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

Hatta, Shinichirou Producer

Utsumi, Hiroko Director

Tsuruoka, Youta Sound Director

Reviews

Jan 6, 2026

maya_kotori

Recommended

This is honestly such a beautiful anime. The animation is gorgeous, the water scenes are stunning, and the whole vibe feels warm and summery. But I totally get what you mean: there were moments where it didn’t fully pull me in, and I had to push myself a bit to keep watching. Not because it was bad, but because some episodes just felt slower or less engaging. Still, what really makes this anime shine is the way it portrays true friendship. That part is absolutely divine :3 The bonds between the characters feel so real, supportive, chaotic, emotional, and full of that “we’ve been through ... everything together” energy. It’s the kind of friendship dynamic that makes your heart melt a little. Even if it wasn’t perfect for you all the way through, the emotional core of the story is incredibly beautiful. And honestly, for an anime centered around friendship, dreams, and water, it delivers exactly the kind of softness and sincerity that stays with you.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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May 24, 2016

Chiaki__Nanami

Mixed Feelings

I realize this series is more of a fan service anime for girls. I would recommend any girls to watch this anime, but if you're a guy you probably won't get as much enjoyment out of this anime. I gave this anime a 5 because the anime didn't show much competitive swimming. The show focused a lot on fan service. For me, the first season was much better and this season was more of just a copy of the first, they just got better at swimming. Although the characters did evolve throughout this season.

The good points of this series for me was the soundtrack ... was a 10/10. All the songs blended well with the anime. The art was also another one of its strong points. The story was good, but I think it could've been more entertaining at some points. It was a very relaxing anime, but it was mostly do to its soundtrack.

For girls I would definitely recommend this anime!!!

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Feb 19, 2021

Resting_Bonfire

Not Recommended

Free Eternal Summer


As with the predecessor, we mostly have the same problems here.
Must note, however, that things improved slightly here.

The strength of this work is still on animation, representation and implementation of the topic. Unfortunately, that's all.

The characters are still mostly flat, although at least one tries to build conflicts, strengths and weaknesses of the respective characters. The drama genre is still very much in focus. If it were at least good, one could disregard this. Unfortunately, it is a showcase play by some adolescent teenagers who have problems with each other for completely senseless reasons. Melodrama is on the agenda here.
And to make matters ... worse, there is still a lot of fan service for the female fans and very poorly written dialogues.

On the one hand, it is amusing that some scenes have a practical effect like the introduction to a clichéd Yaoi strip. By as soon as the characters start arguing, they immediately tackle, pull towards each other and roar at a distance of 20 centimeters while looking intently into each other's eyes. Almost always asked myself if they wanted to swim or sleep together. The line between the two things was drawn very narrowly here.

The dialogues are still really tough here. The characters just talk around the Topic. The protagonist says nothing in the sense anyway. And the rest of the time they're just talking about how much they'd like to swim with each other. I understand that is the issue. But if the characters have to clarify it twice in each episode, after 2 seasons it looks very bizarre.
I wish you had put some creativity into the scenes and conversations. There is hardly any variety here. It was extremely sluggish to follow their talks.

Among other things, somewhat misleading why the characters were built so emotionally unstable. I can not say whether it has something to do with the female names and was deliberately intended by the writer.
However, the slightest was enough for someone to almost burst into tears or grab the other by the collar.

Story:

There is at least one main story. The teams are preparing for the national championship and there are certain character changes and you can see the teams welding together in one way or another.


Characters:


The characters have done a little more than in the first season. And some of them were at least a bit more mature. Other than that, everything stayed the same. The biggest problem here is that they have been given too little creativity. No matter what you do, it's always the same. Rei brings his usual scenes. Makoto smiles. Nagisa is always excited and Haru says nothing. It is really difficult on a continuous loop.


Conclusion

If you want to watch an anime that deals with the topic of "swimming", you will find it here. However, nobody who values ​​characters, creativity and dialogues should hope for a lot here.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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