10 Second Anime - Free! - Episode 12 [END]

Free! - Episode 12 [END]

Rin whiffs his individual heat after being scratched from the relay. His friends put him on their relay team, with Rei stepping aside. Friendship power! Uh, disqualification... And funny stuff at the end of the end.

It wouldn't be a sports club anime at a tournament without drama, right? Rin seems to have a fragile psyche, and totally blows his individual heat. His old friends are worried and go chasing after him. Rei tells them that Rin told him it wasn't Haruka beating him when he came back to visit from Australia that made him want to quit swimming. He had just hit a wall in training and was doubting himself. Rei comes up with the only solution to make things right: have Rin take his spot in the relay.

First they have to convince Rin to do that. We got some shouting, some grappling, and some wrestling (calm down fujoshi), and then everything is sorted. All the swim club members have their own moments of water zen that Haruka always has, and they place first in the relay, by the power of friendship, or something.

But not for long. They just broke a ton of rules to put Rin in the lineup, and they were disqualified. Ah well, there's always next year. Oh, we get to learn the first name of that little freshman always running after Rin: Ai. Another boy with a girl's name. If the teaser at the end of the show is true, we'll get to see more of him next summer.

And then we get funny resolution montage. Somebody is stashing old magazines of Ama-chan-sensei's bikini layouts in the locker room. I wonder who it could be...

Final Thoughts: Overall, a fun take on a sports club anime, Free! decided to concentrate on the bonds of friendship between the guys with girl names, and gave us funny moments that we would normally associate with a cute-girls-doing-cute-things anime. I've said before, this show was like K-ON's older brothers join the swim club. Same animation production house too. The friendship power thing is a bit of cliché, but with the gender bending tropes thrown around throughout the show, there was a bit more depth to it that had nice moments. This show also did not take itself seriously, knowing it was mixing girly themes in with a muscular sports anime, and really did a lot of winking at the audience through the little sister character of Gou, a girl with a boy's name. I'm sure the merchandising potential of this show will do great among girls, and some guys. Just don't expect to get any tips on competitive swimming from this show.

10 Second Anime - Free! - Episode 11

Free! - Episode 11

Rei grabs Rin. Rin grabs Rei. (Settle down fujoshi...) Rin wants to swim the relay because he remembers how much fun it was. Oops, too bad he got benched.

You know, if it weren't for Nagisa acting like a flighty little airhead, I would have given up this show a long time ago. You got to have a comedic mascot in any sports club anime, even in one that is basically K-ON's older brothers go swimming.

Anyway, Rin's deal is that he's having a hard time reconciling improving himself to Olympic level swimming and also having fun relay swimming with his friends. Oh, never mind that Michael Phelps got tons of gold medals also swimming in relays, but whatever.

I do like that the cheerleading club is getting excited about hot dudes stripping off their clothes, er, the swim club possibly advancing to the nationals if they can do well in the prefectural swim meet.

But someone won't be doing well in the relay, because Rin got scratched. His captain says his head's not in the game, and they want to win, so just win your solo 100 m freestyle you prissy little diva. Um, I'm not sure he said that last part, I'm just paraphrasing.

10 Second Anime - Free! - Episode 10

Free! - Episode 10

Marin-chan? I thought you were Ama-chan-Sensei! Rei wants to know what Rin's deal is. Yeah, Rin. What's your deal?

Leave it to the coach to have old swimsuit issues lying around to solve the mystery of Ms. Amakata's old "swimwear" related job. Don't worry "Marin-chan," you've still got it!

In another flashback heavy show, we see how Rin became one of the Iwatobi swim club members, and we see things from Haruka's, Makoto's, and Nagisa's perspective as they explain things to Rei.

Even after explaining why Rin wanted to do a relay before moving to Australia, and losing to Haruka during a short visit, Rei doesn't understand why Rin is still obsessed with competing against his old relay team members, even after he won against Haruka. So, he goes to Rin's school to ask him. Ooh, tension!

10 Second Anime - Free! - Episode 9

Free! - Episode 9

When your team wins the medley relay, what do you do next? Uh, not Disneyland, how about a squideriffic summer festival?

Haruka pulls it all together on his last leg of the freestyle portion of the medley relay, and the swim club wins their heat, qualifying for regional championships. The school is so happy, they even have an assembly to announce the results. Too bad the banner saying congratulations was just the Judo Club's banner taped over with the Swim Club. Hey, reuse is good use!

Then this show has the staple for slice-of-life shows: the summer festival. You got booths, you got babes in yukatas, and you got food, but in this particular town of Iwatobi, that means squid. Squid plushies, squid rice, squid tempura, squid masks, squid lamps, and squid catching contests. Squid-tastic!

Nearby is the temple to some water god, so Rin's swim team captain wants to go and make a prayer for their regional meet too. Rin ends up walking through the festival and remembering good times with his old friends, but Nagisa and Rei see him, and want to help Haruka avoid him, otherwise he'll get all depressed again. Nagisa enlists Makoto's help with a couple of winks, and Rei becomes Rei-Tanteika (Detective Rei) in order to follow Rin and text Nagisa his location so he and Makoto can steer Haruka away from him. Rei doesn't enthusiastic at first, but he takes to it with gusto after he starts sneaking around.

Rin gets all nostalgic about swimming with his friends at their old elementary school, and then decides to join his own team's medley relay squad. Yay future drama!

And now bonus winking media:

10 Second Anime - Free! - Episode 8

Free! - Episode 8

The old swim club coach swears he's seen Ama-chan Sensei somewhere before, Haruka sulks, the other guys don't make it to the finals, and Gou surprises the club by signing them up for the medley relay. This surprises Rin too.

For a bunch of guys who haven't swum competitively for years, making the semifinals isn't bad. But how far can they get in the medley relay, which they didn't even practice the exchanges in? We'll have to see next episode.

Also, having a coach around, if even to teach the finer points cheering from the stands, is not a bad thing.

Rin seems awfully pissed off for having his old friends swim together again. Jealous much? And he really doesn't like the new guy Rei who took his place in the butterfly. Aw, he misses his friends, but is too tsun-tsun to admit it. "It's not like I'm mad that you didn't ask me to swim with you guys, or anything!" Yeah, we know Rin.

10 Second Anime: Free! Episode 7

Free! Episode 7

The swim meet arrives, Gou is pumped, Ama-chan-Sensei photobombs and dramatically offers advice, Rin wants to win for his dad, and Haruka... loses.

Gou takes her manager position for the swim club very seriously. From recording results, developing pictures, and scouting the opposition. Of course, that seems to be just an excuse to look at muscles. She totally represents the female fans of this show, I'm sure. Meanwhile, we get some insight into Rin's motivation to become an Olympic swimmer: completing the dreams of his father, who got married and became a fisherman to support his young family. He died too, in that typhoon that claimed the life of the old fisherman who was Makoto's friend. Possibly related? Whereas Haruka just wanted to swim with his friends, Rin became competitive after his father's death.

Anyway, enough with that crap. We're finally at a tournament, so I can truthfully claim I'm watching this show for the sports club vibe and tournament style drama. And drama is there to be had, because Haruka loses to Rin, and his time was also too low, that he didn't make the cut for the final heat in supposedly his only event. I saw a couple of things during that race that will make the key turning points for the revenge in the medley relay: Haruka needs a better dolphin kick, and he needs to power up his turn. Hopefully Haruka got a good wake-up call there.

10 Second Anime - Free! - Episode 6

Free! - Episode 6

The whole swim club gets stranded on a deserted island rescuing one member, but food gets eaten, stories get shared, and stars get seen.

As Makoto swims out to save Rei from drowning in the storm-angry sea, Haruka and Nagisa notice they're missing and go out to save them too, since they know Makoto had a traumatic association with the ocean when he was younger. They all end up on one of the deserted islands they were using to train the day before, and dry out in an abandoned Resto Housu beneath the lighthouse. As they wait for the sea to calm down, they trade embarrassing stories, Haruka talks about the most beautiful waterfall he ever saw, and Makoto tells Rei about the old fisherman friend who died in a storm. They safely make it back to camp the next morning, but the manager and advisor think they're slacking off as they splay out on the beach.

10 Second Anime: Free! Episode 5

Free! Episode 5

Really, I'm watching it for the sports club vibe, not for the manservice...

The newly formed swim club has only 48 days before the prefecture's tournament. What to do? Training camp, of course, using a training plan from 40 years ago. Where does the plan put them? Not in a pool, but in the ocean on a southern island close to some deserted islands. However, they just blew the club money on new swim trunks, so they'll have to camp, and catch a ride on a squid boat with their old swim coach from elementary school. The club manager and their faculty advisor won't camp out, though. They're women, right? The first day goes by alright, even with some questionable cuisine for dinner, but the recent addition from the track team who has just learned to swim feels that he needs to do more training at night. Suddenly a storm blows in, and he gets in trouble. Will the club president rescue him in time?

Man, writing that took way more than 10 seconds.