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

Utsumi, Hiroko Director

Tsuruoka, Youta Sound Director

Yamada, Naoko Episode Director, Storyboard, Assistant Director, Animation Director

Reviews

Mar 22, 2024

Valentine07

Recommended

(Spanish review below)

While the first season focused on creating the swimming club, tacking back swimming and old friendships, this second season brings with it more reflection for each of the characters as to why they swim.
Rin, who already went through this in the first season, is the only character who seems focused (besides Rei). On the other hand, with the pressure of being a prodigy swimmer on his shoulders, Haru is forced to question why he swims and where his future is headed. Personally, I found myself crossed by these issues, although I left high school a long time ago. I don't like its resolution: ... the series doesn't quite explain why Haru makes the decision he does. In that sense, I would have liked him to reflect more on it instead of going from side A to side B in one episode. Although it's my favorite episode of the season.

On the other hand, we have Makoto. Makoto is not a character I particularly love, but I find his problem very interesting: will he continue forever in Haru's footsteps or will he take a new direction? Does he swim for Haru or for himself? In his case, the series takes the necessary time to show us why he makes the decision he makes and it's a decision that is consistent with the character.

I didn't remember Nagisa's drama for some reason, but I really liked seeing this character, who is usually the one who brings joy and positivity to the series, feeling lost, sad, and overwhelmed.

What I don't like about the series: Sosuke. He's a super possessive and toxic friend that I don't really understand what role he plays in the series. At some point, they want to make us empathize with him, but for me it doesn't work. He's a super closed character who has no charisma. Ai is a character that I found unbearable in the first season, but he also made me like him. Not Sosuke. It's true that in the next seasons I come to like him, but in this second one I would like him not to exist. The whole time he was on screen with his drama I was like, "can you leave Rin alone? Thank you."

As always, KyoAni's animation is exquisite. I didn't mention it in the review of the first season, but I'm sure that if it weren't for the animation, I wouldn't like 'Free' as much as it does. For me it's 40% animation, 40% characters, 20% story.

I already talked about fanservice in the review of the first season: I don't care. I neither like it nor dislike it. If it's not there, fine. If it's, it doesn't stop me from enjoying the series either.

...

Si bien la primera temporada se centraba en crear el club de natación, en retomar la natación y viejas amistades, esta segunda temporada trae consigo más reflexión para cada uno de los personajes en cuanto a por qué nadan.
Rin, quien ya pasó por esto en la primera temporada, es el único personaje que parece centrado (además de Rei). Por otro lado, con la presión de ser un nadador prodigio sobre sus hombros, Haru se ve obligado a cuestionarse por qué nada y hacia dónde se dirige su futuro. En lo personal, me vi atravesada por estas cuestiones, aunque hace ya tiempo que dejé la secundaria. No me gusta su resolución: la serie no termina de explicar por qué Haru toma la decisión que toma. En ese sentido, me hubiese gustado que reflexionara más al respecto en lugar de pasar del lado A al lado B en un capítulo. Aunque es mi capítulo favorito de la temporada.

Por otro lado, tenemos a Makoto. Makoto no es un personaje que ame en particular, pero su problemática me parece muy interesante: ¿seguirá por siempre tras los pasos de Haru o tomará un rumbo nuevo? ¿Nada por Haru o por sí mismo? En su caso, la serie se toma el tiempo necesario para mostrarnos por qué toma la decisión que toma y es una decisión coherente con el personaje.

El drama de Nagisa no lo recordaba, por alguna razón, pero me gustó mucho ver a este personaje que es, por lo general, el que trae la alegría y positividad a la serie, sintiéndose perdido, triste y abrumado.

Lo que no me gusta de la serie: Sosuke. Es un amigo super posesivo y tóxico que no entiendo muy bien qué papel cumple en la serie. En algún momento, se nos quiere hacer empatizar con él, pero para mí no funciona. Es un personaje súper cerrado que no tiene carisma. Ai es un personaje que en la primera temporada me parecía insoportable, pero también se hacía querer. Sosuke no. Es cierto que en las próximas temporadas llega a caerme bien, pero en esta segunda me gustaría que no existiera. Todo el tiempo que salía en pantalla con su drama yo estaba como: "¿podés dejar a Rin en paz? Gracias".

Como siempre, la animación de KyoAni es exquisita. No lo mencioné en la reseña de la primera temporada, pero estoy segura de que si no fuera por la animación, 'Free' no me gustaría tanto como lo hace. Para mí es un 40% animación, 40% personajes, 20% historia.

Ya hablé sobre el fanservice en la reseña de la primera temporada: a mí me da igual. Ni me gusta, ni me disgusta. Si no está, bien. Si está, tampoco me impide de disfrutar de la serie.

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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