Free!

Free! (フリー！ Furii！) is the first season of the Japanese anime television series Free!, directed by Hiroko Utsumi and produced by Kyoto Animation and Animation Do. The season aired in Japan from July 4 to September 26 in 2013. The opening theme for this season is "Rage on" by OLDCODEX and the ending theme is "SPLASH FREE" by STYLE FIVE.

Plot (Season One)
Free! revolves around members of a high school boys' swimming team. Haruka Nanase, Makoto Tachibana, Rin Matsuoka and Nagisa Hazuki are members of the same swimming club in elementary school before parting ways, when Rin moves to Australia for schooling and specialized training in swimming. Years later, they reunite when Rin returns to Japan in order to attend Samezuka Academy, a swimming powerhouse.

Haruka, Makoto, Nagisa form the Iwatobi High School Swim Club, persuading track athlete Rei Ryugazaki to become a swimmer and join them. The story focuses on how the Iwatobi boys seek to reconcile with a seemingly changed Rin while also developing the reinvented swim club. Things come to a head when Rin loses a prime spot on Samezuka's relay team during a crucial tournament and the Iwatobi team makes a critical decision that impacts one and all.

Series Overview
Free! (フリー！ Furii!) is a Japanese anime television series produced by Kyoto Animation and Animation Do. The anime is a sequel to the light novel, High☆Speed！, written by Kouji Ohji, which received an Honorable Mention in the second Kyoto Animation Award contest in 2011 and was published in July 2013. Season 1, titled Free!-Iwatobi Swim Club- for international distribution, aired in Japan in 2013. Season 2, titled Free!-Eternal Summer-, aired in 2014. A third season of the anime series titled Free!-Dive to the Future- aired in 2018. Hiroko Utsumi directed the first two seasons, while season three was directed by Eisaku Kawanami.

An animated film adapting the second volume of the light novel, High☆Speed！the movie －Free! Starting Days－, was released in December 2015. A film trilogy titled Timeless Medley was released in 2017. The first two films are compilations of seasons one and two of the anime series, focusing on the friendships between Haruka and Makoto in Free!-Timeless Medley- the Bond, then Rin and Sosuke Yamazaki in Free!-Timeless Medley- the Promise. The third film in the trilogy, titled Free! The Movie -Take Your Marks-, features a quartet of new stories featuring the ensemble cast. Following season three, a compilation film titled Free!-Road to the World- the Dream debuted in July 2019.

The next film in the franchise, Free!–the Final Stroke–, was slated for release in Q3 of 2020, but was postponed following the 2019 arson attack on KyoAni's Building 1, where much of the artwork for the series was created. At the Free! Series ORCHESTRA CONCERT 2020, the studio revealed that the film would debut during quarter 3 in 2021. On the series' eighth anniversary a special livestream was held, revealing the films finalized title, release date, and the fact the film would be releasing in two parts (the first volume & the second volume). The former released in September 2021 while the latter is scheduled to release in April 2022.

Main Characters

 * Haruka Nanase (CV: Nobunaga Shimazaki (Japanese), Todd Haberkorn (English) )
 * Makoto Tachibana (CV: Tatsuhisa Suzuki (Japanese), Johnny Yong Bosch (English) )
 * Nagisa Hazuki (CV: Tsubasa Yonaga (Japanese), Greg Ayres (English) )
 * Rei Ryugazaki (CV: Daisuke Hirakawa (Japanese), J. Michael Tatum (English) )
 * Rin Matsuoka (CV: Mamoru Miyano (Japanese), Vic Mignogna (English) )

Secondary Characters

 * Gou Matsuoka (CV: Akeno Watanabe (Japanese), Jamie Marchi (English) )
 * Miho Amakata (CV: Satsuki Yukino (Japanese), Caitlin Glass (English) )
 * Aiichiro Nitori (CV: Kouki Miyata (Japanese), Josh Grelle (English) )
 * Seijuro Mikoshiba (CV: Kenjiro Tsuda (Japanese), Robert McCollum (English) )
 * Goro Sasabe (CV: Hiroshi Yanaka (Japanese), Christopher Sabat (English) )

Production Staff
Studio: Kyoto Animation, Animation DO

Director: Hiroko Utsumi

Script, Series Composition: Masahiro Yokotani

Character Design: Futoshi Nishiya

Art Director: Joji Unoguchi

Director of Photography: Kazuya Takao

Music: Tatsuya Kato

Sound Director: Yota Tsuruoka

Musical Production: Lantis

Production: Iwatobi High School Swimming Club

TV
ABC: 3 July 2013, 26:44  (4 July 2013, 02:44)

TOKYO MX: 3 July 2013, 24:30 (4 July 2013, 00:30)

TV Aichi: 3 July 2013, 26:05 (4 July 2013, 02:05)

BS11: 7 July 2013, 24:00

AT-X: 10 July 2013, 22:00

Animax: 20 August 2013, 22:00

Online Streaming
Nico Nico Douga: 8 July 2013, 22:00

ABC Video Club: 8 July 2013, 22:00 ※The dates and times are in accordance with Japanese time zone.

Navigation
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