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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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| # ¿ May 15, 2024 08:01 |
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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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I may be overselling it.
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Jul 31, 2014 00:16
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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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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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Yea, that was probably the best part of the episode. 
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Aug 20, 2014 20:01
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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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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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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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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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I'm happy with it. Everything was basically tied up by five minutes into the episode so it just kind of coasted on from there, and while it was kind of slow there was some cool stuff here and there. Needed more Momo but the entire show needed more Momo.Alder posted:Ai gets nominated for Captain which surprised me a bit since ...IDK how they even decide on normal sports teams anyways. It's about as dumb of a decision as making Rin the captain and that worked out so WHO KNOWS.
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Sep 24, 2014 20:53
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| # ¿ May 15, 2024 08:01 |
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Eej posted:Also Haru and Makoto both definitely moved to Tokyo. Haru is such a broken child that he cannot exist without his mother figure.
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Sep 25, 2014 14:46
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