***Warning, the following may contain spoilers for Free. Reader discretion is advised.***
Series Synopsis
Haruka Nanase (voiced by Nobunaga Shimazaki) has always found peace in the water. That passion stems from his time with his swim team back in elementary school. Since then, Haruka has never lost that connection with his teammates Makoto Tachibana (voiced by Tatsuhisa Suzuki), Nagisa Hazuki (voiced by Tsubasa Yonaga), and Matsuoka (voiced by Mamoru Miyano).
Following a resounding team victory, Rin moved abroad to a prestigious swimming academy. Thus, the group has remained broken until they entered high school.
Learning of Rin’s return, Haruka, Makoto, and Nagisa revive the Iwatobi High School Swim Club. Haruka, in particular, hopes to share the water with Rin once again. Even if that means they will be on opposing teams.
However, a three-member club won't cut it. The trio, therefore, manages to recruit newcomer, Rei Ryugazaki (voiced by Daisuke Hirakawa).
Unbeknownst to the Iwatobi Swim Club, they have set off a chain of events. Events that will test if their friendship was more than a simple victory.
Series Positives
Free, as a sports anime, was a good one.
Along with plenty of goofy and funny moments, there was a solid story here. The ending to this series is more than enough to justify a recommendation.
Still, there are a few more things that I can talk about.
Makoto, Nagisa, and Rin
The majority of this show's cast is worth mentioning. Knowing there is a season two, I hope to cover these characters in further detail in a later review. To be more specific, I want to give this series a chance to explore some people better. For example, Gou Matsuoka (voiced by Akeno Watanabe) and Miho Amakata (voiced by Satsuki Yukino).
For now, I will only focus on Makoto, Nagisa, and Rin.
Makoto’s strength was his level head. As the voice of reason for the club, he kept this group on track and had a knack for reading the atmosphere. Though that was the case, he wasn't perfect. He had his own demons to struggle with. Yet never did those worries stop him from being a supportive friend.
Now if Makoto was the one who could make a plan work, it was Nagisa who got the ball rolling. The amount of energy he could throw into a situation was usually enough to push this group over the finish line. Like Makoto, he also had a pretty good gauge of what other people were thinking. But for better or worse, he was a lot more direct in his approach.
Makoto and Nagisa aside, it was Rin who was by far the most interesting. He often did or said things that made him come off as the villain of this story. Except this wasn't without cause. He had lost his passion for swimming and was doing everything he could to find it again. That struggle made his entire character arc fascinating.
The Struggle
Speaking of struggle, that was a reoccurring theme. Rin, Haruka, and every other character had lost something important to them.
What I liked most about Free was that the antagonist was not a person. This story followed the standard sports anime plot to a T, except in this one area. This one distinction is what makes this series worth checking out.
There was no butt hole rival team. There were no pompous pricks from another school. There was no traditional villain. This story's struggle was overcoming the walls each character had built for themselves.The goal wasn't for them to beat their opponent. They needed to remember why they fell in love with their sport in the first place.
Series Negatives
Free was beyond corny. Everything was so whimsical and deep. Everyone spoke in pep talks and motivational speeches. Actual and natural conversations were sparse, to say the least.It got pretty nauseating after a while.
Granted this was a sports story. Thus, these moments are par for the course. But every five minutes, f@#$ off. If you keep saying that the next card in a deck is going to be an Ace, you'll eventually get it right.
Predictable
Free may have been a good sports anime, but it was still a typical sports anime. You have seen this story before.
Though the end goal was different, how the characters got there was pretty "by the book". When you watch this series, make a game out of it. See how many times you can guess what a person word for word.
There were no surprises. The moment I called this series a sports anime was the biggest spoiler I could give.
If you are looking for something that shakes up the formula, Free is not it.
Haruka and Rei
These two were fine. The problem was that they only matched their co-stars by the end of this show.
Haruka was the dullest of the group. He didn't have a real personality until about halfway through this series. He always spoke through philosophical quips or not at all. For the longest time, the closest thing he had to a character was a genuinely funny quirk. I hope that comes back in season two because it was sort of dropped near the final episode.
Rei had the exact opposite problem. He had several personalities before settling on one. First, he was a serious academic with no interest in swimming. Then he became an obsessor of anything beautiful. After that, he was an eccentric theorizer. Where he settled was alright. It just took him a second to get there.
Service Over Story
Free fell into the same trap that other fanservice-heavy shows do. There was too much emphasis on the characters looking sexy rather than what was going on in the story. This was true throughout this show, but especially when our group was trying to recruit Rei. And how they managed to do that was questionable at best.
This series was more focused on finding an excuse to have the guys with their shirts off. It was a bit overkill seeing how this was already a show about swimming. Free didn’t need to try as hard as it did.
Final Thoughts
Though I enjoyed this show and am looking forward to continuing it, I'm left with a thought. Or rather, a lack of one. I don’t know what direction the second season will go. As I see it, Free may stay as a sports anime with humorous moments or it might go full comedy.
I don’t have a problem with either. And in the end, it doesn’t matter because this first season was great.
Although the cheese levels were high, this story was good; even if predictable. Having the focus be on the characters and not winning allowed this show to remain enjoyable.
Free is one that is worth a look.
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Others in the Free Series
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