FIF#59-Free: Dive to the Future

A new day dawns for the swimmers of Iwatobi and Sumezeka High School.  Now in their first year of college, Haru and Makoto begin the journeys to their future and reunite with some old friends along the way.  Meanwhile Nagisa, Rei and Kou must move on without their former teammates and work to keep the legacy of Iwatobi great.  And then there’s Rin, still in Australia working towards his dreams.  But fate can never keep these boys apart.  A reunion is inevitable and it’s bringing many new faces and new challenges.  The future awaits and its time for Haru and his friends to swim it their way.

PSYCH!!! Turns out Fate Extra was NOT the FIF midseason finale.  Nope, as soon as I heard this was coming out this week, oh yeah, it was getting added to the cue.  Free…is..BACK!!!!!

It was hard to gauge what to think of the prospect of a third season of Free.  Sure many sports Anime have more than the now standard 13-26 episode stretches now.  But not once but TWICE did Free end on spectacular notes after spectacular seasons.  Well, as far as First Impressions go, Free: Dive to the Future looks set to continue the near flawless legacy of storytelling this swimming Anime has always surprised me with. 

To me, Free is like Game of Thrones.  You wait for it forever to come back and you never realize how much you’ve missed it until it comes back (specifically for GoT it’s when you hear the epic theme music).  For Free, I got an instant smile on my face seeing Haru back in the water, being helped up by Mako before zipping to another continent to check on Rin.  These characters are all special by now and, if you think about it, sure their high school days are behind them but their journeys are never really over.  It’s time for the next chapter and, whatever happens, you’ll be happy just seeing the boys back in all their undiminished glory.

The one thing that caught my eye, besides the fact that this show still looks absolutely flawless in its animation, is the fact that the cast is going to BALLOON this season.  Not only are we focusing on Haru, Mako and Rin’s college exploits but we’ll also be cutting back to Iwatobi (and most likely Sumezeka) too.  And new settings bring new characters and Haru and Mako have run into plenty in the first episode alone.  Most notable of the bunch is Ikuya, who, like so many other people in this universe, has had some effect on Haru in his past.  Judging from how Sousuke described him, Ikuya might be more than just Haruka 2.0.  Since he can swim an individual medley, it means he can do every single stroke, not just a single special like most characters.  It definitely saved Ikuya a bit cause when I first saw him, I thought we were getting a rehash of Haru (like I said, Haruka 2.0).  But just what kind of friendship did Haru and Ikuya have in Middle School and how will their first reunion go?

Speaking of Haru, he’s showing signs of change that really made me smile.  He’s cracking jokes, he’s smiling, it feels like two seasons worth of storytelling have loosened up Mr. “I Only Swim Free Style”.  To hear Haru say he does practice other strokes but when he swims serious he swims “free” made me shake my head, this guy has changed but hopefully never changes fully.  Which is a good thing cause the highlight of the first episode was def Haru and Rin’s imaginative race against each other from two different parts of the world.  Once again, the music, the animation and the heart of these two leads make swimming look so damn epic.  It also highlights how connected these two still are, if you think about it, Haru and Rin’s friendship and trials have always been the heart of this series.

There’s a lot to take in from the first episode of Free: Dive to the Future.  New settings, new cast members, but it’s still the same old Free we’ve all come to love and admire.  I am a little worried/curious how they’ll balance 3-4 teams worth of characters (Haru and Mako’s respective colleges plus Iwatobi and Sumezeka).  But even if I was thinking about those concerns, it also wasn’t at the same time.  Free is back and I cant tell you how much ive missed it.  It looks like it’s gonna be another great summer with the boys of Iwatobi.