Recap: During regionals, Rin faces one disappointment after another and in his frustration, decides to call it quits. When Haruka hears about this, the boys are forced to sort out their issues if they still hope to win the relay.

Yes, we get it, Kyoto Animation, swimming makes you feel free. Aren’t you the clever one, now? You already hammered that point home and nailed it to a wall, there really is no more need for a ten-minute sequence of hilariously cheesy visual metaphors. Well, at least you spared us the blatant title drop at the end there. Guess you can’t beat us to death with that stick when you have got a second season coming up. Besides, those ten minutes of cheese all looked gorgeous and after that, there were lots of equally gorgeous, half-naked, crying hunks embracing each other. We can never have enough of those, so I am not complaining. Not more than usual, that is.

While Free! has been surprisingly smart with its drama up until now, the medium’s annoying habit of going all Spinal Tap on its drama level for the last episode does rear its ugly head here as well. From the anguished screaming out of true intentions to the cathartic brawl for the sake of a cathartic brawl, some of the scenes in this episode could have oozed straight out of Mari Okada’s pen, and while I understand that the whole point of Rin’s angst is that he just can’t simply walk up to his old buds and say he wants to be friends again, I don’t see why he has to beat Haru up when the latter finally seems to understand why he is being such an asshat extraordinaire. I definitely discovered some more than serviceable character work in Rin’s entire arc, aided in part by Mamoru Miyano’s stellar performance, but it is most definitely not all strong.

Nevertheless, Free! found itself quite able to finish off on a high note. It was hard not to cheer when Rin got to rejoin his old team, win the race and hug his friends after finally having found the reason that was lying right in front of him all this time. It’s a nice, conclusive ending, even though there’s still some plot threads left open for the taking, such as the relationship between Gou and her brother, fan favourite Seijuurou’s crush on the former, or Miss Ama’s mysterious past as a swimsuit model. No, wait, scratch that last one, we probably don’t want to know anything more about that, do we?

Despite the occasional descent into melodrama, Free! managed to come full circle with its narrative and create a finale that is thematically consistent with the rest of the show. While other slice-of-life anime tend to drop the drama bomb through the roof, Free!‘s more dramatic side has always been able to happily coexist with its more comedic edge. With a decent conclusion to a decent show, Kyoto Animation have once again shown themselves more than capable at making consistently entertaining material around the clock. Nevertheless, the wait for their truly ambitious masterpiece remains just as grating. With Beyond the Boundary, everyone’s favourite provider of cute fluff seems to be delving back into supernatural action territory — to many a fan’s relief. Then again, if there is one thing Free! has taught us, it has to be that for Kyoto Animation, doing something completely different is most definitely no priority.

Final impressions

From the very beginning it was obvious that, despite the “daring” shift of target audience, Free! would not budge an inch from the established Kyoto Animation formula. With the flesh, blood and beating heart of shows like K-ON!, Tamako Market and Hyouka pounding firmly in its ripped chest, Free! gets a final verdict that could be copy-pasted straight from a review of one of the aforementioned shows: It’s okay. It’s decent. It’s entertaining. It does what it wants to do well, and most likely better than anyone else could do it. It’s the best show about ridiculously pretty high schoolers swimming one could possibly have made. But it’s still just a show about ridiculously pretty high schoolers swimming.

While the studio’s brisk animation, unique flair and talent for humour are definitely the main advantages that set Free! apart from its competitors, the “KyoAni factor” is also its biggest weakness. Haru, Makoto, Nagisa and Rei act and interact in exactly the same way as their bubbly, female predecessors do, which creates a huge distance between the actual world and whatever bizarro dimension Free! is set in. This is a peppy universe, in which every human being is a ditzy airhead, enthusiasm makes training obsolete and whatever hobby you are really into is the most important thing in the universe. While it works when the characters are still larger than life and the producers cares more about detailed abs than complex motives, the near messianic appeal given to swimming in this show starts to stretch your suspension of disbelief once it starts being played for drama.

What was still a joke in K-ON! has now become par for the course, and despite the drama in Free! being adequately dosed and paced, it tends to come dangerously close to the shark when Haruka once again loses all will to live when he learns he might never swim with Rin again. Jokes about “swimming together” being a thinly-veiled euphemism for something else have accompanied the show since its very beginning, but the whole conflict between Haruka and Rin does have a thing or two in common with the traditional “just freaking tell them that you love them already” nonsense often seen in shoujo romance anime, ensuing frustration and melodrama included.  Then again, given Free!‘s target audience, it’s a smart place to go look for inspiration.

Credit where credit is due, however, as Free! definitely showcases a step in the right direction. At the very least it is a masterpiece of dramatic realism in comparison to the overwrought mess that was Love, Chunibyou and Other Delusions (She acts like a delusional weirdo because she thinks it will bring her father back, are you kidding me?!), with all of the latter’s charm thrown in for good measure. The alleged “most controversial” show of the year will most certainly not be the best show of the year, but at the very least, it will be one of the prettiest. I mean, in strict terms of… animation quality and all that, of course. Of course.

Random observations

• Am I the only one who is a bit disappointed Rei got shafted so badly?
• Nitori’s first name is Ai, apparently. Okay, I can accept Haruka, Nagisa, Rin and even Rei, but Ai as a male name? That just seems to be stretching it.
• With Free! ending, so will — sadly enough — the often hilarious rage directed at the show by sad male otaku. They thought to go out with a bang, though, and gave us one more for the road: a page full of entitled whining about Gou not wearing a bikini on her Nyantype spread. Stay classy, fellas.
• See you next summer!