Anime: Crying Freeman 71411c

Crying Freeman is a pulp gem. The plot is at once arresting and bizarre - a hypnotized potmaker is turned into an intercontinental assassin against his will. He pirouettes barefoot above his victims, carving them with knives held in his toes. When they are dead, he weeps.

The strong lineart and imagery, and overall vision make questions irrelevant Why would a shadowy organization fueled by a cliche Chinese mysticism that possesses submarines and an army of criminal underlings need such an individual? Ultimately the poetic imagination of Crying Freeman quells facile logic. Purpose, utility, intent are subordinate. It is something like John Wick via John Waters, but with a creative sensibility only found in turn of the century pulps. The colors, framing, imagery and overall aesthetic are attractive even if its clear that difficult choices were made in of time and budget on certain scenes or leaving certain things unanimated.

Crying Freeman weighs the grotesque against the sexual. An enormous 900 pound mentally deficient female behemoth takes over as the protagonist's right hand, usually fighting in the nude pendulous and quaking, deflecting small arms fire with girth alone. Freeman himself pivots towards a nuanced sexuality and away from expectation. His enemies are grossly oversexed and philosophically deficient. Freeman acts as an agent of poetic balance. Fights terminate with the antagonists' mordant excess used against them. In general the action is satisfying, even though the more cliche elements of its themes speak of its times (triads, machine guns, intercontinental criminal strife). The worst elements are maybe not the ones played for comic effect, but the self-serious Tiger/Dragon metaphors and the structure of the organization and how Freeman ends up assuming it.

Crying Freeman proves a strong and confounding work. Freeman's underlying viewpoint is radical - he disavows egotism but not murder.

Unlike 99.99% of anime, Crying Freeman hardly censored the gruesome violence and the extreme sex scenes in it. It even has a never before seen again trait in battles: The characters strip butt naked in order to have complete freedom in movement! For them, armors are just a hindrance if you can outrun bullets.

The plot is very cliché with stereotypical characters.. A Japanese artist is trained by force by the Chinese mafia to become Crying Freeman, the world’s deadliest assassin. He is sent to avenge the damage other organizations have done to his trainers and falls in love with a woman on the way. It’s another series with an ultra-powerful heavy-dude, bound on revenge. At least, this heavy-dude has a trait that sets him apart from all those billions of counterparts. He cries every time he kills! And he is not an emotionless killer, as he never kills those he judges as innocent. Beyond this trait, he is as stale and shallow as a dried up bog.

Surprisingly, the character with the most character development and interest is the woman he loves. Not only she is a sex-bomb (and if you like glass fetishes, an ultra sex-bomb!) but also she es through several changes in personality and fighting capabilities. She could easily be the real protagonist. Or maybe she represents the training and evolution Freeman also experienced in the past that we never got to watch. Whatever the reason, she is by far the most interesting character, even if she doesn’t get the screen time she deserves.

The rest of the characters are there for flavor. They are either stereotypical villains that die in the same episode or misjudged criminals that Freeman befriends. They may look and act different but are otherwise carton boxes.

The story is only 6 episodes long but it constantly changes themes, villains and locations, thus it hardly gets repeating or boring. The plot is always about protecting or killing someone but you hardly think about it as you watch.

The production values are very good for the time it was made, they give life to the setting with their realistic portrayal. Static images and improbable moves in battle choreographies are there, but for the most part it’s awesome to look at. You are absorbed by either the really cool animal tattoos, muscly male body figures, really slim and sexy female figures, boner-invoking nude and sex scenes (genitalia are invisible because of the law restrictions back then) or the Hong Kong movie-reminiscent battle scenes. There are even detailed facial expressions and lip sync present here but that turned out to be a problem.

The music themes were unmemorable and most voices were either robotic or flat. It’s a real shame to see so well-made detailed facial expressions and lip-sync to be wasted because of the meh voice actors.

In all, the several action and sex scenes are a major attraction. This is boosted further by animation of graphic novel proportions. It lacks realism (Freeman outruns even a volley of bullets), plot twists (Freeman is clearly the winner from the start) and there is a lot of seduction that might trigger some (there isn’t a female character that Freeman didn’t kill and then didn’t have sex with).