delolmo

I do not think this anime was entertaining. Although the animation was great, the plot fell short in my opinion. Granted the “sports” theme is not my cup of tea, I decided to write this spoiler-free review to share my overall opinion for Free!

Story

The story revolves around a group of guys who participated in a swimming club when they were children. They meet again during their high school years and decide to reform a swimming club and compete. The plot is simple so unless they added some sort of unique factor it was unlikely to be entertaining and this is exactly what happened. Although the back story from one of the main characters and his rival/friend seems to be the added factor, it did not hold enough strength to improve the overall theme. I also found the pace of the story to go by extremely slowly which bored me to tears. Since the plot was not entertaining, the pace was too slow, and the theme was not necessarily original I just did not connect with this anime in any level whatsoever.

Animation

I think the animation was probably the only factor going for it. I very much enjoyed the graphics, the colors, and the character design. Many beautifully done scenes could be appreciated throughout the anime.

Sound

The soundtrack was okay, very fitting to the theme but I am no expert to provide appropriate feedback in this area.

Characters

In my opinion, there was very little character development. The only “change” we see is the perception of Rin from beginning to end which was actually predictable so no surprise there. I did not feel any of the characters portrayed in the anime were unique in any way and they also didn’t have any special attributes to hold the viewer’s interest. There is no development or character exploration for any character other than the main 4-5 which was a bit disappointed because it gets old quickly.

Overall

As you guessed I did not particularly enjoy this anime. I do not recommended it to anyone as I did not think it was original or entertaining in any way. People who like sports themes and “team work” may find it interesting. I would agree the animation was nice so that may be a bonus if this type of anime is of interest to you.