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Oct 13, 2018
It's always a mystery why some animes spend so much time on character design and special effects, just to focus on elements that doesn't have anything to do with these.
"HisoMaso" or Hisone to Maso-tan is your tipical anime that you would like to watch on your evening, just to kill some time and chill. You aren't going for anything great, but its fun enough to keep some minutes of your attention, but dragging itself into a huge moe fest in the end. Characters that were fairly unique, are treated equality and end up with the exact same problems and the huge cliche that follows almost
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every female character in anime: Love.
HisoMaso teases some action, at least that's what's expected after so much training and worrying, but after the initial stages, you get yourself wondering what make these characters so unique to be chosen by the VOT's, because the anime excuse is so generic that almost any character imaginable could fit into these girls shoes. Even their personality traits doesn't offer much, but maybe that's on purpose. The less personality and uniqueness a character hass, more people could relate to them and love them more; strategy really present in JRPGS when the MC doesn't talk at all so you could fit into their shoes. Here, it's all the pilots.
The military side can be left aside without any problem, and one has to wonder why they spend so much time hiding their secret, and why it never leaked up to the population. The dragons say fairly in the open, with huge hangars and a lot of people coming in going - from mechanics to the higher ups. The training and "military life" are just a plot device to some dialogues, with only one character that at least seemed to know it was in the Air Force. There is not a single trait that make them special, aside from the famous anime line "you are special" that everyone tells them, but they fail to make it worth it.
The end tries itself too hard. Even the climax moment is already left aside minutes after by all the other characters not caring much, because - as much as we - they know how it will end due to how obvious it is.
With the artstyle combined, HisoMaso looks like a cartoon from the evenings that just tries to be fun, while not going to any direction, be comedy, or action, or even romance. We have a character that's supposed to speak its mind without consequences, but even that the direction of the plot is so obvious that even the journey lacks the excitement factor to keep it engaging. It's a shame though, because the dragons design and the idea overall could lead into some really clever scenes and commentary, with a lot of room to explore from all the elements in the table.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Oct 12, 2018
What a huge disappointment.
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Story/Characters:
If Free managed to get its identity in its first season, and more or less holded that into the second one, the third season Dive to the Future is a huge disappointment, full of cliches and repetitive formula spammed all across the episodes.
For starters, you absolutely have to watch the previous movies to at least care about the characters and some plot points, otherwise you will be left outside of the group, not even knowing what some scenes means, or what happened in some flashbacks. But that's solely because the anime focused on drama...
Oh, the drama. Let's talk about the drama.
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If Free managed to grab attention on its first seasons, this one used past cliches and plot lines repeatedly but with other characters. Half of these 12 episodes are spent in something that we already saw in past seasons, trying really hard to make the spectator care about a particular problem, but already making it clear how it will end.
Formulas are repeated over and over to a point it looks like Saint Seiya. You have 2 to 3 characters in each category and the character whose name is screamed the most, will win. If their name is not screamed that means it will lose, just to plot device the next episodes into a huge drama to be unfolded to some sentences you take from your luck cookie. You can almost take those shounen lame quotes from any anime out there and place on Free!:DF and it will work.
Some people complaining about fanservice and fujoshi bait: The anime never advertised otherwise, so if the characters look gay or something and that annoys you, you aren't the target audience. It's simple as that. I myself love a good fanservice with boys, but even that is lacking in Free and the drama stole everything. I admit there are some good shots here and there, but it's lackluster compared to the 1st and 2nd seasons. Dive to the Future is lackluster not because is gay, but because the actual drama is cliche, overused, repetitive and obvious.
Oh, and there are coincidences all over the place. All. Over.
No action whatsoever. Of course, I speak metaphoric because its an anime about swimming, but almost no swimming happens, and when it happens the result is so obvious that isn't worth it to watch it.
And last... That cliffhanger.
When I speak about this cliffhanger I'm not only speaking about the final scene, I'm talking about a lot of characters that were introduced just to make any difference in the next season in 2020. We spend 3 episodes learning about these characters, a little bit of their personality traits and one or two dialogues, only to be left with nothing and hang to the next season. The season finally just brags about more cliche drama until its over and can end on a "?" note.
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Art:
If you are in for the fanservice, you are going to have a fun time. Art-wise this anime is absolutely great and definitely a level up from previous seasons. I have yet to say that no one has a better water than Free!. Some shots are fun to look and some reactions are the little sugar in this journey of boredom.
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Sound:
What the hell happen to the sound? There's a particular OST that plays in some scenes that feels completely out of place. One of the scenes - night, in the park and two characters - which was supposed to be taken seriously, has its atmosphere broken by this techno-like song.
And...We have actual English in the anime. Even though they don't have a strong accent, it feels out of place to a point that I believe they used a third party company to make those sentences and only sent the audio, since even the sound quality is disconnected. One English character has a voice so weird that is unsettling.
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Conclusion:
All in All, Free!: Dive to the Future is a huge filler that doesn't add anything to the story, holds itself into obvious dramas, and makes the main character way more important than he deserves to be. To an anime that introduced so many characters, why they even exist if everyone keeps focusing on Hakura like he's this untouched entity? There are one or two plot points that could have been explored way better, but instead they are holded by formulas that worked on the past and are used again in the same fashion. If you are in for a good cute boy's club melodramatic thing, you are in for a fun time, but don't expect anything spectacular.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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