Haruka “Haru” Nanase loves the water and he loves
swimming. He lives for both with a
mysterious, nigh religious like devotion.
Well he used to. Five years after
he and his friends last swam together, Haru hasn’t done much swimming. But fate brings him back together with his
childhood friends: Makoto and Nagisa…and Rin.
Rin and Haru were once friendly rivals until Rin moved away. Now Rin’s returned and he’s out to prove he’s
superior to Haru in the water. Iwatobi
Highs Swim Team is resurrected with Haru, Makoto, Nagisa and newcomer Rei all
at the helm. Will the new resurgence in
competition resurrect Haru’s love for the sport? And what exactly does Rin want out of all of
this? One thing is certain. No matter what, Haru will only swim Free,
there is no other option.
I was originally going to do this one as a First
Impression Friday feature. But before I knew
it, I had well passed the point where I was committed to get this series finished,
well Season 1 anyway (who knows if I’ll get around to the Eternal Summer sequel
series). How, how did this happen? How did I decide to stick out a series that,
from what ive deduced, is geared towards legions of adoring fangirls across all
the Anime multiverse? Well…let’s see.
First off, I should note that I was, once upon a time, a
swimmer in high school. It was a sport I
greatly enjoyed, so much I stuck with it for three out of four years. So I get some of the competitive nature seen
in this series. Granted, I never had
nigh bromance friendships with my teammates or a heated rivalry with someone
for another school (was more focused on cute girls on the other teams). So taking that into account, that bit of
comptetive team spirit and team building, I did enjoy Free. It is a feel good story with a ton of heart
and a great deal of love for the sport…amongst other things but I wont delve
into the shipping fandom in this review.
Free is a very pretty looking series. Characters are…animated approproatley to
emphazie good swimming physique and pique female interest in the series. What’s funny is that there is a character in
this series that illustrates the intended female demographic perfectly. Rin’s little sister and team moral support
system, Gou, is frequently gawking at the site of shirtless, muscle bound men
in speedos. I couldn’t help but chuckle
a little bit at this bit of fun the production was having poking at it’s
intentions so out in the open. Any swim
scene, be it practice or race, is so full of energy. It made me want to swim again if you can
imagine it, it just looks so fun again.
The characters are a fun bunch. Haru’s nigh religious views on swimming and
the water are a little creepy at times (“the water just doesn’t like you”, he
says about Rei at one point). But at
least he grows as a person and comes out of his shell to have some fun with his
friends like he did before when he was younger.
Rin was a bit more of a headache as he played his emotions extremely close
to the vest. He treated everyone around
him, teammates or opponents, like crap because he was unable to express how
much he missed his friends and swimming with him. Granted that might have shortened the season
lifespan by just simply getting that out of the way. But much like K-ON, I enjoyed seeing the cast
together no matter what the occasion.
Nagisa’s boundless energy made for some good chuckles. And I’ve been in Rei’s position before: the
newcomer trying to do his best to improve at a new sport. Makoto was…kind of just there to be the voice
of reason I guess? Not that I didn’t like
him. I could just think of aspects to
distinguish the other characters better than him.
Free is a series that is sold as a Magic Mike eqsue look
at the sport of swimming. There’s lots
of fan service for the female and enough Yaoi bait to fuel fan fics til the end
of time. Looking past all of that
though, I was surprised how much I ended up liking this series. I was with the characters and their journey
from start to finish. And I wanted to
see Haru, Rin, Makoto and Nagisa all swim again one more time, which lead to a brilliant
finale btw. I’m not shipping anyone, I’m
not gawking over all the beefcake. But I
am giving credit where credit is due.
Free is a series with a lot of heart and soul dedicated to its
characters personal endeavors and might hit you in an emotional way you might not
expect. I could see this look at
swimming being applied to another sport or personal life event, like traveling
to a convention. Heart, soul and faith
in what you do and love goes a long way.
And Free reminded me of that.
This was a good show, check it out if you ever get a chance.
Oh and I almost forgot.
YES all of the male characters are named after girls. It makes me wonder if at some point they were
trying to name them all after Sailor Senshi: Rei, Haruka & Makoto are
obviously Sailor Mars, Uranus and Jupiter; Rin I can only think of Rin Toshaka
from Fate/Stay Night; and Nagisa…well the closest I can think of is Kwaoru from
Evangelion…is he even a girl? What is
the sex of an Angel, is there one?
I’m getting into a whole other thing. Here’s your score, go check out Free and
enjoy the heck out of it.
9/10
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