The beloved swimming anime Free! Iwatobi Swim Club will soon take its last lap around the pool, and Kyoto Animation has released a new teaser trailer and image from the first part of the finale to hype fans up for the conclusion.
Kyoto Animation uploaded the new teaser to the company's official YouTube account. The teaser shows Haruka getting ready to compete in the global swimming tournament held in Australia, which was foreshadowed in the third season of the anime, Free: Dive to the Future. The Final Stroke is being promoted as the "final chapter" for the boys of the Iwatobi Swim Club, and will be released in two parts, with the first half premiering in Japan on Sept. 17, and the conclusion coming in April 2022. Both movies are directed by Eisaku Kawanami, who directed the last season of the Free! anime and several of the other movies in the franchise. The movie will also feature a new song from Japanese rock group OLDCODEX, which Tatsuhisa Suzuki, the voice actor of Makoto, is a part of.
Free! Iwatobi Swim Club is based off of the light novel High Speed! by Koji Oji and is one of Kyoto Animation's most successful franchises. The first season of the anime was released in 2013, and was followed up with a second and third season in 2014 and 2018, respectively. The two parts of The Final Stroke will be the fifth and sixth movies in the franchise; previous theatrical releases include three compilation films that retold the events of the TV series with new content, as well as a prequel movie. The series tells the story of a group of teenagers who rediscover their love for competitive swimming and decide to revitalize their high school's neglected swim club.
Free! Iwatobi Swim Club, as well as its follow-up seasons Eternal Summer and Dive to the Future, are available for streaming on Crunchyroll.
Source: YouTube