Sports anime got me feeling all sorts of ways. They're so motivational and this one holds a special place in my heart because Free! They're the cutest babies and most precious. Honestly a great introduction into sports anime.
It really hit the spot mostly because it was so nostalgic looking back and seeing all your favorite characters and reliving their finest moments while seeing younger versions of themselves starting to improve and grow into their legendary future selves. I mean, did you even see little Nagisa? So cute. Even the ones that didn't make as big of an impact in the main series like Kisumi really got to make an entrance here. Kisumi is precious. Even Rei who didn't start to swim until when the main series began was there! Seeing him at the library with Asahi was an amazing moment; when he was talking to Asahi about wishing there was a book on swimming too was a total foreshadowing for anyone who hasn't watched the main series yet. And when Asahi and Haru were trying on swimsuits? Remember when the exact same thing happened in the main series with Haru trying variations of the same trunks and Rei tried on that butterfly one piece? Nostalgic! Not only was this full of nostalgic moments, it was full of innocent fun like when the whole team slept over at Haru's house. Real friendship and team bonding.
Even if the only reason most people watch this is because of the Free! hype I still think this is a quality sports anime movie for sure. Because although it's kind of cliche and has the story we've all seen before, it's really quite inspirational seeing people overcome timeless problems. Seeing Makoto come to terms with the reasons why he's swimming instead of joining the basketball club because he wants to stay with Haru and likes to swim is reminiscent of times where you don't really know why you're doing what you're doing. Sometimes it's really hard trying to validate what you're doing and find that it's hard to acknowledge what you know and your own reasoning. Wow that got deep too quick. Anyways, ahem, also seeing Haru struggling to overcome his belief that his elementary school medley relay team was the best they could ever have was painful, especially if you watched the main series before. Seeing him overcome that and making the most out of his new team was inspiring. I'm sorry I kinda say the same things over and over again, but I think inspirational stories just really resonate with me, give me a reason to keep on going ya know? Heh, anyways the other two guys Asahi and Ikuya are great too. Asahi standing in front of the mirror telling himself he was a genius...and then slowly starting to doubt those words is really what we all face in life. No matter who you are, you can't be good at everything. There's always someone right ahead of you doing better and seemingly to do it with ease while you flounder just to keep up. The key thing to keep in mind in these situations is what Asahi discovered about Haru: we're all human. And Ikuya with the brother complex. JK, not in that sense! But seeing him always chasing after his brother, even going so far as to isolate himself at his SC and then copying Haru to try and reach his brother was, you guessed it, really ______. I think you can fill in the blank. I think I need to go refresh my vocabulary.
Overall, it was really great and KyoAni knows how to make an amazing anime.
If you haven't watched the movie yet and you're not totally sold by my crappy fangirling (I'm so sorry) then watch the trailer!
*sigh* the emphasis on Makoto and his reason for swimming was really touching
BTW the two senpai's pictured here are really cool. Like honestly super cool.
And I'm going to stop here because otherwise I would post wayyyyy too many pictures of each of them because they're honestly so cute.
Picture Sources: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/cgM9VhPAUcc/maxresdefault.jpg, https://i.ytimg.com/vi/1k_6ugoKc60/maxresdefault.jpg, http://pm1.narvii.com/5936/efba5a9faab35354c73e37607e88a7de82ccf110_hq.jpg
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