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I honestly had zero expectations on this anime. As always, I just sit back and let the series entertain me and surprise me. And it's quite nice that the series itself managed to change my opinions while it lasted, in a very subtle way.

The first episode didn't give me too much of a good impression, actually. To be honest, I should say it left me with the worst first impression ever. But in the second episode, where the fanservice went down a lot (thank you) and the story started developing, it felt pretty interesting. And then you reach the ending, without realizing it. And everything ... has been a very pleasant, smooth ride.

The story isn't something to be quite deep about-- But it's very well written and nicely told. We follow the everyday of the teenagers that decide to swim together once again, like they did when they were kids. And, as the teenagers they are, they tend to overreact a lot. Bothered by it? Not a single bit! It's the part of the story where I feel comfortable at. Even if I'm way too old as to feel like a teenager (I'm like... ten years older than the main characters, lmao), there are values and lessons that are worth to be learned at any age.

The characters are just wonderful. They grow up a lot, in a very realistic way, during the story. I want to focus on two of them: Rin and Rei. While Makoto is a sweetheart who doesn't have too much to think about, Nagisa is that annoying yet lovable kid that sometimes you can't stand and others you just have to let him be. Gou/Kou is a respectable young lady, in all matters; Ama-chan is just perfect and Haruka begins to be human in the exact moment when you're about to give up on him. And he was the character I disliked from the very beginning, but it was pretty nice to see him grow like this.

As for Rei and Rin. Rei is a very, very kind boy. A hardworking boy. A person that gives his best in everything he does. He deserves to have his precious friends and the happy times with them and the bright future that awaits him. He's just-- A darling. A complete darling.
Rin, on the other hand, is a boy that has to grow in a very painful way. He has to face his own anger and disappointment and, at first, he blames such things on others. But when he starts seeing the truth, when he finally realizes why he's so confused and angry, he just brings tears to your eyes. The whole process this character goes through is simply amazing, realistic-- Very, very human.

As for the rest of the characters, they're all cool in their own way, especially Captain Mikoshiba. (I don't have to say that Samezuka is my school, yo'.) Nitori can be annoying at times, but he's just a kid, he's got his reasons. And Goro-sensei is simply hilarious.

The music was one point I didn't find enjoyable. From opening to ending, and then the BGM, nothing seemed to fit for me.

The animation by itself is just AMAZING. Nothing more to say about this. It's out of the question.

KyoAni is not my favourite animation studio-- I'd rather say it's one of those that I strongly dislike, mostly because of the kind of products they offer. But this time I have to give the guys a standing ovation. Free! it's not an anime for girls only. It's filled with lots of nice feelings: friendship and self-improvement are the best lessons we can take from this series and, personally, these are the values I appreciate the most in a story. The fact of it having handsome boys doesn't make it less worthy to be watched-- On the contrary, it reinforces the fact that you must not judge a book by its cover, because whenever anybody wants to rant about Free!, there's nothing to rant about. You can like it or not, yet the series has something to give.

I am a guy watching hotties swim. And I would watch it again.

I'll start saying that I chose this series as my personal project in my fansub group; each admin had its share and I picked up Rainbow. I had never saw anything about it neither read the manga, but the sinopsis and the promotional pic hooked me up immediately. The 2010 april season was full of "pink" anime and Rainbow looked like some serious "blue" matter; and since I'm a huge fan of shounen, I couldn't lose this opportunity to introduce some "manliness" into my team mates and followers.
Right before start the translation process, I picked up the first three manga episodes and read them in ... a rush: I died! Not only the story was raw and cruel, the things that characters had to suffer touched my heart. There I remember I thought "My gosh, I could have done a great choice this time".


Story: 9/10
The story's premise is simple: six teenagers, all of them involved in some criminal action (generally, because very good or desperate reasons), are imprisoned into Shounen Reformatory, a juvenile prison full of injustices and abuses. There, the self-centered boys meet their senpai, a guy older than them that has been imprisoned for a whole year by now. He teaches them a lesson since he considers them as "a bunch of monkeys", and then the kids fall in love with this guy. He becomes their light in that dark path, and even after they leave the facility he continues illuminating their lives. The story can be divided into two different arcs: the first 12 episodes inside the facility, and 14-26 which portrays their lives outside.

What made this story so special to me was the rawness of the things they have to stand and the strenght every character depicts once they understand what camaraderie is truly about. Also, the feeling you have in some parts of the story is certainly creepy: when you start to think these kids can't be more disgraceful, something even worse happens to them. The reformatory's pests, the very nasty doctor Sasaki and his henchman the guard Ishihara, makes boys' lives a living hell; but they manage to survive to live after through the most important thing they learn in prison: the bond of friendship.

What I disliked of this anime is the speed that sometimes risks to ruin it all. Some characters are not explored as much as others and you can get the feeling that they didn't have any development. Since they're quickly introduced to you, you can guess which kind of personality each one have. That could have been better, I like to discover characters while the story's going on. Some plots were easy to guess too, in counterpart to the well-planned others.


Art: 9/10
The animation is one of the best I've seen. The high contrast between the dark scenes in the reformatory and the "pure air" you can breath in the outside world really makes you feel the difference between one and another. The use of static scenes, with textured, alternative colours, was one of the big achievements, it gets you some strange feeling. You can think and consider the action scene you just seen with this "stop" pics.
The character design is something I liked very much. They're not highly handsome boys, even girls are not exaggeratedly pretty and don't even mention villains, they're all quite disgusting, but that helped to keep the anime into a "normal" state of things. It helped me to keep the characters into a realistic view. The animation is sublime and goes very well with the design.


Sound: 10/10
This is an absolute. The BGM has to be one of the most accurated I've had the pleasure to listen. Every song has its moment and they transmit a very particular feeling. The voices are great. Every character has personality and mood swings, pretty real mood swings. The best work in my opinion goes for Rikiya Koyama, seiyuu for An-chan, and Shun Oguri as Mario.
The opening is brutal, an awesome way to start every episode; the ending has been made to get you all cheesy, because when the episode ends, you want to cry just because of the song!


Character: 9/10
Rokurota, or An-chan, is far away the best character of the whole bunch. A young, troubled man who has learnt to live looking forward, a character with a huge heart and street wisedom that fights every single day to find a bit of happiness in this dark world. He's pretty well developed and is easy to feel him as a natural leader while he guides the boys through that dark path.

Mario is a character that also developes himself very satisfactorily. He starts as the others, a punk with nothing to live for, but in the end you have realized, as you walk this difficult path beside him, that he's the most sweet, kind boy of all.

Noboru (Turtle/Suppon) is a tiny thing, a very irritating kid that finds himself through hard lessons. Another success among the characters.

Ryuuji (Uncovered/Baremoto) is perhaps the most predictable of them. He's very selfish and greedy and makes a lot of mistakes during the series, but also has a good heart and it makes up for it.

Tadayoshi (Soldier/Heitai) was and is my personal favourite among the six boys, and I'm frankly disappointed because he didn't had his spot. His crime, life and personality are easy to guess, but I'd certainly liked to learn a little bit more from him.

Mansaku (Cabbage) is the classic friendly giant; I'm sure his crime was made because a very stupid mistake. He earns your heart with his calm mood and kindness.

Jyou (Joe) is the pretty boy. I was afraid to see him develop into some kind of predictable crybaby, but in the end proved to be the rudest of all and the most crazy kamikaze.

In the end, I was pretty satisfied with every character (even the supporting ones, they have crappy lives also), except the mentioned Soldier's abstinence. The northamericans portrayed in this series are kinda weird, a bit forced, but they fulfill their duty: as the "enemies", the boys learn to see them as persons as well.


Enjoyment: 10/10
I found myself enjoying every single episode. None of them left me with a disappointment feeling: in exchange, I died to see the next. I dropped tears of joy and sorrow with every trial the kids had to overcome, with every reunion, with every tragedy. Despite of the mentioned predictable plots, the resolution of each conflict touched my heart in a powerful, strong way. It moved me into tears more than once.


Overall: 10/10
Though I've written the few things I disliked, I can't give this series a lower rating. It just won a place in my heart in its entire form. I loved every single piece of it, even the mistakes or the predictable stuff, because the teaching it gives to you is so moving that I feel I didn't waste my time watching it: the lesson of friendship, the lesson of hope, all of that prepacked with an exciting old-school flavour and, more importantly, manly tears!!