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Free! Is back! Pubescent girls everywhere, rejoice! The second season of the immensely popular light novel by Kōji Ōji returns with Kyoto Animation and aired this July, but I am just getting into it presently.
For those of you that are new to the concept (or curious
boys that are not willing to test their sexuality against these Adonis-like
Bishi swimmers), the anime carries on from Free!
- Iwatobi Swim Club, a story concerning four best friends united by their
passion for swimming. When Rin – a dazzling red head with pointy teeth and one
of the four ‘nakama’– returns after abandoning his friends in Iwatobi for an
elite boarding school swim school in Australia, their dreams of a happy reunion
are cut short by the fact that Rin is no longer the boy they used to know. The
now sixteen year old shows himself to be a somewhat aggressive and immensely
competitive swimmer dead set on being the greatest pokemon master swimmer
Japan has ever seen, and appears to give very little weight to friendship and
the importance of sportsmanship. His main rival – and once upon a time best
friend, Nanase – poses a threat to this ideal, being perhaps the ‘epitome’ of
the best swimmer and unchallenged in the water, despite his minimal efforts
towards training. Rin is determined to beat him, and despite accomplishing this
very early in the series, is unable to fill the void by attaining his ultimate
goal. Free! goes onto examine the importance of friendship and meaningful
motivation, weighing Rin’s ruthless, tunnel-vision ambitions against the pure
and modest attempts by the Iwatobi crew, who believe that attaining success as
a team is a far more gratifying accomplishment. After watching his old friends
training meticulously for the relay race at the Prefectural Tournament, Rin
gradually comes to remember what he had lost by becoming a solo swimmer, and eventually
remedies his relationship with Nanase and co by the end of the series.
Basically there’s a lot of ‘doing your best’, the importance of friendship, and
serious sports, which if any of you have seen Prince of Tennis, can probably
picture what kind of anime Free! Is like.
Free! Eternal Summer continues on this note, with Nanase
and Makoto returning as 3rd year upperclassmen, making this their
last chance at making it to regionals as the Iwatobi Highschool team. For
progenies like Rin and Nanase, it’s also a crucial time in their swimming
career; a chance to be scouted by a university and take their swimming talents
to the next level.
To be honest, I was quite surprised they managed
introduce something deeper than the turbulent friendship problems which acted
as Free!’s overarching theme and plot in the first season. Given that the
friendship between Rin and Iwatobi was mended, I thought this anime had run out
of viable plotlines. The happy ending killed my ideas for any follow ups. But
then I remembered. Final year of high school. What could be better for a
slice-of-life anime with super beautiful athletes who have been friends since
time immemorial, having to deal with growing up and consequently, growing apart?
Perfect. Bring on the tiny swimming
shorts and tears.
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| You know, just in swim shorts all the time. |
Now there have only been 8 episodes so far, but what
the anime has shown is that friendship remains centerfold in the show, and
rather than focusing on the Iwatobi versus Samezuka rivalry, the series looks
inwards into the happenings of each school’s swim club, highlighting the
troubles between Samezuka’s friendship group and Iwatobi’s. This is something I
prefer. While the anime did go through the trouble of having two different
school lives, this season feels a bit more exclusive; like Samezuka doesn’t
only exist to cover Rin’s storyline. There’s a lot more depth and intricacy
added to the Samezuka plot now that Rin has to handle a new role as captain of
the swimming team, alongside the return of his old school friend, Sousuke, who
seems to embody all of Rin’s old ideals and beliefs about solo-swimming. Conversely there’s the Iwatobi crew, whose
main ulterior dispute aside from their upcoming bid for nationals, is what to
do after high school. While Nanase has it made as a professional swimmer, he’s
locked into his ‘free’ mentality where he doesn’t do anything that might go
against his laidback principles.
Similarly, Mokoto has to find a career path
that might not involve Nanase, who has been his partner in crime since forever.
Aside from all the muscles and tech-swim talk, it makes for an interesting
underlying plot.
Overall, the anime is something I don’t really think
about. It’s pretty: the boys are pretty, the animation is pretty, the water is
pretty, the storyline is basic and the dialogue is eighty percent name-calling:
(ie: Nanase: says something deep and meaningful about water. Mokoto: -glittery
eyes- Haru…) This is just artwork pornography; a delightful reminder that art
is better than reality. Sometimes it’s painful watching the script writers shove
in their moments of deep and meaningful dialogue – which always ends up with
the aforementioned glittery eyes and characters responding by repeating each
other’s names, but I deal with it because there’s muscles and colours, and the
drawing style is absolutely appealing. The times I really enjoy the anime is
when it retraces its comedic routes and capitalizes on the fact that this is a
girl’s show for ladies wanting to watch unbelievably ripped swimmers all day.
Gou is a great reminder of that causal motive, and the show repeatedly returns
to her fixation with muscles to stress this point, making it appear self-aware
which in turn makes the serious moments easier to stomach.
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| LOL. Alright, the fan-service is pretty good. |
I love this show so much! Even if it is really bad lol. Who's your favourite character??
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