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I myself am a competitive swimmer, so obviously i should love this, correct?

No. This series gives me an ick. I came into this franchise thinking that this anime would scratch the itch that ive had to see my own sport in an anime. Of course, i couldnt expect it to be like haikyuu or slam dunk tier, but i wanted to see a story that centered around the highs and lows of swimming. All that my sport had been reduced to here is a backdrop for pretty fruity boys.

First off "I only swim free" You have to agree to be put in any event ... regardless of style when you join a team so that was already stupid. Plus seeing comments on Michael Phelps race videos like " Guys he only swims free" ( i actually saw that on his olympic 200 fly final video) its just weird. Dont give people the wrong idea about us. This series is so wildly unrealistic that watching it makes me want to reach through the screen and fix everything. Nobody wears their goggles around their neck. Nobody wears just one cap for international races. AND PULL THE DAMN THING OVER YOUR EARS OH MY GOD. Also, full leg length tech suits were banned in mens competition almost 20 years ago. The dramatization is far too much and theres not enough real emotion to connect the watcher to anything swimming related. Its just fanservice. My sport was reduced to fanservice. I get swimming is kind of boring to non swimmers. but no need to dramatize it like that. I hope in the future someone whos actually swam and competed within the club circuit decides to write a story.

I wanted my sport to be depicted as beautifully as Volleyball or Basketball have been within this industry. But this felt like a mockery of everything we've ever stood for.

okay now that my hate rant is over, time to pick apart the more conventional aspects

Story 5/10
I dont even fully understand it because its so simple and cliche. Theres no complex emotions at all.

art: 7/10

I really liked the animation and art of this show and movie, kyoani is kyoani and they delivered as per usual.

sound 5/10

the soundtrack for this movie made me visibly cringe. The voice acting is mediocre at best because of all the squeaky moe characters theyve had the actors carry out. The cast is incredible, but this isnt their best work. Also, the english announcing. i wanted to crawl into a hole. At least they didnt make it like a poor attempt of the VAs speaking english but its still jarring.


characters; 3

i fucking hate all the characters in this show. Theyre all very immature and their ways of swimming one separate stroke each is like neanderthal swim thinking. I hate breastroke, yet my coach still makes me swim it, why not try to bring in more technical aspects such as how you need to do all events in order to be ranked nationally and internationally. What a joke.

Enjoyment: 4

i just felt like the whole time the show was made by someone who just picked swimming for the anime because it requires the dudes to be half naked. As well as my hate rant above which kind of explains this score.

Overall 6

This movie is a solid 6 and the series is a solid 5.

I hope you guys enjoyed this wildly inaccurate portrayal, while i understand the shows plotpoint is not to showcase swimming itself, i wish it had at least done a better part of the smaller portrayal. , while im happy for at least a swim anime, this is childish and primitive story wise, i hope a real portrayal can be even more enjoyable and be taken seriously.

Where do i even start.
I feel bad for any volleyball anime after Haikyu, since the bar has already been set so high. So i had expectations. Probaby shoudlve gone in with none.

For one, i do love Haikyu very much, but im gonna make this as unbiased as i can. Also ill try not to compare the two very much, because they are very different.

This show is more angsty and has a little more of a seinen twist than Haikyu does, so ill leave it there.
Story: 5

The story isnt anything special or anything we havent seen before, theres two mcs, and they tran together ... to go farther in the sport. Its solid.
Its not unique however, i didnt feel drawn in by this at all. Its like watching the same cliches and story pieces we saw in Haikyu, which isnt great for a show meaning to contend with it.
Also any story this had was butchered by the lightning speed pacing.
Art: 8

The art and animation were quite fluid and i liked them a lot. There wasnt much wrong with either from what i could see.

Sound: 7

The soundtrack for this show is also quite good, i enjoyed the OP and ED. But, music doesnt carry a show. The voice acting is also exceptional.

Character: 5

these characters are just boring and cliche. I thought i was hearing a spin off of Kageyamas story when Haijimas development began. I can barely remember the characters names.

Also, not saying theres anything bad about this but, the two mcs seem to blush a lot at each other, BL? or no BL???

enjoyment: 5
I came into this with good expectations for this show. Im disappointed. It was good in the beginning, but then it went straight to cliches. Also the pacing is crazy, its meant to be a 12 ep show yes, but they way they were adapting i could barely keep up with what was happening! I had to rewatch a couple eps!

Overall: 5
This is me being generous. Mediocre is the best i could say about this show.

Haikyuu, one of the best sports anime ever, and a personal favorite of mine, being an athlete myself. Im a swimmer, so youd think I would be able to relate to Free! more than Haikyuu. Nope. Haikyuu is every bit as relateable and motivational for me as a swimmer than free couldve been. Which is why i favor haikyuu over free. Now without further ado, lets get into my review.


story: 8/10
As someone who finished the manga completely i can say, ive been enjoying the anime just as much as i did with the manga, and of course the manga had great storytelling, theyve adapted ... it quite well from what ive seen, with some minor things i wouldve liked to see done better. The match was really exciting and had me on the edge of my seat all the time, even though i knew what would happen next. For every episode starting from e9, there was one moment where i felt so emotional i would cry.

art: 6/10
Of course, they changed the art style earlier this year for s4 to make it look more like the manga. I like this style, and its growing on me. But it was quite hard to get used to it after watching 3 seasons with the old style. Not to mention the absolute dumpster fire that was the outsourced episode. And i usually dont use "dumpster fire"and haikyuu in the same sentence. I think it couldve been better for sure.

Sound: 10/10
The OST for this show is amazing. It really brings a pumped up feel to the games, and even i listen to it before competitions to motivate myself. Not to mention the OP and ED being absolute bangers. And the ending credits of the final episode, the first season op? i was bawling.

Characters: 10/10
The amount of character development this past season was amazing. I found myself relating to and loving the characters even more. With every little bit of development, the characters become more and more endearing to me. i was so proud of hinata when he made that receive in the final set. I cried. I remembered when i had my own moment in my own sport, and that brought the waterworks for sure!

enjoyment: 10/10
I enjoyed this season very much, i enjoyed tuning in every week, and i enjoyed discussing the topics of each episode with others. This season, i cried more than i have during any other show or season of haikyuu. The first half of the this season however, was a little underwhelming. But things picked up in the later episodes and that was where i remembered why i love the show so much. The animation being subpar is the only thing that made this season even a little less enjoyable then the others (if youre watching the revised DVD edition, you might not see the errors). I can say now, if you love haikyuu, and youre thinking of dropping it after the first half of part 2, DONT, it gets so much better in later episodes and im sure you will enjoy it.

Overall: 9/10
This season could be better, im sure of it. Its not the best season of course, the animation was very off for a few episodes, and the art has been changed drastically. But i still think its every bit as motivational, inspirational, lovable, and comedic than any other season of Haikyuu, the only thing keeping me from giving this a 10 are the animation and pacing issues.
Cant wait for season 5 and the Battle of the Trash Dump!

Haikyuu.
Arguably the greatest sports manga/anime ever.
It was a bittersweet journey, for me especially.
I am an athlete myself, a swimmer actually, and even though Haikyu is about volleyball, it still holds a special place in my heart as the only manga/anime to ever accurately represent the feelings of being an athlete, the highest highs of winning and achieving a goal youve had for so long, the lows of losing after working so hard, Haikyuu encapsulates those feelings perfectly. No matter what sport, i still found Haikyuu to be the most relatable thing. The characters were endearing and inspiring, and wanting to be like them pushed me ... to new lengths as a swimmer, i was going through i tough time with my swimming, and was unable to find motivation, but the sheer determination that Hinata, Kageyama, and the rest of the crew had really woke something inside me. Haikyuu made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me scream with excitement. It taught me so much about volleyball, that even volleyball players ask me if i play on a team! And for people who dont know much about sports, being able to find something educational yet enjoyable like Haikyuu is amazing. The art is amazing, storytelling is an all time high, characters are lovable. Saying goodbye to the series after 8 years was heartbreaking for me, it was like saying goodbye to someone who had been there all your life. I can hope therell be a continuation, but with how it ended i doubt it.
The anime is great as well! Everything about this series resonated perfectly with me, as im sure it will you.

"Talent is something you make bloom, instinct is something you polish."
- Tooru Oikawa

"You dont win alone, thats just how it is."
- Tobio Kageyama

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."
- Shouyou Hinata

I had SUCH high hopes for this show, the story was interesting, the characters were cool, the art and sound were amazing. I thought the story was really going places, but in the latter half of the show, things started going downhill, i had no idea what was happening, and we still didnt know much about the characters or anything like that. And then watching the ending, the only word i could use to describe it was disappointed. I thought it could be so cool and so popular, but they rushed the ending and ended it badly. I do hope it returns for a second ... season, but if they do, they better fix the writing and the pacing of the writing. They had everything they needed to make this a success! But they messed up the writing, thus throwing everything else out the window.

Im a younger half-fujoshi (i only like a few BL such as YOI and Given), so the first episode kind of freaked me out. I got into the show because of sheer curiosity, and i did not expect to like at ALL after the first few eps, but later into the series, i got used to it and saw past it. once you see past it, its kind of sweet. The story is pretty funny and cute, the characters are funny and cute. However, there is kind of a heavy yaoi element to this, it has a lot of sensual scenes which can be a ... little hard to watch (and this is AFTER they cut out some scenes from the manga, which i have not read since i heard it is much more graphic). If youre going to watch this, i would definitely use private browsing, my fellow young half fujoshis, and if your parents are tech saavy and can read your history through your WiFi browser (its possible with every WiFi, your parents just have to be smart to use it) then DO NOT WATCH THIS AT ALL!! I would say this show is more for intermediate to advanced Fujoshis or Fudanshis. I regret watching this at my young age, i wish id waited until i was older.