Free! – 06
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And the curses and wails of a million fangirls could be heard around the world…~
If this doesn’t describe the reaction of a thousand fangirls, I don’t know what will. Anyway, hello everyone! After OC, Karakuri, Fosh, and anaaga, it is now my turn to cover this week’s Free! episode. And what a blessing that has turned out to be as this episode is definitely one of the most exciting (so far, of course).~
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I have to say how brilliantly Kyo Ani trolled us fangirls with this mouth-to-mouth incident between Haru and Makoto. They set us up to think “Finally! Some actual fanservice!” but instead they tricked us and left fangirls with just enough material for everyone’s imagination to work with until the next episode. Personally I’m a big Haru/Makoto shipper, so it was a big blow to me as well. Fangirl point-of-view aside though, I like Haru’s and Makoto’s friendship a lot. It’s just so sweet as they take care and protect each other, forming a strong bond that the others don’t have. Speaking of Makoto, he’s been my favorite character from the beginning of the show, so it was sad to see him lose his upbeat self and agonize over his fear of the sea, as well as to hear him tell his story about why he fears it. I have to admit though it’s made me fall for his character even more…
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Anyway, there’s nothing like a near-death experience to bond four bros together, right? Throughout the series, there was this sort of awkwardness between the four, like they didn’t necessarily connect with each other. Haru and Makoto have that closeness because of their longtime friendship, but all together, they seemed just thrown together. Having to experience this incident (unfortunately), and learning more about each other afterward, certainly brought them closer together as teammates and friends. I’m sure this new found connection will work in their favor once they start participating in tournaments, which judging from the preview, they are about to already.
More Free! fun, including the much-loved Shark-kun~ Show ▼
All right, aside from my fangirl feels and what not, this was an emotional episode with lots of nice bonding between the guys. I enjoyed it a lot. I think what I liked most about the episode though was that it had a lot of different elements to it. We had suspense in the beginning, then some almost-fanservice, but also some comedy from their night at the lighthouse, where we got to see some funny stories from the characters, and of course learned about Makoto’s sad story about why he’s afraid of the sea. And at the end we got to see the boys more connected with each other. All around it was a great episode, probably my favorite out of the series so far. Free! has been turning out to be five times better than what I expected, which makes me incredibly happy. I don’t know what I’ll do once the series ends.~
Preview: Looks like it’s finally tournament time for the boys, which means another race between Haru and Rin. How well will the boys fare? We’ll just have to wait till next week to see; in the meantime, let’s enjoy this nice end card featuring tan lines, heh.~
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About Hoshi
A tired, over-dramatic 20 year old college student who likes manga and cheesy Korean boy bands. Prone to succumb to laziness and refuse to work for hours on end.
POWUH: Metanorn Regular with 102 comments
Me too!! love Haru/Makoto friendship <3
Personally loved this episode at the Rest house 🙂
Rei scared the whole time and Haru….such a sexy waterfall!!!LOL
POWUH: 800-899 and Self-proclaimed Manga Queen with 874 comments
~Yes, it’s just all sorts of delight-fullness (◡‿◡✿)
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Ah man, I was more interested in what was behind that waterfall. What a ripoff. 🙂
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
OH DAT CPR….Interuptus!
Yeah, I can hear the squeal of potential Comiket 85 candidates over this one. But honestly, they are a creative and imaginative band, they hardly needed that scene….
Yes, cheers for Makoto development. It was a bit cheesy in places, as I honestly expected something much more personal, but it worked out well.
POWUH: 800-899 and Self-proclaimed Manga Queen with 874 comments
~Fangirls/fujoshis are immensely creative; you can just stick a couple of straight guys together in a show and they’ll find something to create…
Yeah, I was hoping for something more personal as well, but I’ll take whatever sad back-story they give me, especially if it involves Makoto.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
We’re halfway through the show. Shark-kun’s days are being numbered so get ready to say your goodbyes. Thank god for that waterfall fanservice! I thought my endurance watching this show was going to go unrewarded.
Rei’s lucky there was another island close to him. Next time, he won’t do something bone headed like that again. For a guy into scientific stuff, he should known the moon controls the tides. Makoto was brave facing down his fears for the sake of someone else. A bit of my respect has been earned.
As if things weren’t over the top enough when they found a place to stay for the night loaded with pineapple and mackerel of all things (Fate is trying to say it likes Haruka best), what was with that lame Dora the Explorer-like music when Nagisa tried to have everyone tell stories?
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
I liked Nagisa’s interpretation of March of the Penguins.
POWUH: Lovely-pyon~ with 318 comments
XDD, I almost forgot that.
It was so strange to me that they couldn’t figure out what Nagisa was showing.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
I never saw March of the Penguins but Nagisa said he was impersonating a Rockhopper penguin. Personally, I like that kind penguin because of the yellow eyelashes.
POWUH: 800-899 and Self-proclaimed Manga Queen with 874 comments
~Honestly, major props to all the guys watching this show, and I hope you guys can get more of some sort of fanservice later in the show.
I couldn’t help but shout “How stuuuuupid!” when Rei was swimming by himself in the ocean. All around I thought it was ridiculous of them to be swimming at such lengths in the ocean when they’ve barely started swimming in the pool. Then again I don’t necessarily know about swimming or training, so maybe they were ready for it?
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
Someone’s doing a full and well-written translation of the High Speed! novel which Free! is based on at:
http://mangahelpers.com/forum/showthread.php/2992276-High-Speed!-(Free!)-by-K%C5%8Dji-%C5%8Cji
You can read both a complete summary of the novel and translated chapters.
To all BL/fujoshi viewers, be warned this story has more emotional and serious writing compared to the lightheartedness of the anime, and no bromance is present.
Not that it diminishes the content quality of course. 🙂
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
I’d have to disagree, there is a whole lot of bromance going on between all of our main male characters, with the main chaotic relationship of Rin and Haru at the forefront. It’s only shonen-ai and such that’s being vaguely alluded to and completely embellished by fujoshi.
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
Really?I must be sexually oblivious then.（´∀｀）
Was the novel good reading for you?
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
Argh! Sorry, I misread, I thought you were talking about the show. 😀
No, I haven’t read the novels, I not sure if I’m that interested. I’ve heard that they involve the boys when they were young, and if that’s the case, then no, the bromance is probably very muted if there at all.
POWUH: Lovely-pyon~ with 318 comments
Thanks! I think that will be quite interesting to read. At least a few chapters.
POWUH: 800-899 and Self-proclaimed Manga Queen with 874 comments
~Bless your soul for sharing this link ;; I’ve been wanting to read the light novel for weeks!
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
This was a good episode though it wasn’t what I was expecting after the stellar episode last time. The cliffhanger of last week was quickly dealt with and the rest of the episode was one of those “tell stories by the campfire” type of episodes which aren’t really my favorite. However, Free! did a good job with the emotional bonds between these boys and this episode chose to focus on the close friendship of Makoto and Haruka.
Those two share a very close bond and bromance that is similar, yet different than that between Haru and Rin. Haru and Rin’s relationship is more tulmutuous and carries the harsh passion of their sport and the competition that it holds. Makoto and Haru are friends of a different type, where they emotionally balance each other and are an anchor when the other requires it.
Now this is not to say that Nagisa and Rei don’t share in the bond of friendship here, but not as closely as the triad that is Haruka, Makoto, and Rin. It was no mistake that though Nagisa has known Haru and Makato a long time, he didn’t know about Makoto’s fear of the ocean and he’s reasons behind it, yet Rin did.
You can think of it like Nagisa and Rei are like Scotty and Chekhov of Star Trek, they are close friends with Kirk and core members of the crew, but neither have the bond that Kirk has with Spock and McCoy.
Well, next week is supposed to be a competition, so we’ll see how much our team has progresses thus far and how their work has paid off.
I give this episode a 7.68/10.
POWUH: 800-899 and Self-proclaimed Manga Queen with 874 comments
~I didn’t mind that they dealt with that suspenseful cliffhanger so quickly because we got to see those emotional bonds between the boys, especially with Haruka and Makoto. I have to admit though the whole rest house thing was a little cheesy…
I haven’t had a chance to really think about Rin’s and Haruka’s friendship because of the little interaction between the two. Every time they do interact it’s always Rin talking about how he wants to beat Haruka in a legit swimming match, and it leaves me thinking that there isn’t a sort of friendship between the two anymore, especially with the way Rin acts when Gou tries to get him to hang out with the boys again.
I’m worried about how they’ll do in the competition because it seems like they haven’t really practiced very intently for it, especially with them spending so much time teaching Rei how to swim. But I’m sure they’ll make it somehow because they have to and our protagonists can’t lose! Hahaha~
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
Ah, you have to see the emotions behind the facade of competition that those two display. If Rin and Haruka hadn’t had such a deep friendship to begin with, neither would have been as affected as they are in terms of their competition with each other.
One thing that I learned from this episode was that Rin must have had a close relationship with Haru and Makoto in order to know about Makoto’s phobia. Haru guards his friend very well, he wasn’t even going to let Makoto tell Rei or Nagisa about his pain, even though both were their friends and one had been for some time. It’s telling that Nagisa who knew both of them BEFORE Rin, didn’t know about Makoto’s fear. However, Makoto and Haru felt comfortable enough to share that part of himself with Rin.
So, despite how Rin now dismisses Makoto along with Nagisa, there must have once been a close connection there, along with Rin’s obvious past with Haru. A lot of what you see Rin display now is really because of hurt pride.
POWUH: Lovely-pyon~ with 318 comments
CPR fanservice. That was the most awkward moment I had watching Free, yet. Really, I didn’t expect THAT.
But it was really refreshing to see more emotions from Haruka.
To me, Nagisa is the most hilarious character. I mean, they’re all great and funny, but Nagisa just leaves me speechless. Like REFRIGERATOR-“REI”. That was just perfect. And we’re lucky that Reizouko and refrigerator are pretty close, otherwise it wouldn’t be that funny. I was totally hoping there would be a body inside. XDDD
And How can you be thinking of eating food from an abandoned place in the first place?? It’s like the abandoned pool, only creepier.
And the starry sky reflection was probably the sweetest moment.
I’ve learned 2 things.
Thanks to Rei: Don’t sneak off to dangerous places alone (without telling anyone).
And from Haruka: I really want to try Pineapple with mackerel. Don’t ask why…
POWUH: 800-899 and Self-proclaimed Manga Queen with 874 comments
~Yeah, Haruka is usually very…chill, so seeing him get emotional and worried about Makoto was great. I always love it when characters like Haruka begin to get more emotional and show different sides to themselves, so I’m hoping we get more of that from Haruka.
Nagisa definitely makes me laugh the most as well. Him and Rei together are the perfect comedy team on this show. And I would be more worried about getting off the damn island than eating lol! Then again they knew they would be stick there until morning so I guess it was understandable ^^;
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
KyoAni once again ducks out of a “kissing” scene that seems to be a trend they LOVE to follow xD
POWUH: 800-899 and Self-proclaimed Manga Queen with 874 comments
~Seriously! They’ve been trolling us for weeks. The fujoshi in me is weak now from these almost-kiss scenes, lol.
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
Hey, the fujoshi in me was more annoyed at the almost-kiss they gave us between Rin and Haruka two episodes ago. 😛
There are whole fanfictions and doujinshi that could be done on that one confrontation scene alone. 😉
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Whoa! Note to self: Never mess with a fujoshi and her desires. It’s hazardous for one’s health. 🙂
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
You should just join in….
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Nope, I’m good. I’ve already chosen a side and it’s one where you’re watching girls “accidentaly” (or intentionally) making sensual physical contact. Hehehe….
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
I’ve made my choice as well, it looks rather like a six side die ::shakes it in hand:: Oh, I wonder what it will turn up?!