Free! Eternal Summer

Even though it has been a year since the Iwatobi High School Swim Club has been created, new members have yet to join the club. Now that Haruka Nanase and Makoto Tachibana are senior students, along with their younger friends Nagisa Hazuki and Rei Ryuugazaki, they have to find a way to attract new members. If not, the club will be forced to close the following year due to a lack of membership.

Meanwhile, with impending graduation, it is also time for the seniors to decide their plans for the future. Unlike their friend Rin Matsuoka, the new captain of Samezuka Academy Swim Club who is determined to fulfill his dream of being a professional swimmer, Haruka and Makoto are unsure about what career path they want to take.

Further problems arise when an old friend of Rin's, Sousuke Yamazaki, comes to the city to study at Samezuka Academy; the recently scouted swimmer's arrival causes tension in the relationship among him, Rin, and Haruka.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Matsuoka, Rin Main

Miyano, Mamoru Japanese

Tachibana, Makoto Main

Suzuki, Tatsuhisa Japanese

Nanase, Haruka Main

Shimazaki, Nobunaga Japanese

Hazuki, Nagisa Main

Yonaga, Tsubasa Japanese

Ryuugazaki, Rei Main

Hirakawa, Daisuke Japanese

Yamazaki, Sousuke Main

Hosoya, Yoshimasa Japanese

Matsuoka, Gou Supporting

Watanabe, Akeno Japanese

Shigino, Kisumi Supporting

Suzuki, Chihiro Japanese

Mikoshiba, Momotarou Supporting

Suzumura, Kenichi Japanese

Nitori, Aiichirou Supporting

Miyata, Kouki Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Utsumi, Hiroko Director

Tsuruoka, Youta Sound Director

Yamada, Naoko Episode Director, Storyboard, Assistant Director, Animation Director

Reviews

Sep 29, 2014

Veronin

Recommended

I guess there's a bit more to Free than 'shirtless bishounens jump in water'.

For a series that began with a crescendo of confusion, Free has come a long way in carving its identity as a genuinely decent, though largely forgettable sports anime. While I don't think it will convert anyone who detested the first season (and there were indubitably more than a few of them), those who enjoyed or were indifferent towards Free's first offering will find a large improvement in quality. And yes, heterosexual dudes can now watch it without feeling uncomfortable.

That's not to say that Free has forgotten its primary audience (teenage ... girls and Tumblr fujoshi who squeal at the slightest homoerotic undertone), but at least now KyoAni has tried to justify the anime's existence by creating a story of value. It is less about clothes being thrown around and close-up butt shots and more about the boys growing up and finding their place through the love of sport. And each other... just, no, not in that way.

Free's second season shines largely due to its focus on Rin and his close friend and rival, Sousuke. Rin's character development continues throughout the second season with much more detail than previously, taking him from 'antagonistic jackass' to a genuinely believable and complex person. His goals and reasons for swimming swimming are clear and sensible, and so it is easy empathise with him when things take a turn for the dramatic. On the other hand, Sousuke's motivations are purposely made unclear until his secret is revealed in the final episodes. There's nothing complex or excessively grim about his secret-- just that he makes mistakes as all teenagers do and wants to alleviate his regret by competing against his friend. Sousuke's goals are nothing so grand and cliché as being the best in the world, and that's precisely what makes it feel authentic.

Furthermore, the two interact with each other as friends in the real world would in their situation. They aren't characterised by archetypes, catchphrases or 'moe' appeal as many of the others are, and the purity of their friendship is not dragged down by cheap fanservice and fujoshi appeal. They fight, disagree and have each other's back just as real friends do. I just can't say the same for the Iwatobi four.

The Iwatobi four are far less interesting. Haru represents one of my largest issues with the series; by the end of the story, I did not understand him any more than I did at the very beginning. He swims and sweats for himself and then casts aside years of effort for absolutely no reason at all (unless you consider "I'm bored" to be valid characterisation), only to be fired up again when Rin pats him on the shoulder. Uh-huh. Much like the first season, he is blander than a piece of cardboard.

Nagisa continues to exist largely as a vehicle for shota appeal and yaoi doujins, behaving so effeminately that even girls would find themselves feeling boyish in comparison. Rei on the other hand is much more interesting, fulfilling a sort of outsider role that the other three do not, but his presence feels a little bit on the uncanny side when you consider that he is a gender-swapped clone of Azusa from K-ON, right down to the inflections in his voice. And then there's Makoto who is just... there, neither offensive nor any great asset to the story. He's characterised more by his friendship with Haru than he is as his own person.

Some of the side characters, like Rin's sister, Gou, add plenty of colour to the cast... but then you have Nitori who exists only to remind us what the show was originally created for. Nitori (who I have personally dubbed as 'That Fucking Guy' and found myself rushing towards the mute button whenever he appeared) is pure, shameless pandering for the fujoshi crowd. There is no reason for him to exist in the story. All he does throughout the series is follow Rin around like a stray kitten, blush and cry repeatedly, and ruin important moments by jumping into arguments that have nothing to do with him. He destroys half of Rin's scenes with his "d-don't fight!" and "y-you can do it!" and for that I despise him.

The ending of Free certainly carries its share of emotional weight, and those who like the Iwatobi four more than I do will probably find themselves tearing up once or twice in the final episode. I just wish there was a bit more to it, something with more complexity than the typical "power of friendship" fare. It feels like that's all we ever see in sports anime these days.

It's also worth nothing that the penultimate episode, set in Australia, actually has western people speaking proper English instead of the incomprehensible Engrish common in anime. Wow! There's still the "all foreigners are blonde" stereotype, but at least KyoAni shows they're willing to put effort into the smaller things.

It should not come as any surprise given KyoAni's seemingly infinite budget, but Free looks amazing. The swimming matches are rendered with finesse and the backgrounds with incredible detail, resulting in a predominant feeling of awe when the characters find themselves in the massive national stadium for the first time. I also wouldn't be surprised if members of KyoAni travelled to Australia to gather research for the episode, given how alive and real the scenery feels. It certainly does more than just look nice. Had Free been drawn by almost any other studio, I'm not sure the characters and story would be anywhere near as effective.

The music of Free is so great that it does not even need good writing in order to draw emotion from its audience. All that's needed is to listen and the scene will come alive. Even when it was a situation I would not normally give a rat's ass about, the background music grabbed and held my interest in what was going on. To be fair, though, there's no big, memorable track that defines a moment in the story and the ending theme does kinda ruin the moment in the later episodes as it transitions from drama to some upbeat pop song.

Is Free a worthy sequel? It sure is, and I don't think there's any sane individual who could possibly think that the second season is a step back from the first. It improves upon its predecessor in virtually every regard, elevating itself from "fun garbage" into something that's consistently decent, occasionally even verging on the point of being 'good'.

But that doesn't change the fact that it's Free and that Free has a very specific audience in mind. It certainly tries to increase its appeal by toning down the fanservice, but with Nitori's increased screen-time and various questionable scenes (like Rin and Haru sharing a bed in one episode), I still don't think KyoAni has any qualms about alienating those outside its primary demographic. And I guess that's how it's always been and always will be.

KyoAni still has a long ways to go in order to redeem themselves, but the second season of Free is at least a step in the right direction.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Sep 25, 2014

Manumento

Mixed Feelings

There is a limit to how much weight can a single shark lift.

Free!: Eternal Summer is a sports comedy slice of life show and a direct sequel to the first season, Free!. It is a reverse moe trope anime, with moe tropes found in girls given to the guys instead. Usually dubbed as a fanservice show for girls with swimming as a backdrop, does it have anything more in it? The answer is yes, it does, but not so much.

Plot:

Another summer comes and the swimmers of Iwatobi and Samezuka High School swimming clubs are once again in a rivalry. It is the last school year ... for Haruka, Makoto and Rin, and they have to make their career decisions and find out how much the passion of swimming can help them in the future, all in meanwhile an old childhood friend of Rin's appear to spice up the situation.

The plot is pretty simple: the characters start swimming and battling each other again while some of them sort out their personal problems and look forward to the future. The problem is though that KyoAni forgot how to make good drama. We witnessed that in Chuunibyo, we now witness that here. The anime fails to have a clear indication of what it wants to be, hovering around fanservice, sports and drama, and does neither well. The main plot element of the story, swimming, is not of much relevance, since the only thing driving it are characters wanting to swim a relay (which by definition is stupid and more on that later on), and is done horribly wrong, and as a sports anime it fails to create a climax and general hype.

Characters:

The cast from the first season returns with some new additions and a little bit more development on some, so I'll introduce them shortly: Nagisa, Makoto, Rei, Gou (Kou), Miho on the Iwatobi side, Aiichirou, Momotarou on the Samezuka side are the basic one dimensional characters that can be described by a pair of personality/motivation traits, and are used mainly as plot devices, comic reliefs or assumes a cliched position (like teachers/mentors in Gou and Miho). That's a lot of characters. That's 6 characters in a show that has like 10 total characters that are atleast relevant of some sort. Excluding Makoto, none of these characters get any development apart from simply getting better at swimming (but there's no perspective provided, so that point is irrelevant).

Next on the list is Sousuke, a new (old) Rin's friend. His personal drama was the best in the show, and he is the only character where I could understand why he wants to swim the relay so much. Sousuke is a nice addition to the anime, helping the 2 mains develop and having enough characterization for the audience to care about him aswell.

Moving forward we have Haru. Oh, I personally hate him so much. As the main protagonist he is extremely shallow and unimportant to the story for the most part. The problem with all silent protagonists is that usually they don't show any emotions, meaning that there's no room for characterization from their perspective. You just don't who they are exactly, you can't relate, you can't care for them. "I like swimming because I don't know exactly" doesn't give me enough information to care for you. However, Haru's lack of emotions did not go unnoticed by the rest of the cast and ended up being a prrety decent plot point to spark things up. Fortunately, Rin saved him by dragging him to Australia and telling to develop the f*ck up, and he did. And it was actually believable. It doesn't change the fact that he was the worst character for 20 episodes, but he got a legit ending for him and is one of the rare cases where the silent protagonist turns out okay.

And here we have Rin, by far the best character in the show. He gets a huge amount of characterization, development, and backstory. In contrast to the other one (or at max two) dimensional characters of the show, he is miles ahead of them. There's nothing so much to talk about him, other than everything makes sense in regards to his character and personalization. All of his actions are completely reasonable and reflect on who he was, who he is now and what he wants in the future. However, he can only do so much alone, and he's not even the main protagonist, only a deuteragonist and even an anti-hero in the first season. If the anime was centered around him, boy that would have ended up so much better.

The problem with most of the characters again is the lack of characterization. The members on each team exist solely to form a relay, and otherwise are irrelevant. Motivation alone is not proper characterization, that's just a personality quirk. Some of them are so shallow, like Rei and Momo, that it is safe to say that they are just plot devices. Also, their girlish behaviour to reflect on the reverse moe nature of the show just doesn't work. All those blushes and cute moments should be left to girls, as it ruins other aspects of the show that are rather serious, like coming out of age. Furthermore, there's only like 10 characters in the show, the rest are 0 dimensional people that are there for the realism. Where are the other swimmers? Why is it only focused on 8 people when there are thousands of different kind of athletes? Global perspective? The perspective of the best? Nah, those don't exist. Sadly.

Writing:

And the swimming is as bullshit as ever. KyoAni, if you wanted to make a sports anime about swimming, please research on what the hell you are trying to create, because swimming does not work that way at all. It reminds me of NASA using the "Armageddon" movie as a training program, where they asked the trainees to present all the scientific inaccuracies in a 150 minute film. A total number was 168. In this anime, I counted atleast 60, and with the first season combined that would be well over 100 swimming inaccuracies. That is, ladies and gentlemen, a lot. It's so much that you can safely say that the swimming is executed poorly and without any logic. Having a 12 year (and counting) swimming career experience, this completely destroys any enjoyment I could possibly have had from the races and swimming bits in general, and it saddens me that this anime disgraces swimming so much with its inaccuracy. I will tell you right now, don't get the idea that this sport works like that because it definitely doesn't. It's not K-On where everyone can just take a guitar and form a band, it takes years and years of proper practice and only the select few are successful, something that this anime failed to show us.

Moving on, the comedy is pretty simple. We have two comic reliefs on each side, Momo and Nagisa (Nagi is more of a pseudo). The jokes are mostly reactional, like Gou glancing over muscles, the teacher giving her literacy analogies, Nagisa's playful personality induced character interactions, basic stuff that can be assigned to be a specific character trait (sadly some of the characters are only defined by that single trait). It is not distracting, and it is funny and nice at times, so the comedy's fine. The drama is sometimes mishandled by a long shot (Nagisa runs away from home), or sometimes hits right on the spot (Sousuke's struggles), but the biggest problem is that it is not focused enough, and the anime is not long enough to cover and expand on every plot element. They did have 25 episodes over two seasons but only Rin is the one that got enough focus as an actual character.

There are a couple of illogical things in the show not regarding swimming (as much as I loved episode 12, them going to Australia was just whaaaat in terms of logic), but for the most part it's okay, since the anime doesn't try to have deep and complex situations and instead restricts itself to simple problems. There are no parents in this show (again), apart for them being mentioned, and I already wrote once that parents are an important piece to developing the personality of the characters, as they are typically the ones that influence children the most, and that especially applies in a coming out of age anime such as this one, where our characters face a dillema of what the future holds for them. As for the actual competition, they overuse the "power of friendship" way too much and that symbolism sometimes destroys immersion (like the last episode.... yes, I came to see them swimming with the dolphins, totally)

Animation and Sound:

Once again, KyoAni gets the animation done right. It's always a pleasure for the eyes to watch works animated by this company. I have a slight problem with how swimming is animated though, as everyone swims exactly the same and there's no variety at all, and on top of that the hand movements do not look like how it is presented in the show. It doesn't have much of an effect of those who don't know swimming that much, but it is a problem for those who have been a part of competitive swimming or follow the competitive scene.

The character designs are okay, except the fact that they made Rin's teeth like that to show us that he's kind of an antagonist in the first season, and that totally goes out of character in the second one. The blushes and cute boys doing cute stuff is well, reverse moe thing, you can't say much against it but they don't do anything to serve the narrative.

The soundtrack is unmemorable, the sound itself is pretty okay. The swimming sounds well and that's about it, nothing much to talk about here. What I could talk about though is the amazing decision to hire Aussie voice actors that speak with an Australian accent instead of getting some local japs to do their bad English gibberish impersonations. That was one of the highlights of the show for me and I was just stunned at the amazing English that was spoken here, something that is very rare. That bit alone made the Australia episode so much better (and one of the reasons why I liked that episode in particular so much)

The first OP for the show is very manly but otherwise forgettable, same with the second ED where instead of that you get fanservice pondering, cool but uninteresting. They made it better in the first season.

Summary:

Free!: Eternal Summer is a rare case of a show which not only does the first season justice, but actually surpasses it (well, the first season was below average anyways). If the swimming was executed well it would have been a really good anime, sadly that wasn't the case. Apart from the KyoAni visuals style and fanservice for girls, there's really no reason to watch this series. Everything has been done elsewhere and better. Still, this might be your average jack-of-all trades anime where nothing stands out (and some elements stand out as bad), but overall you find it enjoyable enough to follow.

Final Verdict: 5.2/10

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Oct 23, 2014

animimosa

Not Recommended

this got really bad.

the torturted animista can only suspect who actually were the culprits pressed the studio in this way to deliver a sequel, but do in no way anything like the first run. whoever it seems it was someone pritty fat and humourless but with a lot of influence to actually insist in the second season, for contract reasons only of course (!), but could force the makers to iron the whole thing flat. as flat they just could get it. really flat i mean.

they removed all elements which created not a spectacular but still entertaining anime in season one, as the sense ... of humour, the artwork and flawless animation suited the topic, and replace them with more of the dreadful "ganbanakya, ganbanakya" singing of morally indisputable, rather square looking crybabies. Was surprised they actually could swim.

holy bukatsu! Now this will propably give president putin some well deserved tears of moral enjoyment.

maa ii, 3 points because it had some colour and sound! thats quite generous.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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