Another year begins for the Iwatobi Swim Team. And time has not dulled the renewed
friendship between Rin and his former teammates. As Haruka, Makoto, Nagisa and Rei reunite for
whole new season, the competition looks fierce and not just from Rin’s Samezuka
Academy teammates. Haru, Makoto and Rin
all face an uncertain future as they enter their final year of High
School. Can Haru see past his love of
the water to find out where he’s heading?
And who’s this mysterious new transfer student at Samezuka, who seems
very familiar to Rin? The boys are back
and it looks to be the most intense summer yet.
Well, I kind of regret doing the first episode for a FIF
recently. Still, that weekly feature has
always been a good one for potential setups for future series reviews. But this quick a turn around? I probably should have saved my thoughts for
now. But C’est la vie.
Much like the first season, once I started Free! Eternal
Summer, I couldn’t stop. I was sucked
right back into the world of the Iwatobi Swim Team and fully invested in the
continuing adventures of Haru, Makoto, Nagisa, Rei and Rin. Needless to say, even with it’s flaws, I loved
Season Two and was shedding a couple of tears knowing that this was the end of
the line.
As I said in my FIF post, I’m glad that we weren’t going
to get a full retread of things with Rin and Haru. That friendship had been fixed and was still
going strong. Rin got a more beefed up
role as Captain of the Samezuka team and seemed to be in his element leading
his teammates, including his protegee Ai and newcomer Momo (who had an strong
crush on Rin’s sister, Gou, which lead to much hilarity). Haru was pretty much the same “only swim free”
lead we remember him to be and I knew pretty quick that when it came to dealing
with the future, he was going to be the tough one to crack.
In that regard, Haru became a bit of a pain and like Rin
in Season One, it took FOREVER to draw out what his fears were and how to best
deal with them. I had similar issues
with newcomer Sosuke. Why would he keep
his problems mute for so long and, I still don’t get this, what was his beef
with Haru? Was he jealous of his
closeness with Rin? Did he really think
Haru was holding Rin back? Rin seemed
pretty dead set on what he wanted to do with his life, so nothing was holding
him back. If anything, Rin was trying to
save Haru the same way he was rescued in Season One. It was a lot of headscratching frustration
indeed.
BUT this also gave us what probably ranks on my growing
list of “Best Individual Episodes Ever.”
Rin and Haru’s trip to Australia was exactly the kind of episode Free
needed to start it’s final run. From Rin
trying to speak English in a different country to seeing his kind host family
to he and Haru having to share a bed (because of Haru’s female sounding name
according to Rin), there was a good feel of Lost in Translation in this
episode. And since that movie is one of
my favs, I was bound to love this episode just as much. Rin and Haru have always been the heart of
this show and having each others backs, helping each other find their future…it’s
what this series is all about.
As expected, with Haru and Makoto destined to leave
Iwatobi at the end of the year, Nagisa and Rei were left wondering what life
would be after they’d left. Rei didn’t get
too much story this year, I felt. Yeah he
worked on learning how to swim all of the strokes but that was all. Nagisa running away from home and detailing
the rough home life he’s endured while trying to swim was a lot deeper. In truth, im surprised both Rei and Nagisa
kept it in so well until the last episode when they realized Haru and Makoto
would be gone and their days of swimming together would come to an end. Call it what you want, the bonds of
brotherhood were as strong as ever this season and they tugged all the right
feels.
I loved that Rin had his own team to go up against
Iwatobi this year. It provided some very
entertaining, perfectly animated and excellently musical scored races. Plus we got great opening title sequences out
of these rivalries, even if some weren’t really explored as they could have
been. I wish we had a bit more bonding
between Iwatobi and Samezuka. But there
was already a lot going on as is and even Rin’s team had their own issues to
deal with heading into matches. Truth be
told, im surprised it was all balanced as well as it was, from Sosuke’s past to
Ai’s need to be as good as Rin to Momo trying to hook up with Gou…and it all
worked. Just wish we had a little more competitive
fun between the two teams as they gelled really well together.
The animation hasn’t changed much between seasons and
really it doesn’t have to. Everyone
looked the same, acted the same, Rin still had his shark tooth filled
smile. Familiar is familiar and nothing
about Season One animation was broken, ergo, it didn’t need to be fixed or
updated. The end credits sequence,
featuring Haru, Rin, Mako, Nagisa and Rei in photoshoots as different career
workers was endlessly entertaining. Haru
as a mermaid had shades of Zoolander’s “MER-MAN” written all over it, while Rin
as the “sexy cop” will definitely have the ladies swooning more than they
already are.
As Free! Eternal Summer reached it’s end, I found myself
in a state similar to Season One, but only stronger. I didn’t want this Anime to end. Hearing Nagisa and Rei cry out their feelings
made me feel exactly as they did. I
wanted to keep watching these guys race and get into adventures together. This has been, overall, one of the best Anime
watching experiences of my life, how could I want it stop? But as Haru said, its never the end and they’ll
keep swimming together even if theyre apart for a little while. I’ll be looking to add this one to my
collection soon so I can enjoy the journey again and again. I cant help but feel with my own feelings
about my own future that this Anime resonated with me more than I expected
(that and the whole being a swimmer in high school bit). If youre ever worried about such things as
what to do with life and missing the things that make you most happy…pop this
Anime in, it’s the definition of “feel good”.
Swim fast, swim strong…swim FREE!!!
9/10
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