Free!

Free!

Part of a series on Kyoto Animation. [View Related Entries]
[View Related Sub-entries]

Updated Apr 10, 2015 at 05:24PM EDT by Twenty-One.

Added Sep 03, 2013 at 04:33PM EDT by Twenty-One.

PROTIP: Press 'i' to view the image gallery, 'v' to view the video gallery, or 'r' to view a random entry.


AT FREEE

About

Free! is a 2013 sports-centric anime series created by Kyoto Animation, based on a light novel by author Kōji Ōji. After a commercial related to the series was released in March 2013, the series gained a large fandom among female yaoi[18] fans known as Fujoshi[19], especially on Tumblr.

History

The show was originally spawned from a light novel, titled High Speed!, by author Kōji Ōji, which was entered into the second annual Kyoto Animation Awards in 2011, where it won an honorable mention. The book went on to be published on July 8th, 2013. In April 2013, Kyoto Animation subsidiary Animation DO advertised a new project based on a swim team composed of 4 boys, and later followed this with a studio commercial released online in March 2013 (shown below). Fans who saw the video quickly dubbed it the "Swimming Anime", viewing the commercial more than 3.6 million times as of September 2013.



On April 26th, a 12 episode show was announced during a livestream event. The show premiered on July 4th, 2013, airing on Tokyo MX in Japan while streaming online with English subtitles on Japanese culture site Crunchyroll and Nico Nico Douga. To promote the series, an online radio show titled Iwatobi Channel began airing on June 17th, 2013, followed by the release of a series of CD compilations starting on August 21st, 2013. Additionally, a series of drama CDs were released the same day. This was then followed by a second season the following year, titled Free! Eternal Summer, which began airing on July 2, 2014, and ran for 13 episodes.


「俺とお前の差を教えてやるよ! 」 企画進行中! 05ア 何かが·..

Online Presence

The series has a large presence among the Fujoshi fandom, on particular sites such as Tumblr[1], deviantART[2][3], Fanfiction.net[4] and Fanpop[5], as well as a large anti-fandom on 4chan's /a/ (Anime and Manga) board.[6] Additionally, sites such as the Free! wiki[7], Anime News Network[8] and TV Tropes[9] keep up-to-date information on the series. There are also a number of fan-made videos about the series on both YouTube[10] and Nico Nico Douga[11], and the Facebook fanpage for the show has more than 7,000 likes[12].

Fandom

After the first commercial was posted in March 2013, it gained a large fan-following on Tumblr[17] despite no information about the characters or name for the show. Quickly, fanfiction and fan art began to appear about the characters, based on the fan ideas about what the characters would be like. These headcanons led fans to ship the characters and create Ask Blogs and Twitter accounts[14] for many of them. On March 13th, 2013, a dating sim Flash game was uploaded to deviantART[13], where it has been viewed more than 255,000 times as of September 2013. Prior to the show being confirmed in April, Anime streaming site Crunchyroll started a Change.org petition in order to entice Kyoto Animation into creating a show based of the project.[15] It gained more than 19,000 signatures by the show's premiere in July.

Japanese illustrators community pixiv has 2 tags for Free! fan illustrations. One is for normal illustrations[20], the other is to insulate homosexual illustrations for Fujoshi.[21] More than 24,000 illustrations had been posted to pixiv during the airing period, and over 6,000 of them were Yaoi edition.


skip to: previous branch next branch restart Ii Well, if l'd known my new school had this kind of dress code, maybe I would've dressed more creatively this morning NEXT BACK

Anti-Fandom

Despite the large fandom the commercial spawned, it also gathered a large anti-fandom from male Otaku, who believed that the project was too drastic a change for the company, who were known previously for their Moe shows such as Nichijou, Lucky Star and K-On!.

Fan Art


deuiantart.com
BRO DO EVEN SWIM? FREEI EEHAS Matsuon RyUga 3 m

Notable Sub-Memes

Free! Ending Parodies / Splash Free!

Free! Ending Parodies are a series of Anime Ending Parody based on the dance performed by the cast during the ending animation of the show. The parodies gained notoriety on Nico Nico Douga[16], with many users replacing the boys with characters from different series.



Search Interest

External References

[1] Tumblr – Free!!

[2] DeviantART – Free! Artwork

[3] DeviantART – Free! Groups

[4] Fanfiction.net – Free! – Iwatobi Swim Club

[5] Fanpop – Free! – Iwatobi Swim Club

[6] 4chan – /a/ Anime & Manga

[7] Free! wiki

[8] Anime News Network – Free! – Iwatobi Swim Club

[9] TV Tropes – Free!

[10] YouTube – Search results for Free Iwatobi Swim Club

[11] Nivo Nico Douga – Free!

[12] Facebook – Search results for Free! Iwatobi Swim Club

[13] DeviantART – Swimming Anime Dating Sim

[14] Twitter – @swimminganime

[15] Change.org – Animation DO and Kyoto Animation.: Make "Swimming Anime" CM into an actual series

[16] Nico Nico Douga – Free! ED

[17] Tumblr – Swimming Anime

[18] Wikipedia – Yaoi

[19] Wikipedia – Yaoi fandom

[20] pixiv – Search results for Free!

[21] pixiv – Search results for 腐ree! [NSFW!!]

Recent Videos 9 total

Recent Images 147 total


Top Comments

That Glaceon
That Glaceon Moderator

The fact that there exists and antifandom for this pisses me off to no end. I mean--are you FUCKING kidding me?! Do greasy neckbeard otaku really feel as though they have such privileges to having all anime ever to be what THEY want it to be?

I decided to watch it yesterday. I already finished the nine or so episodes already out, and I must say that I seriously do enjoy it. Yeah, there's a bit of fanservice but for fuck's sake it's to be expected and as such doesn't bother me at all. It's no worse than fanservice for similar animes with female protagonists. It's story is fine, I'm not a fan of the whole "lazy prodigy" bit that seems so popular in anime today, and the animation is very good. Also, there are great comedic moments and I don't have any core problems with any of the characters. It's a good anime and I suggest giving it a shot.

+14

+ Add a Comment

Comments (62)


Display Comments

Add a Comment


'lo! You must login or signup first!