This review will be updated as more episodes come out...
We're back guys! Our dose of the old boys, swimming, and of course, delicious abs. What more can we ask for? I was expecting the novelty of the whole sports element to wear off for me at this point (after all, most of what I can recall from the first two seasons was just really enjoying the beautiful characters and tension between the them) but I found myself pleasantly surprised. Apparently, the makers have not lost their ability to make swimming interesting.
Let's begin by discussing the story-- this is a spoiler free review, so I won't reveal much other than yes, as the title states, this takes place a little bit after the second season. If you haven't seen both seasons, I would highly recommend that you watch them, but if you have seen them but just forgotten most of what happened (which happened to me, unfortunately), worry not! The story is very clean and current, and so far, not confusing at all. Even with the basic background knowledge of the five main characters from the past two seasons, you should be able to enjoy this thoroughly.
Next is the art--- oh boy, it was breathtaking. So many times I had to rewind because I had literally zoned out staring at the gorgeous art. The water, the cherry blossoms at the beginning of the first episode, the character designs (and abs, dear god) are all gorgeous and it's easy to see how much effort went into this.
As for the sound, the opening theme was pretty fun, but I preferred the closing myself. Perhaps I was a little biased by the beautiful, hot characters dancing their hearts out... regardless, closings for Free! have never disappointed.
The characters have all changed but haven't changed, if that makes any sense whatsoever. They all retain their main elements (so far, anyways) but they also have this new maturity to them that I'm really appreciating. However, I can't say they're really what you might call 'deep' characters, so I'm not sure about that yet. But then again, in my opinion, characters for Free! have never been all that deep.
As I mentioned earlier, this review will be updated as I watch more of this, but as of now, I'm really happy with the direction its going.
Have a great day everyone!
UPDATE: To those who feel like this review comments about the boys' looks a little too much... sorry! It's hard to not mention how beautiful our boys are :)
