Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
For_Reign
First of all, I must say that this is my first venture into Sports anime. I'm a sucker for a good slice-of-life anime because I like the realism and the usual pace. I decided to watch this even though I do not like sports. Why? Because swimming isn't like the sports I immensely dislike that require humans to chuck or run around with spherical or oblate objects.
I notice many people talking about fan service, and I was there watching the entire anime in one day wondering where the so called fan service was? I mean, they are swimmers, there are supposed to be half naked throughout the whole thing. There we few instances that may have been seen as fan service but really, I've watched anime with fan service and what I saw didn't really feel like fan service. It felt natural. I am a guy and i…
Read at the sourceJan12
I can't believe I'm writing my first review for a series that I don't like, but I will, and here is why:
1) There is this overwhelming misconception/misunderstanding that all (or most) women/girls/females like this show. And this, is very misleading and (slightly) offending.
2) I cannot understand how some people can compliment the show because of its *developed* characters and *interesting* plot. If you enjoy the animation and fanservice, that's 100% fine. Please just don't slip in misleading points by labeling show to be some kind of deep, well-thought plot or overly complex characters that is mostly non-existent.
So with that long-winded introduction, here is the actual review
Now, I have mentioned before the word "fanservice." I'm trying VERY hard not to be biased, that is why I'm g…
Read at the sourcevassalord-
Let me start off by saying this anime was an abomination. A sadistic tease to any and all romantic anime connoisseurs. And the very reasons this anime made me so utterly livid, was for two simple facts:
Firstly, the aesthetic was simply phenomenal. The artists in charge were undoubtedly meticulously planning these sketches. A swimming anime where the main setting is water. The character's trapeziums flexed with elegant ease, droplets of water acquainting themselves with the crevices of their bodies. Their builds—particularly Makoto Tachibana's, were impeccable. Not overly sculpted, but the perfect amount of chisel. Haruka Nanase's slim, but not overly thin, supple body which danced with suave movements throughout the water. Nagisa's lolita appeal which contrasts with his subtle dominance…
Read at the source_Megami
(This is a review for all of the Free! series, including Free! Eternal Summer, but spoiling neither of them, it is too generic so feel free
to read it)
Mizu wa ikitteiru
Hito tabi tobikomeba, soichu wa tachimachi kiba wo muki osoi kakate kuru
Dakedo, osoreru koto wa nai...
Watching Free! gives you a feeling different from the usual you get when watching anime...like when you're playing a game with storyline and plot-forget Dota 2, remember Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts-and you enter that world. Not necessarily being consumed by it at the point where you can't sense your surroundings or remain ignorant towards the time and place, but willingly letting yourself be absorbed in it, welcoming the reality you're going to enter. Same way Death Note is an anime but also something more, Free!…
Read at the sourceRaveenFleya
First of all, I am a boy, and I love girls.
This anime came from Kyoto Animation, studio that already made Clannad, Lucky Star, K-On, Kyoukai no Kanata and Hyouka. Like it's predecessor, Free! has great quality of art. Nice opening and ending, dynamic movement, cute character, and perfect triceps. I just can't forgot the last one, because it was repeated so fuckin many times in this series. And here we go, my review!
Story: 7/10
Sport. One thing I can say about this genre is, competitive. If it isn't competitive, than it isn't sport anime. But, this one word doesn't fit our main character, Nanase Haruka. He doesn't care about competition or personal record. One thing inside his head just feel the water. But, after his friend, Matsuoka Rin, invite him to a relay, everythings change. He a…
Read at the sourceRisan07
I can't tell you how much I enjoy reading sports manga and watching sports related shows. I was also a competitive swimmer way back in highschool, so when I saw that an anime was coming out about SWIMMING?! Oh yeah, I just had to watch it. Right from the get go I was mortified, the first episode was pretty much showing off the 'eye candy' cast and establishing the background that sets up the premise of Free! It was a major struggle to get through most of it, but I made it through and here I am to tell the world about it.
Story: 6/10
Man, if people think watching competitive swimming is boring, then most of the anime fits right in along with the sport. It's a sport anime in the sense that the boys actually swim in a couple of meets and train for said meets, but it's not quite like other s…
Read at the sourcePurjoloek
So, I wanted a light-hearted anime to get me back into the medium after finishing my Game of Thrones-marathon. I had previously watched some of Ergo Proxy, but it felt a bit dark to hop into after GoT's overbearing nature. I'm not sure what I expected out of it when I started watching, but
Free! is a good anime.
And there's really not too much more to say about it. KyoAni basically made K-ON (just going by what I've seen and impressions, as I haven't actually seen K-ON!)but with dudes in tight clothing and swimming.
The story of Free! is about as simple as it gets, seeing as this is a sports anime in a school setting. There's a group of people who like a sport. The sport happens to be competitive swimming. They start a club at their school (Do Japanese people not have local or regional c…
Read at the sourceWaldy565
"For the team..." - from the director of Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, K-On, Clannad and Lucky Star comes a show about swimming. And you know, I like it. The story follows 5 swimmers, four from middle school to the present (Nanase, Hazuki, Tachibana, Rin), the other a track and field club member who eventually gets won overbfrom Hazuki (Rei) and Rin's little sister, who is also the coach/support for Nanase, Hazuki, Tachibana and Rei. Without spoilers, Rin... Moves on in life without Nanase, Hazuki or Tachibana and this is of course fully explained, and I like how the story shows the guys experiences from both sides. Nanase is our main character, so we see the experience from his side and how he misses swimming with Rin and sometimes doesn't see the point if he can't swim with his former t…
Read at the sourcetuva
There are various types of sports anime such as basketball, baseball, tennis, football, etc. Now this anime focuses on a different sport called swimming and how it's presented in 'shounen-style'.
Story: 5 - Its about a guy named Haruka Nanase who loves swimming though he quit for a while since his childhood but recently is motivated to swim again so that he'll be able to defeat his childhood friend Rin Matsuoka with the Free Iwatobi Swimming club members. The story is more or less really unoriginal and has nothing new to show us except that it's about swimming. One thing I really hated about free was how unclear it was if it was a shounen or shoujo anime because I think it should've just stuck to one side as it was really irritating the way they presented the swimming like a typical sport…
Read at the sourceRawrzz03
Given the fact that I'm not really into school/slice of life anime, Free! turned out be one of the best anime of this kind I've ever watched.
Story: 9
The story is just awesome. The plot has many twists, but what I really really like is that the past is strongly connected to the present. The 4 main characters: Haruka, Rin, Nagisa and Makoto (excluding Rei) are childhood friends who share the same passion: swimming. Life had a funny way of gathering them, tearing them apart and then gathering them back together. I will say more about the characters when I get to that point. Although the action might get a little boring sometimes there is a lot of comedy and me, who doesn't laugh so easily, I find this anime way too funny.
Art: 10
The art is beautiful. The characters are designed very ela…
Read at the sourcepeeyaj
The loud hubbub regarding the announcement of Free! is quite understandable. Here is the animation studio, KyoAni best known for creating and specializing moe for anime fanboys, producing an anime that is aimed at girls and fujoshi! The particular outcry by the male otaku population is funny, in my part. The male fanboys attacking KyoAni for betraying them and jumping the shark by producing an anime that is "outside" of their territory.The attacks including labels as the "gay swimming anime", 'Kuroko's swimming" and threats of boycott. Thousands of manly tears were cried, loud shouts of angry fanboys could be heard at forums and across the internet. But at the end of that fanboy tunnel, a loud sound could be heard, the frantic screaming of fangirls and fujoshi around the globe. So Free!, b…
Read at the sourceFear_the_Reefer
About two weeks ago, I went into Gaia’s AMC forum to post a poll, asking the community what 2013 anime I should watch next. I expected Silver Spoon or Gatchaman Crowds to win, and they received 7 and 10 votes, respectively placing in second and third place. The winner, with 24 votes, was Free! Iwatobi Swimming Club, the notorious #SwimmingAnime that came into existence thanks to a viral animation sample, and an almost revolutionary ‘give us this show’ petition.
So, with almost half of that poll’s 60 voters daring me to dive head first into manservice oblivion, what was I supposed to do? Was I supposed to turn my head, and avoid making eye contact with that glistening banana-hammock of a show? Or was I supposed to test my mettle as a critic against one of the most manhood threatening shows…
Read at the sourceAlexanderRP
Competition is a part of sports and friendship that will never disappear. We want to impress the crowds of people that attend official sporting events and then we want show off to our own special circles. But has our society taken the need of competition and a display of superiority to levels not needed? Or is it something that is a part of our own natural behavior? Whether or not it is natural to us, Free! is the story of when this competition has torn friends apart.
I shall forewarn you, this is a review with spoilers. The story centers around Haruka Nanase who is a talented swimmer and has a genuine love for water. So much that in public he finds it necessary to strip down to the swimming trunks he always wears and bathe in fish tanks. As we see him throughout most of the series, he lo…
Read at the sourceFuyuhpeko
I remember when everyone had just started talking about Free, and they were all hyping about watching it "for fun", for the "rare" female fan-service, and of course the shipping that would most definitely ensue. When I started to watch it, I totally thought that was all it was going to be, too.
Well, if you ever are going to watch Free! because of those very reasons, guess again. The story started to get deeper and deeper. It was about 3 episodes in when they had started introducing sad backstories, which actually were very interesting. They added quite a lot of character to these swimmers who everyone was just going to use as their shipping boy toys. Things got deeper and deeper, and instead of cliche sport animes where the "good team" gains validation by beating the other team, when one…
Read at the sourcemidorimacchis
first, this is my first review that i'm writing here, sorry for spelling mistakes if you see any!!
i couldn't not write a review for this anime. it's not the type of anime i actually like, and i mean who would think a swimming anime could actually be this good.
every one of the 12 episodes were so enjoyable, and that's the main reason why i gave it a 10. i mean, the story is maybe not the most, well, developed same as the characters, but while watching it just felt so warm and beautiful. about characters and the story. it was just beautiful.
so what is free! actually about. it's about this 4 really hot guys who swim and therefore don't wear shirts most of the time. so this anime i recommend to girls, believe me you will fall in love!
i'm really looking forward to seeing if there will…
Read at the sourceLuckyKrystal
From the minds of the zany, wacky folks at Kyoto Animation (who, as you may recall, brought us K-ON, Clannad, Chunibyou demo koi ga shitai, and Tamako Market) comes Free, a swimming sports anime that can be described as many things.
Free is the secret love story between a boy and his water. Free is also the story about the manly trials and tribulations of being an adolescent male. Free is about the bonding brofest that is high school team sports; it is a testament to the payoff of hard work. But most of all, Free is the story of love and friendship with the fires of youth blazing in the background.
Glistening muscles, dramatic hair flips, wet bodies, gorgeous backdrops, and immensely attractive character designs practically burst out at the viewer, probably to draw our attention away f…
Read at the sourceallegrotime
I remember when the internet was a-buzz about turning Kyoto Animation's little commercial into a full-fledged animation series. Eventually, fans got their "Swimming Anime": Free! And while some aspects of this show I liked, overall it lacks depth. Add on a heaping amount of difficult-to-believe melodrama to the shallowness, and well, it leads to some disappointment. Despite these criticisms though, the show still proved to entertain.
I really appreciated that the show catered to predominantly female-minded fanservice. It's about time that this happened! Anime has had a large abundance of predominantly male-minded fanservice, so this was exciting and refreshing. The animation is also for the most part very attractive and fluid.
When it comes to the plot and the characters that is where th…
Read at the sourceBLoodXRayne
So as you might expect I had pretty low expectations going into this show. I mean a swimming anime? A MALE swimming anime? I thought i was gonna get nothing but manservice (male fanservice) , engorged crotches, unnecessary stripping, stupid illogical characters who jump at any opportunity to take off their tops (or maybe even bottoms) and show off some SKIN! Oh boy was I surprised.
Believe it or not, unlike other of Kyo-ani's works (K-on) which is anime about nothing but being cute, this one is about something. There is indeed a universal message that is substantial. Sure, the fanservice is there but, it's no where near the equivalent we would get from another show. For example, in a show like Eiken, women are degraded and have ridiculous bodies which you can never naturally achieve. Free…
Read at the sourcenana_desu
WARNING: may contain some spoilers and some grammatical mistakes.
Free!... The first show from Kyoto Animation that apparently is fanservice and fanservice only for the ladies. But is that truly right?
No, it isn't.
Before you go and say there are naked cute boys going around hugging for the whole show, I want to explain my point of view and why I scored this with a 9.
Story (9/10)
It's not a complicated spot or anything completely special, but it's refreshing, it's about friendship, loyalty, being able to move forward with the help of others and follow YOUR own dream instead of living a lie. Haru, the main character, only cared about feeling the water since he first started swimming as a kid. He thought that was all that mattered, until Rin shows up and gets him to swim on a relay wit…
Read at the sourcejohnvswild
SPOILER-FREE™
The bleak winter that gave us Tamako
Was gloomy cold for anime aficionados.
But KA showed us a clip
Of male swimmers stripped
And the fujoshi all schlicked on their tacos.
But after the ovaries cooled
It became clear that we must have been fooled There was simply no way
“Manly men just won’t pay”
They’d suffer from endless ridicule.
But KyoAni’s buget was already obscene
So in the summer of 2013
To the moe lovers’ fright
“Swimbros” got the green light
And ultimately graced us as “Free.”
First impressions may cause you to presume
That Free! is just shots of the locker room.
Or homosexual crap
To which ladies can fap
Watching the love between young men bloom.
The gayness is only implied
Although muscle shots are liberally supplied
It’s mostly just sports
And slice of life…
Read at the source