Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
maya_kotori
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 bea…
Read at the sourceValentine07
(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 episod…
Read at the sourceFAKECROSS97
Well, I must say, Free!: Eternal Summer is truly a masterpiece of anime storytelling. The plot is so riveting and complex that you'll need a Ph.D. in physics just to understand what's going on.
As for the style, it's so unique and groundbreaking that I'm sure it will be studied by film students for centuries to come. The animation is so lifelike that you'll swear you're watching real people swim.
Let's talk about some of the main characters, shall we? They are so deep and multi-dimensional that you'll need a therapist to help you unravel their complexities. Each character has their own personal demons to conquer, and watching them struggle and overcome their obstacles is truly inspiring.
The music in this anime is so sublime that it's like listening to angels sing. The soundtrack is so…
Read at the sourceStormy_77
Story 7/10
The start of summer and swimming season is depicted in all it's slice of life glory in Free!: Eternal Summer. The story was quite good. I liked that this focused on the psychological aspect of sports, not just the physical ones like injury and technique. It really showed that a huge part of what makes a winner is the ATTITUDE, not just the physical ability and talent.
Character 5/10
This is why character Because in this series, we have Haru, the ultimate super talented emo douchebag with a quitter mentality. Anything goes wrong, he quits. I thought was completely sick of the predictable sports tensai heroes who all love their sport, are passionate about it, have raw talent and never think of quitting only working harder. And then there's Haro who is ... in two words ... emot…
Read at the sourceHudsonwt
Pretty solid season, though I think I liked the first season a little more overall. The finale for this season felt a little weak. This season did trigger swimming PTSD in me multiple times though, which I'm not if that's a positive or a negative about this show. Also, a lot of the same problems that I had about the last season apply to this season. Some of the characters are still annoying and the overzealousness the characters have about swimming can be a bit off-putting. In the end though, i enjoyed it for the most part. They ended this season in a really good spot so it'll be interesting to see how they continue the third season.
As I'm writing this its really starting to hit me that I have less than five days left in my last high school swim season. I'll definitely continue swimming…
Read at the sourceResting_Bonfire
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 o…
Read at the sourceCurryxSake
Drama. Friendship. Swimming. More childhood friends. Free comes back with its next season "Eternal Summer" and I love it.
Eternal Summer now focuses on the characters contemplating about the future as several of the cast will graduate. Some of them already have an idea of what they want, while others still struggle on that question. This leads to drama and when it comes to Free it does the job. What I found impressive about the series is its pacing. To be able to tell the stories of two rivaling swim teams while fleshing out and giving the main cast involved personalities and character development is very impressive cast management and I grew to love everyone.
The characters are just as likeable and in-depth as ever. Haruka, in particular, faced a lot of soul searching and character gro…
Read at the sourcekuroganemiyako
I don't normally write reviews but the reason why I'm writing a review for this series is because of the last two episodes. At first, I wasn't really into the series but when I saw those two episodes, I got a different vibe, the animation, the music and the plot of it was really amazing! I still can't get over how amazing the music was! When it comes to anime, for me, Animation and Music takes a huge role and Free!: Eternal Summer did an amazing job.
I do recommend you to watch this series if the genre is up to your liking, or if you're like me who's enthusiastic over animation and background music.
Read at the sourcePheonixlea
A Quick Review
My biggest Take-away : I watched it as the squeal to the first season expecting it to be similar but it focused a good amount on finding your dream and questioning what you want to do with your life after school, which is a really deep topic to cover if you're watching while trying to figure out your future.
This season, I think, had a good amount of lessons for life.
The visuals were great
The ED was amazing and super catchy, at least to me. I had a lot of contradictory feelings when I didn't know who I wanted to win.
It was a lot of fun to watch.
Read at the sourcegingermemequeen
Free! Eternal Summer did not have to go that hard. The first season of Free! was your average sports anime. It was good and enjoyable, but it had nothing that mindblowing or different from your standard sports anime. So going into the second season of Free!, I expected the same atmosphere as the first season.
Eternal Summer is absolutely outstanding. It lifts the bar for Free! in every way. It's not a masterpiece, by any means. (I'm not sure if it's possible to call any sports anime a masterpiece), but it successfully builds upon the ideas from the past season and improves them. I really did not expect a change in quality from this season, but I was completely shocked to see how much better this season is from the first.
Your favorite characters from the first season return, followed by…
Read at the source11chadwick
Free!: Eternal Summer is better than the first Free!. It adds a new character who is better than most of the previous characters. All of the good things about the first series, with its colour palette and animation, are just as good here and sometimes better. Scenery improves especially in the Australia episodes, which have proper Australian voice actors instead of Americans. The main rivalry from the first season evolves from spiteful into friendly. The competition this season is fiercer and it brings up problems like sports related injuries and how they affect people.
Very fun show, worth watching if you liked the first one.
Read at the sourceBrondi
Review em ingles:
The anime can be very cool for both those who do not enjoy swimming and those who enjoy swimming, the plot is pretty cool, but it bothers me the characters appear by chance, the guy who lives on Mars meets the face of the land in Jupiter, the two swim, they meet again on earth ... WTF type, but the water animation, it's beautiful, it's incredible, it's ... INCREDIBLE, the characters are cool, but we know almost nothing of their past, they're cool just for the personality, why they are not well worked, the 2 friends of Nanase are CRUCIFIEDLY DESPISED, little anime if fuck for them. Some competitions in the water could be better, like the last one, and some could be worse, like there is a useless thing that is all well done, there in the competition we only see them giving…
Read at the sourcePiano_Chan
Free! While I didn't write a review for the first season yet, I can say I enjoyed the second more and it was overall better.
The characters which were lacking in the first season now got the love they deserve and got some motivations for what they are doing.
The art style remained the same, which is good news, being top notch from the start. The songs were good but not near as engaging as the first season.
The plot was better spaced out and more intriguing.
I overall enjoyed the show more than the first season, which is a great thing considering the first season was also entertaining. The fan service is still there <3.
Watch it for a good laugh, pretty boys and if you are into Sports anime, or swimming especially.
Read at the sourceBabyGirl06301
This anime is just guaranteed to make me cry, huh?
I am seriously so in love with the characters in Free! They are all so dynamic and loving and beautiful. Beyond Nagisa, Rei, Makoto, Haru, and Rin, I've found new characters to love in this second season. It was also a wonderful continuation of the first season's conclusion.
Another point I adore about this anime is the lessons it has to teach with it's story. It deals with the very rough issue of the future and what to do with it. I think this anime would be a particularly good watch for an audience in their late teens to early twenties (which happens to be my age group). Free! really spoke to me, especially in this season.
I could go on and on about how touched I was by this anime, but I will leave that for you to experience on your…
Read at the sourceisahbellah
Personally, I prefer the first season. In S2, besides having a pretty lackluster beginning, they created a new character (Sousuke) and gave him SO MUCH SCREENTIME. I H A T E D Sousuke, I couldn't bring myself to like or care about this character, and when he was in the center of the episode I felt so lazy that I didn't even feel like keep watching...
I think this character was made ONLY so Rin could "have someone" the same way Haru has Makoto. But then, Rin already had Nitori (in a way), so... ??????????????
After the anime stopped force-feeding us Sousuke and turns the focus back on the main characters, it starts to get good.Haru's character development was great (maybe even better than Rin's in S1), as well as Rin's and all the boys.
A thing that I hated as well was that at the end of…
Read at the sourceekal
Free! Eternal Summer took me for a ride starting from episode 3 till episode 13. Albeit very confusing at first (and last), I eventually learned the hottest guy's name and was satisfied with that. I'm fairly confident that most people watching Free! Eternal Summer will be able to learn at least one of the character's names before the abrupt ending.
The ending was, Lacking. It was rather unbelievable that the last episode hyped up the nationals swimming competition with a 20 minute intro (without an opening) about their pasts and reminiscing about their stories together, but the team ended up getting *th place. (no spoilers in the guidelines).
Read at the sourcevolleydorks
Story - 4
Art/Animation - 8
Sound - 4
Character - 4
Enjoyment - 4
Overall - 4
It's a nice anime, something to watch when you're waiting for the next episode of some other anime to come out. It's nothing special, though. There is character development, but it's not really significant. Although this is meant to be about swimming, the anime gets too tied up with all sorts of friendships and problems that aren't really problems, and I feel like that takes away from the magic of swimming.
The animation is stunning, and the soundtrack is pretty nice. But I feel like this anime gets way too overhyped when it really isn't anything that special. I found myself quite bored while watching this, although I watched both seasons in the hope that it would start to pull me in. I just... I wasn't that en…
Read at the sourcesaeid_2k
It really is something special when you are emotionally invested in something. Foe me Eternal Summer made me do something I have not done in months and that is shed tears when watching an anime.
Free eternal summer follows Haru, Nagisa, Rei, Makoto and Rin one year after the first season as they attempt to enter the national tournament, and also, dealing with the fact that it is the last year of high school for Haru. Makoto and Rin.
I really enjoyed the story of free and the characters as well. One of the best episodes was episode 5 where Nagisa runs away from home and we learn how much swimming means to him, and that entire episode was phenomenal. I also, enjoyed the new members to the Samezuka team Souske and Momo. The scenes in which the characters are interacting with each other and…
Read at the sourcetachibanananase
Admittedly, I watched this series because I was interested in seeing hot shirtless boys, but that's not the point here. Free! Eternal Summer was certainly a much bigger improvement than its predecessor for the following reasons.
Story (7/10)
I'd give this story a 7 because I feel that this season's pacing was a lot better than the first and more things were explained and elaborated, like Sousuke's shoulder. His pain and anguish can be seen quite constantly throughout the series and it wasn't thrown in or cast out so quickly just for plot convenience.
Art (9/10)
The art is certainly one of the best things out of the show. The character designs, especially, was able to encompass each of the characters' individual personalities and traits, making them easy to identify and remember.
Sound…
Read at the sourcenyuupaii
Before I get into the juicy stuff, let me just summarize the anime real quick w/o spoilers.. Free! Iwatobi Swim Club is about a group of four or so teenage boys, Haruka, Makoto, Nagisa, and Rei, who all possess pretty top notch swimming skills (with an exception for Rei), starting a swim club. Of Course there is a lot more to the premise of the story than that, but I unfortunately can’t say anymore without spoiling the fun of the series. However, this anime isn’t just about swimming, it also focuses on the hardships of friendship and childhood drama/trauma...
I really enjoyed this lighthearted anime, it had me giggling, smiling, and falling off the edge of my seat the WHOLE TIME! The animation is simply astonishing, the quality really brought the anime to life! Which is why I gave the art…
Read at the source
