Free!

Genre: Sports
Age Appropriate: Preteens
Emotional Response: Giggles, annoyance
Notable Features: swimmers, hot guys
Language: Japanese
Length: 1 season, 12 episodes
Overall Recommendation: Good

"I only swim free." - Haruka

It's all about swimming with Free!. Four friends in their younger years swam together in a relay, and this is the basis for much of the underlying story. Now that they're in high school, the four friends have turned into three. Haruka is a water-obsessed swimmer with unknown depths. He quit swim club after a fall out with the missing fourth friend. Makoto is the strong silent type. He's calm, and one of the few people who can actually get through Haruka's barriers. Nagisa is overly optimistic with everything and can coax smiles out of everyone. In a desperate attempt to restart the swim team, and new fourth enters the story. Rei, previously a runner, joins the team after seeing Haruka swim. He's obsessed with beauty, form and theory. This is both a good thing, and a bad thing, while they teach him the ropes of swim club.

The whole underlying story, however, is about the relationship between the boys and their mysterious old friend, Rin.
Rin was the fourth in their childhood relay. They seemed to be great friends,  until he decides to move to Australia in an effort to be an Olympic star. His sudden move, and some occurrence between Haruka and him, creates some sort of cold conflict between the two. It's obvious that this isn't the way that Haruka want their relationship to be, and it affects everyone around them. The series is as much about their sports prowess and achievement as it is the strength of the interpersonal relationships.

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Free! was a nice series. Nothing amazing, nothing terrible. I highly recommend it if you're looking for hot, sexy swimmers. Oddly, I really enjoyed the end theme, despite it being a bit weird. I suppose it might have been less weird if they translated it, but I really don't think so. I just liked the club scene.

The story is pretty good. In general, it reminds me of You and Me, in the whole boys-are-friends way. Actually, it's very like that only with swimming as the main focus. There is a little bit of conflict involved with Free!, though. I don't think I like how it ends for Rei, but any other way wouldn't have made as good a story. I don't really need any more of it, though. It was nice while it lasted, and I'm glad it's over. I suppose there is room for a second season, but I haven't heard anything about one. I'd watch it, but I wouldn't bite my nails waiting for it. The series was good. That's really about it.

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Heh: Makai Ouji