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Originally Posted by musouka
Anything sounds stupid of you try to boil it down to its most basic premise. Haru and Rin didn't discover they "wanted to swim with their friends", "swim with your friends" was shorthand for "I need other people in my life." Haru started off proud of the fact that he felt entirely self-sufficient and didn't need anyone--again, ignoring that Makoto had been by his side for more than half his life--and, through nearly losing Makoto and seeing the lengths his friends were willing to go for him, started to respond and make connections to other people. He goes from a kid that can't even comfort a close friend when he's upset, to someone that can reach out and pull that same friend up when he's at his absolute lowest.
You say things like "all good sports themed shows have great personal growth stories" but then start quibbling about the meaning of "great" when you're called out on it. Why don't you try defining what makes a "great personal growth story in a sports series" to you so we can then figure out if Free actually fits that criteria.
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I'm not boiling it down, that's really all there is to it. Haru even says that in one of the episodes to Makoto. When I think of great personal growth stories in a sports series, the first thing that comes to mind is Cross Game (which you can hardly get better than that).
There's no use supplying with you any sort of definition because what's great to you isn't great to me. Like I said, IMO Free! doesn't have great personal growth. Rin is never compelled to change on his own, only with a continual and strong impetus from his friends (In fact, you could just say he simply reverted to how he was when he was a kid), Makoto and Nagisa are completely static, and Rei did have some but was shafted as a 5th wheel character. Haru's lone moment of growth was that he wanted to swim with his friends, and that's as simplistic and uninteresting a story that you could write. Lazy, safe, and tame. Don't like it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kirarakim
Do you go to all those series threads and bash them too?
I am not going to deny this series had fan service. That was obvious from the beginning (and considering the CM they did not try to hide it) but saying that is all the series was is just silly.
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If I actually bother to watch the series, why yes, yes I do. Particularly though if, like how I see it in this case, I cannot really see anything but a gimmick to tell a story.
Considering the story never made a serious effort to be a show about swimming itself, and that the characters were of the easy-bake variety, I can only assume the most cynical thing as the show's top priority over everything else.
EDIT: And to be clear here, I make the fan service more of an issue when the show is actively going out of its way to display its characters like sacks of meat to be oggled over.