Free! Dive to the Future 2a701v

If Free's second season was an improvement for the series, its third season is its all-time low.

Free, in its best moments, may not have been anything more than mildly enjoyable (if teetering the line between 'fanservice' and outright pandering), but in this case it has fallen below even being tolerable. Nonstop, incessant melodrama, focused not on the main characters but split between the dozens of irrelevant side characters around them who nobody watching the show actually cares half a dingdong about. Any humor or relaxing little moments are gone, with an endless barrage of melodrama from opening credits to ending credits. Yes, if that sounds ... interesting to you, by all means, have yourself a blast.

There are so many bloody characters in Dive to the Future that you will often forget who is who. KyoAni also assumes that everyone who watches Dive to the Future has also watched the prequel movie, High Speed, so you're also expected to care for characters you have probably never seen, or hardly . Depending on the way you divide things up, there are at bare minimum three different sets of characters, all largely doing their own thing for most of the season (one of these groups even living on a completely different side of the damn planet), with few important, and mostly minor connections holding them together. The high school group in particular is almost entirely irrelevant to the rest of the plot, them still existing only to appease fans of their characters who wanted to see more. Even by the final episode, there were still new characters being introduced, and by that point I had long since lost my patience. The ludicrous amount of subplots going on between Dive to the Future's seven million characters means there is so little time spent on each character that the viewer cannot get emotionally invested in any of them. It's like being given fifty dishes to sample, except all you get to taste from each of them is a tiny, minuscule amount on the tip of your tongue: would anyone actually feel full after that?

To say I had any fun at all watching Dive to the Future would be a lie. Whereas most anime at least try to intersperse the drama with a light-hearted scene here and there, the melodrama in Dive to the Future is all there is. It is the entirety of the show, with not a single moment to breathe. By the time I had finished watching even one episode, I would already be fatigued enough to want a damn break. While the first and second seasons of Free also had plenty of the 'ol melodrama to go around, it was nowhere near the onslaught it is here. Ikuya is waxing philosophical about not being able to see the stars, and I think, well, gee, you live in the most urban country in the world and somehow the word 'pollution' doesn't exist in your head. Hey, maybe I'm just dead inside, but I think it has more to do with how it is impossible to empathise with any word the characters utter. Dive to the Future is processed through your ears and your eyeballs, but never through your brain or your heart.

Some of the characters (Nagisa, for one-- boy, would I love to strangle this little dickweed at times) are infuriating as hell and do not even behave as actual people do. There's the flashback with Ikuya in the hospital, for example, where he smiles and giggles like a little schoolgirl whose mommy just bought him a new dollie. I suppose KyoAni believes that male characters should act 'moe' in the same way that female characters do, as if men and women in Japan somehow have the exact same mannerisms and behaviours (breaking news: they don't). Oh, and the white-haired foreign-dude's voice actor was such an awful match for his character that it was actually laughable. I think KyoAni had a grand slammin' total of one English voice actor available, and just handed him the job as their token foreigner, because, well, to be fair, Japanese people have no clue how white people actually speak.

I guess if you like gay stuff, Dive to the Future is pretty gay. There are scenes like when Hiyori tells Ikuya to forget about other dudes (and look only at Hiyori), as he towers over a submissive Ikuya laying on his back. Cue rockin' dupstep. Buuu-wuu-wuu. Everyone in this show is rainbow-ass-coloured gay, but KyoAni is only interested in teasing and playing pretend, for better or for worse, depending on how you prefer your gayness served.

Unsurprisingly, there is no real conclusion to the story, with your sole reward for watching the show being a "See you again in 2020!" announcement in the final few seconds. Um, thanks, but rather than more seasons, I'd have been much happier to see an actual ending to this one, which would have been possible if the show just focused a wee bit more on Haru's and Rin's central struggles and rivalry with one another, rather than all the superfluous rubbish surrounding the other forty-billion characters.

I fail to see the purpose in Dive to the Future, in 2018, five full years after the first season, when hardly anyone except the most hardcore of fans still care about Free. And another sequel in the works? For what purpose, exactly? They cannot do anything of value with such a massive cast of characters by throwing another measly twelve episodes at it. Surely there's better creative and monetary endeavors that could be pursued instead, and, well, I guess there are, what with the coming of their next fangirl-friendly series, Tsurune, this fall.

KyoAni always envisions these grand ideas on paper, but then give up midway when it comes to actually realising said idea. Were there twice or thrice as many episodes, a decent story might have been feasible, but with a cast this large and only twelve episodes, it makes you wonder if KyoAni is only capable of thinking in dreams, with reality somehow a distant concept to them. As long as they give the appearance of being something, so too do they believe they will truly become said thing. It's a bit like cosplay: if you're pretty and you act the part well enough, some who don't know any better might just assume you are the real thing.

The second season was a great comfy experience. Eternal Summer was what it was called and it was H O T just like the name suggests. However, it was much more than that and left several different factors unanswered, for example, In s02e09, Haru said: "What dream? What future? I have nothing of that sort!" Other questions it rose were: The traumas behind our transfer student (not wanting to swim on the behalf of team, only on individual level), Haru's lack of motivation, and the disappearance / solitude phase of the best boy. Essentially, this 3rd season is exactly as the title promises: Dive towards ... the future of our characters and that's pretty much how the story goes.

The selling point of this season among its light hearted drama are the cast who are yet again showing what being a bro to your bro truly means. This is like all those cute girls doing cute things anime series except the cast focuses on boys (bros) doing cute (bro) things and they all are rather real characters (bros) instead from the moeblob side because these are real manly men. The single best part is how natural these bros act in every situation be it them spooning in bed or hanging out naked. It's only possible and #nohomo because they are real bros and so manly. It's rare to see male friends achieve this level of broship and that's pretty much why I like this show because all the other manly and bro shows (I really like manly and bro stuff) center around GAR Jesuses and muscle Moseses who are often also Gary Stu and practically immortal superhumans all muscles and spreading masculinity wherever they go. Free's cast is realistic and fragile, but it don't matter because they are so bro and the shit out of each others, always.

However, I don't think this series is especially good anymore because it only has few things going on and most of what it had to offer was already seen in the first 2 seasons anyway. I.e. it got old. Worth of watching, but really I could have personally lived without this season.

Overall this season definitely felt weaker than the previous seasons. Partly that is due to the vast expansion in the main cast and obviously because of that, not all characters got to have the screentime needed for their characters to develop or to do much with the characters. However overall I feel like what has been accomplished, was done pretty well.

This season's major flaw however is the slow pacing of the first half of the season. The first couple episodes felt so so slow and I also understand that time is needed to introduce new characters and establish what is happening with all of them, ... but it just felt too long. On the other hand the pacing in the latter half was fast, which in a way mirrors competitive swimming and it makes you hyped up for the races. I feel like most of the fanbase feels the same way and it's so unfortunate that that happened and might have turned off some people from watching more, because the latter half is done really well and feels exciting and is immensely enjoyable.

Ikuya and Toonu's drama felt... I guess it was needed, but it felt too similar to previous Free! seasons, so that almost undermines the whole point of this season, which is the characters are growing up. I guess because they grew up the drama only lasted half a season now, instead of a whole. I understand that a lot of attention was needed to develop Ikuya's and Toonu's characters and story arch, but I can't help but feel like TOO much time was spent on their drama, when it could have been spent on, ya know, actual swimming.

Long time fans of Free! will love seeing all the characters come together (I myself teared up quite a bit when that happened) and it is lovely to see so many bonds form between characters. The new characters are pretty good (however the girls are all very unfortunately underdeveloped (then again, the story doesn't really focus on them anyway, but it's still sad that that is still the case)) and they are introduced quite well.

Tonally, the series truly feels like the main characters are slowly growing up, but that does not mean that they are suddenly fully fledged adults either. I feel a ridiculous amount of pride for these fictional characters and seeing them grow up, but still remain their same personalities and quirks and characteristics. Especially Haru feels like he has finally reached a point in his life that might have been unimaginable to him a couple years ago. He has come a long way from the 'I only swim free and I by twenty I will be ordinary' guy.

Could this season have been made better? Definitely. I feel like this season should have been 24 episodes long, so there would be more time for all the characters to be relevant and develop. I hope that the next season will keep the pace from the last episodes. (2020..... ㅠ ㅠ )

In the end, I still love Free! dearly and the characters are all very precious to me, so I will always be biased. However I can still see the major flaws in this season and I can only hope that next season will be handled better. The things this season did well however, were done really well. It is just unfortunate that the bad things sorta drag it down and that they were the focus of the first half.

Free!: Dive to the Future is an amazing sequel to an already amazing series. We get to see Haru and Makoto lives after finishing high school, which we don't see a lot of, as they face new challenges and problems that come with the higher competitive world of swimming.

This season we get introduced to Ikuya, a childhood friend of both Haru and Makoto, and he is shown to be very cold to others at the start for certain reasons which are then told later into the series, Haru, Makoto and everyone else has to help him get over his past trauma and worries so he ... can become the lovable kid he once was. Now that is pretty much how the first half of the series is in simple and non spoiler-ish way.

Now the second part is Haru training for the All Japan invitational Tournament. We get briefly introduced to some other competitors to see what kind of opponents Haru and Rin will have to face in this tournament. Although it's not has drama heavy as the first part it is more intense and exciting, and then we get to the tournament and then the final episode were it leaves off finishing the qualifiers (kind of) and then teases us with sequel to come soon.

Overall to say if this was better then season two I would have to say no as season two was was absolutely fantastic. Compared to last season this was a little bit rushed at some parts and some things just sort of worked out for the sake of it having to work out but it didn't happen to much so it did not degrade my love for this season at all.

Two things I'd like to say before I start this review. First, I don't believe anime should be judged by their fanbase as they have nothing to do with the show itself. It's not like whoever produced the show asked their fans to ship characters etc. Second, I believe in objective reviews, which is why it pisses me off that so many of the top reviews on this site are just memes but doesn't say if the show is actually good or not. If I wanted meme reviews I would just go to gigguk's channel as he does them far better than people here.

Overall, I ... believe Free! is a genuinely a good show tho somewhat flawed. If you want intense sports show I wouldn't recommend watching this as Free! is mainly a slice of life and more about its friendships/rivalries rather than intense matches. This season, in contrast with the other ones, has more than one story going on and constantly goes back and forth between scenes, which is why I think its inferior to the other seasons since it always felt like there is too much going on but is still good nonetheless.

Plot (7/10): This season starts with Haru and Makoto going to the same college, Rin going to America, and Nagisa and Rei managing the new team back in Iwatobi high school. Like I said earlier, there are too many things going on, so it sort of leaves a mess rather than focusing development on a single story like what they did in previous seasons. The drama introduced in the story does seem to take an interesting turn with the appearance of Haru's middle school friend, Ikuya, and his new change in attitude in swimming, making the audience want to find out more about what make him cold and distant. There are several other interesting parts to the story but I don't want to spoil them.

Animation (8/10): The animation in Free! looks amazing, clean, and pleasant to look at, as expected of KyoAni. Although its not as good as hyouka, the water scenes are still breathtaking to look at, so no flaws here.

Sound (8/10): The opening sounds lit but the ending...a little eh imo. The soundtracks they played were awesome tho.

Characters (6/10): Biggest problem in this season. There are way too many characters introduced and none of them felt well developed. They all felt like the same person to me. Ikuya is just basically Haru (cold, quiet, a good swimmer) but forced into being his rival. Still tho I'm interested to see how the show will develop them later on in the story and hopefully we'll understand them better later on.

Enjoyment (7/10): So far I'm enjoying this season although its not my favorite one. If you are already a fan of this show you will most likely enjoy this.

‘My little swimmer: friendship is magic’ - The anime. I love it as much as anyone, but you have to it the title fits. More now than ever.

One of the best parts about watching anime is seeing a series you loved get another season. The characters you spent so many hours getting to know, the scenery you spent iring *cough*, the thrilling parts that made you sit up in bed to get a better look, and the emotional parts that made you cry.

Free! Dive to the future is a great example of that.

I’m not saying it’s perfect, because it’s not. Heavens knows there were far ... too many characters this season to fit in any real screen-time for most of them. The show ends on a heart-warming but annoying cliff-hanger as usual. Nagisa’s voice is still far too high to ever be believable for a 17 year old guy. And Gou is still just there to harp on about how fabulous muscles are. I will be amazed if someone finds me a line where she doesn’t mention either Rin or muscles.

But watching everyone get back together again was just fantastic. The world of competitive swimming is a small world, and most people seem to know each other. Heck, most people are friends, and have to struggle to cheer for each other and strive to beat each other at the same time.

Despite not having much screen-time, most of the cast have grown a lot. Most are in Uni or older, and it shows. They can be more honest with each other. They each other’s way of life. They’re patching up broken friendships, maintaining relationships, and focussing on their careers more and more.

Rin, Nagisa, and Rei had their main development in S1. Sousuke and Nitori had theirs in S2. Makoto’s and Haru’s are spread out all over the place – both get featured a fair bit in S3. But the main source of development, at least in the first half, is Ikuya.

[Note: Here’s where you’re gonna want to have watched the movie, because it provides some very useful background information. If you’ve watched ‘Starting Days’, you’ll know who Ikuya, Asahi, and Natsuya are. You’ll be able to compare their kiddie selves to their adult selves. And these three are quite important in S3, because of how they interact with each other and the rest of the group.]

Ikuya, along with Asahi, is a member of Haru and Makoto’s old swimming team (no, not the one with Rin in). His story is surprisingly similar to Rin’s, but his personality is more similar to Haru’s. Add in a loyal but rather possessive best friend (who himself is quite well-developed and stops being irritating after a while), a concerned older brother, and a ‘chance’ encounter with the former team, and you’ll get some pretty gripping drama. It’s nothing we haven’t seen before in Free!, but you don’t need to fix what’s not broken. I was eagerly waiting for the next ep every week.

Finally, the swimming tournaments are still exciting to watch, but in a different way to before. It’s less a question of ‘will they qualify or won’t they?’ and more a question of ‘who will be first?’ Because we all know by now that the mains qualify in at least one race each.

Watching them swim just means watching them spend some quality time together, training hard and having fun. This is a slice of life, after all. Relationships are what we’re here for.
(Well, that and the swimsuits 😉)

Let’s put it this way. If you liked the first two seasons at all, you’ll love this one.

The highly anticipated third season of Free! is here and better than ever!! With all our old favorites, and new characters, the plot is more dramatic than ever. Now that Haru, Makoto, Rin, and Souske have graduated, we get to see what their future holds and what the future has in store for the swim club without their older .

Dive to the future is my favorite season so far. With a perfect mix of humor, drama, and swimming it takes everything to a new level. Obviously, if you are new to the series watch the first two seasons, Starting days, and Take your marks first. ... (A prequel movie to the first season, and a movie that leads up to season three)

Story 10/10: The story is filled as many twists and turns as always, with new characters being added, and old characters reappearing. A lot of gaps of what happened to characters are filled, and everything slowly comes together. It's excellent.

Art 10/10: From the cherry blossoms, to the water, to the eyes of the characters when anything dramatic happens, the art of Free! Is superb.

Sound 10/10: The Opening and ending themes are fantastic, as well is the general background music during the show, often adding a powerful effect to dramatic scenes (of which there are many)

Character 10/10: Every single character in this show is unique and wonderful with interesting back stories and personalities that add different aspects to the show. From the main characters, to side characters, all are perfectly crafted characters that I guarantee you will fall in love with. Seriously. It's a problem. I have to many swimming children.

Enjoyment 10/10: Free! has always been by far one of my most favorite anime's of all time, and this season is no different. I find myself counting down the days for the newest episodes, and terribly sad when they end and I have to wait another week for the next. This anime is truly a creation lots of people could enjoy. With it's themes of friendship and swimming, and incredible plot twists, it's not just a show for people who like muscles to watch, as some seem to believe. I fully enjoy this show, especially this season, and everything it has to offer. Swimming, friendship, drama, humor, great music, fantastic animation, unique and wonderful characters, Free! has it all.

Overall this season is a solid 10/10. So Free! fans rejoice! It doesn't get any better than Dive to the future! I can't wait to see what the rest of this outstanding season brings us!

Okay, so bear in mind that this review has been written with only 4 episodes out, so maybe by the end of the season I've changed my mind. So far, though, I have to say that everything about this first episode makes me think that Free!: Dive to the Future will be amazing, and exactly what the fans of the anime would expect (this is definitely a compliment) and had been hoping for.

We get to see our main characters back in action but this time all grown up and in a different context (which I think is pretty great, as we rarely get to ... see high schoolers actually leave high school in animes) and, at the same time, we finally get to see some old characters and how their lives look like today. This is a testament to Free!'s ability to present new characters and make the audiences get attached to them with only a couple of episodes, which then gives the writers room to explore these characters in future installments of the anime such as Free!: Dive to the Future.

I think most of us would openly it that Free! is sort of a guilty pleasure. How could you reasonably explain to your friends that an anime about some guys swimming and competing against each other is SO good? It is difficult to explain, yes, because this show is SO MUCH MORE than that tagline. Free! and all its sequels have been consistently entertaining, emotional, intense but never overly dramatic, and simply fantastic. The story about this group of friends, with their problems and hopes, all wrapped up in this context of "sports anime" that keeps it all the more exciting, makes Free! (and all its sequels and prequels) an excellent anime, much better than you would ever imagine when you first read its synopsis.

Free!: Dive to the Future, just like its prequels, is the perfect summer anime, as it is ideal for these summer afternoons where you just feel like laying on the couch and enjoying a good time. However, it would be a mistake to label it only as a "feel good" anime, because even if it definitely qualifies as one, it is way more than that.

With all the above I want to really get the point across that Free!: Dive to the Future is as good, if not better, than all its predecessors. The creators of the show know what we fans want, even when we ourselves don't, and they gave it to us in the perfect package. So if you're a fan of the series, what are you waiting for? Do not even doubt it, every second you're not watching Dive to the Future, is a second you're missing out.

If you watched S3 with shipping goggles, you were likely disappointed since that's not what S3 was about and that's a good thing. Instead, what fans got was more of the Starting Days characters and new characters to look forward to in the 2020 project. Of course, you didn't know that when you started watching but you have to have faith, ne? Haru and Makoto are very together in Tokyo, contrary to what S1&2 Director Utsumi said would happen, a big plus for Makoharu shippers, of which I am one. Rin got sassy with Sousuke, which was also a good deal of fun ... to watch. Reigisa didn't get enough screen time, but neither did the new Iwatobi crew, though it's good to know they have new with Gou Matsuoka, Miss Amakata and Goro Sasabe all reprising their ive roles. The Samezuka boys returned to keep the friendships lively and the brand new characters were intriguing and sure to return in 2020.

Personally, I enjoyed the season from start to finish. The drama brought on by the reappearance of Ikuya Kirishima and his best friend Hiyori Toono was solid, if frustrating, since it gave us a view into what a dysfunctional Makoharu would have looked like instead of the ive relationship it is and remains. Natsuya's brief visit with Rin in Australia was a hoot as it forced the swimmer into examining his obsession with Haru and his friendship with Sosuke in the funniest of ways. The new pro coaches brought into the picture were delightfully quirky and Haru's competition on the global stage was truly phenomenal and threatens to remain so.

What stands out, as always, are the bonds of friendship between these characters, especially between the Iwatobi crew with Haru and Makoto reuniting with Asahi Shina and Kisumi Shigino, along with Ikuya, Hiyori (eventually) and Nao Serizawa; and the Samezuka crew with Rin, Sosuke, and their former schoolmates. It's broship at its best. If you want to cry "gay baiting" you can, but why not view it as a positive spin on the queer community? I don't need to see fornication in het shows to feel the love and friendship between couples so why do I need to see it between gay couples? I don't, but I know when it's there and recognize it.

As a ordinary viewer, the sports anime aspect does fail a bit as there isn't much swimming as I'd hoped to see. I love Kyoani's water animation. As a shipper, especially a Makoharu shipper, I couldn't ask for more. It's clear Haru and Makoto are already "together" or on the verge of a serious relationship. Thank goodness the "love triangle" facing off Makoharu and Rinharu was ditched with the change of directors after Eternal Summer. Rinharu shippers are still hopeful for a miracle, but they're just in denial at this point.

In summary, DttF was a wonderful S3 and I thoroughly recommend it. Those who disliked it are probably disgruntled fans who either were hoping to see hugs and kisses or a continuation of a RH vs MH online feud. Or they realize that their 12 y.o. self is going to be in their 20's by the time the next segment is out and they're not likely to care at all. Me? I came to the series late (2017) and caught up on everything in a fanbinge. I'm so in, I'm drowning. It's all good.

I personally feel like this series actually gets better with each season. The studio did a wonderful job of combining all previous seasons and movies into this show in such a short period (12 episodes). That being said, if you have not recently watched the movies/anime it might be hard to keep track of which character is which as this season incorporates many more characters compared to previous seasons.

As someone who has participated in sports in High School, a lot of themes were very similar and I often found myself reminiscing about past sports experiences. They did a good job of balancing what actually ... happens between friends and people who are not necessarily close but are acquaintances due to playing the same sport while also dramaticing some parts to make it more interesting.

I'd like to end off that I prefer this style of focusing on the races and competition than the friendships/rivalries that previous seasons/movies had. This season still had that but included many more races and explored different styles of swimming as opposed to the typical medley relay that we often saw in previous seasons/movies.

A third season for Free! is something I have always dreamed about but never thought would actually come true. The first 2 seasons exceeded my expectations… as if half-naked, dripping wet bishies weren’t enough, there was also solid plot and character development. These swimming boys endeared themselves to me and I was beyond excited for their return years after Eternal Summer.

However, as much as I’m reluctant to it this, I don’t find the new season anywhere near as good as its predecessors. I have many gripes about Dive to the Future, such as:

- Not enough intense swimming races
- Not enough Rin (isn’t he supposed ... to be the deuteragonist)
- Too much Hiyori (he is so meddlesome and annoying… I have never disliked any character from this series until him)
- Not enough Rei and Nagisa (they get even more shafted on screen time than Rin)
- New iwatobi aren’t interesting enough for me to care about them
- Don’t care about Ikuya (most of the season is devoted to his development and I don’t find him to be a compelling character… his personality is somewhat reminiscent of season 1 Haru except more boring)
- Not enough college life

Last but not least, my main problem with the show is how it tries to cram in way too many new characters. With only 12 episodes, the show is unable to spend much time on each person and give them proper development. None of the new characters made an impression on me or made me care about them in any way. What really made the first two seasons shine was the camaraderie between the central characters, which is something that is lacking in the third season since they’re all in separate places and don’t have heartfelt interactions anymore. Their development was nicely wrapped up in the first two seasons, so it seems as if KyoAni didn’t know what to do with their characters anymore. Still, I would have preferred less focus on the new characters and more focus on the boys I have come to know and love.

Personally, I've never once tried SWIMMING in my life, and this show perhaps motivates me to the sport ; maybe the reason I adore this show so much (despite the score I gave it).

Not much to say about this show, based on 'professional swimming'. It is based on a bunch of guys involved in the sport, a protagonist of course, & their path towards going professional starting from their childhood. Efforts matters, and their skills, experience, luck, surroundings, friendship, ion, motivation,... will be significant to define where & how fast they progress. The show is 'slice of life', drama.

Highlights :
- Hot, ... ripped (lean) guys.
- Fluid animation during swimming, especially when they swim.
- Slice of Life movements
- Information on the sport.

Someone interested in sports (physical activities), particularly swimming must surely check out this one. I hope you'll have fun. :D

(8/10)

Thank You!

*spoiler free*

This review will be updated as more episodes come out...

We're back guys! Our dose of the old boys, swimming, and of course, delicious abs. What more can we ask for? I was expecting the novelty of the whole sports element to wear off for me at this point (after all, most of what I can recall from the first two seasons was just really enjoying the beautiful characters and tension between the them) but I found myself pleasantly surprised. Apparently, the makers have not lost their ability to make swimming interesting.

Let's begin by discussing the story-- this is a spoiler free review, ... so I won't reveal much other than yes, as the title states, this takes place a little bit after the second season. If you haven't seen both seasons, I would highly recommend that you watch them, but if you have seen them but just forgotten most of what happened (which happened to me, unfortunately), worry not! The story is very clean and current, and so far, not confusing at all. Even with the basic background knowledge of the five main characters from the past two seasons, you should be able to enjoy this thoroughly.

Next is the art--- oh boy, it was breathtaking. So many times I had to rewind because I had literally zoned out staring at the gorgeous art. The water, the cherry blossoms at the beginning of the first episode, the character designs (and abs, dear god) are all gorgeous and it's easy to see how much effort went into this.

As for the sound, the opening theme was pretty fun, but I preferred the closing myself. Perhaps I was a little biased by the beautiful, hot characters dancing their hearts out... regardless, closings for Free! have never disappointed.

The characters have all changed but haven't changed, if that makes any sense whatsoever. They all retain their main elements (so far, anyways) but they also have this new maturity to them that I'm really appreciating. However, I can't say they're really what you might call 'deep' characters, so I'm not sure about that yet. But then again, in my opinion, characters for Free! have never been all that deep.

As I mentioned earlier, this review will be updated as I watch more of this, but as of now, I'm really happy with the direction its going.

Have a great day everyone!

UPDATE: To those who feel like this review comments about the boys' looks a little too much... sorry! It's hard to not mention how beautiful our boys are :)

I just finished the last episode.
Wow. Just wow.

I never expected an anime like Free! to be one of my all time favourite anime I've watched ever, but it did.
The first two seasons were great and season three did not fail to impress me, even more than the two first seasons.

Story:
I've enjoyed the story more than I could say and there were always so much drama and that was great, the anime is very dramatic and of course season three had to have it as well.

Art:
... The expressions of each unique character also had their own unique expressions and they were all so beautiful.

Sound:
The voice actors did one amazing job, both the english ones, and the japanese ones.
They were so well fitting with the characters each and everyone and I quickly pointed out my favourite voices.
I hope there are more amazing actors to come in the next season.

Character:
I'm not sure what MYA means by that but everything was on spot either way.

Enjoyment:
I enjoyed it, from start to finish, amazing work and I'm so thrilled to know that there will be a fourth season.

Overall:
Outstanding, perfect, amazing.
I love the Free! anime, and season three is by far my favourite one.
New characters, characters that we know from the movies, are gathering together and I have been waiting a long while to see how it would turn out.

Thank you so much for making this anime that easily reached my top 3 list of all time anime that I have watched.
(Partly because of the hot guys mwaahahah)

Thank you for reading and may you enjoy this show and it!

Since Utsumi left, the franchise has not been worth watching. They are milking a cash cow without a single iota of understanding of what made the series successful or what the fans liked about it. Everything that it has going for it now comes down to sound and visuals, and even though the animation continues to be impressive it isn't enough to make this season worth suffering through.

This was twelve episodes of obnoxious melodrama punctuated with only a few short cute moments with characters I've grown attached to. Humor is gone. Fun is gone. Having coherent character arcs with motivations that make sense and ... that have satisfying resolutions: Gone.

I also have to express how absolutely bonkers it drives me that a bunch of college age young men are still angsting over drama they experienced in MIDDLE SCHOOL. It's completely laughable. Or it would be, if this series was still funny.

it's the 3rd season of a show that clearly wasn't aimed at a straight teenage boy like me but fuck it I liked the first 2 seasons cuz I like swimming ok. dive to the future, however, I found incredibly hard to watch; while the other two seasons thrived on their relatively small cast of characters and dare I say ehem BANTER with the Iwatobi lads, this season just went fuck it and started incessantly adding new and apparently important character's to the roster literally (and I'm not exaggerating) every 10 minutes. it's like they were mocking their own show in that ED having ... more and more characters them on that fucking street only to have them all clustered onto that tiny stage so it just looks fucking ridiculous, honestly, that's a perfect metaphor for what this show's like. also, Haru and Makoto and rin are all in fucking university so the (arguably) 3 main characters are all split off from each other and the other 2 which just doesn't make for a very interesting plot. the other 2 seasons were self-aware about how borderline comedic it can be to mix melodrama with constant homoerotic tension but this one just tried to play it straight and shoots it'self in the foot so hard. like all that shit where Ikuya is being a little bitch and tries to drown himself because Haru beat him in like one race when they where like 13 is just so obscenely out of proportion but they still try and make it seem like an important character moment. and then Haru gets all bitchy because he lost a race to the fucking WORLD RECORD HOLDER of the 100m freestyle like dude chill wtf did you expect you aren't a world-class athlete at 19 wow.



overall I just think they really dropped the ball with this one and compared to the other 2 seasons it just really doesn't stack up. but imagine if anyone reading this has even seen the show so whatever. peace out dudes

This may be the best season of Free! yet. I'm going to start off by telling you what you should watch before you watch this season of Free! Obviously, the first two seasons are a must, but you also need to watch Starting Days and Take Your Marks to fully appreciate what you're going to get in this third season.

Now, let me tell you something that may make the decision for you regarding whether or not you should watch this season. Free! is not a typical sports anime. It's main focus is not the competition but the relationships and journeys of the characters. In this ... season, that is not the case. In beginning of this season, you're going to get something very much like the previous two seasons because the first half of Dive to the Future focuses on Ikuya and the characters from middle school reestablishing a friendship with him. From then on, you're going to be focusing a lot on swimming competition and preparation. You're still getting the wonderful character work that you've seen previously (some of the best ever), but you're also going to dive deep into the world of competitive swimming.

Moving on to the character work I just mentioned. Obviously, as I said, you're going to get a lot with Ikuya as he's the main focus of part of the season. With that, you're going to get some development with his friend Hiyori. Makoto has a small bit of important development as well which is beautifully showcased. The biggest difference in character you'll see this season, though, is-- you guessed it-- Haru.

Because Free! focuses on it's characters, since the anime decided to start highlighting the competition aspect, you'll see Haru's character take a big shift. In my opinion, it's the best change we've seen for Haru. You're going to see him get much more competitive, and you'll see him hone in on what it is he wants out of competitive swimming, even more so than before. The storytelling of this season allows Haru's character to grow and change quite a lot, and it's done very nicely and realistically.

Beyond that, this season has the best nail-biters in the series. Storytelling is this anime's strong suit alongside it's characters, and it doesn't disappoint this time around. Many characters are introduced and reintroduced this season, a couple of which are insanely talented swimmers. Because of that, you not only get great suspense in the races, but you get a brilliant amount of tensity. If you thought that Rin and Haru were the fastest swimmers around, this season will make you think otherwise, and that's a really good thing.

It's very smart for this story to expand it's world by adding in strong opponents for Haru and Rin. Instead of risking their development flat lining by continuing to promote them as the strongest, this season of Free! will throw in a few wrenches. Because of that, this anime has the potential to extend on for a very long time, which is also helped by the fact that the anime made a slight switch into the competitive viewpoint.

One last thing to mention here is that this season doesn't cover as much ground as the previous two seasons, and the ending is definitely not the same. In the past, Free! has covered around one school year and it's always ended with the promise of the next year. Meaning that time would skip in between seasons. However, in this season, less time is covered overall and it seems like there is going to be a cliffhanger that'll either be picked up directly or will pick up a few days or weeks in the future. In other words, this season doesn't end cleanly. Again, that isn't a bad thing. In fact, I think it's a really good move to keep interest in the story.

There is so much more life in this anime that we will get to see come 2020, and I have never been more excited to be a fan of this show. I 100% recommend that you watch this season if you enjoyed the rest of Free! The character interactions and meetings are like no other, and you'll be on the edge of your seat for most of it. You'll probably even cry here and there, too. Give it a go because this season will show you what Free! can really do.

What a huge disappointment.

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Story/Characters:

If Free managed to get its identity in its first season, and more or less holded that into the second one, the third season Dive to the Future is a huge disappointment, full of cliches and repetitive formula spammed all across the episodes.

For starters, you absolutely have to watch the previous movies to at least care about the characters and some plot points, otherwise you will be left outside of the group, not even knowing what some scenes means, or what happened in some flashbacks. But that's solely because the anime focused on drama...

Oh, the drama. Let's talk about the drama.
...
If Free managed to grab attention on its first seasons, this one used past cliches and plot lines repeatedly but with other characters. Half of these 12 episodes are spent in something that we already saw in past seasons, trying really hard to make the spectator care about a particular problem, but already making it clear how it will end.

Formulas are repeated over and over to a point it looks like Saint Seiya. You have 2 to 3 characters in each category and the character whose name is screamed the most, will win. If their name is not screamed that means it will lose, just to plot device the next episodes into a huge drama to be unfolded to some sentences you take from your luck cookie. You can almost take those shounen lame quotes from any anime out there and place on Free!:DF and it will work.

Some people complaining about fanservice and fujoshi bait: The anime never d otherwise, so if the characters look gay or something and that annoys you, you aren't the target audience. It's simple as that. I myself love a good fanservice with boys, but even that is lacking in Free and the drama stole everything. I it there are some good shots here and there, but it's lackluster compared to the 1st and 2nd seasons. Dive to the Future is lackluster not because is gay, but because the actual drama is cliche, overused, repetitive and obvious.

Oh, and there are coincidences all over the place. All. Over.

No action whatsoever. Of course, I speak metaphoric because its an anime about swimming, but almost no swimming happens, and when it happens the result is so obvious that isn't worth it to watch it.

And last... That cliffhanger.

When I speak about this cliffhanger I'm not only speaking about the final scene, I'm talking about a lot of characters that were introduced just to make any difference in the next season in 2020. We spend 3 episodes learning about these characters, a little bit of their personality traits and one or two dialogues, only to be left with nothing and hang to the next season. The season finally just brags about more cliche drama until its over and can end on a "?" note.

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Art:

If you are in for the fanservice, you are going to have a fun time. Art-wise this anime is absolutely great and definitely a level up from previous seasons. I have yet to say that no one has a better water than Free!. Some shots are fun to look and some reactions are the little sugar in this journey of boredom.

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Sound:

What the hell happen to the sound? There's a particular OST that plays in some scenes that feels completely out of place. One of the scenes - night, in the park and two characters - which was supposed to be taken seriously, has its atmosphere broken by this techno-like song.

And...We have actual English in the anime. Even though they don't have a strong accent, it feels out of place to a point that I believe they used a third party company to make those sentences and only sent the audio, since even the sound quality is disconnected. One English character has a voice so weird that is unsettling.

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Conclusion:

All in All, Free!: Dive to the Future is a huge filler that doesn't add anything to the story, holds itself into obvious dramas, and makes the main character way more important than he deserves to be. To an anime that introduced so many characters, why they even exist if everyone keeps focusing on Hakura like he's this untouched entity? There are one or two plot points that could have been explored way better, but instead they are holded by formulas that worked on the past and are used again in the same fashion. If you are in for a good cute boy's club melodramatic thing, you are in for a fun time, but don't expect anything spectacular.

This show isn't bad by any means, but I must say that I'm surprised that it got three seasons and a movie that's soon to come. I guess it's not the type of show I would expect to be popular enough to get this much attention from a studio like Kyoto.

This season was a huge step up from the previous season. Comparing this season and last season, I felt that the second season lost some of the energy the first season had, which the third season was able to revive. The story was also more engaging. At least in the second season, Haru doesn't really ... do much until end, which doesn't make the conclusion feel all that satisfying. He also doesn't say anything, which makes it harder for the audience to get a read on his character. I know that's his whole shtick and as someone who generally tends to be quieter, I get it, but I felt the writing failed a little in conveying who his character was in the second season. The third season definitely succeeded in making him a more interesting character though. I really liked the dynamic of having Haru confront the effects his swim career has had on those around him. It made for some interesting drama.

This season was really interesting to me as well because of how busy it was. There was so much going on throughout the show with so many character arcs going on simultaneously, which was only compounding with the increase in the cast. Despite all the new characters and storylines, the season somehow works when it shouldn't, but I'm not really sure how. Like, after Ikuya's problem was solved, we don't really see much of him until the last episode, but somehow his race with his brother worked and landed the impact it needed to.

I guess a large part of why I enjoyed this show was also because of how cathartic it was for me as I just finished my competitive swim career yesterday. I don't see myself quitting swimming for good, but the team aspect is something that this show does a good job at conveying and it's something that I won't forget in my own life. Pretty interested to see the movie.

Free! is a show which you call controversial or decisive, you either like it or dislike it... But for me Dive to the Future was something special, something unique, something i would've regretted not experiencing. One of the main reasons i love this show is because of the fact that it is a sports, slice of life anime. As a matter of fact this is one of the only animes i have seen, which had a combination of sports and slice of life. Every other sports anime you see is just this : there is a <sport> club which has mediocre and a ... charismatic captain, and the freshmen who the "underdog" school's team take the team to nationals, and along the way meet a few rivals. Don't get me wrong, there are also shows which are great even though they are generic, but Free!'s story was much more than just a bunch of weak individuals getting "stronger", and that made it far from what makes an anime generic. The anime in some parts of the story took a philosophical approach in overcoming problems. I wasn't really involved with the characters or the story when this series started, i mean like i previously mentioned... i have already seen the "sports anime template" that most of the sports anime portray, but as time ed i started loving the show. At the end of the day it isn't an anime that i would recommend someone to watch because like i previously mentioned the opinions that you get for this anime is very decisive and controversial, but personally i enjoyed it a lot. : )

*This is my first review lol, forgive me if it wasn't what you wanted to read or if i wasted your time