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 Free! Eternal Summer is the second season of Kyoto Animation's wildly successful foray into the world of hot guys sports anime. It follows the four members of the Iwatobi High School Swimming Club as they attempt for sports glory? Or something? Actually they kind of just do nothing but cause problems but that's what you expect from a KyoAni club. Also returning from last season are rivals Samezuka Academy, currently captained by last season's brooding antagonist Rin, who thankfully seems to have gotten over his poo poo and is actually tolerable to watch. Most of the actual plot so far has involved these guys, with a new character named Sousuke who appears to have taken over brooding duties. I don't really care what happens next but I think it will involve muscles and Iwatobi manager Gou making this face:  Free! was initially notable for the hilarious backlash from male KyoAni fans who couldn't believe that they would abandon them to make something for women and predicted doom and gloom for the studio (who of course laughed them off and went on to make mad bank). I personally found the first season refreshing at first, with the typically gorgeous animation and over the top silly writing paired with a unique subject, but it soon became clear that KyoAni doesn't know poo poo about swimming beyond how to animate it. Attempts to inject sports drama into the proceedings fell flat and by the end of the season it completely ran out of steam. We're four episodes into the new season and I'm linking it more than I expected. For the most part we've returned to the breezy tone the series started with, but with quick bursts of competition more gracefully added. The core cast is allowed to be silly instead of carrying reidiculous contrived drama. I was worried the most hyped new character, Sousuke, would drag the show down like Rin did last season, but in episode 4 he was actually rather likable. Rin's admirer from last season is given something to do other than like Rin and we get a new character snuck in there (Momotaro) who's actually cool and likable. It's clear KyoAni still doesn't know poo poo about swimming but at least they know something about making an anime. Oh, and again, the ED is really good. Main Characters  Haruka Nanase (power animal Dolphin) is still flipping his hair like he's in a shampoo commercial and has a neurotic need to enter bodies of water. Less communicative than Rei Ayanami. Swims freestyle, and is obnoxious about only swimming freestyle. God what a loving awful protagonist.  Makoto Tachibana (power animal Orca) is the mother hen who keeps Haruka from completely loving up his life. Swims backstroke.  Nagisa Hazuki (power animal Penguin), the resident moeblob. Swims breaststroke.  Rei Ryūgazaki (power animal Butterfly) is a dork who won't do anything if it doesn't look beautiful. Previously the funniest character. Swims butterfly, and only butterfly because he's an idiot and can't swim anything else.  Gou Matsuoka is the audience insert character who is there to look at hot guys. Rivals, the actually important characters this season.  Rin Matsuoka (power animal Shark) has gotten over his brooding disease from last season and is now team captain. Wins races without being a shithead. Good guy I feel. Swims butterfly and free. [no pic because who cares] Sousuke Yamazaki (power animal Whale Shark) is a childhood friend of Rin's who comes out of nowhere and threatened to screw things up by generally being a dick but now he's just boring. Swims butterfly.  Holding the frog is Momotaro Mikoshiba (power animal Sea Otter) is the younger brother of the previous captain, who showed up for like five minutes last season and was just there to have cool hair and have a crush on Gou. Momotaro is three times the stupid and three times the crush on Gou. Swims backstroke. Aiichiro Nitori (power animal Duck) spent last season calling Rin senpai over and over and now exists to be tormented by Momotaro. Improvement IMHO. Swims breaststroke. ＳＥＥ ＹＯＵ ＮＥＸＴ ＷＡＴＥＲ ＴＩＭＥ...
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Jul 24, 2014 05:47
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| # ? Apr 29, 2024 10:47 |
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Rin turned from worst boy to best boy by following in the footsteps of Wenge Kong. I can respect that.
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Jul 24, 2014 11:28
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This thread won't be complete without the guy who was in the first season's thread posting about all the poo poo they got wrong about swimming in every episode. Hell I'm still bugged every time they have hair sticking out from under their swimcaps because of that guy.
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Jul 24, 2014 18:49
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Speaking of mad bank, how successful was the first season of Free! in terms of cold hard muscular cash?
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Jul 24, 2014 19:35
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Going by blu-ray/dvd sales, it's definitely one of the more successful things they've had in years. Especially since they own the light novel rights. Considering how dire their last few shows have been (Chuu S2 was a big disappointment and Beyond the Boundary's writing was just terrible), I'm glad that they haven't screwed up Free S2 yet, at least.
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Jul 24, 2014 19:39
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I can't help but enjoy this silly show. Rei's freakouts alway make me laugh. Rin not being such a tool this season has helped, and Momo's been fun. Although I'm sorta into bodybuilding can't help but critique their muscles. Your chests are underveloped guys.  .Edit- although Makoto's back 
Monaghan fucked around with this message at 19:59 on Jul 24, 2014 |
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Jul 24, 2014 19:56
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Rei is the best character in the whole show. That laugh when he's demonstrating beauty  I like his friendship with Rin too, that's cute  Also here's a link to last year's thread, you'll need archives though: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3557218&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=1 Pyrotoad fucked around with this message at 20:49 on Jul 24, 2014 |
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Jul 24, 2014 20:46
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I was going to drop this show, but episode 4 really stepped it up.
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Jul 24, 2014 21:57
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I knew the basic story of season 1 but never really watched it, then I was visiting my gf when season 2 started so i figured: what the hell? and man I'm glad I got into this, it's wonderfully silly and looks pretty cool. The OP got me way more pumped than I expected, it's all really good fun, specially with the weekly shot of the eagle.
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Jul 25, 2014 04:28
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Just watched episode 4 and got completely weirded out when I saw the bus stop I got on at every day for a year in animated form.
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Jul 29, 2014 22:48
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Srice posted:Going by blu-ray/dvd sales, it's definitely one of the more successful things they've had in years. Regarding the whole studio/profit things, it's more than just light novel rights. As the original publisher and part original creator, they get a piece of literally every piece of merch/airing/etc. They also fronted the most money to produce the show, therefore getting the most in return for a lot of things. Additionally they produce their own merch which they get a large share of (royalties have to go to other committee members). The final big point is that they were in charge of designing the video discs for sale, therefore they recouped the majority of proceeds instead of the video publisher (who usually gets that). There's very little out there that could be a comparison (even a lot of the other original series from various creators/studios don't have that much revenue sources going to it). It's a seriously big amount of yen heading into KyoAni from this and Chu2koi. (Kyoukai was good and Tamako not as big as the others, but not as bad as people assume based on disc sales alone).
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Jul 29, 2014 23:05
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In this episode of Free! Nagisa choses the gay over the drab heterosexual life.
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Jul 30, 2014 17:08
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The Devil Tesla posted:In this episode of Free! Nagisa choses the gay over the drab heterosexual life. I can't wait to get home from this conference and get caught up, the initial foreshadowing was pretty stressful but it sounds like it's going to be another happy season.
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Jul 31, 2014 00:05
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I may be overselling it.
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Jul 31, 2014 00:16
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I am caught up to the show and every character is gay since like the first episode soooo
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Aug 1, 2014 17:59
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The Devil Tesla posted:In this episode of Free! Nagisa choses the gay over the drab heterosexual life. I think you undersold it. That seemed to be EXACTLY what was going on. At least i thought it was going there. Right up until it turned out to be about grades Talkc fucked around with this message at 23:18 on Aug 2, 2014 |
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Aug 2, 2014 23:09
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If you want to see how much better this season is than last, just compare the preliminary event episodes in each. Last season's revolved entirely around Rin's bullshit, ending with him acting like a complete jerk about winning by microseconds. This time we got something far closer to the kind of tournament stuff in other sports anime: a bunch of different stories, all hitting turning points at once. The stories aren't particularly interesting, and it pales when compared to something like interhighs in Ping Pong, but it hits the kind of chill, fun notes that the show should be going for in the first place. I really liked it. And holy poo poo: the best scene was Nitori and Nagisa, the two worst characters? How the hell did that happen?
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Aug 6, 2014 20:34
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I think my favorite scene was Rin and Kou at their father's grave. Rin's come a long way since the first season 
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Aug 6, 2014 23:46
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The Mikoshiba brothers are the best thing this season.
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Aug 7, 2014 19:59
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The most unrealistic thing about this show is Rin being perfectly okay and aloof to all the dudes creepin on his sister.
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Aug 8, 2014 15:28
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Thank god they introduced the rivals in season 2. Definitely makes the races more interesting, as well as each rival being more or less a good foil to their main cast counterpart. Still missing people peeing on each other. Maybe its because I swam in hick-rear end southern Oregon, but not getting peed on was definitely a swimming concern that has yet to make it into the show. Like in the showers and poo poo. Haruka really is am insufferable protagonist, holy gently caress I am just waiting for Rin to beat the poo poo out of him. Probably in a mud bath or something. sulphix fucked around with this message at 02:46 on Aug 18, 2014 |
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Aug 18, 2014 01:57
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Super boring this week but reasonably cute. Sadly it looks like next week is going to drama it up 
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Aug 20, 2014 17:44
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 Jeez Haru, someone's feeling sassy today.
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Aug 20, 2014 19:55
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Yea, that was probably the best part of the episode. 
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Aug 20, 2014 20:01
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Show us your free style! There's also nothing like HEY FUTURE FIIISH~ right after seeing Sousuke collapsing against the wall in agony 
Pyrotoad fucked around with this message at 22:47 on Aug 27, 2014 |
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Aug 27, 2014 22:36
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Huh. That was a legit really good episode. Sousuke was interesting for once, script had a lot of smart touches, and while it's weird that the team that we spent the entire episode following lost the race anything else wouldn't have made sense. I'm not sure there's anything they can do with the core cast in the last two episodes that would be as satisfying as this was, but we'll see of course. I'm kind of curious to see Koyani try a sports show again after this one. Wrestling?
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Sep 3, 2014 22:53
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That was some legit shounen fighting spirit nakama power not-subtle grunting noises.
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Sep 4, 2014 19:00
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No action, all drama, but I still enjoyed it. At least, it felt like a good episode. It doesn't stand up to actually thinking about it for even a second, because the whole "let everyone in the world see your swimming" thing is just so so hammy, and the dynamic of everyone wanting you to do one thing and you just want to do nothing seems ripe for a unsatisfying, "believe in yourself" message. It reminds me of Hyouka actually, but that handled it much better. The show is touching on things that it isn't really strong enough to handle, but it should be satisfying to watch Rin pull Haruka out of his funk.
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Sep 11, 2014 05:10
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Looking forward to copious amounts of Engrish and Koalas tomorrow
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Sep 16, 2014 09:15
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CHiRAL posted:Looking forward to copious amounts of Engrish and Koalas tomorrow Then prepare to be disappointed. It's more more awkward and stilted delivery than bad pronunciation. Plus, Rin's English is pretty serviceable. But alas, no koalas or other Australian animals except for a cockatoo.
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Sep 17, 2014 18:06
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I think they just grabbed whatever Australians they could to do the voices so feels like a serviceable dub more than anything. They obviously weren't pros but it's not like the dialog was great or anything. Successfully captured the pleasant awkwardness that exists between exchange students and host families. Still, it was a good episode. I liked how they way you knew something was wrong with Haru was that he wasn't taking his clothes off to jump into every fountain and ocean.
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Sep 17, 2014 22:59
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The Devil Tesla posted:I think they just grabbed whatever Australians they could to do the voices so feels like a serviceable dub more than anything. They obviously weren't pros but it's not like the dialog was great or anything. Successfully captured the pleasant awkwardness that exists between exchange students and host families. The English voices were actually recorded by an American studio/director. The director for those voices was William Winckler, who worked on the English dubs for a lot of older Toei shows like Fist of the North Star. Voices were found by Atomic Monkey Entertainment, a talent agency linked with others in Japan (thus easy to find people in the US).
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Sep 17, 2014 23:21
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Oh, that's cool. As much as I love seiyuu's earnestly trying to sound foreign that's probably the right way to do it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYzxN9LgoLM
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Sep 17, 2014 23:37
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ultimatemegax posted:The English voices were actually recorded by an American studio/director. The director for those voices was William Winckler, who worked on the English dubs for a lot of older Toei shows like Fist of the North Star. Voices were found by Atomic Monkey Entertainment, a talent agency linked with others in Japan (thus easy to find people in the US). Hmm--interesting and Rin's & Haru's english is alright from my exp. Haru not understanding the border guard was a little strange. I mean, he wasn't exactly asking for a detail rundown of his vacation plans in the country? I guess, he could be just nervous being on in own in a foreign country and all. I did find it amusing how Haru got over his swimming issues after moping around for 1-3 episodes and ignoring the swim team's best efforts. Really? If only I knew that traveling to another country for a few days would give me insight to life's true purpose. Cheaper than therapy at least. OK, but I think there's a 90% chance Haru is going pro despite all his problems in S2. I'm mildly disappointed since it would nice to see everyone to accept maybe Haru likes swimming for fun and it's honestly his decision at the end.
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Sep 19, 2014 22:55
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CCheshire posted:OK, but I think there's a 90% chance Haru is going pro despite all his problems in S2. I'm mildly disappointed since it would nice to see everyone to accept maybe Haru likes swimming for fun and it's honestly his decision at the end.[/spoiler] See, I think going pro is the only sensible thing he can do. If Haru does anything other than swim professionally, he's going to have to spend a large portion of his time doing tedious poo poo to make money, and less of his time swimming, which would make him miserable. If he goes pro, he can make money by swimming.
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Sep 20, 2014 07:46
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The_White_Crane posted:If he goes pro, he can make money by swimming. IMHO Haru seems to like swimming more of a hobby with his friends than going pro. For example, the last few times he froze up at the races and every time someone brought up scouts he'd just go silent. Haru doesn't seem to care about winning or losing but as long as he's allowed to spend time at the pool. Ok, he's arguably the most talented swimmer on the team but not at all competitive vs Rin and Sousuke. I can only imagine this will get awkward if he does go pro.
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Sep 21, 2014 04:26
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Going pro would have been sensible if going pro only involved showing up to tournaments. Haru doesn't strike me as the kind of person that could live by the strict regime being a pro would require of him.
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Sep 21, 2014 05:11
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I haven't seen the Australia episode, but I got the impression that Rin wanted Haru to go pro alongside him and keep their friendly competition going. If that doesn't help, I don't know what will. Makoto has a life beyond swimming, and they've actually showed glimpses of it. Meanwhile, Haru lives alone wearing his speedo at all hours which is kind of sad. While I realize that the audience is supposed to cheer on the pro circuit dream, it seems obvious that he could at least be a trainer if they want to keep it grounded in reality. For all his Cloud Strife Syndrome antisocial signs, Haru's the only one who was able to give Rei any kind of meaningful progress. They could make a happy-ish ending with he and Sosuke (who likewise coached the Sempai Guy a few episodes back) working at Rin's practice pool or whatever.
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Sep 21, 2014 11:53
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Given that he seems happy as long as he's immersed in water, Haru should probably become a dolphin trainer or a underwater recovery specialist or join the Coast Guard or something instead of becoming a professional athlete.
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Sep 21, 2014 19:03
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I see haru being the type to take up whatever job he needs to get by ( short order cook who makes a mean mackerel dish? ) and be a beach bum the rest of his life. He doesn't seem driven by ambition. And i think taking up something that requires it ( Pro athelete ) would only lead to him being in a worse emotional state than moping around.
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Sep 21, 2014 19:07
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