Alternate titles: Free!: Iwatobi Swimming Club, Swimming Dudes, That One KyoAni Show With All The Gay
Light Novel Adaptation by Animation Do/Kyoto Animation
Simulcast on Crunchyroll

Premise: Haruka Nanase (Nobunaga Shimazaki) loves the water, but has given up competitive swimming and resigned himself to a normal life. When some old friends who used to be in his swim club show up at school however, his spirit is renewed.

Jel’s Verdict: Good

This may be the first time in Glorio history I don’t have a terrible pun of some kind for my verdict. Free! didn’t bowl me over with amazing swimming action or overwhelm me with emotional storytelling, nor did it feel bogged down by silly slice of life antics or copious pandering to the audience. It was just… good. I think any comparisons to slice of life shows like K-ON! are exaggerated and clearly just because of the studio. There was more passion and determination in this one episode than in that entire series combined. It almost felt like a setup for a sports manga story, but with KyoAni’s subtlety magic toning down the hot-bloodedness into more believable levels. The big question moving forward is where Free! is going to focus most of its attention. Are we going to spend more episodes watching the boys re-form the swim club and pursue their passion or we going to get a lot of them hanging out at school and teasing each other about their girlish names? I think the series will need both to succeed, but I’d like to see more of the former.

Iro’s Verdict: ULTRA GAY

Of course, I mean that in the nicest way possible. I just have no other adjectives to describe the show as a whole. There are pretty dudes and they’re all pretty touchy-feely with each other and like to strip naked and swim with each other. What else can you call a show like that? Honestly though, Free! is solidly built. I didn’t pick out any real issues with the plotting or the characterization, and there’s a clear conflict brewing instead of the “let’s hang around and do nothing” issue that seems to plague other KyoAni shows. We’ll see in a couple episodes how things end up (these things tend to fall flat on their faces after a month or two), but for now I suppose I’m cautiously optimistic.

Lifesong’s Verdict: Surprisingly Solid

Dudes swiming and really just sports in general are very low on my list of things I care about. That said, this first episode was enjoyable. I don’t have much to hate on it for. The boys act all moe, but honestly that doesn’t really bother me at all. It has the roots of a decent story. I would probably love this show if it were full of girls; yet there are no swimmer girls, so I probably won’t. If I hear later that this has an outstanding drama between the boys as they battle between schools to become friends or rivals or whatever it is they do, maybe I will come back and watch more at that point.

Zigg’s Verdict: Refreshing

This is much better than I thought it would be, and that’s because rather than the ‘K-ON! in a pool’ setup I was expecting, we actually appear to have the semblence of a story here. Granted, it’s not the deepest one we’ve ever seen and most of the characters fall into easily pigeonholed stereotypes — gentle giant, hyperactive youngster, etc. Still, KyoAni knows how to turn those stereotypes into likeable characters and this opening episode is decently paced and directed, integrating the flashback sequences well to explain the situation without any need for big expodumps. The fact that we’re concentrating on a mostly male cast adds a nicely different atmosphere to the proceedings and while the fanservice is plentiful, it is, in typical KyoAni style, tasteful and  humorously integrated. It’s a great looker as expected too, with the swimming sequences some standout bits of animation. An encouraging kickoff.

Gee’s Verdict: Unimpressed

Some of the other GLORIO crew members here convinced me to watch the first episode, saying things like it was a solid show and calling it one of the most entertaining anime of the season, claiming it had none of KyoAni’s usual traits that I detest so much. Hell, I love sports manga of all kinds, ranging from the bot-blooded Hajime no Ippo to the passionately down-to-earth Big Windup. So I figured I owed it to myself to try and see past the show’s immensely unappealing KyoAni veneer. Predictably, beyond looking really nice, I found little else to draw me in. If Free!’s “plot” is honestly considered substantial enough to put it above the rest of KyoAni’s works, I’d say that’s damning with faint praise at best. Honestly as an animator, one of my biggest issue is that despite Free! being well animated, it’s also terribly executed. The characters move like little girls at times, bouncing and walking in a cadence more at home with the K-ON! cast. Look, I totally get that these dudes are effeminate, but it seems like the animators aren’t even trying to convince us that the main characters are men. It’s completely jarring and I’m surprised nobody else here has noticed. (Iro’s Note: I did!) Who knows, maybe Free! will end up being a passionate sports story about distant friends coming back together in the spirit of camaraderie and competition. I doubt I’ll keep watching this long enough to find out.

Aqua’s Verdict: Making a splash

Defending Free! from the completely infantile criticism hurled at it before it even started airing, ranging from irrational to downright sexist, would be about as productive as trying to fill a punctured vate. Do not get your knickers in a twist, because aside from the fact that the main characters in Free! are not required to wear a top to go swimming (and the dubstep), Free! fits in perfectly with the likes of K-ON! and Tamako Market. I mean, it even has a silly, grainy dance ending! Once again, Kyoto Animation delivers an unambitious, but quirky slice-of-life show that easily sets itself apart from the competition by getting pretty much everything that defines the genre right. There is a story interesting enough to keep you watching, there is gorgeous animation, there are believable friendships and rivalries going on between the different swimming bros, there is snappy dialogue, there are some quirky gags, and the fanservice is presented with a knowing, playful wink. In fact, with its relaxed bromantic vibes, Free! is much more welcoming to “male” viewers as shows that cater to the usual lonely boy demographic are to the fairer sex. After all, shows that are worth watching defy an overly specific target audience — oh great, now I just ended up defending it anyways.

Marlin’s Verdict: Beats “What Would Ryan Lochte Do?”

I can’t say I was completely sold on this story.One thing I find very strange is how this seems to be a show about creating a swimming club, but only four main characters are shown to be going to this school. As far as I remember, don’t you need a whole bunch of dudes to have a competitive swimming team? I guess that’s kinda a nit-pick when it comes down to it. It was weird seeing fanservice subtext from the other side of the gender divide for once, but it’s something that didn’t bother me so much as mildly amuse me every time it happened. I’m not quite in love with the show yet, but it definitely had enough to keep me going another episode.