Free! -Iwatobi Swim Club-
a review by Unwelcome
Unwelcome
1 year ago·Apr 28, 2025
90
/ 100
a review by Unwelcome
1 year ago·Apr 28, 2025
・ English is my second language, there may be errors in my grammar..
・I try to make a spoiler-free review, however, in the section opinion might have some spoilers.
・General experience ≠ Final score. My personal score is based in 5 star system, so I tried to put an accurate number here, but isn't always the case.
・Locate (Brief) Conclusion + Recommendation section where the main points are summarized.
Haruka Nanase is a boy who found himself charmed by the water; for him, the most important thing is to swim in freestyle form, without strings attached. He dives. His reality changes thanks to his friends. If it were for them, Haru would never participate in a swimming tournament, but in the special Matsuoka Rin, who incentivizes him, he shares his dream of becoming an Olympic swimmer, something that Haru can’t understand because he always swam freestyle. As a result of the teamwork, they managed to win the medley relay. The spark of that day vanished in front of the departure of Rin; they separated their route, leaving a strange void of the discord that had grown in silence.
At the present time, the swimming center of which they were part will be demolished. Unexpectedly, one day they find Rin, who has returned from Australia as a different person hoping to compete against Haru in that place; however, things did not turn out as expected. They have wounds that didn’t heal. Since the time they discovered the pain of competitions, their encounter with swimming allows them to understand each other to a certain extent. Now, with the creation of the Iwatobi Swim Club, encouraged by the idea to meet Rin, Haru decided with his friends to prepare for the Tournament Prefecture.
In the beginning of the story, it unfolds how Haru is unable to create new bonds with others through swimming, despite having had a memorable experience winning the first relay as a child. Quickly, the story concentrates on Rin, who returns as someone else, destroying these beautiful memories. As a result, by impulse, Haru unwittingly gets involved in the swim team, unintentionally wanting to swim again like that time.
Under those circumstances, we can understand the frustration of not reaching your dreams, contrasting with the disorientation of not knowing what to do with your life. Despite being good at something and not exploiting that potential, Haru all that time felt bad for beating Rin, who that time decided not to swim again.
About the visual aspects, being an anime from Kyoto Animation of 2013, I find quite a consistency and fluidity of movement when they are swimming, and the stages look quite detailed and colorful. The production manages to immerse you in the freshness of a memorable summer, where the sparkles on the water invade the screen. Furthermore, the soundtrack gives us memorable songs, some more striking and others more tense in drama. This anime stands out in the feel part of Iwatobi’s Team, where boys with quite different personalities seek to find that "sight" that only appears in a special moment through swimming.
On the whole, during this story you will see how their rivalry grows to become a mutual understanding of the existence of the other, where they seek to recreate that encounter of teammates. In the end, all the characters have something to tell us, connecting different possibilities for the future, where they want to be able to see that "sight" that represented their desire to continue improving as swimmers.
If you want to be part of this interesting world where the passion for swimming unfolds personal search and emotional development accompanied by realistic and *stunning visuals and competition*s with a catchy soundtrack, then this anime is for you.
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