Free! - 1

KyoAni's done it again. So, Free! where do I begin? Honestly, it... actually wasn’t that bad? When I saw the trailer for this, I immediately thought “KyoAni have just shot themselves in the head with this one,” but after watching the first episode, it may not turn out that way.

The episode starts off with a quick flashback to the main character’s younger years. We’re briefly introduced to him and his friends while they enjoy their favourite hobby, swimming. Everyone seems pretty happy, and our main character, Haruka Nanase is introduced as this swimming prodigy. Not only is he a great swimmer, but he loves being in the water. Fast forward a few years. Haruka is now 17 years old, and for whatever reason, has stopped swimming.

That doesn't stop him from spending all day in the water though

That doesn't mean he doesn't want to, however, as we discover when one of his childhood friends, Rin Matsuoka,  reappears after going off to some swimming school in Australia. Rin promptly acts like a complete douche bag to all his old friends and challenges Haruka to a race, to which Haruka accepts without a second thought.

Look at him, how can you not be a total douche when you're this dark and angry-looking

Now, I don’t think I need to mention how beautiful the animation is considering this is KyoAni we’re talking about, but I will mention how thankful I am that they’ve taken a better approach to their male character design than in some of their previous work. Not only do these guys look like guys, they look like 17-year old swimmer guys. The soundtrack also deserves an honourable mention. Whilst I don’t think everyone will like it, the mostly electro/dubstep sounds I think are really fitting, and the switch between different kind of electro sounds adds some great atmosphere to some scenes.

Seriously this animation is so good

So overall first impressions: In terms of style and animation, it’s very appealing (no homo) and the opening gets a 10/10 from me. The story also has a lot of potential, and seems to focus a lot more on the relationships between characters and setting up the story from the beginning than other KyoAni works. Free! is definitely one to look out for, and I have to say I will definitely be following this series.