used for Nissin's fifth television commercial for Freedom, which began airing in Japan starting April 20, 2007.
Freedom is about a child, Takeru, discovering a secret that could change the very society he depends upon.Civilization on the Earth was destroyed by a permanent abnormal climate shift. Cities with millions of people had been built on the far side of the Moon and became the only place where humanity still survived. The remaining population declared the foundation of Republic Eden, then set forth expanding those lunar colonies that loved peace and freedom.
More than 160 years have passed since then. In Eden, children complete their compulsory education program when they are 15 years old. They are then integrated into the society as citizens. During their brief moratorium they are granted freedom. Like other boys, Takeru decides to take part in a race with his friends using machines particular to the Moon, called "Vehicle". But what distinguishes Takeru is that he has constructed his own vehicle. When his vehicle catches fire on a public road he is sentenced to 10 hours of "volunteer" work outside the dome, where he discovers the remains of a small crashed capsule bearing photographs and articles seemingly sent from Earth. Structures visible in the background identify the location they were taken as the Kennedy launch facility in Florida.
Infatuated with a young woman in the photograph, Takeru attempts to research conditions on Earth and finds that the library's information on the home planet is heavily censored. Furthermore, nobody is permitted to travel far enough from the dome over the lunar surface to get within visual range. He discovers a small enclave of people living in a facility outside of Eden's centralized control, and after befriending the enclave's leader is given access to a moon rover with sufficient range to get a view of Earth. He sees that the Earth is blue; it has recovered from the disaster that befell it and is now habitable again. The authorities of Eden pursue Takeru, attempting to suppress this discovery, but Takeru and his friend Bismarck manage to commandeer an old "escape" rocket and leave Eden to explore Earth first hand.
The escape rocket's capsule comes down slightly off course, landing in the ruins of Las Vegas, and Takeru and Bismarck use Takeru's vehicle to make the overland trek across the United States.
As with most other major film and animation releases in Japan, a wide array of promotional merchandise was marketed before and during the OVA's release, including Nissin Cup Noodles with lead character Takeru printed on the lid, small desktop figurines, a 4 flavours Nissin Cup Noodles bundled Freedom DVD gift set, a limited Nissin Cup Noodle container and badges designed by video rental outletTsutaya that came free with the purchase ofFreedom 1, among tie-ins with other retailers. AlthoughFreedom Project is a direct-to-video (DVD) animation, it stands apart from conventional OVA series first by the involvement of Otomo, and also from the collaboration with Nissin Cup Noodles resulting in extensive TV advertising scheduled to run through the duration of the series until its conclusion withFreedom 6.
Publicity for the series began April 11, 2006, with large banners and posters featuring concept sketches of the lead characters Takeru, Kazuma and their vehicles lining Tokyo's busiest train stations, such asShibuya andShinjuku — the latter being the busiest railway station in the world with 3 million transiting passengers every day. These initial pencil-work posters were later replaced by fully coloured, CG created versions with finished background art, giving the effect of a work-in-progress animation piece being completed.
At the same time, 30-second television spots were shown on TV — short trailers providing a glimpse of the story to unfold inFreedom 1. The 5th advertising spot is currently being shown on Japanese television [April 20, 2007], and reveals major plot advances fromFreedom 3. Some of these spots were made available on the limited-editionFreedom Previsited DVD (see release notes below).
A specialFreedom Project page, a collaboration betweenYahoo! Japan and Nissin, will also stream every episode of the series one week before its DVD release date.
Print ads showcasing Katsuhiro Otomo's sketches for the OVA were also released in magazines nationwide. Shortly before theFreedom 1 DVD release, many popular media, manga and animation magazines ran articles for the OVA, featuring mecha design descriptions and interviews with staff members.
The largely successful publicity campaign forFreedom Project was very well received by fans of Katsuhiro Otomo and animation fans in Japan, who saw him returning to his strengths of designing stylish mecha and memorable characters.
It seemed that Otomo was concerned with the production of this work overall and was the director at first, but was over for participation only for character and mechanic design after all.According to the announcement of Nissin side, nonparticipation of Otomo is on schedule, Otomo confesses having resigned this work, or has refused the comment with some magazines.[2]
Freedom Previsited, a special limited-edition DVD, was released on October 27, 2006, features a 6-minute prologue ofFreedom as well as various staff interviews.Freedom 1, the first episode from the series, was released on DVD on November 24, 2006, followed byFreedom 2 on February 23, 2007,Freedom 3 on April 25, 2007,Freedom 4 on July 27, 2007,Freedom 5 on October 26, 2007,Freedom 6 on January 25, 2008, andFreedom 7 on May 23, 2008.
On January 9, 2007, Bandai Visual announcedFreedom Project as a title in its first wave of sub-only releases on theHD DVD Twin format, with each disc being single-sided with dual layers, one HD DVD layer and one DVD layer. The first episode,Freedom 1, was released on June 26, 2007, followed byFreedom 2 on September 25, 2007,Freedom 3 on December 11, 2007,Freedom 4 on February 26, 2008,Freedom 5 on April 22, 2008, andFreedom 6 on June 24, 2008.
Freedom 7 had been planned for an August 2008 release, but as a result ofToshiba ceasing production of the HD DVD format in February 2008, the release was canceled.Freedom 6 was the final title to be released onHD DVD.
Bandai Visual released aBlu-ray box set of all 7 episodes on November 11, 2008, complete with EnglishDub and English subtitles.[3]Discotek Media released a Blu-ray and DVD combo pack of the anime on April 25, 2017.[4]
Shogakukan has published several books related to theFreedom franchise under itsGagaga Bunko label.
Freedom: Footmark Days (FREEDOM フットマークデイズ,FREEDOM Futtomākudeizu) is a series of 3 novels which follows Kazuma's, one of the main characters, side of the story. It is a side-story that runs parallel to the main storyline, and also introduces characters not seen in the anime (ISBN 9784094510072,ISBN 978-4-09-451038-6,ISBN 978-4-09-451067-6).
Freedom Scenarios delves into the making of the OVA series. It is written in Japanese and divided into 2 books, 0-3 and 4-7 respectively.[5][6] Both books contain scenarios (the script for each episode), interviews with writers, production crew, voice actors, concept and production art, and a detailed encyclopedia for terms related toFreedom (ISBN 9784091064103,ISBN 978-4-09-106417-2).
