shawna16 - 2013-11-10 21:04:27

One of the best of Kyoani and of this year. This anime has more plot and character development than Kyoukai no Kanata has right now. It was truly the most delightful since Hyouka.

green.lorena - 2013-11-02 21:20:05

Not as Bad as I thought...

It was a somewhat decent show, with fun characters, but the show suffered from a weak plot. Check out my full review for my thoughts

tkeebler - 2013-10-16 04:16:52

STORY - 7/10

Despite it's hiccups and clichés, the story in Free! does just fine. A soft tale about getting lost, and finding your way again.

ANIMATION - 10/10

Consistency is the key, and Kyoto Ani gets it right. Not only is the water masterfully animated, but everything throughout the show. From the character mannerisms to the gorgeous backgrounds, everything in this anime looks great and refreshing.

SOUND - 8/10

Great soundtrack overall. Both OP and ED are youthful and pumping. The first one is your typical J-Rock tune, sticky and uplifting. The ending just feels a litte short, as you want to hear more of the catchy dance pop tune "SPLASH FREE" by Style Five. The background music is also pretty standard for the genre. A couple of obnoxiously mellow pop tunes, very keyboard heavy

CHARACTER - 7/10

There is enough development and progression to set this characters apart from your typical sports team. Character design is clever, and the voice acting leaves little to be desired. The main protagonist, as well as the whole cast is relatable to say the least.

ENJOYMENT - 8/10

Free! is a breeze. It flows and feels great, it's incredibly relatable and entretaining. You don't need to swim or even be interested in competitive swimming to relate to this character's conflicts and tryumphs. The big picture is all about cycles, about ruin and rebuild. It's a more mature and well rounded version of your typical "follow your dreams" type of story.

OVERALL - 8/10

Free! is a solid package. A really nice surprise, unusual for Kyoto Animation and for the sports genre itself. Give it a shot.

breanne.abshire - 2013-10-04 02:14:14

Today, a review of “Free!”; an anime about guys swimming with the intent of bursting every ovary in a 10 meter radius. That’s right; I watched it for the swimming.

Intro

If you’ve seen your fair share of anime, you’ve probably run into something called fanservice. Fanservice is material in a series which is intentionally added to please the audience; hence servicing the fan. This usually consists of panty-shots, moe-overloaded anime, and girls with large enough breasts to pull planets out of their orbit. Fanservice is often met with a bunch of male otaku picking their new wifeu to join their already existing harem and having yet an addition to their large collection of body-pillows. Many female anime fans cringe at the sight of fanservice, claiming that it’s sexist and degrading to women everywhere and anime in general, while claiming they would never do the same. Then comes along the most controversial anime of the summer season, “Free!”; a show centered around fanservice…for girls DUN DUN DUN, It is called manservice.

Setting/Story

This anime takes place in a high school...what a shock. A swimming team consisting of four members were victorious in winning a competition during the team’s elementary years. These four members split ways after their competition. The story revolves around Haruka, a boy with a female name who has a strange water fetish. Haruka and two other members of the former swimming club, Makoto and Nagisa end up meeting Rin the fourth and final member of their old team. And yes, they all have female names too. Haru gets his heartbroken by his love interest Rin by losing to him in a race. Now the three members train to beat Rin in the upcoming tournament.

From there the story revolves around the trio along with a new member Rei forming the team as well as training. In all honesty, there isn’t much of a plot present. They create a club, prepare a pool, create a retard looking mascot, go shopping for swimsuits and try them on over and over and over again, and finally swim. The story was 40% swimming and 60% slice of life, following the lives of these high-schoolers. There are some cliff-hangers and plot twists here and there, but nothing too overwhelming or unpredictable. The plot basically revolves around the team trying to beat Rin in the upcoming tournament, the tournament after that, and that is pretty much it. Even some of the hurdles they face are solved ridiculously easily, like Rei learning to swim in a retardedly easy fashion. Then again, I wasn’t going into this expecting anything exceptional, but I was hoping for something more.

Characters­

There are times when the characters of “Free!” get character development, but it is minimal. Characters are pretty much stereotypical and one-dimensional. There are a couple of flashbacks here and there, but I felt they didn’t add much to the characters’ depth. They were just touched upon so shortly throughout the entirety of the show.

The main character is Haru, the calm silent type of the group. And he loves water! And this is no understatement. Out of all the shipping wars out there for this show, the most reasonable one would be Haru x Water. He shows no interest in anything like he does with swimming. So yaoi fangirls, relax with those fanfics! Look they’ve held hands a couple of times. When swimming is not involved, his expression is the standard Kristen Stewart. Even though he lacks emotion at times, he does care about his teammates and Rin…stop it yaoi fangirls!

Rin, aka sharkboy,…sharkboy, is the main antagonist of the series. Back from an Australian middle school, he thinks he has the right to be a pretentious tsundere who only cares about winning and beating Haru.

Nagisa is just there to look moe and act cute with basically no development in his character.

Rei is the smart quirky one who is just worried about looking beautiful.

Gou, sorry Kou, is there just to represent every fangirl watching.

And, Makoto is basically the normal one without weird eating habits, obsession with beauty, or spouting nonsense.

Animation

The animation is done by Kyoto animation and it is just amazing. The swimming looks very realistic. Water is probably the hardest thing you can animate, because of the way it moves and how hard it is to make it look real. Animation is definitely the most impressive aspect of this anime. I have nothing but praise when it comes to the animation.

Music

For the most part, the soundtrack used in “Free!” was standard anime music, except for one thing that really stands out from other anime I have seen. There are instances where dubstep is used. Now, Im not the biggest fan of music that sounds like two Transformers engaging in sexual intercourse, however the dubstep fit in whenever it was used. In scenes of high tension and when things were getting serious, the dubstep was blended in surprisingly well. The opening and ending of “Free!” are also impressive and catchy. The opening gets you pumped for watching some intense swimming; even if they did steal scenes from Naruto Shippuden’s eighth opening. And the ending was like a music video of everyone dancing, similar to those seen in the latest cliché mainstream pop song. It is also catchy in the most annoying way ever. The opening actually has animation of the swimming, while the ending has the cast walk through the desert, to have them dance underwater in front of what looked like the Taj Mahal; which is nonsensical and pretty inaccurate geographically, but heck now Im just picking at the details.

­Opinion/Enjoyment

Now, the reason this is such a controversial anime is because of the “manservice”. And in all honesty, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Yes, there were a number of crotch shots, casual stripping, trying on swimming suits, and ambiguously yaoi moments.At first I thought they were just catering to the female audience, which they were, but rather than solely being eye candy, they intentionally kicked it up a notch to add to the comedy. The overt homoerotic scenes, along with some hilarious character interactions, are what made the show funny. There were times where the dialogue was so ambiguous that there was no way that the scriptwriters did it unintentionally.

Compared to shows with heavy fanservice, this anime can’t even really be called an ecchi. Yes, you will occasionally get a crotch shot out of nowhere and the characters give off a vibe of “why where clothes?”, which is distracting at times, but it does add to the comedy of the show.

In addition to the dialogue, there were some bits of comedy thrown around in the show.For example, all the guys have feminine names while the only relevant female character has a masculine name. Some of the jokes were funny, but they were often reused over and over again, like they were beating a dead horse. They started out funny, but kept relying on the same jokes once they were introduced. And yes the gay moments were somewhat amusing….somewhat. Every time there was one of these yaoi moments I would just laugh. The character that stands out from every other character in the series would have to be Rei. His interaction with the rest of the cast on screen was just quirky and enjoyable.

Final Thoughts

So did I like “Free!”? Well I sort of did…for the swimming. But in all honesty the show had amusing moments and I did enjoy them. I even enjoyed some of the slice of life elements that were present in the show. That’s right, I enjoyed this anime. There were some flat out hilarious moments in this anime. And the manservice was prominent, but it wasn’t as big a problem as I could have been. At times the anime takes itself too seriously. Even when swimming wasn’t involved, the show tried to become some deep drama, especially near the ending of the series. The anime was much more enjoyable in the beginning. When the anime didn’t take itself too seriously, it made up for some of the most enjoyable parts of the series. Overall, if you want to watch anime guys with a couple of quirks, who strip casually, while doing the typical slice of life routine, then this is for you. Don’t go into this anime looking for a serious swimming anime. There are moments of high adrenaline swimming, but the show is not consistent with brining that intensity every episode. They rather rely on the slice of life aspects and comedy to keep the show going. It thrives off the friendship between all the guys in the club and what it means to be friends. Just friendship yaoi fangirls! It has many laughs and even some touching moments. This is just a fun show to watch, and shouldn’t be taken too seriously. For its lack of an engaging story, it gets a subpar 4.5/10. For its stereotypical cookie-cutter characters, along with the standout Rei, it gets a 5.2/10. For Kyoto Animation’s beautiful animation, it gets a near-perfect 9.5/10. For its use of dubstep and catchy opening and ending, an 8/10 for the sound.And factoring in my personal enjoyment of a 7/10. Now putting that into a formula, which you can find in the description if you are interested, has me awarding “Free!” a rating of 6.45/10.

Story: 4.5/10

Characters: 5.2/10

Animation:9.5/10

Music: 8/10

Overall: 6.45/10

whermiston - 2013-09-28 06:00:22

Yes yes, here I am writing a review on a series, that I haven't started yet. However, I will do just that within a few minutes. Before I do, I would like to say this:

The prospect of watching this series is scary, based on everything I've seen (pictures) or heard about it. Make no mistake, my only reason for watching: Gou.

OK. Now to get through this series done and over with. When I'm done, I'll put in my two cents.

And so, I just completed the last episode just 3 days after starting it. In fact, the ending credits are still in progress as I start. Bottom line: This series was so freakin' gay; but it was still enjoyable.

So, putting the gay aspect aside, this series was actually enjoyable in terms of story structure and character balance. Though, I have to say: a couple of the "young sounding" high pitched male characters - I wanted to punch both of them in the face. Despite that, the story and character structure has the elements, that makes a series worth watching: history, conflict, growth, and resolution. Under these terms, this series executed those elements fairly well.

Even so, I am glad to have gotten over and done with this series as fast as I could. And yes, to counter the gayness, it's nice being able to see Gou around with each episode. Too bad about the missed potential about her though. Hopefully, she gets to swim (at least once); and y'know what that means. Awwww yea.

davis.rolando - 2013-09-26 09:38:19

Personally this anime was something that I found to be very entertaining to watch, aside the Man service, it had a story. The story was well how can i put it, ok and at times i knew where it was heading, but it still didnt make me say "Oh i know what is happening so cliche" although if you were to take out the men and put in women i think it would have been the same, with the exception of more male viewers. With characters their personality were a bit bland, with everyone of them having not too much in terms of depth and really only three characters had any development. It was a shame to see some characters completely ignored and passed over, but aside from this they still were funny when they needed to be and were all business when the time called for it. Animation was nothing short of great, and my god the water animation was where it was, but my one question i had after the first two episodes was WHERE WERE THEIR DAM NIPPLES I MEAN THE HELL? Now aside from that animation was still top notch and at no point in the series did I feel like it went downhill. The music was to put it kindly was meh, apart from the opening which didn't leave my mind and became part of my music i listen to constantly, and the closing that for one reason or another had me listening to it at the end of every episode. As far as the "MAN SERVICE" in this show is concerned I didn't think it was as bad as people made it out to be, but it also wasn't subtle at all i mean one episode i feel was dedicated to seeing how far they could push the issue, but still if you can handle an anime like High school of the dead, High school DXD, and other echi genre you should be fine with watching half naked men swimming. I mean really how would you expect them to swim with clothes on really people and also the muscles while i do believe that swimming is an intense sport I dont think that all swimmers have such toned bodies, but hell i could be wrong. Overall i do believe this anime is worth a watch, and should be taken for what it is a SWIMMING ANIME and well if you enjoy sports and swimming watch it, but if you want dislike sports and anything Man service, i suggest you look else where.

marguerite70 - 2013-09-26 04:58:08

Free! is an animated TV series that goes for 12 episodes which happens to be the sequel of the novel High Speed! It all started out as a prototype in 2012 project by Animation Do and Kyoto Animation

Then came out the ad which made a huge hit

Then it became official that it would air in Summer 2013

Free! - on your mark!

STORY - 6/10

Plot - 3/5

It starts off where Koji Ouji left off with her novel High Speed! :Haruka Nanase is a boy (with a feminine name) who is inlove with water, thus he fell in love with swimming naturally. Rin moved to Australia wanting to fulfill his father's dream at middle school, so thus the Iwatobi Swim Club - which consisted of 4 members, Haruka, Makoto, Nagisa and Rin - split up.

Haruka Nanase, now left alone at home due to his grandmother's death, still has such a strong bond with water after highschool at age 17. Makoto and Nagisa has also transferred in the same high school, thus the attempt of getting the Iwatobi Swim Club back. Going back to the previous swim club (which was about to be broken down and half haunted, but they went anyway) they saw Rin returned from Australia and was hanging around in the previous swim club. Rin seemed to degrade his bonds with Haruka and the swim team and challenged them to a race. Not wanting that race as a final, they try to get another boy with a girly name by the name of Rei Ryugazaki - who has almost no skills at all. The Iwatobi Swim Club forms again to train and once again share the challenges of the swimming sport except against their former member - Rin Matsuoka.

Delivery - 3/5

As it's Kyoto Animation, they're indeed going to put some high school and slice of life whether you like it or not. It's really hard to expect some pre-hero, viking, grown men or such as such as a setup. However they did manage to put some sports as well, and were able to wrap sports + slice of life nicely. Unfortunately some moments can get overly dramatic, and other moments having no point which can be a bore, otherwise it can do things nicely.

Animation - 10/10

The animation is well done. The water looks fantastic, beautifully animated and realistic. The backgrounds had a lot of influence through Japanese towns and it done a fantastic job. The colours are wonderfully used, shaded and lighted. As for the 'fanservice', there really isn't much. The only fanservice episodes were 1 and 4, and that's about it. If you think shirtless bishounen is fanservice, then all I have to say the fanservice fits it nicely. Say whatever you want, but doesn't have excess buttshots anywhere else.

SOUND - 8/10

OP + ED - 2/2

The OP has to be one of my faves of the season, that rock/punk really fits in the challenging modes in the latter episodes. The ED is breezy and catchy. J-Pop fans will love it. Wonderful tune for them as well.

Inner ST & SFX - 2/2

The soundtrack is well done! It really flows through your ears, all relaxing and tense when it wants to be. The SFX is well done too, from footsteps to dives.

Voice acting - 4/6

The Voice acting is well done, but nothing too out of the world. Haruka's voice seem to lack emotion even at some points, and he sounded a bit off at the last episode. The voice acting as kids were a bit too childish, as if they were 6 year olds instead of 6th graders, so the voice acting of them as kids were a flop.

CHARACTER - 5/10

Design - 3/3

Good looking bishounen and proportionate bodies for swimmers and athletes.

Setup - 1/3

Unfortunately 3 of them were annoyingly stereotypical, Rei and Rin maybe the lesser ones. However they weren't brainlessly stereotypical, thankfully.

Development - 1/4

Character development is usually what KyoAni seems to lack. Haruka can get really annoying with his over attachment to pools not to mention his monotoned voice that doesn't seem like he is enjoying the water either. When he did get some development he ended up acting like a little girl - I mean just what the hell? You're 17, Haruka. But it's better than nothing I suppose. As for Rin he is developed well. He got reasons for his actions. Others were pretty much dumped and was used as sprinkles but nothing else, but really makes a sweet treat otherwise throughout. In the end it becomes a nice treat.

Enjoyment - 8/10

It had its moments that were touching and hilarious, and really interesting to watch. The competitions would just make you stay in your seat. However the overly dramatic scenes were a bit off, otherwise the drama scenes were really good. It wrapped up the SoL and sport elements nicely. As I said before with KyoAni's works, this is actually good if you know their ways. As a fresh company they are making new audiences and treats, and Free! does it well.

OVERALL - 7/10

emerson19 - 2013-09-07 10:11:43

Hi Anime Universe Fans! YOu can see my reasons to have dropped Free! in my blog:

http://inanimeshadow.blogspot.pt/2013/09/free-iwatobi-swim-club-dropout.html

lavern.boyer - 2013-07-19 11:40:02

As of Episode 3:

I stand by my very solid opinion that this show is K-on with boys swimming, but that isn't a bad thing. Episode 1 comes off as very "in your face" and borderlines obnoxious and ridiculous. To be frank, I was ready to drop the series at episode 1 if my friend hadn't of convinced me that episode 2 was a LOT better, so i stepped back and decided to give the second episode a chance and yes, it was a lot better. It was much less "in your face" and the characters weren't nearly as unlikable. It even managed to endear me to the one character i absolutely hated{the main, Haruka.}
Episode 3 got a little "up in your face" again with Rei and his character quirks but i'm sure that episode 4 is going to tone that down. It also cranked up the gay undertones to 11, but that's fine. I still stand by the fact that no matter how many undertones they throw in this is NOT a shonen-ai any more then K-on was a Shoujo-ai.

The animation is beautiful but then again when has Kyoto Animation ever dissapointed us?

The reason i can't give it a 10 rating is because as of this point i still am not sure about some of the characters and i hope the story really picks up and doesn't end up like K-on....aka: "boring and kind of sub-par"

mario57 - 2013-07-05 05:11:04

(Note: This is a review written based off of the first episode of the series. Opinions subject to change. Though they probably won't. Because manservice is obviously the best.)

Ah, Free. What an exciting anime. This show definitely teaches you about friendship and the importance of having a closely knit group of friends. This anime is about a group of friends that love swimming, and that used to attend a swimming club together. It shows the bonds of friendship, and the many benefits that can come of it. There are some truly amazing things you can learn from this anime, that you should implement into your daily lifestyle.

1. You can normally walk into your friend's bathroom while they're taking a bath, and that's completely normal.

2. Wearing swimsuits in the bathtub is acceptable.

3. Wearing an apron over a swimsuit is what all the cool kids are doing.

4. Scared of something? Bring cocaine with you! (Don't forget to bring enough for your friends, too!)

5. Underwear? No one needs underwear. Just wear your swimming trunks under your pants all day, every day!

6. If you're a swimmer, you can undress anywhere you want to. Little known fact.

7. You can break into facilities to go swimming if you want to. It's completely fine, just ask anyone.

8. If you're an abnormal person that doesn't wear swimming trunks under their pants all day, skinny dipping is perfectly okay as well.

FINAL VERDICT:

I give this anime a 10/10 for the amazing manservice. The deep plot, tasteful additions of dubstep, along with the amazing animation skills of Kyoto Animation make this anime a sure win that everyone can enjoy.