What They Say:
Nanase Haruka loved to be in the water – loved swimming. In elementary school, Nanase Haruka, Tachibana Makoto, Matsuoka Rin, and Hazuki Nagisa attended the same swimming class together. Time passed, and as Haruka was living an uneventful high school life, he suddenly encountered Rin again. Rin challenged Haruka to a race and showed him how much stronger he had become. Soon enough, Makoto and Nagisa also rejoined the group, and along with a new classmate, Reigazaki Rei, they established the Iwatobi High School Swimming Club.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Haruka’s loss in the race in the previous episode was something that you could call a surprise, especially for a shorter show where you expect things to be difficult but survivable since it doesn’t have an extended run to work through things, like Chihayafuru. Haruka’s los has obviously hit him hard as he copes with it by spending time alone afterwards in the shower, but it’s becoming worrying for the others, especially with Rei since he can imagine the kinds of things going through Haruka’s mind. But it’s going through all of them to varying degrees simply because there is a somber mood at best hanging over everyone with Haruka’s loss. It’s all also amusingly balanced out by seeing how pleased Rin is with himself in general, but there’s still a side to him that has a touch of modesty. A touch.
While the team is dealing with this and with Haruka away, there are still matches that are going on and cheering to be done, which helps to slowly reenergize the group some. Gou in particular wants to cheer on her brother, even if she wanted to see him race with Haruka, but there’s still a lot in general to be excited about, especially as Makoto gets going and almost makes it to the next match himself only to end up coming in second, just like Haruka did. There’s still an edge of sadness about it that we see Haruka unable to shake, and you know it’s infected everyone else, but you also have moments such as Makoto smiling at him when he returns to try and let him know in his own way that everything is okay. And that works nicely to help reinforce the way this group has come together.
While the team does about as well as can be expected with all of this, they do feel some sense of accomplishment at the end of the day. But what they were unaware of was that Gou signed them up for the medley race on the second day so they still have a chance to win at something and that means they have to really pull together. Which is hard since Haruka has essentially gone missing while the rest are trying to get in touch with him to get him to come back and be a part of things. Getting all of that together in short order works rather well for the show as it shifts into the next day, and just having Rin’s expression when he sees how much Haruka has suddenly changed in this race is something that just gets him all intense and frustrated in a really enjoyable way since he’s seeing something he hasn’t seen himself before in Haruka and the others.
In Summary:
While Free manages to do a bit of recovery in things without making it all seem over the top or out of place, it does help to keep us in the mindset that not everything is going to go swimmingly for the gang. Haruka’s loss has an impact and the others, who aren’t quite to his caliber in general, find their own difficulties as well. But it’s how they come around to support each other that helps to redirect their energies and leads in to the little trick that Gou has played which will help get them on the proper path for the second day. Haruka’s reactions may be a bit more than they should have been, but it was realistic and you could easily see all the concern from the others in a good way that’s handed very well.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
