At its core, Free has always been about the bonds of brotherhood and how they can withstand the test of time and distance. Yeah, it’s full of chiseled bishonen boys and larger than life swimming sequences, but this show has always had a big heart and has never been afraid to show it. Because of this, even if youre watching something like Free! Take Your Marks, where nothing really happens, you can still have fun watching it because the writing is solid and the cast is amazing.
While it’s billed as a sequel movie to Free! Eternal Summer, Free! Take Your Marks is more of a sequel OVA Series of bonus episodes. It is a bit of a mislead but in the end a harmless nitpick to be honest. Better to think of it like an Anthology film (with opening and closing credits for each) kind of like Halo Legends or The Animatrix. There are four stories comprising Take Your Marks, each centering on different groups across the Free-verse. Episode 1 follows Haru and Makoto in Tokyo looking for an apartment for Haru. Episode 2 finds the Sumezuka team taking a trip to a Hot Springs. In Episode 3, Rei, Nagisa and Gou are determined to make a new recruitment video for the swim club. And finally Episode 4 sees everyone coming together to give Rin one big surprise send off before he returns to Australia.
All four of these short stories, or bonus episodes (whatever you want to call them) are all the textbook definition of “chill”. None of the drama from Eternal Summer is really around and that’s not really a bad thing. After overcoming the trials and tribulations of their final year of High School, it was time for Haru, Rin, Sousuke and Makoto to take a break and enjoy life with their friends without a lot of worries. Of course, this is something that Kyoto Animation can do in their sleep when theyre animated the living daylights out of their background settings as well as their characters. Tokyo looks as fantastic as always but it’s the Hot Springs of Anago that looks particularly magical. It’s probably why the second episode is my favorite of the four. I am a little biased though since I think I have more of a soft spot for Rin and his relay team than Iwatobi sometimes. Getting to see Rin, Sousuke, Momo and Ai spend time as true friends outside the pool was a special treat and, as always, Momo brought the humor in his desperate search for a “Capybara”.
One of the bigger draws of Take Your Marks is how it sets the stage for Free’s Third Season, Dive to the Future, and that means bringing everyone together in subtle ways. The now grown up cast from High Speed! Free! Starting Days begins to cross paths with the Iwatobi and Sumezeka crews though their actual reunions are reserved for the Third Season itself. Still, it’s the little ways they squeeze them in: Haru ends up inheriting Nao’s old apartment and one of this most promising students; Natsuya is coaching a swim team that happens to be staying in Anago alongside the Sumezeka boys; and Rei overhears Asahi speaking the same advice he gave the struggling swimmer in passing but not realizing its Asahi saying it. Ikuya’s presence is surprisingly minimal but im not surprised since his story will have the biggest impact on Dive to the Future and should be saved til then. Still, the two casts slowly coming together is done better than you’d expect.
Take Your Marks offers a few extra nuggets of fan service for long time fans who have watched everything Free, including the first two seasons and all of the movies so far. While Episode 3 feels like it dragged a bit, it was fun watching Rei and Nagisa’s recruitment video draw inspiration from that fan favorite ED sequence from Season One. And, at long last, Rin and Haru get to square off in a tag team match with the Mikoshiba brothers: Seijuro and Momo. I really enjoyed this race because theyre four of the best and most intense swimmers in the franchise. And for some reason, I feel like we hadn’t seen new, old school Free races in a while (I said High Speed’s races felt more down to Earth than the over stylized races from the TV Series). It was just a lot of fun.
And that’s what Free! Take Your Marks is at the end of the day: fun. It might not do a large amount of plot advancement and honestly, could be skipped if you wanted to go right into Dive to the Future after Eternal Summer and High Speed. It’s gonna depend on how much you enjoy the franchise and for me, I love Free quite a bit. So I don’t mind watching these guys goof off and get into some excellent adventures with each other. It kind of reminded me of K-ON in a way, just with an all male cast. Some stories are more likeable than others but that’s to be expected for most anthology projects like this. Just pop it in and relax…enjoy the adventure.
8.5/10
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