Free! Iwatobi Swim Club...desu~

Anime: Free! Iwatobi Swim Club
 

I may be a bit bias here, I mean I am the targeted demographic of this anime, but this was a really good fanservice.

Let me explain something.
Most of the time, fanservice animes are for boys and often times that's where you get the silly ecchi (lots of pantie shots, boob close-ups, etc) animes that don't really have a plot but man is it entertaining somehow.

Kyoto Animation made a trailer to show how well they could create animation and use cinematography. Fan girls KYAAAHHHHH-ed over the fact that it wasn't a male marketed bit, but a female one. So naturally, the girls wanted that teaser to be made into an anime. Kyoto Animation was smart and listened to what people asked for. I don't think they could've made a better decision.

Of course, I was really excited. Here, let me show you the teaser they made...

Only 31 seconds...

...31 seconds and they made an anime out of it.

Synopsis:

The anime focuses on five characters. Boys that are swimmers/become swimmers. It's about friendship and finding out what is most important to yourself. It's about achieving dreams and realizing realities and even though sometimes the realities are disappointing in comparison to your dreams, you can still come out a winner. 

The Iwatobi Swim Club is made up of four boys, Haru, Makoto, Nagisa, and Rei. The real reason they started this club was because Haru, Makoto, and Nagisa's childhood friend, Rin, no longer speaks to them, but they all want to swim with him again. They all want to understand why they grew distant. But Haru and Rin share a troubled past, one that leaves both of them a bit traumatized. 

Haru:

Haru is a swimming prodigy. He only swims freestyle but he's amazing at it, even at a young age. Even though he's great at it and he does swim, he doesn't particularly care about competitions. He doesn't even really care about anything but being in the water. He always has a pair of swim trunks underneath his pants and always is in water.

His character develops. He remains the quiet "cool" guy but you see him start to branch out and grow into someone who realizes he has friends and is happy with them. He realizes he wants to swim for them..

Makoto:

Makoto is Haru's best friend. He's a loyal and sensitive character. He can read a situation easily and becomes the peacekeeper no matter what the situation is. It makes him quite likable, but what makes his score on the likability chart go off is that he's courageous and takes on his fears head on. We learn about a traumatic past but he pushes passed it. 

Nagisa:

Nagisa is adorable. Hands down. No complaints. No apologies. No anything. He's adorable and intriguingly perceptive. He serves as comic relief a lot and is pretty shameless... *cough* skinny dipping *cough*. He's kind of the nagging sister character who also always gets her way because she's adorable... Except... He's a boy... Hmm, maybe I have a complex about Nagisa.. 

Rin: 

This badass' name is Rin. Rin was in the same swim club as Haru, Makoto, and Nagisa. They were childhood friends and he was a bright, happy child. He managed to convince Haru to participate in a race and it was kind of because of him that Haru realizes he wants to swim with his friends later down the road. But he becomes this dark character because he can't beat Haru. It's revealed that this isn't necessarily the only thing that's holding Rin back, but I won't spoil too much of the anime. He's a fun character and his sharp teeth are always interested.

Rei: 

I'm sure that there are better pictures that would show Rei's "cool" side... but I think this picture aptly summarizes Rei's character. He's calculative, a perfectionist, and, let's face it, he's dorky, silly, and pretty child-like. I don't mean it in a negative way. When Rei is first introduced to the audience, you think, "Wow, he's kinda impressive." and then you have a OTL moment when you realize he's kinda a fail... But he makes up for it later and becomes cool again... only to produce another OTL, then coolness...and so on. I died though during this part: 

You'll have to watch it to understand...

The reason why I like this anime so much, other than the obvious, gratuitous shirtless-ness that is abundant in this anime, is that it wasn't just fanservice. In the grand scheme of things, I don't think I would've rated this anime so high if it wasn't for the fact that they put as much depth into the characters as they did. The characters developed in a good way that was pleasant and thought-out. The story was something realistic for its world. The issues addressed in the anime is still something that people can relate to. And most importantly, Kyoto Animation listened to its audience. They could've gave us a 12 episode series where the characters just raced and that was that. Happy characters, no real issues. They created Rei and put Rin at a different school to create an interesting story!

(I was an Asian Studies major, I studied a lot of pop culture in Japan...)

Anyway, if you're a heterosexual female, homosexual male, bisexual male or female, you're definitely the intended audience, but I think the story is something everyone could enjoy...if the abundance of shirtless men doesn't bother you.

Until next time, my lovelies.

Preview for the next post:

..were you really expecting something else? lol, I promise to post other brands soon.