Anime Club: Free! Eternal Summer

Hello everybody! Ready for season 2 of Free!? It is time for an Eternal Summer!

FREE! ETERNAL SUMMER

CREATED BY: Hiroko Utsumi

GENRE: Drama, Slice of Life, Sports

NO. OF EPISODES: 13 Episodes 

YEAR: 2014

COUNTRY: Japan

This review is for the second season of Free! Eternal Summer. If you would like to read the review for the first season, you can read it here Free! Iwatobi Swim Club.

Free! is set in the town of Iwatobi, which is based on the real town of Iwami, Tottori. Iwami has since used Free! to promote tourism to the town. The story starts with four boys—Haruka, Makoto, Nagisa and Rin—before they graduate from elementary school. They all participated in a swimming tournament and won, though they parted ways. Years later, Haruka and Makoto reunite with Nagisa when he enrolls in their high school. Not long after, Rin, who was thought to be in Australia, turns up and challenges Haruka to a race and wins. Afterward, Nagisa suggests creating a swimming club and using the school’s run-down outdoor pool. Haruka, Makoto, Nagisa, and later on, Rei, create the Iwatobi High School Swimming Club and work together to make the club a success. Rin’s victory over Haruka means nothing to him as he realizes that Haruka had stopped swimming competitively and wasn’t in top shape. He claims that he cannot get over the fact until Haruka competes against him for real. The members of the revived Iwatobi Swim Club later enter a swimming competition against Rin.

I’m very surprised about how much I enjoyed Free! Eternal Summer. It surprised me and was much better then I thought. Characters have gotten more interesting and have developed so you actually can see difference but still in a natural way. The music is good but could have been better and more.. intense. As I watched this season dubbed, I wanted to also remark on the voice casting. There is a solid group of voice actors in this season, but…

A lot of the fandom was also complaining about the overall Japanese to English translation. I understand it’s a dub, but I’m not too keen on their decision to overtly “bro-ify” the dialogue. This includes “dude,” “man,” “douchebag,” and “I’ve got backstroke for days!”. And the English pronunciations are indeed strange: “Reen” and “Samayzooka.” There is one thing though that you can’t forget, there is still plenty of fan service.

PROS:

• Character development.
• Solid voice cast.
• Decent soundtrack.

CONS:

• Japanese to English translation.
• Pronunciations.
• Fan service.

SCORE: 6.0 / 10

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