Sep 26, 2018
Overall this season definitely felt weaker than the previous seasons. Partly that is due to the vast expansion in the main cast and obviously because of that, not all characters got to have the screentime needed for their characters to develop or to do much with the characters. However overall I feel like what has been accomplished, was done pretty well.
This season's major flaw however is the slow pacing of the first half of the season. The first couple episodes felt so so slow and I also understand that time is needed to introduce new characters and establish what is happening with all of them,
...
but it just felt too long. On the other hand the pacing in the latter half was fast, which in a way mirrors competitive swimming and it makes you hyped up for the races. I feel like most of the fanbase feels the same way and it's so unfortunate that that happened and might have turned off some people from watching more, because the latter half is done really well and feels exciting and is immensely enjoyable.
Ikuya and Toonu's drama felt... I guess it was needed, but it felt too similar to previous Free! seasons, so that almost undermines the whole point of this season, which is the characters are growing up. I guess because they grew up the drama only lasted half a season now, instead of a whole. I understand that a lot of attention was needed to develop Ikuya's and Toonu's characters and story arch, but I can't help but feel like TOO much time was spent on their drama, when it could have been spent on, ya know, actual swimming.
Long time fans of Free! will love seeing all the characters come together (I myself teared up quite a bit when that happened) and it is lovely to see so many bonds form between characters. The new characters are pretty good (however the girls are all very unfortunately underdeveloped (then again, the story doesn't really focus on them anyway, but it's still sad that that is still the case)) and they are introduced quite well.
Tonally, the series truly feels like the main characters are slowly growing up, but that does not mean that they are suddenly fully fledged adults either. I feel a ridiculous amount of pride for these fictional characters and seeing them grow up, but still remain their same personalities and quirks and characteristics. Especially Haru feels like he has finally reached a point in his life that might have been unimaginable to him a couple years ago. He has come a long way from the 'I only swim free and I by twenty I will be ordinary' guy.
Could this season have been made better? Definitely. I feel like this season should have been 24 episodes long, so there would be more time for all the characters to be relevant and develop. I hope that the next season will keep the pace from the last episodes. (2020..... ㅠ ㅠ )
In the end, I still love Free! dearly and the characters are all very precious to me, so I will always be biased. However I can still see the major flaws in this season and I can only hope that next season will be handled better. The things this season did well however, were done really well. It is just unfortunate that the bad things sorta drag it down and that they were the focus of the first half.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
