Actual line from Free!'s OP: Are you mad?   Already one of the most anticipated/irrationally hated title of the season depending on what side of the internet you hang out in, Free! has already made quite an impact. Would this truly be the first series aimed at a broad range of female fans, or would it fall right on its face? So far, I'm going to say that it was a success, since I spent the majority of the episode with a huge smile on my face and then proceeded to abuse my capslock privileges on Twitter. This episode fell into the category of "this is really silly, but I enjoyed the hell out of it anyway," a spot which was previously only held by UtaPri. I didn't think that I'd find another show like that so quickly, but I'm definitely not complaining.   I wasn't expecting much more than hot guys and gorgeous animation going in, and this episode delivered both of that in bulk, so my expectations were easily met. I will say that I was anticipating more swimming, which seems like a silly complaint, but the competitive side (outside of the flashbacks) wasn't a big focus. I hope that changes in future episodes. That said, the swimming animation itself was amazing, with KyoAni's usual attention to detail. The water itself was reaching Makoto Shinkai levels of realism there. I really liked the reflections on the water towards the end of the episode. Beautiful.   Anyway, the episode ended up focusing around the characters, which is always fine in my book, but one thing stuck out: these guys--Nagisa and Makoto in particular--do not act like high school boys. They are very effeminate, even going so far as to use the -chan honorific. There's nothing wrong with this setup, but when we're still getting the same character interactions that have been done tons of times before with girl characters, the idea of "making something different for the female fans" starts to ring hollow. While it's not straight-up yaoi there's definitely subtext if you're inclined to read into it. A lot of this episode felt like Kimi to Boku but with swimming and spontaneous stripping.   A lot of spontaneous stripping. And skinny dipping. ...   ...I had a point in there somewhere. Right, characters. My favorite of the group so far is Haruka, since he seems to be taking a page from the Oreki school of characterization by not giving a crap about anything but swimming. The shoujo-sparkle he gets in his eyes when someone mentions a pool is the most moe thing in the entire show. On the other end of the spectrum, I don't have an opinion on Sharkboy since I know nothing about him other than that he seems to have gained an attitude and had his teeth filed while he was in Australia. As for the rest... The last guy hasn't shown up yet, and there is a girl (GASP), so it's still unclear whether the show will focus on cute guys doing cute things character dynamics or the competitive aspect. I'm hoping for a combination of both, but if Free! continues in exactly the same way, I'm more than okay with that. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to watch the ED forty more times Images from Crunchyroll.com.
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