As predicted, there was a
second season of Free!. Very probably there will be more, too. And I
must say, I didn’t mind. This second season did a lot of things wrong, but a
lot of things right as well.
The problem with Kyoto Anime
follow-ups is that they often stagnate. The characters are established and
liked by the fandom, so we get the likes of K-On!! Where cute girls do
cute things. And this continues until the fans get bored and reject the show,
which sours any early success.
This series looks badly like
it is going in that direction. For the first half, not a lot of swimming
happens, and there’s a whole lot of regurgitation. There’s another struggle to
find new members (none arrive, at least for the main bulk of this season), worries about what the boys are eating, and a cultural festival where they have to run
a foot race in their swim clothes. There are rather dull episodes about each of
the characters, usually revolving around a misinterpretation where the others
think something serious is going on, which turns out to be nothing. The best of
these is when Makoto seems to come to realise that he’s not going to be able to
keep up with the prodigies around him but would be better off thinking of
becoming a teacher – being naturally good with kids and caring enough to check
on their well-being outside his classes.
But what the series does well is
to break out of this closed circle and look elsewhere for more interesting
stories. The most obvious place to do this is with Rin’s swimming club. Rin
himself is developed a lot here, and becomes far more likeable as his story is
fleshed out, he begins acting less selfishly and actually does some very kind
things for others. We also get new characters, lone wolf Sousuke, brooding and stirring
up competition yet having a tragic fate (of course), and chirpy, naive comedy
loudmouth Momotarou. Aiichirou also gets a lot more development, falling behind
badly but working extremely hard to catch up and being vindicated – as well as being
the straight man in a fun manzai comedy-like relationship with Momotarou.
There are really two emotional
threads running through the season, which work quite well. One, presumably
relating to the title, is the grim inevitability of happy times ending. The
older characters are going to graduate, new relay teams are going to have to be
formed, and kohais are going to have to accept that their sempais are going to
leave their lives, or at least their daily lives. The second, closely related
to this, is the coming-of-age of the characters and the need for them to find
their true paths. Haru in particular is just uninterested in his future, or
taking any responsibility, feeling that career paths inhibit his ability to be free.
The high point of the season,
perhaps of both seasons thus far, is Rin spontaneously taking him to Australia
to show him the competitive swimming scene there, opening his eyes to the wider
world. It’s a very sweet gesture and works well. Even with some rather awkward
attempts to make Rin sound fluent in English.
Of course, the series is still
aimed squarely at the fangirls, and in all honesty, the homoeroticism gets
strained here. As I suggested in my review of the third season of Inazuma Eleven, these aren’t a bunch of young kids who might all be very confused
about their sexuality and ignore it.
They’re young men, and there’s a certain
point where the obviously unusual intimacy between these guys simply wouldn’t go
unspoken – even in Japan .
The way these boys act, people would be making a whole lot of comments. The
closest the series gets to addressing the possibility of homosexuality is when
Rin gets angry that the hotel he’s booked for himself and Haru has a double
bed. As a result, I found it all very contrived and unconvincing, especially
since I continue to not actually ship any of the muscly men together at all
(though Nagisa and Ai finally got some scenes interacting with one another,
hoorah! If they didn’t have such weird bodies, I’d totes ship it). And I ship
characters very easily, from just about everyone who isn’t hideous in Inazuma
Eleven to the vast majority of the pretty girls in Saki. I just don’t
see the men in Free! as cute in any way. (Flashback versions are another
story of course!)
I don’t know that there’s much
more that can happen in Free!. It may be better to leave it open as to
how well Haru does in the adult world, and who the new swim team recruits might
be. But if there’s a movie, or another series, or even just some OVA, I’ll
probably tune in. And I’m all for more series like this, treating boys just the
same way that anime has long treated girls. But preferably slightly
less...bara. Please.
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