High☆Speed! Movie: Free! Starting Days

Haruka Nanase and Makoto Tachibana have started middle school and must adjust to the changes that come along with growing up. While Makoto fits in with his classmates and remains positive about swimming, Haruka struggles to befriend others or join his school's swim club, as his previous issues with swimming trouble him. Distancing himself from his lively classmates and the swimming club, he has difficulty deciding which club to join instead. The rest of his classmates, including Makoto, are also hesitant as to which clubs to participate in. After an argument leads them to join the swimming club anyway, the boys strive to hone their skills, harmonize their swimming styles, and refine their conflicting feelings toward swimming and each other.

As determination and talent run high, Haruka and Makoto—along with their classmates—discover themselves and improve their talents during their starting days.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Tachibana, Makoto Main

Suzuki, Tatsuhisa Japanese

Nanase, Haruka Main

Shimazaki, Nobunaga Japanese

Kirishima, Ikuya Main

Uchiyama, Kouki Japanese

Shiina, Asahi Main

Toyonaga, Toshiyuki Japanese

Matsuoka, Rin Supporting

Miyano, Mamoru Japanese

Hazuki, Nagisa Supporting

Satou, Satomi Japanese

Ryuugazaki, Rei Supporting

Hikasa, Youko Japanese

Yamazaki, Sousuke Supporting

Yuuki, Aoi Japanese

Shigino, Kisumi Supporting

Suzuki, Chihiro Japanese

Kirishima, Natsuya Supporting

Nojima, Kenji Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Nakamura, Shinichi Producer

Saitou, Shigeru Producer

Nishide, Masayuki Producer

Reviews

May 13, 2022

Niophoria

Recommended

Emotionally, I’d rate this movie either a 9 to even a 10.
The movie is a large insight on the lives of Haruka and Makoto, after Rin left for Australia, and the “best” swimming team they could have, had to seperate. How do you move forward when you’ve already experienced the best?

[Slight spoilers ahead!]
Haruka and Makoto are first-years in middleschool. Even though the pair’s unsure at first, through some tricks and troubles, they end up joining the school’s swimming club together with Haruka’s new classmates: Asahi Shiina and Ikuya Kirishima.

But a team requires teamwork, and friendship isn’t something you can create just like that. ... New members with different personalities, swimming experience and ways of thinking has the group carrying its portion of struggles, which affects the entire team. Each of the characters are forced to confront each of their individual problems, and - with some help - come to realize their reason for swimming. Asahi and Ikuya aren’t just stand-in friends/teammates for Nagisa or Rei (though they do make their sweet apparences!) but must work through their own struggles as well, to bond as a team. The team’s conflicts leave you feeling frustrated, sad and conflicted in their place, and you learn to understand all the characters - even some you might’ve felt a bit annoyed with at the beginning.

The movie shows how important mental state, relations and one own’s well-being can affect those around you - and the things you care about. Swimming isn’t just swimming, and neither is feeling confident, friendships, family-relations or change. There’s lot to overcome to become stronger! Learning plays a major role.

Overall a great experience, and the calm after the storm personally left me feeling really satisfied and happy. The movie did a great job covering both the past of Makoto and Haruka, while also having its own story and letting us get to know more new characters, you just end up taking a liking to.

The characters learn that even after experienced the best swimming - you can still learn work with the new people towards that same goal. You can learn to embrace the past, the future’s changes, and love the faces that await you by the end of the route, even as they change throughout time!

May you enjoy the movie! Have fun!

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Mar 3, 2022

laurenscottish

Recommended

Being a basic fan of the Free! series, I of course had to watch the movies which followed alongside it!

Free! Starting Days is a wonderful remembrance of the original youth relay which Haru and Makoto were a part of in their first year of middle school, although the story was a tad choppy and misplaced in segments, the overall high quality of all art, sound, and character is what makes the movie superb in my eyes.

There were humorous moments, such as the group camping around Haru`s home, the lunchtime conversations which were lighthearted, but the film was met with an equally heavy presence of ... performance anxiety, being burnt out due to being a certain prodigy all whilst going through adolescence in their new stage of life. Being personally connected to Haru as a "burned out gifted kid", it's nice to see how he overcomes such trivia. The opposing group members represent sibling rivalry while gaining independence, taking the notion that people are human and failure is okay and that each new milestone in life can be overwhelming even the most basic subject such as starting a new year in school - each character represents a different issue, in which they have to learn how to overcome such problems in the time frame.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed "Starting Days", and felt it was similar to the atmosphere the original series gave off and do recommend it to any fans of the show itself.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Dec 20, 2019

11chadwick

Mixed Feelings

High☆Speed!: Free! Starting Days is a prequel to Free!. Prequels are usually made to give more context to the characters and explain why they were the way they were at the beginning of the main show. This movie does not add anything to the first season at all and was made to give context to the third season of the show, which is the worst season. If you ignore the third season, this movie is not worth watching. The colour palette isn't as bright and cheerful as the show and has more calm and subdued colours to fit the tone of the movie. The animation ... is good but never felt more impressive than the show.
If you really enjoy Free!, this movie will not satisfy you very much. It does not detract from your viewing experience, but it does not add to it either.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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