Friday 3 January 2014

Anime Review # 5: Free! Iwatobi Swim Club

Description: There were once four friends; Rin, Makoto, Haruka and Nagisa, who all swam in a relay together. The four friends parted after the race and they were separated for years. In their boring high school life their friend, Rin returns but something is different. He's no longer the boy they thought they knew, now he's Haruka's rival and he's determined to beat him in a race.

What I think about it:  Abs galore. That is the first thing I thought when I saw this. It looks really shallow in pictures and posters and stuff but it really isn't. It deals with friendship and the problems that can come from misunderstandings. It's short, only 12 episodes with 2 specials but a lot happens emotion-wise in those 12 episodes. We dip into their lives and I don't think I wanted to leave, judging by the amount of fanfiction I read after.
                                     I enjoyed the fact that this anime does not have any sort of whirlwind romance, although the pairings are hinted at if you look close enough. It's mostly BL (boys' love) so if you're not comfortable with that then just watch it like a normal-no-romance-anime. I'll put a section for possible pairing somewhere in this post so keep reading if you want to see that. Or, you could just skip to it.

Characters:

Haruka Nanase- 



 His face is almost always blank (emotionless) but viewers can tell (or at least I could) that he feels a lot under that mask. He loves water and I'm sure that he would live in it if he could. I really like him even though he's so passive most of the time.
 Check out my english translation of his character song. He has two but I've only translated one. Let me know if you'd like for me to translate the other on in the comments below.

Rin Matsuoka- 


 

 Haru's rival. He is arrogant, competitive and aggressive. I love him anyways. He really quite a softie deep, deep, deep, deeeeeeep down inside.
 I haven't translated his character song yet but I'm working on it.

Makoto Tachibana-





 He's the 'mother hen' of the group. The wonderful best friend that understands Haru like he's the back of his own hand. He's completely lovable. <3
 Here's one of his english translated character songs. I haven't translated the second one yet. Another work in progress.

Nagisa Hazuki-



 He's the cute one who comes up with crazy plans and makes everyone else follow him. He manipulates Rei a lot and well, he's just too adorable for words!!!

Rei Ryugazaki-



 The last member of the swim team. He's calculating and depends on logic a little too much. He lets himself be manipulated by Nagisa. He loves beautiful things and shies away from things that he considers not beautiful. And the Glasses!!!! Need I say more? He's a cutie!

Possible pairings: 
Rin/Haruka- This one is my favorite.

Makoto/Haruka

Rei/Nagisa

Makoto/Nagisa

Makoto/Rei

Which ship do you like? Leave your comments. If you don't like BL then keep your thoughts to yourself and save yourself some energy.

Conclusion: 5/5 stars. This is definitely a favorite. I'll revisit it again some time in the future.






No comments:

Post a Comment