Remember all these martial arts movies on VHS and on a TV during late evenings? The same thing was happening with the anime: 80s were filled with high-octane machismo, crime syndicates were a huge part of a narrative in media, and the stories followed those who were extremely skilled in maiming yet didn't fit this life on the other side of the law.
And Crying Freeman fits this description perfectly. It's a story about a person who ended up becoming an assassin for a Chinese crime syndicate. Yoh Hinomura was just a simple Japanese potter, but he stumbled upon a film recording of an assassination by one of the members of 108 Dragons — powerful Chinese mafia.
Instead of simply killing him as a witness, they kidnapped him and brainwashed him by using deep hypnosis, and effectively turned him into one of the most effective assassins of the syndicate. Yoh, however, retained some of his memories, so every time after killing he sheds a tear — hence his nickname that also became the name of the series.
"Freeman" comes from his will to become a free man — but that dream is unachievable.
Why Binge-Watching This Series Might Just Break Your Brain
It's a manga series created in the beginning of the 80s by Kazuo Koike and Ryoichi Ikegami. From 1988 to 1994 it was adapted into anime — Toei Animation released 6 OVAs, one per year. And bingeing this type of media may prove fatal to the comprehension of pacing.
It's a cruel, violent show, filled with nudity that sometimes feels unnecessary, and the plot holes are big enough for 747 to fly through them. Yet it works, especially if you consider when it was created.
Crying Freeman perfectly encapsulates the era of the 80s, of these straight-to-VHS OVAs that were allowed to have higher rating and less censorship than the things that were created for TV. It's brutal, in more ways than one.
It's not just about physically mangling bodies, as killers do: the situation in which Yoh ended up is torturous for his mind, and and not only for his. The characters he meets through the course of the story are also broken in different ways, and the world this show paints is a perfect canvas to show their development.
The show overall feels trippy, mind-breaking, and lacks a lot of the tropes that were prevalent in the anime of that time period. Back when it was released, Crying Freeman was considered bold and controversial, and now it's just a wonderful artifact that feels a bit messy, but that messiness is exactly what makes it entertaining.
It's a product of its time from top to bottom.
Remember all these martial arts movies on VHS and on a TV during late evenings? The same thing was happening with the anime: 80s were filled with high-octane machismo, crime syndicates were a huge part of a narrative in media, and the stories followed those who were extremely skilled in maiming yet didn't fit this life on the other side of the law.
And Crying Freeman fits this description perfectly. It's a story about a person who ended up becoming an assassin for a Chinese crime syndicate. Yoh Hinomura was just a simple Japanese potter, but he stumbled upon a film recording of an assassination by one of the members of 108 Dragons — powerful Chinese mafia.
Instead of simply killing him as a witness, they kidnapped him and brainwashed him by using deep hypnosis, and effectively turned him into one of the most effective assassins of the syndicate. Yoh, however, retained some of his memories, so every time after killing he sheds a tear — hence his nickname that also became the name of the series.
"Freeman" comes from his will to become a free man — but that dream is unachievable.
Why Binge-Watching This Series Might Just Break Your Brain
It's a manga series created in the beginning of the 80s by Kazuo Koike and Ryoichi Ikegami. From 1988 to 1994 it was adapted into anime — Toei Animation released 6 OVAs, one per year. And bingeing this type of media may prove fatal to the comprehension of pacing.
It's a cruel, violent show, filled with nudity that sometimes feels unnecessary, and the plot holes are big enough for 747 to fly through them. Yet it works, especially if you consider when it was created.
Crying Freeman perfectly encapsulates the era of the 80s, of these straight-to-VHS OVAs that were allowed to have higher rating and less censorship than the things that were created for TV. It's brutal, in more ways than one.
It's not just about physically mangling bodies, as killers do: the situation in which Yoh ended up is torturous for his mind, and and not only for his. The characters he meets through the course of the story are also broken in different ways, and the world this show paints is a perfect canvas to show their development.
The show overall feels trippy, mind-breaking, and lacks a lot of the tropes that were prevalent in the anime of that time period. Back when it was released, Crying Freeman was considered bold and controversial, and now it's just a wonderful artifact that feels a bit messy, but that messiness is exactly what makes it entertaining.
