2013-09-29, 12:14 | Link #1461 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2007
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I rated this series a 7. While it wasn't the best series & the ending was far from perfect it was very far from the worst. It was a fun & relaxing series for the summer. Yes there was certainly fanservice (although the only time it made me cringe was when it focused on Rei in the speedo) but saying the only thing this series did was fanservice is ridiculous.
And no this is very far from the worst fanservice. Yes I realize most guys do not have the body proportions of the characters in Free! but this doesn't even come close to some of the fanservice of male oriented series where the women's breasts look like balloons. Also yes as Musouka stated there was character development. Although I disagree about Rei. While he wasn't my favorite character I think he got the most positive development, followed probably by Haru.
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2013-09-29, 12:31 | Link #1462 | |
Sisterhood of the Desu
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: in a van by the river
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Fucking hell, people are STILL pissed off that this got made? It's a little late to be mad now
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2013-09-29, 12:37 | Link #1463 | ||
Bittersweet Distractor
Join Date: Nov 2007
Age: 32
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Hey, I can be slow on the uptake sometimes .
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And yeah, IMO if you think Haru and Rin's big realization in the story that they like to swim with their friends counts as great personal growth, then we don't see eye to eye on this at all. Quote:
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2013-09-29, 12:45 | Link #1464 |
Not from this world
Join Date: Jan 2012
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I honestly skipped through the last episode cuz I lost kinda interest to this series.
I did hope that it was more a sports anime but in the end it was more like fanservice + slice of life which isnt bad at all, guess the reason im dissapointed is cuz i watched really good sports animes like Hajime no Ippo and Initial D. It could been any other sport, the focus was on the interactions of the characters. The strong points were definitely the animation, the soundtrack, the VAs and the character development. the weak points were the overly used fanservice (yeah I dont like fanservice if its placed all over the screen), the almost nonexisting focus on the sport itself, the slow pace ( though I gotta admit, ive seen even slower progress in anime) and putting support chars on the background like the biceps-fangirl, the pantsy fanboy of Rin, the gravur model adviser and the pizza boy. All in all Ill give it a 6,5/10 for being entertaining and good characters but lack of the actual sport and no real goal of the guys since the relay looked like more of a side story instead of being their main goal. |
2013-09-29, 12:50 | Link #1465 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2003
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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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2013-09-29, 12:54 | Link #1466 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2007
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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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2013-09-29, 13:07 | Link #1467 | ||
Bittersweet Distractor
Join Date: Nov 2007
Age: 32
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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:
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.
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2013-09-29, 13:10 | Link #1468 |
Sisterhood of the Desu
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: in a van by the river
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You know they are swimmers and therefore they're going to be topless most of the time....there was some fanservice but this show also kind of didn't take it too seriously.
But hey...THEY"RE ALL GUYS AND THEREFORE ITS BAD amirite? But if this was all girls, it would've been 'BEST SHOW OF THE YEAR'.
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2013-09-29, 13:11 | Link #1469 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Not saying this was the best sports series (far from it for me) ever but it did focus on the sport in question.
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2013-09-29, 13:16 | Link #1470 |
Senior Member
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I don't really get the criticism that they didn't focus enough on the swimming aspect of it.
I mean, at least they did bring up some of the different styles of swimming (backstroke, butterfly, free, etc...). They talked about the importance of the initial dive, having a good entrance, having a good turn/kickoff. No disrespect to people who follow the Michael Phelps of the world, but its swimming, how complicated can it be? I mean, with something like baseball, there's all sorts of strategy in that (sacrifice bunt, hit for average, swing for the fences? play conservative or try to steal bases? intentionally walk this good hitter or try to strike him out? do I bring in a designated hitter now? is it time to switch pitchers? etc...). But with swimming, I don't see where you can get all that complex with it.
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2013-09-29, 13:20 | Link #1471 | |
Bittersweet Distractor
Join Date: Nov 2007
Age: 32
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Yeah you just said it, the main focus was on the friendship of the characters. Reminds me of a certain other series, K-ON! that was never really about music either. Similar shows, and both are terrible IMO.
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2013-09-29, 14:17 | Link #1474 | ||
Sisterhood of the Desu
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: in a van by the river
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Exactly! Besides the whole finale was the club trying to get into some relay. Quote:
I've never seen it myself. So I"m generally curious.
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Last edited by CrowKenobi; 2013-09-29 at 22:05. Reason: Please use the "edit" button to add content to your post instead of double posting. |
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2013-09-29, 14:24 | Link #1475 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Trying to say there was not a focus on swimming is ridiculous when there was plenty of actual swimming in the show. Now you said the main purpose of the show was "fanservice" which I disagree with even though yes the show had fanservice. I also don't see how god forbid having a show focus on friendship is a bad thing.
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2013-09-29, 14:30 | Link #1476 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2003
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Free wasn't for you and that's fine, but it's better to be specific in why that's the case than speaking in gross generalities.
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2013-09-29, 14:40 | Link #1477 |
I disagree with you all.
Join Date: Dec 2005
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No, and I don't really care.
But first you give Cross Game as an example of a great sports anime (while even the author lampshaded he didn't really write stories about baseball), and then you acted like it mattered if a sport anime was about the sport or not. So I have trouble following you. |
2013-09-29, 15:15 | Link #1478 | ||||
Bittersweet Distractor
Join Date: Nov 2007
Age: 32
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That is why I didn't think the swimming was all that much of a focus as it is more of a vehicle for fan service than it is for telling a compelling story. The theme of friendship is abused in similar ways, it's just a way to pander to fujiyoshi tastes with sexual undertones (And please don't deny that they're there, otherwise we're done here). Quote:
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Spoiler for Cross Game Spoilers:
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2013-09-29, 15:28 | Link #1479 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2003
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After that, there are scenes like when he's on the hill with Haru, where he manages to express just how much the relay meant to him once again. In his own way, Makoto is just as bad as expressing himself as Haru is, but it comes from a different place, a place of low self worth as compared to the people around him. (You can see that in his assumption that the team, and, by extension, himself, aren't "important" enough to Haru for him to be willing to swim the relay with after losing to Rin.) A lot of Free is about communication with the people around you, both verbal and non-verbal. You seem to have wanted Free to be about reaching towards a unified goal, but it was about reaching the people right next to you.
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2013-09-29, 18:11 | Link #1480 |
Senior Member
Author
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Free! certainly wasn't a serious sports anime - If it was such an anime, the team wouldn't have disqualified itself in the final episode - But I don't think the show was entirely insincere in how it used its swimming focus.
The vast majority of episodes actually had a significant amount of swimming in them. There were numerous swimming races, including official competitions and impromptu one-on-ones between Haru and Rin. While I did like K-On!, it's a very fair criticism that it didn't do as much with the music side of things as it ought to have. An awful lot of K-On! episodes didn't even have music in them, never mind music practice. But the Free! guys weren't goofing off eating cake half or more of the time. We really did get to watch them training a lot, and swimming a lot.
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abs, fabulous, sports, water animation |
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