Anime Review | Free! - Eternal Summer (Lights, Camera, Action!)

Free! - Eternal Summer (UK Rating: PG)

The first season of Free!, entitled Iwatobi Swim Club, followed stoic protagonist Haruka Nanase as he began his second year of high school, reminiscing about his time in elementary school where his group of friends all joined the swimming club there and even managed to win the big relay race. Since then, the group had mostly gone its separate ways. His friend, Rin, left to join a swim school in Australia, Nagisa moved away, so just Haruka and his best friend Makoto remained together in school. Haruka's love of swimming and water had stayed with him since then and when Nagisa transferred into his high school with the same passion for swimming, the boys began to reunite their swim club and even discovered Rin had returned from Australia and was studying nearby at Samezuka Academy. Through the first season, the boys recreated the swim team, reopened the school pool, and recruited a new member to the team in the form of Rei Ryugazaki.

This second season picks up in a new school year, which means the third years from the first season are moving off into graduation, Samezuka Academy is losing its captain, Seijuro Mikoshiba, and Rin is tapped to take the lead as the new captain in his final year. Meanwhile, some of the boys from Iwatobi are forced to look beyond swimming and beyond high school as graduation looms on the horizon. They need to make big decisions about their future! Colleges, careers, the real world… it's a hard time for everyone and they each have to face what it means to them.

A new year also means a new class of first years, which means some new characters ready to join the team. Seijuro's little brother, Momotaro, joins Samezuka Academy and seems to share some of his brother's tendencies, from his powerful backstroke to his passion for Iwatobi's club manager, and Rin's little sister, Gou. The biggest new character in this season, though, is Sousuke Yamazaki, Rin's childhood friend and first rival who bursts back into Rin's life when he transfers to Samezuka Academy.

Free! may well be a fan-service show, but that doesn't mean it lacks depth. This second season has themes of friendships and rivalry, yet, most importantly, looks at growing up and the changes in life as people grow apart. Rei and Nagisa being a year younger have to deal with the fact that their best friends will be leaving them this year. Rin also finds that his old friend returning to his life turns his world upside down; the two always had a tumultuous rivalry with differing opinions on their reasons for swimming and now Sousuke is back to push Rin to his full potential as a singles swimmer instead of in a relay. Haru has a particularly brilliant arc, slipping into an existential crisis. This seemingly quiet and cool character is pushed to breaking point, forced to question why he swims and to decide if swimming could be his future when it would no longer mean just swimming for himself but for an audience, for a team, and for championships.

Free is a Kyoto Animation (KyoAni) show and, thus (of course), looks absolutely beautiful. The fantastic bright palette and smooth animation delivers a quality looking product regardless of what the cast is doing. Where the series looks the very best is during the swimming; the water looks fluid and alive, with the swimmers looking dynamic as they cut through it with ease. The camera work and animation really work together well for a superb looking final product. Then, of course, there's the fan-service. There is plenty of it, with the boys tearing their clothes off while the camera takes advantage of every angle, regularly standing in just the tiniest of trunks barely up to their waists and often placed in… suggestive angles. On the topic of presentation, there are dual audio options here and both are fantastic; dub fans will be won over by big names like Johnny Yong Bosch and Vic Mignogna, while in Japanese, Nobunaga Shimazaki (recently starring as Shinichi in Parasyte the Maxim) and Mamoru Miyano (Light from Death Note) round out a solid cast in both languages.

This collection packs plenty of extras to keep fans happy. There are the usual trailers and clean opening/closing, along with web previews, and illustrations, including the extended end card collection, promo videos, web previews, and even commentary tracks. The commentary tracks are for episode one and episode seven; episode one has Jay Michael Tatum - lead writer for the series and voice actor - who teams up with Jerry Jewell - series director and voice actor to  Momotaro. Commentary on episode seven has a bigger cast; Jerry Jewell is back and joined by his Samezuka compatriots, Ian Sinclair who voices Sousuke, Nitori voice actor Josh Grelle, and, finally, the celebrated voice actor Vic Mignogna who plays Rin in the dub. These commentary tracks are always fun to listen to; seeing a glimpse behind the scenes along with inside jokes and their own view on the series. This collection also contains the special OVA "Forbidden All-Hard!" where the cast takes part in a cultural festival, including some cross-dressing cafe fun, and then a water pistol battle royale.

8/10

Great - Silver Award

Free! - Eternal Summer is undoubtedly made with its female audience in mind, but, just like how the best fan-service shows for men can ingratiate themselves with the female audience through the strength of characters and story, Free! also accomplishes the same feat here. The first episode sees the third year students graduating and passing the torch, and in a fitting closure, the finale episode again sees the new third year students graduate, too; a truly satisfying conclusion to the series.