Free! Iwatobi Swim Club Anime Review.

So here I am wracking my brain for things to review, and then I realize; why don't i review...okay I didn't realize anything, this is just supposed to stimulate said realization. So I'm going to review Free! Iwatobi Swim Club, cuz why the hell not?

Oh here's some music for you to listen to. You know as you read the post.

Think about this in your best 'In a World Where' voice. When I asked for something other than moe slice of life romantic comedies, I didn't expect this to by Kyoto animation's response. It's safe to say that Kyoto animation took a bit of a gamble on this one. Kyoto Animation has a history of making their anime appeal to a certain demographic. Namely boys, who want to see girls with eyes the size of dinner plates, voices that make me think that they had a unfortunate accident with helium, and enough innocence, they might as well be called Allen Walker. Now for those of you who don't know (I don't know how) anime has been plagued for many years with something called fan-service. Or to say it more harshly, the objectification of a girl's body. Free says, 'Screw that' and goes on to make a show about objectifying men.


Animation-- Really, I have to dedicate a section to animation in an anime developed by Kyoto Ani?! No, I don't. It's basically like saying that Crysis is going to have amazing graphics; it's redundant and everyone knows it. After making the Haruhi Suzumiya adaptation, Kyoto animation found itself swimming in a sea of money so large, it could end world hunger. Thankfully they did the right thing, and spent it all on anime. So the show looks amazing, there are practically no recycled frames, even during conversations. The way character designs look are appealing and move with fluidity. Basically any Kyoto ani fan doesn't need to be told that animation is amazing, and for the rest of you, It's amazing. Were done here!



Plot--Seeing as its a sports anime the plot revolves around a tournament, what a surprise. Anyhow there really isn't much of a plot during the show, as it can basically be summed up with a training montage, and then this gif

Anyhow the story starts as Makoto, a childhood walks in on a slice of life version of Setsuna, except instead of having a deep fleshed out love for gundam, he has a deep, honest love for water. And when I say walks in on I don't mean just walks into his house. The two go to school only to find another childhood friend, who I'm who I'm  pretty sure is the equivalent of a loli. The trio then decide that they should start a swim club. Of course they have to raise members, and instead of doing the sensible thing (which would be recruiting whoever is in the literary club, grabbing your sarcastic classmate, then abducting your senpai, before recruiting the mysterious transfer student) they decide to use... waiting for that drum-roll... 

Hmmm, well I would join...

Alternatively, they could just perform a strip show. They would certainly get enough members there. Even better, they could put on Romeo and Juliet, except with one of them as Juliet and another as Romeo. Judging from the amount of fan-girls surrounding them, I'm sure they'd get a metric ton of members. 


Sound-- Sound track is pretty damn amazing, which you should be gathering right now, if you're doing what I told you at the top of this post. Well considering Kyoto Animation's track record it can be reasonably said that both the ending and opening are going to be amazing. Once again though, a picture's worth a thousand words, and with the amount of frames per second Kyoto Animation puts in, I guess I might as well have a full length novel.

The voice actors are good. I mean for us guys, it'll probably be like 'oh hey it's a bunch of guys acting like moe girls, what fun'. For girls however, you'll probably have the reaction fan-boys have to moe girls 'aw sugoi desu!' With a few hnnnnnnngngnngnnngnngnngngngs for good measure. The only thing that would make this better is if Haruka was voiced by the same voice actor as Setsuna. ironically Mamoru Miyano is actually in this anime, just not voicing Haruka.


Romance--No, you have fan-fiction and Tumblr, go bother someone else. 


Characters-- You know the characters in this are...fun. For you ladies, it's basically like having a show based around Eren and Levi, the difference being, that this shipping is actually gay while the chances of Eren X Levi happening, are about the same as a valve game coming out on the exact day it was said to be released. or for you non-gamers, it's not happening.

The characters are fun. Are they deep? Not particularly. I mean at least the tsundere pictured above and below, is actually a freaking good tsundere.

There are actually some really good moments with the characters in this anime. And yes, sometimes this anime actually got me to stop laughing and take a serious look at both the characters and the relationships that bond them together...and then I would remember this

I can't even. This is fantastic! Seriously though anime of the year.

No, but really. This anime has some of the most fun characters in any anime I've seen. It has good dialogue, and in general there wasn't a character I didn't like...okay well aside from Mr. I Hope Senpai Will Notice Me. Most of the five main male characters fill in a sort of moe stereotype that shows that Kyoto is aware that they are supposed to be working on Haruhi season 3, while at the same time being pretty self aware. You have the super serious guy who couldn't smile if a fluffy cat made of love and cuddly fur was shoved in his face, the understanding childhood friend, the rival, the guy who wears glasses and is automatically a genius, and finally the character who feels like Kyoto animation is throwing out so they can exclaim 'it's okay guys we are still a moe animation studio. One other character, the only girl in this series, is basically representative of the entire target demographic. Anyhow, the characters are fun, and always entertaining. Not a ton of character development here, but there is some.

No, his arm was just blocking her view of the window, come on guys.

Fanservice-- Well I guess I have to dedicate an entire section to this because it's just that important. in case you haven't noticed from above gif, this anime does not exactly have your typical fanservice. In short it focuses on guys instead of girls. Now apparently there's a huge antifandom that has taken a hold of this anime. They are opposed to the way Kyoto animation has gone outside of its moe roots. Uggghhh. i got less than five hours sleep last night, and I really don't feel like doing this, but this pretty much sums it up;

No, really guys, it's not like we haven't seen fan-service aimed at a female demographic before. Come on, tell me that the idea of sweaty men with muscles that are more defined in the dictionary has not been done before. Dragon Ball Z, Jojo's Bizarre adventure, hell even a show like Fate Zero, has instances of this kind of fan-service. Now call me sexist or just hetero sexual, but I find male fanservice to be much less distracting than female fan-service. So I for one can enjoy this so much more than other anime. In fact male fan-service is pretty funny to me. I mean from the amount of dodgy camera angles to the rampant satire of other tropes of anime, are freaking hilarious. And for all of you who think that this is the end of moe as we know it, I'll say one thing. Moe is not going to stop, fanserivce is not going to stop.You are still going to have your K-ons, you're still going to have your Highschool DXDs. Why? Sex sells, and guess who makes up the target demographic of most anime. There is a reason the shonnen genre is still the most popular genre in anime. So, is it so bad to let the ladies have some fanservice? Hell, if you're like me, then you'll be laughing your ass off throughout whenever this kind of fanservice comes up. So give it a rest guys.

In the end Free! is a fun anime. It's got great animation, a script that kept me laughing. It's characters aren't really deep, but that's cool. I don't watch sports anime all that much, so I can't really judge, but it was fun. I mean as someone who swims competitively it was interesting to watch everything play out . Anyhow, I recommend this anime. 

Even after three days of editing, this review still felt not so good. If you actually did like it, dropping a like following or just spreading the word, really helps. Siya next time!