Freezing

Freezing is a Manga from the team of Dal-young Im (author) and KIM Kwang Hyun (artist). It is published by Comic Valkyrie in Japan and by Haksan Pub in Booking magazine in South Korea.

Beings from a different dimension, called Novas, have started a war with mankind. To counter this threat, mankind has manufactured tissue called "Stigmata" and fuses it into the bodies of young women to create female warriors called "Pandoras," who can wield special weaponry and armor. Taking younger boys called "limiters" as partners, these warriors fight in two-person teams, which can be expanded into small squadrons. "Pandoras" are also the only power on earth that have the power to resist the Novas' freezing effect.

Kazuya Aoi decided to enroll in West Genetics Academy, a top school for training Pandoras and Limiters because of a promise with Kazuha, his sister, an outstanding alumnus who died in battle. On the first day at school, he meets Satellizer el Bridget, nicknamed "The Untouchable Queen" due to her solitary demeanor but also the top student of the academy whose battle simulation streak was undefeated, until he came... and slowly changed her.

The official site (in Japanese) can be found HERE.

An anime adaptation began airing in January 2011 and finished in April of that year.

There are two side manga to accompany the main story line. One is called Freezing: First Chronicle, a short, completed work starring School Council President Chiffon Fairchild and showcasing her history with her friend Ticy during Chiffon's first year at the academy. The second one, titled Freezing: Zero, is in-progress and features Kazuha as the protagonist.

Tropes used in Freezing include:
  • Above the Influence: In one chapter, Satellizer goes on a Drinking Contest with Elizabeth. After Kazuya takes her back to her room, she drunkenly tells him to strip some of her clothing off, which he does with great difficulty. In the morning after she sobers up, she wonders if Kazuya took advantage of her, but then concludes that he didn't since she still had most of her clothing on, as well as her makeup.
  • A-Cup Angst: Atia in episode 8 is visibly shocked when she sees Satellizer and Rana's busts.
  • The Ace
  • World of Action Girls
  • Adults Are Useless: Where the hell were the members of the faculty when the 3rd Years were waging their war on Satellizer?
  • All Girls Want Bad Boys: Subverted. Satellizer's first limiter was a womanizer and she put him in the hospital. Kazuya is sweet, polite and keeps his hands to himself when he's asked to, and Satellizer is much happier for it. Not that she'll admit this.
  • All of the Other Reindeer
  • Exclusively Evil: The Novas
  • Amazon Brigade: The Pandoras.
  • An Arm and a Leg: Some fights get to this point. Bonus points to Cassie for having lost her arms twice already.
  • Aristocrats Are Evil: Satellizer's noble half brother Louis is one nasty piece of work. Both his sister Violet and the Mably family avert this; the former is kind and polite, while the latter, particularly Elizabeth and her father, firmly believe in using their status to help those in need.
  • Armor-Piercing Slap: In a flashback, Violet angrily gives her little brother one when she finds him in Satellizer's bedroom. Too bad it looks like this was the only one punishment he ever received for it.
    • Chiffon recieves one from Elizabeth in chapter 69 after she tries to stop Elizabeth from assisting the rebelling E-Pandoras.
  • Artistic License Military: West Genetics is stated to be a military academy, but there are a number of issues about how it functions that completely ignore military protocols. In particular are the following problems:
    • Unsanctioned fighting between Pandoras occurs constantly, and is even pointed out in-universe to be potentially crippling to their ability to field troops. However, there is little or no administrative regulation of this behavior, leaving it mostly to the students to resolve between themselves with rare faculty intervention.
    • General regulations of military organizations are non-existent outside of actual combat situations. The chain of command is applied rather unprofessionally, allowing third-years to treat their juniors very cruelly and without proper justification for their actions, and discipline is lax as a result.
    • The Pandoras and Limiters have deadly powers that could cause just as much damage as the Novas themselves, if not more. Since the Pandoras have demonstrated emotional instability (caused by either personal conflict between Pandora or unwilling mind control from the Nova), one would think that there would be some degree of oversight in order to make sure that rogue Pandoras and Limiters can be controlled. No such system exists aside from whatever self-regulation the Pandoras choose to utilize, as well as token punishments from the faculty.
  • Artistic License Physics: The Plasma Weapons said to be used by Valkyrie and TheBusters are not Plasma Weapons at all. The seem to be energy beams and the text makes them closer to Chemical lasers as no magnetism is used.
  • Asskicking Equals Authority: Chiffon is both the Rank 1 amongst the third-year students and the president of the Student Council, with the epithet of "The Unmatched Smiling Monster". Good thing that she's one of the few sane people around. Satellizer is in a similar position of strength, but the second year students are just outright afraid of her as opposed to deferring to her judgement.
  • Attack Its Weak Point
  • Author Appeal: Like Lim's other works, the females characters are almost all Hourglass Hotties. Also the main male hero has a female romantic interest who's older than himself. Then there's the older sister/younger brother dynamic that seems to be a bit too close.
  • Axe Crazy: A majority of the Pandoras are this, especially when pissed off.
  • Barbie Doll Anatomy: Luckily for Ganessa in episode 2, or her super-sexy kneeling-defeated pose sans-clothing would have gotten this anime slapped with an R-18+ sticker. The manga is somewhat inconsistent in this regard; in the chapter where Ganessa is defeated, the anatomy is more detailed, but in chapter 63 Chiffon and Elizabeth are in the shower and their nipples seem to appear and disappear at random.
  • Bare Your Midriff: The E-Pandora attire.
  • Barrier Warrior: The limiters have the defensive shielding and debuffing powers.
  • Batman Gambit: A pretty plausible one coming from Atia Simmons. Tell Rana what she wants to hear, that Kazuya hasn't been baptized and thus isn't officially Satellizer's limiter. Since Satellizer's social skills consist of icy silence and excessive violence, the two of them proceed to beat the snot out of each other.
  • Battle Couple: This is the main premise of the story. An Action Girl with a younger male partner who provides support but never does actual combat. Romantic relationships may or may not develop once the Pandora is retired (or even before), as implied by Satellizer's sister Violet, but in wartime situations, the downside to such a close relationship becomes apparent when a Limiter dies and the Pandora must re-baptize with another limiter.
  • Berserk Button: Satellizer really doesn't like to be touched. Hurt Kazuya, or try to take him away, and she'll mess you up real good too.
  • Betty and Veronica: Rana and Satellizer for Kazuya.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Satellizer if anyone threatens to hurt Kazuya (and vice versa), and especially if you ignore Chiffon's warnings to stop fighting. Rana can act this way as well towards Kazuya, as evidenced by in episodes 5-7.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Cassie Lockheart vs Julia Munberk, #3 in the world overall.
  • Big Eater: In chapter 24, Kazuya, Satellizer, Ganessa, and Arthur are the last competitors standing at a couples eating challenge made up of 5 bowls of ramen, 10 sets of 10 takoyaki, 5 large steamed meat buns, and 5 hamburgers. Satellizer pulls though at the end when her Trademark Favorite Food comes up, and she manages to stack, cram, and take down all 5 burgers at once.
  • Black and Grey Morality: On one side, we have the Nova; on the other we have a corrupt government willing to sacrifice children in unethical experiments and torture anyone who speaks out against it.
  • Bland-Name Product: Burger Queen, Mably.
  • Blood Knight: Most of the Pandora take a little too much pleasure in violence, but for Satellizer fighting and winning is a psychological compulsion. Ingrid and Arnett are also subject to behaving with extreme bloodthirstiness when they're in the mood for a fight.
  • Body Horror: Corruption.
  • Bowdlerise: Like many recent shows, the TV broadcast censors not only some of the nudity, but the blood and violence as well by literally blacking or whiting out parts of the screen, using Censor Shadow in both black and white. The uncut version of the anime completely avoids this in all sequences that would require it.
  • Break the Cutie: Satellizer's backstory is fairly traumatizing even as far as manga go.
  • Break the Haughty: A mild one for Attia Simmons when her limiter prevents her from dying at the cost of his own life.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: During the 9th Nova Clash, the Nova turn a group of Pandoras into a group of zombielike Pandora/Nova hybrids. They're single minded, almost brainless, and blindly slaughter anything that moves.
  • Bullying a Dragon: One would wonder why people keep taunting Satellizer while knowing how powerful she is.
  • Calling Your Attacks: Pandoras do this when they form their Volt Weapons, do Accelerating Turns, or use special techniques. Limiters have a tendency to shout "Freezing" when they are about to use it, though not always.
  • The Cake Is a Lie: The drug and crazed Gina reveals the MARK IV drug used on E-Pandoras is not what they say it is.
  • Can't Spit It Out: Satellizer. She knows that Kazuya is pretty much her only friend but the whole childhood abuse thing makes it difficult to tell him this.
  • Cat Fight/Panty Fighter: Zig-zagged. While it's only girls doing all the fighting and there are a lot of Panty Shots, there's not much Fan Service as the fights are downright brutal. And aside from the opening chapters, the fanservice shots in combat usually disappear. The anime, in contrast, plays these tropes completely straight.
  • Child Soldiers
  • Class Representative: Kaho Hiiragi.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl: Satellizer to Kazuya. Justified as she has no one else to be her limiter or even her friend. One of the upperclassmen uses this against her.
    • Rana hilariously invokes this trope at the end of episode 12, thinking that Satellizer was stripping to lure Kazuya in her room. So she responds by stripping her clothes, which then causes Satelliza to strip even more off...
    • After hearing Kazuya simply call her Rana, Satellizer is pretty upset by it, especially when Rana mentions that in their relationship, they don't need honorifics. Satellizer then forces Kazuya to call her Stella.
    • Holly towards Louis. She hates how much Louis adores Satellizer.
  • Clothing Damage: This always happens in any fight, even during events such as casual soccer matches. Fortunately, the school uniforms repair themselves. Pretty convenient.
  • Cold-Blooded Torture: In retaliation for leaking the information about the Mark-IV, the Alaska Institute, with orders from the Chevalier, tortured Elizabeth until she could not even be touched by her partner without shaking in fear.
  • Combat Pragmatist: The battle simulations are explicitly intended to teach this attitude to the Pandora.
  • Combat Tentacles: A Nova's main weapon, Wave Motion Gun aside. Not only are they incredibly effective at slicing their victims into ribbons, they're also able to corrupt Pandora, turning them into Novas themselves.
  • Cool Big Sis: Violet, Satellizer's older half sister. She forgives what Louise did as a child because he was a 'child', and asked for Satellizer to do the same. Satellizer shows clear respect for Violet and maintains a friendly relationship with her, as does Kazuya.
  • Cooldown Hug: Kazuya gives one to Satellizer to keep her from killing Cassie after she reverts back.
  • Corrupt Corporate Executive: Mark Spencer, the leader of the Chevalier, who willingly subjects the E-Pandoras to a doomed experiment for the sake of politics, and crushes anyone who opposes his aims, like Elizabeth Mably.
    • The Chevalier frames Elizabeth's father as one to punish her for interfering in the E-Pandora project.
  • The Corruption: Stigmata is essentially Nova tissue. As a result, every Pandora has a chance of turning into a new Nova. This is what happened to Kazuya's dead sister Kazuha, and what happens to Amelia Evans at the climax of the E-Pandora arc. Worse, the Nova can force the transformation by absorbing Pandoras. The absorption-type conversion is reversible, but requires extreme precision; the first and only successful reversal of a Stigmata-induced change (Amelia's) is much more difficult, and costs Chiffon her life. It's also possible for Limiters to activate their Stigmata, which gives them extra power but can cause permanent bodily damage since the Limiters can't control their Stigmata like a Pandora can.
  • Cowardly Lion: Cassie Lockheart has a top ranked simulation record, but a fight with Satellizer el Bridget left her questioning whether she's fit for combat.
  • Crapsack World: Only infecting humans with the tissue of Eldritch Abominations gives mankind any hope of fighting the Nova, and the organization that's funding these front line soldiers trains them through free-for-all gladiatorial tournaments. The student 'rankings' determined through these tournaments are mostly immutable and enforced through rampant vigilantism on part of the students--in the name of keeping unit cohesion. In a world that's already effectively reached the Godzilla Threshold, the people setting up things make the world a perfect place for many gratuitous Let's You and Him Fight moments amongst its best and last line of defense. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. And the people in charge of the Pandoras still care more about politics than about the monsters hellbent on wiping out humanity.
  • Curb Stomp Battle: The few battles we see against Nova are brutal affairs with crippling injuries and deaths being a given. It gives some justification for the absolute insistence on discipline: everyone works together or everyone dies. But beating Satellizer into submission is still a stupid, stupid decision.
    • The mock battles which pitted three of the best of the traditionally trained Genetics Pandoras against the E-Pandoras, who were regular human beings with low aptitude for traditional Pandora training. The E-Pandoras never stood a chance.
    • Rana, during her introduction fight in episode 5, effortlessly defeats 3 sophomore girls.
    • In First Chronicle, Chiffon single-handedly massacres 50 other Pandora in her year during her first Carnival. In comparison, the highest ever kill streak in the history of the battle royales was (according to a bystander) a mere 5 kills.
  • Cute Bruisers: The entire Pandora student body.
  • Dead Older Sister: Kazuya's sister, Kazuha.
  • Death Glare: Chiffon and Satellizer Death Glare each other, although in actuality Chiffon was hiding behind an equally-terrified Ticy.
  • Debut Queue: The early episodes of the anime essentially introduce one or two new girls. Who then usually get beaten into a bloody pulp by Satellizer.
  • Defcon Five: The anime gets it right, going to Defcon 1 when the Novas directly assault the academy.
  • Defeat Means Friendship: Ganessa, while not exactly on friendly terms with Satellizer after being beaten by her in episode 2, does help her out at least twice.
  • Defrosting Ice Queen: Elizabeth and Satellizer both go through this to some degree.
  • Demoted to Extra: During the E-Pandora Arc, Elizabeth, some of the higher-ranking Pandoras, and the E-Pandoras take the stage for a good part of the story, mostly due to the political nature of the conflict (which mostly leaves Kazuya, Satellizer, and Rana out of the action) up until things get complicated.
  • Dirty Business: Taken to heartbreaking heights with Professor O'Hara, who puts on the facade of a heartless scientist and lectures Amelia about the necessity of her cruel actions in the course of overseeing the E-Pandora project. Then she breaks down crying in her office.
  • The Determinator: Satellizer, who refuses to back down and/or lose to anyone. To the extent of continuing to fight even after her internal organs have been crushed and her ribs cracked. In general, this is her attitude in any situation that could be considered a competition or a clash of wills, including drinking and eating contests.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: The third year students are experts at dishing this out, mostly for the purpose of Serial Escalation levels of ego tripping. For what they consider "disrespect" and "insubordination" on Satellizer's part, they launched an all-out assault starting with just outright picking fights with her. Then when that didn't work they tricked Lana into fighting with her, and had two reinforcements on standby to tag team her just in case she beat Lana. Satellizer brought this whole vendetta on by defending herself and Kazuya from being molested and/or raped by a group of third years.
    • Louis' abuse of Satellizer came about when she rejected his uncomfortably awkward advances on her.
  • Dogged Nice Guy: Unlike most examples of the trope Kazuya respects Satellizer's boundaries, but is otherwise completely willing to deal with Satellizer's considerable emotional baggage, long list of enemies, and poor communication skills to try to be her friend and limiter.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: The baptism is played up as a very important event, with implications of it being similar to, or involving, sex. In reality, the Pandora just implants a matured Stigmata from her body into her Limiter's body, allowing the Limiter to use Freezing.
  • Doppelganger Replacement Love Interest Holly Rose for Louis.
  • Drinking Contest
  • Earn Your Happy Ending: Episode 12 really puts the main characters through the fire.
  • Elaborate University High
  • Eldritch Abomination: The Nova. After more than twenty chapters we finally see why everyone is so desperately afraid of the things.
  • Emotionless Girl: Satellizer, until Kazuya shows up.
  • Expy Satellizer looks very similar to |Tomoyo Sakagami and Ganessa looks like an older Michiru.
  • Expository Hairstyle Change: After Chiffon dies her appointed successor Ticy cuts and styles her hair to resemble Chiffon's; she also goes from a very unconfident girl to an ice queen who curb-stomps "Mad Dog" Arnett, declares that she'll enforce a stricter sempai/kouhai code, and warns Satelizer she won't go easy on her like Chiffon used to.
  • Eyes Always Shut: Student President Chiffon.
  • Face Death with Dignity: The E-Pandoras stage a coup in order to escape the facilities, even if they'll most likely get killed in the process, rather than staying and be subjected to some questionable experiments that have an insanely high mortality rate.

Amelia: And if we can't avoid death, at least how we die will be our decision.

  • Fan Service: Episode 8, which is really needed after the nearly non-stop fighting in every previous episode. Enjoy it while you can, because it really goes downhill from there as the plot really begins to kick in.
    • The abuse sexual that happens to Satellizer from her brother is a niche form of this.
  • Failure Knight: Ingrid first and foremost, but she's not alone. Almost all of the Pandora have watched a friend die.
  • Fan Disservice: After attempting to protect Kazuya from Miyabi and failing, Satellizer is partially stripped, forced into an extremely compromising position, and nearly raped by Miyabi's three Limiters. Once Kazuya is able to level the playing field with his Freezing, she expresses her extreme displeasure with the situation.
  • Flash Step/Doppelganger Spin: the Accel and its more advanced forms. President Chiffon Fairchild's Illusion Turn is the truest example thus far, leaving an afterimage that can be hit without actually harming her--no one has developed anything similar to it yet.
  • Fluffy Tamer: Kazuya, from the perspective of his school mates. Satellizer is treated like an unstable nutcase but he follows her around and insists, with a straight face, that she is more misunderstood than dangerous. He's right, of course, but he gets funny looks from the students who don't know the full story.
  • Freudian Excuse: You wanna know why Satellizer is so messed up? Her step-brother, Louis, treated her as a toy and sexually abused her on a seemingly regular basis from age 8 up. When she told her mother, she was told to bear it quietly. Only her half-sister Violet's intervention saved her. Only when Satellizer's mother was on her deathbed did she tell Satellizer to never lose to anyone ever again.
    • Brother-Sister Incest: For full horror effect.
    • Cassie's backstory has a similar pattern of self-denial for the sake of a selfish parent and becoming a Pandora without really wanting to be one. The both have an insane drive to win in battle, but for opposite reasons, making Cassie a Shadow Archetype of Satellizer.
  • Gender-Restricted Ability
  • Genki Girl: Rana is quite cheerful, particularly around Kazuya.
  • Get A Hold of Yourself Man: Cassie's Limiter Kyouichi gets this moment following her apparent death in the Yokohama battle, from his Limiter senpai Alex. The moment has added punch (very literally) because Alex knows what the junior Limiter is feeling - his Pandora is Mileena (Cassie's senpai), who was also apparently killed by a Nova in the same battle.
  • Genre Shift: Ever since Satellizer's personal demons have been put to rest, Freezing has turned from an Action Girl Scifi series into a Machaeivallean political thriller in which the majority of action takes place in boardroom-meetings rather than on the battlefield... but making said-battles not one bit less vicious for it all.
  • Girls With Psycho Weapons
  • Glass Cannon: Despite having super strength and speed, Pandora are sufficiently vulnerable to harm that a Nova or corrupted Pandora can kill them in one blow. Also, the majority of their durability is based on their Volt Texture uniforms; without them, they appear to be roughly as durable as an average human being.
  • The Glasses Come Off: Satellizer doesn't wear her glasses during fights. We witness her taking them off in episode 2 when she squares off with Ganessa and again in episode 3, right before her fight with Miyabi. This is a Subverted Trope since Bridget doesn't wear Nerd Glasses. Possibly justified as in the manga we see another girl take off her glasses before fighting Nova and we are told that their eyesight is being boosted in some way and in the anime before the fight with Ganessa there is a close up of Satellizer's eye when a glowing pattern appears.
  • Good Old Fisticuffs: Rana curb stomps three second year Pandoras without a weapon.
  • Good Thing You Can Heal/No One Should Survive That: And HOW!!! Pandoras' have their arms regularly torn off. Special mention goes to Ganessa, who loses about a third of her body and half of her face by shielding Satellizer with her body, and survives.
  • Gorn: Throughout the series we have Pandoras that are slashed in half, beheaded, limbs ripped or cut off and so forth. One character has pretty much half their torso blown off.
  • Government Conspiracy: Chevalier openly displays E-Pandora in order to hide the Type-Maria project.
  • Girlish Pigtails
  • Glomp: Kazuya gives one to Satellizer when he mistakes her for his dead sister.
  • Guys Smash Girls Shoot: Inverted completely. Limiters are the long-distance fighting types, Pandoras are the up-close-and-personal fighting types.
  • Hair Antennae: Satellizer's half-sister Violet.
  • Hair of Gold: Satellizer
  • Half-Human Hybrid
  • Healing Factor: The Pandora girls have enhanced healing, although its mentioned that getting hurt too often shortens their lifespan. Note that this doesn't make them immortal, and they can still die if severely damaged enough, such as from a Nova attack. This may explain why the school has such fancy food, and why Satellizer loves burgers.
  • Heroic RROD: The "Nova Form" that Satellizer and Rana utilize, wherein their bodies gain crystal protrusions and their skin fractures, is basically a result of deliberately pushing their stigmata to the point where they begin transforming into Novas. Their power rockets up, but they are susceptible to control from a sufficiently powerful Nova, and if they push themselves for too long, there is a very good chance that they could go too far and become Novas themselves.
    • Andre forces one on himself by constantly forcing and reinforcing his Freezing in the battle between Charles Bonaparte and Elizabeth. He pushes himself so hard to keep Charles immobilized that his Stigmata appear to corrupt and damage his eyes, possibly permanently.
  • Heroic Sacrifice:
    • In the backstory, Kazuya's sister Kazuha ends the 9th Nova Clash at the cost of her life.
    • In Ingrid's backstory, her close friend Milena stays behind to make sure that the other trainee Pandoras and Limiters can get away from the Nova that assault them during a training exercise.
    • In Chapter 91, Chiffon absorbs the force of Nova!Amelia's self-destruct attack to protect everyone else in the vicinity. The effort causes Chiffon's body to break down and completely crystallize.
  • Heroic Second Wind: Satellizer gets these a lot, and Rana gets one as well in episode 7.
  • Hero-Killer: The Nova. Able to take incredible amounts of damage and kill entire squads of Pandora without much damage.
  • Heroic Bastard: Satellizer is the child of Howard el Bridget, a member of the politically-powerful Chevalier, and his mistress Noelle Alongrutch.
  • Hidden Depths: Elizabeth Mably, who is actually relatively noble and self-effacing once she is willing to put aside her pride.
  • High-Pressure Blood: Thanks to Burger-Queen.
  • Honor Before Reason: Many of the fights between the students could be avoided if they would just talk about what's bothering them first.
    • Lampshaded when Kazuya breaks up a fight between Rana and Satellizer by telling Rana that she was misinformed about his relation to Satellizer.
  • Hopeless Suitor: Rana towards Kazuya. But she seems to see this more as a challenge to overcome.
  • Hope Spot: After the appearance of new types of Novas beyond what is normally seen, Dr. Aoi sees Chiffon as this as she may be their only hope in victory.
  • Hour of Power: "Pandora Mode" only lasts for three minutes and enables a Pandora to move through Freezing fields in addition to giving them a major power boost. Once the mode ends, the Pandora can no longer fight for quite some time, meaning that this should be a last resort only.
  • Humanoid Abomination: The corrupted Pandoras are essentially humanoid Novas. Since Kazuya has a "Stigma Body" similar to his sister's, who transformed into a Nova on her own, Yumi is concerned that Kazuya might become a Nova as well.
    • Chiffon is a "true Pandora," which means she's basically the same as the above, but with a human mind.
  • If I Can't Have You: Holly Rose stabs Louis after he confirms beyond any doubt that he doesn't love her. And proceeds to run the two of them over a cliff immediately afterwards.
  • I Just Want to Be Normal: Cathy tells Kazuya this in episode 9 when she mentions wanting to be a writer. Turns out that she was there when Satellizer first attacked the guy who wanted to be her Limiter when she was at East Genetics. Her refusal to lose caused Cathy to question her own resolve in being a Pandora.
  • "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Amelia tried to do this with Gina. It doesn't work.
    • Succeeds with Satellizer when she very nearly killed Cassie. But Kazuya gives her a Cooldown Hug, and she ultimately misses her fatal attack on purpose.
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Louis. See above.
    • And early on Satellizer makes Miyabi regret trying to take Kazuya as a partner by force with this.
  • Infinity+1 Sword: Kazuha Aoi's Stigmata.
  • I Owe You My Life: Why Cassie intervenes in favor of Satellizer and Lana in their fight against Julia.
  • It Got Worse: Okay, so the earth is getting invaded by monsters. We can deal with that. Unfortunately, it turns out that our only means of defense against them, the Pandoras, can be brainwashed by them. Not only do the brainwashed Pandoras keep all their powers and gain a few more (ie resist freezing), a whole squad of them just fell to some Nova and are then sent to attack Genetics. Oh Crap...
  • It's Not You, It's My Enemies: Satellizer doesn't want Kazuya getting hurt and frequently tries to push him away...
  • I Will Protect Her: Kazuya towards Satellizer. She inverts it on him as well, and will kick the crap out of anyone who hurts, or threatens to hurt him.
  • Jerkass LOUIS!!!
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Most of the pandoras
  • Joshikousei: Pretty much all the Pandoras are this.
  • Just Think of the Potential: Scarlette O'Hara tells this to Amelia regarding Type-Maria clones.
  • Kick the Son of a Bitch: Miyabi tried to take Kazuya as a limiter by force and oh holy shit did Satellizer make sure that will never happen again.
  • Large Ham: Second year's second best student, Ganessa Roland, starts monologuing about how amazing she is. Shortly before Satellizer beats her silly.
  • Last-Episode New Character: Eugene and Abel, limiters of Chiffon and Ticy, that is pretty much their only appearance in the anime.
  • Lawful Stupid: Ingrid, who really insists on enforcing the regulations and class hierarchy due to her friend Milena's Heroic Sacrifice. It later becomes clear that the Chevalier government expects the Pandoras to be lawful stupid with appropriate consequences for those that are insubordinate.
  • Let's You and Him Fight: The Gladiatorial Carnivals to determine ranking, among other things.
  • Lightning Bruiser: Pretty much every female character is a combination of this and Glass Cannon (as noted above).
  • Likes Older Women: Limiters are usually a year or so younger than their Pandoras, so if a romantic relationship develops, this trope comes into play.
  • Loners Are Freaks: Satellizer is treated like this by most of the students.
  • Love Confession: Cassie's limiter confessed his love to her and told her that he would wait for her answer the following day. The following day is a massively bloody and epic battle, and it is not until she gets back from nearly dying
  • Love Triangle: Type 4 Triang Relations. Rana (A) to Kazuya (B) and Satellizer (C). Not that it stops Rana from trying.
    • Satellizer is not happy when Rana explicitly tells her that Kazuya is her soulmate in episode 6, and seems quite bothered by it.
  • Luminescent Blush: Kazuya's the only one who gets to see it on Satellizer.
  • Machiavelli Was Wrong: Satellizer is feared by everyone, and it causes her no end of trouble because her methods of self-defense are what constantly indue that fear of her.
  • Mama Bear: Brutally averted. Satellizer's mother Noelle was aware of the abuse her daughter was suffering and ignored it. Noelle's final advice to Satellizer, intended to empower Satellizer, only made things worse, as it gave Satellizer a reason to never, ever back down even when it would be better for her physical health and safety to do so.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Atia Simmons with the nickname of "The Manipulative Schemer".
  • Meganekko: Satellizer sometimes wears glasses when not fighting.
  • Men Are the Expendable Gender: Averted hard.
  • Mighty Whitey: Whereas every one of the current champions of East or West Genetics of Japan are westerners, it is worth noting that the late Kazuha Aoi was the single greatest Pandora who has ever lived, is an Asian. And though the search of potential Pandoras seems to run by Europeans, the only culture mentioned to have born Pandoras is in Tibet, where they have tied the presence of stigma to their very religion. But the current and most powerful Pandora in the Chevaliers is Suna Yi, a Korean.
  • Mind Control Eyes: The Pandoras in Nova Form (even when not under Nova control).
  • Minor Injury Overreaction: Admittedly, it was a cut to the face on someone who prides their looks, but is attempted rape really the right response to that, Miyabi?
  • Missing Mom: Satellizer's mother took ill while she was still young, and died.
  • Modesty Bedsheet
  • Morality Chain: Kazuya to Satellizer. Not always successfully.
  • Mood Whiplash: Chapter 25
  • Multinational Team: The entire cast comes from many diffrent nations:
    • Kazuya, Kazuha, Kaho, Aika, Kyoichi and Miyabi are Japanese.
    • Satellizer, Ganessa, Elizabeth and Holly are British.
    • Cleo, Ingrid, Elize and Julia are German.
    • Cassie, Roxanne and Tris are American.
    • Audrey and Charles are French.
    • Lana is Tibetan.
    • Yumi is Korean.
    • Chiffon is Canadian.
    • Ticy is Finnish.
    • Arnett is Swiss.
    • Attia is Romanian.
    • And that's just the cast whose names we know...
  • Named Weapons: All Pandoras have named weapons. Satellizer's weapon, for example, is named Nova Blood.
  • Names to Run Away From Really Fast: "The Smiling Unmatched Monster" of West Genetics, aka Student Council President Chiffon Fairchild [1], full stop.
    • Along with Numbers, Godspeed, Untouchable Queen, Academy Reigning Enforcer, Hitman, Slashing Trickster, Lightning Hammer, Tempest Phoenix....
  • New Transfer Student: Rana, from Tibet.
  • No Guy Wants an Amazon: Averted. The entire female student body is made up of bunch of superpowered Blood Knights and Student President Chiffon. If a male student at Genetics minds having a super powered girlfriend, then he won't be dating anytime soon.
  • Noblewoman's Laugh: Ganessa
  • Non-Action Guy: The Limiters, outside of combat. In combat, their role is less neutral but focused completely on support.
  • Nosebleed: Kazuya suffers one at the end of episode 12 after a nearly topless Satellizer falls on top of him.
  • No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Satellizer both gives and receives quite a few of these in the series. When she's delivering them, quite often their opponent brought it on themselves.
  • No Sense of Personal Space: Rana does this to Kazuya in episode 6. While in a lunchroom with a lot of other students. Satellizer is not happy to see that when she walks in a few moments later.
  • Not Good with People: Satellizer's backstory and lone-wolf nature make it difficult for her to relate to other people properly, making her a prime example of someone with No Social Skills.
  • Not So Above It All: The soccer game in Chapter 52. Elizabeth. That is all.
  • Not So Different: Cassie and Satellizer.
  • Oh Crap: Happens multiple times in each episode, usually when Satellizer gets a Heroic Second Wind and beats her opponents. Also played straight in episode 9 when 4 Nova show up simultaneously, and just about everyone, including senior students and teachers mention how bad that is.
    • There's also the "Does he have a death wish?" reactions early on when Kazuya touches Satellizer.
    • Chiffon entering the fray against Satellizer.
  • Ominous Latin Chanting: The Novas themselves.
  • Panty Fighter A very thinly disguised one
  • Panty Shot: Several of the girls. Rana in particular during episode 6.
  • People Jars: Maria Lancelot's body, the source of Stigmata, is secured in a chamber at Western Genetics, along with clones at the E-Pandora Facility in Alaska. After retaking human form, Amelia is seen in one of these.
  • Plucky Girl: Satellizer will not lose to bullies. So do Rana, she also gets back up even when badly beaten, and don't even lose that cheerfulness.
  • The Power and Position Will Make You Forget: In the chapter 65.5 short story, we see that Elizabeth dislikes the unsaid rules on how the juniors Pandoras must follow the orders of upperclassmen, and wants to become #1 so she can better understand the rules and remake them. Once she takes her position as the "leader" of the third-year clique, her behavior towards Satellizer is exactly the same as her upperclassmen's behavior towards the underclassmen.
  • Pre Meeting: How Kazuya meets Satellizer and Rana.
  • Princess Curls: Atia
  • Powers as Programs: The Stigmata are removable and transferrable, though the Pandora vary in how well they can synchronize to them.
    • Pandora Mode seems to be a literal case, while Satellizer is fighting Ingrid she theorizes that Satellizer isn't using Pandora mode because her "Pandora Chip" was confiscated after she tried to kill Miyabi.
  • Power Dyes Your Hair: In the anime, Pandora Mode causes the Pandora's hair to turn white. In the manga, Pandora Mode takes the form of what appears to be Powered Armour, though a "second version" of Pandora Mode is made to match the anime's depiction.
  • Power Incontinence: Kazuya has trouble using his Freezing when the plot needs to make the new threat more dangerous then it really should be.
  • Rank Inflation: How they categorize the Novas.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: President Chiffon Fairchild; she's one of few 3rd year students not at all interested in putting Satellizer in her place and she asserts her authority to get Elizabeth to stop, in a very kindly worded and nervous plea. This is, to some degree, a facade, as she can be extremely violent when she feels it's appropriate.
  • Redshirt Army: When the Nova attack, they cut a bloody path through an entire squad of Pandora. Cassie's apparent death is particularly horrifying.
  • Replacement Goldfish: Kazuya initially mistakes Satellizer for his sister, and is initially attracted to her for that fact, though he later comes to understand Satellizer as herself.
  • Rival Science Teams: In creating the Pandoras, there is the work of Dr. Gengo Aoi, who was the first to make Pandoras as they are today and the E-Pandora Project led by Dr. O'Hara. The big difference between them is Dr. Aoi used only girls who could naturally handle stigmata. Dr. O'Hara wants to make any human capable, not matter the risk. It becomes a bit messier when Amelia finds out that the E-Pandora program was actually just a facade to buy time for O'Hara's Maria-cloning project.
  • Ryona Pretty much the other main purpose of the series.
  • Scarlet Fever: Dr. Scarlette O'Hara.
  • School of Hard Knocks: Interestingly, the student council president or teachers only seem to step in when Satellizer has beaten down her opponent to within an inch of their lives. But they don't do anything while she's getting beat down...
  • Sempai Kouhai: Serious Business. It's both built into the typical Pandora/Limiter relationship, and it's the entire reasoning behind the outrageous, criminal abuse the third years pile upon the heroine.
  • Ship Tease: The Pandora/Limiter pairs are pretty much automatically assumed to be dating, to the point that when they're away from school, they're usually put in the same room. There's also an offhand mention that a very high percentage end up married.
  • Shower Scene: Satellizer has had two so far. (Well, one of them was just a bath.)
  • Shrouded in Myth: Satellizer is called "The Untouchable Queen" and is given a wide berth by the rest of the student body, much to the detriment of her mental well-being.
  • Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Kazuya is very unlike the guys whom Satellizer dealt with, so she's very drawn to him.
  • Skinship Grope: In First Chronicle Ticy offers Chiffon a massage; when she touches Chiffon's breasts it turns out Chiffon's there. Chiffon decides that it's no fair for Ticy to have all her clothes on. So, she forcibly strips Ticy and decides to aggressively "compare" their busts over Ticy's objections.
  • Sleep Cute: When Kazuya was in the sick bay, Satellizer visited him and fell asleep next to him until morning. Also Arthur and Ganessa in a flashback (with his face on her breasts).
  • Stripperific: The Pandora Queen outfits.
  • Story-Breaker Power: Kazuya's Freezing abilities are an order of magnitude more powerful than any other limiter and they don't require synching with a Pandora. This is good since Satellizer is on everyone's hit list. The other Pandoras quickly figure this out and start gunning for him first when they get the chance. It also helps that he can't control the damn thing when he needs it the most.
  • Sugar and Ice Personality: Satellizer starts in this territory, but is rapidly approaching flat-out Tsundere, especially after Lana makes her objectives known.
  • Super Mode: Pandora Mode.
  • Spell My Name with an "S": According to a blog post at Dal-Young Lim's blog, Shiffon is supposed to be spelt as "Chiffon". Creo is supposed to be spelt as "Clio" or perhaps "Cleo".
  • Spirit Advisor: Kazuha appeared briefly in Sattelizer's mind (dream or nightmare or whatever?) and somehow gave her the strength to fight the Nova's mind control.
  • Super Soldiers: The Pandoras, of the Bio Augmentation variety, considering that their powers come from the Stigmatas.
  • The Stoic: Satellizer and Elizabeth
  • Stoic Spectacles: Satellizer, in her less deredere moments.
  • Strange Girl: Satellizer
  • Student Council President: Chiffon, and later, Ticy, after Chiffon's death.
  • Suspiciously Specific Denial: Happens in episode 9.

Rana: (after catching Satellizer gazing out the window) Are you thinking about Kazuya-kun?
Satellizer: W-why would I be spacing out thinking about him?
Rana: (moves in closer) So you were.

  • Synchronization: Partially occurs as a side-effect of the Ereinbar Set which allows a Limiter to use Freezing. It's implied that the Pandora and Limiter either share or bolster each other's senses.
  • Taking the Bullet: Ganessa takes a huge laser blast for Satellizer during the 9th Nova Clash, and loses most of her upper body in the process, including severe facial burns. She barely manages to survive thanks to her Pandora regeneration; earlier, Atia's limiter does the same thing for her and doesn't survive, leading Atia into a Roaring Rampage of Revenge. Doesn't turn out so hot.
  • Tears of Blood: Shed by Cassie while struggling against the Nova infection.
  • Thanks for the Mammary: Happens to Kazuya with Satellizer a couple of times.
  • The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: In Chapter 68, the E-Pandoras, faced with extermination, gamble their lives in an all or nothing attempt to escape the laboratory and reveal the Chevalier's actions to the world, smashing up tons of stuff in the process.
  • There Are No Therapists: Satellizer and Ingrid both display moderate to severe emotional damage from their respective histories, and neither of them had it seriously addressed until Kazuya got involved.
  • This Is Unforgivable!: Satellizer is PISSED upon discovering how the Chevalier knowingly sacrificed the E-Pandoras for propaganda and tried to dispose of them.
  • To Be Lawful or Good: Kazuya. When your partner is someone that half the school is afraid of and the other half actively wants to destroy, this kind of dilemma will pop up. He ultimately chooses Good, having seen that Satellizer has her own soft side despite all evidence to the contrary.
    • Elizabeth Mably, normally a stickler for rules, took the E-Pandoras' side, especially after finding out the kind of experiments they were planning for them. In contrast, Chiffon, who presented herself as being much more reasonable than Elizabeth at first, puts her loyalty with the Chevalier despite the unethical nature of the E-Pandora project.
    • Cassie Lockheart, another stickler for rules, simply chose to side with Satellizer and Lana because they had saved her life in the past.
  • Too Dumb to Live: Abuse is Louis' answer to everything, even when the question is: "how do you treat a superwoman that habitually stabs the source of her ire?". Said woman even gives him the option to lie to her face and make her feel better. Cue his immediate impalement over a cliff.
  • Trademark Favorite Food: Satellizer loves burgers to the point that she can stack 5 jumbo burgers and eat 'em all in one go.
  • Translation Convention: Freezing stars a multinational cast, and though no specific universal tongue is specified as the one spoken in East Genetics, everyone (with the exception of Rana) speaks said-unspecified tongue so fluently that no loss of understanding occurs between the nationalities whatsoever.
  • Understatement: "There's dirt on your face." Not quite so comically used, as it was said to Ganessa after she incurred a wound that left her with a large part of her torso and one arm completely blown off, and half her face badly burnt.
  • Undying Loyalty: Ticy for Chiffon, and Arnett for Elizabeth.
  • Thicker Than Water: Despite the emotional scarring and physical abuse that Louis inflicted on her that has distanced her from immediate society, Stella still saves him from falling to his death and even forgives him for what he's done to her because he is her brother.
  • The Unfair Sex: Inverted. The girls have extreme speed and strength while the boys are non-combatant forcefield generators. The boys are rather sedate, but the girls are damn bloodthirsty. Even the nicest of girls have a vicious streak that kicks in when they're threatened.
  • The Vamp: Miyabi Kannazuki
  • Verbal Tic: Rana ends her sentences with "de arimasu" or variations thereof.
  • Wave Motion Gun/Kamehame Hadoken: One of the Novas' attacks, complete with Sucking-In Lines.
  • We Have Reserves: It isn't an actual battle, but the committee running the E-Pandora project sees their participants in this light. Their lives have less worth than seeing the project succeed by any means.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Satellizer's penchant for Disproportionate Retribution when she is wronged tends to get this reaction from people who are ignorant of or ignore the circumstances that drove her to fight.
  • White-Haired Pretty Girl: Atia Simmons.
  • With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Satellizer already had issues before she gained Pandora powers. Getting those powers just made her problems worse.
  • World of Buxom
  • Worthy Opponent: Elizabeth Mably to Amelia Evans, the leader of the E-Pandoras. Elizabeth's respect for Amelia's struggle is one of the reasons why she took it upon herself to challenge the Chevalier for the sake of the E-Pandoras.
  • Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Gender inverted as the boys are Squishy Wizards. Also averted since the Pandoras have no problem beating Kazuya into unconsciousness.
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Though there is a trend towards more realistic hair colors, there are still one or two characters that have shades of lavender or other unnatural colors.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The E-Pandoras, all of them.
  • You Will Be Assimilated: Appears to happen to some of the Pandoras when the Nova pull them in.
  • Zettai Ryouiki: This is pretty much a standard feature of the girls' school uniforms. Satellizer's uniform is rather modest when compared to the others.
    • Ganessa Roland is Grade S.
  1. ↑ and her weapon is called Anti-Nova Trial version
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