So, I dived into Free! In more ways than one.
Also known under the name “swimming anime”, Free! is an anime about…swimming. Guess you didn’t guess that one. Well, the first episode did not give me much of a summary but here is what I understood. There is some rivalry between Haru and Rin, those two have other childhood friends, and they were all swimming together when they were younger. Years later they find each other again. How will have their relationship changed? Will they still swim together? And, since it seems to be a sports anime, who swims the fastest?
I honestly do not know what to think about the story. I am not even sure there is actually a story. I mean, it probably is going to be a story mainly about relationships like KyoAni does usually with a bit of sport rivalry as icing on top of the cake. But I honestly cannot see anything more than that happening. Maybe I am wrong, but I don’t think so. In short, Free! is not an anime to watch if you like to watch something with plot.
Now though, one of the thing I liked most in Free! is its characters. They do not seem so special at first glance, regular guys going to a regular school, they liked to swim when they were in elementary school. But then you discover one nice guy picking up his friend who happens to be in the bath while wearing a swimming trunk. None of them finds anything strange in the fact of being both there in the early hours in the morning.
At the very least Makoto finds it weird when Haru cooks his breakfast in an apron over his swimming trunks. Thank you Makoto for being the only voice of reason in this crazy anime. (And being, at least for now, my favorite character.)
Haru-chan is pretty fun to watch and pretty stereotypical. He only cares about swimming anyway. So does Rin, and thus here comes rivalry between them. Rin even has a little sister, a kinda cute sister. I wonder if she will be a love interest of if she will have a more major role. We’ll see.
Last one, Nagisa, is the mandatory upbeat airhead, for now he did not annoy me a lot but I’m pretty sure he will at some points, because that’s not usually the type of character I can’t bear for a long time.
As far as animation is concerned, we’re talking about KyoAni there, it has a certain standard to maintain and a certain art style it’s keeping up. (Seriously, just wear those swimming trunks even lower and we’ll get to see everything before this anime is even halfway done.)
As for music, well, it’s quite aggressive, not in the bad way but it is less in the background than I am used to. Not that I mind, I probably will not bother listening to the soundtrack but it fits the atmosphere of the anime. I have absolutely no complains on seiyuu. (Or at least I try to keep them down because it just is my personal tastes.)
In short, I liked Free! more than I thought I would. I’m going to continue watching this and see what I’ll get. I’m curious.
