Free!

"Free!" is a Japanese anime directed by Hiroko Utsumi, and produced by Kyoto Animation and Animation Do, written by Masahiro Yokotani, features character designs by Futoshi Nishiya and music by Tatsuya Katō. The anime is based on the light novel, "High Speed" written by Kōji Ōji.

Plot

The story revolves around Haruka Nanase, a boy who loves to swim. On the last year of elementary school, he participated in the swimming tournament along with Makoto Tachibana, Nagisa Hazuki, and Rin Matsuoka. After winning the tournament, the boys with girly names parted ways.

Haruka, Nagisa and Makoto meet again when they go to high school, and when Rin who was in Australia comes back, he challenges Haruka to a race. Rin won the race but he wasn’t satisfied because he realized that Haruka wasn’t in shape.

Then, Nagisa along with Haruka and Makoto decide to start a swimming club, and after the club is formed, Nagisa wants Rei to be part of their club. Nagisa convinced Rei and he finally joined. Not knowing how to swim, Rei went through hard training along with the rest of the team.

Once their training is done, the members of the Iwatobi Swim Club will enter a swimming competition against Rin.

Main Characters

Haruka Nanase is voiced by Nobunaga Shimazaki (old) and by Megumi Matsumoto (young). He is a quiet person who displays limited facial expressions. His swimming style captivates people and he likes freestyle swimming.

Makoto Tachibana is voiced by Tatsuhisa Suzuki (old) and Satsuki Yukino (young). He is Haruka's best friend, and is in the same class as Haruka. He is outgoing and considerate to others. He is captain of the swim club and his swimming style is backstroke.

Nagisa Hazuki is voiced by Tsubasa Yonaga (old) and Satomi Satō (young). Unlike Haruka and Makoto who are second-year students, he is a first year who also goes to Iwatobi High School. He is very spirited and not afraid to speak his mind, while his swimming style is breaststroke.

Rei Ryūgazaki is voiced by Daisuke Hirakawa (old) and Yōko Hikasa (young). He is Nagisa's classmate. He is intelligent and attracted to all beautiful things. He used to be on the track team but he joins the swim club because he admires Haruka's beautiful swimming. Out of all the swimming styles, Rei realizes he can’t swim until he tries the butterfly style which just happens to be what he’s good at.

Rin Matsuoka is voiced by Mamoru Miyano (old) and Akeno Watanabe. He is Haruka's rival and his former teammate in elementary school. He comes back to Japan after studying abroad in Australia and he is a student at Samezuka Academy. He is very concerned about winning and losing when it comes to swimming and his swimming style is freestyle as well as butterfly.

Opening/Ending Themes

The opening theme is "Rage On" by Oldcodex and the ending theme is "Splash Free" by Style Five (Nobunaga Shimazaki, Tatsuhisa Suzuki, Tsubasa Yonaga, Daisuke Hirakawa and Mamoru Miyano). The ending theme for episode 12 is "Ever Blue" by Style Five. Five character song singles are being released sung by the voice actors of the main characters.

Review

For some reason I kept watching this series till I realized why I was actually watching it - the reason being; I was having fun without realizing it. This anime is filled with energy and child-like spirit, and I have to admit that I even caught myself chuckling every so often thanks to the lively characters.

By the second half of the series the story begins to stray from comedy and get into drama, angst and sentimentality. If we set the first half of the series and the second half into an analogy, then we’ll see that the first part is more fun while the second part is more dramatic. The characters are having fun and they goof around, but they also cry and yell. The chemistry is very strong and the combination of the two sides (comedy/drama) made me think "Free!" as a surprisingly very good series.

At the last episode, there was even a scene where two of the main characters talked and I was so into character that when one of them asked the other something, the answer come out of my lips while I didn’t want to say anything. To my amazement my answer was the same as the character’s answer.

I honestly enjoyed the "Free!" animation series and for what it’s worth, I believe it would be an enjoyable experience for the most of you. Plus, I wouldn’t be surprised if Kyoto Animation made another season, and if I had to say my opinion on this, then it would be that I’m actually counting on it.