The sports genre of anime has exponentially grown in recent series, and Free! is one of the more notable series to come out. Free! is far from the only sports anime out there that focuses on swimming, but there’s such passion for the sport that’s present in the series. The anime knows how to effectively balance the suspense of competitions with complex character dynamics.
Free! continues to turn out new content and it looks like this franchise isn’t going anywhere, but it’s still one that’s a mystery for many people. Accordingly, here are 10 things you never know about Free!, the popular swimming anime.
10 A Common Misconception Is That It's Based On A Commercial
Anime series can come from all different sorts of places, but the rumor that Free! was actually based upon a wildly popular commercial gained a tremendous amount of traction.
Granted, a commercial preceded Free! and it got such a positive reception that a petition to turn it into an anime came out of Crunchyroll, but none of this had anything to do with Free!'s development. Free! was being worked on as early as 2011 and the commercial was merely part of their production cycle, rather than an independent project.
9 It Has A Parody Anime
It’s become increasingly common practice for popular anime to receive a parody series that covers the same events or deals with the same characters, albeit in a radically more comedic setting. The success of Iwatobi Swim Club led to 50% OFF, a Free! parody anime.
Both 50% OFF and Free! cover the same material, however 50% OFF never got to finish the full story. The unofficial parody series was prematurely cancelled after a steady decline in interest. That being said, it still makes for a very satisfying companion series to Free!
8 The Series Almost Starred A Different Character
Due to how there are so many sports anime that are out there, what's often the deciding factor in which shows are successful is the cast. Free! excels with its character development and for many fans the characters all feel irreplaceable. That being said, the initial plans for the series included a character named Kaede instead of Rei. Kaede would have still fulfilled the inexperienced newcomer role, but been more of a relaxed character than Rei. Rei is such an integral part of Free! that this would have been an interesting change.
7 The Anime Has Its Own Radio Show
Free! has a healthy fan base in America, but its popularity is at a whole other level in Japan. A testament to this is how the anime even has an Internet radio show that's dedicated to the series called Iwatobi Channel. The weekly radio show is hosted by two of the anime's main voice actors and it's been running since 2013 to great success. It's a nice extra source of content for the anime and some of these radio show episodes have even been compiled into CD releases.
6 It Was Originally Based On A Light Novel
Free! may appear to be a simple anime about swimming, but it’s actually adapted from a series of light novels, called High Speed! The High Speed! novels are what begin the Free! story and introduce many of the characters, but the novels continue to branch off and cover new ground. Much of this is covered in the anime, but the scope of the novels is also why there have been so many different Free! series over the years. Free! was even itself turned into a novelization four years after the anime ended, which is a little ironic considering its origins.
5 Several Characters Originated In Other Series
The connected Free! universe that begins with High Speed! is a lot more complicated than it needs to be, but this rich attention to chronology and continuity is part of the reason that Free! tells such a satisfying story. Unfortunately, this story gets muddled in America due to how not all of the series has made it overseas, or in the correct order. Accordingly, characters like Asahi, Nao, and Natsuya actually originated in High Speed! 2 and Starting Days. However, Take Your Marks and Dive to the Future were available in the US first, which started the confusion.
4 It Has Extremely Unusual Merchandise
For both better and for worse, anime has some of the most passionate fans out there. It’s a thrill to be able to purchase merchandise that honors an anime or manga in a creative way. However, Free! really pushes the limits of fandom and how far people will go to prove their love for the series. For instance, plenty of official life-size standees of the characters can be purchased, as well as multiple one-off variants that have a highly inflated price. Free!’s fans are devoted, but some of this merchandise feels like it’s taking advantage of them.
3 It Helped Revive North America's Interest In Sports Anime
Part of what makes anime such an entertaining medium is that it features a number of genres that just aren’t seen in other forms of animation. When it comes to anime, it’s the action shonen series, mecha material, and magical girl fodder that gets the most attention in America, but sports anime is beginning to find its crowd. Both Free! and Haikyuu!! were instrumental in the recent explosion of sports anime that’s come out of Funimation, with their success giving the company more confidence in the genre.
2 Rin Is Director Hiroko Utsumi's Favorite Character
Free! is an anime series where literally every character is a winner and entertaining in different ways. It’s easy to love the whole cast and the teamwork that they bring to the sport when they all work together. That being said, Rin is a character that gets many sequences that exude cool and he’s someone that’s typically shown in a positive light. This may have something to do with the fact that the show’s director, Hiroko Utsumi, has unabashedly admitted that Rin is her favorite character in the show.
1 It Has Several Series And Companion Films
Many anime have a wealth of sequel series and accompanying films that extend the narrative. Free! is especially egregious in this regard and it’s particularly difficult to follow the chronology since many of the series change their names and don’t all follow the same pattern. The films also fluctuate between prequel and sequel adventures, which also complicates the picture. Most recently Free! was supposed to have a new film that ties into the 2020 Summer Olympics, but the fire at Kyoto Animation indefinitely delayed the project.