I don't watch anime anymore... so why am I suddenly hooked on "Free!"? I'll tell you why: because it's hilarious. And it's meant to be.
I'm past that age where I get crushes on anime boys, so I don't watch for the fanservice (shocking, I know, seeing as how this entire anime is pure fangirl fodder). I watch for the characters and dialogue, which is done fabulously.
The script is smart and funny and modern. The sound effects add well to everything, and the show isn't afraid to poke fun at itself.
The art is flawless; beautiful animation. When you download this, I recommend DeadFish's subbed episodes because they manage to keep the stunning quality (although on some episodes the translation is a little lost. I couldn't tell you about the other links though, I'm DeadFish's number one fan).
The story is lacking though... a main plot of the high school swim team trying to make it to their first tournament, with the underlying story of Rin and Haru's intense rivalry, not to mention Rin's character development (aka, why the heck is he so moody broody? Stay tuned to find out!). Typical slice of life sports anime... meant for girls. Oh yes (look at dat booty).

Conclusion? Gay. This anime is super gay. And I love it. It's totally my guilty pleasure and I will recommend it shamelessly 8D (show less)

I dunno why but I just all of a sudden download this and told myself why not give a chance even though I have three animes I still need to complete I decided to give it a chance and firstly its like so boring though at the same time it just gives you that feeling of pure excitement and the best part? There ain't even super powers involved its just pure excitement and its extremely intruiging and interesting and the art is out of this world ofcourse its not final fantasy but I can almost put the two on equal footing its no wonder rins sister is continuoslly falling over her own feet and the whole thing about being free its just so deep and at the same time easy to understand there's always new phillosiphy's to learn I love it and only because its still new I'd give it a solid 8 and a half out of 10 (show less)

For the fact that, as the title of this review suggests, there's a lot of comedy involved in this, the story is pretty well-done actually. Comedies have rarely run on story, but apparently this one does... it's not supposed to be all comedy and silliness after all. ;) Where the superficial plot is kind of simple and the episodes tend not to end on cliffhanger notes exactly, the pacing is quick, and the development of both the superficial and the sub-plot (character development, conflicts, rivalry) has been decent for only four episodes. The characters aren't exactly fresh, however not short on personality, and they tie together nicely. Character interaction can be both silly and serious, providing humor and drama respectively, and all of it gets across quite well via dialogue script and voice acting. Still better than that though is the sheer entertainment factor. Between drama and scenes of school slice of life, Free! can get rather silly. It's not lacking brains, it just tends not to take itself seriously, and it does that well, going as far as to venture into parody-reminiscent at times. There were moments that made me roll my eyes, but most was designed just to make people laugh; and with me at least, it hit.
Speaking of parody, also the art can be quite over-the-top. It gives off the feeling of an incredibly detailed shoujo, with a cast that's more handsome/beautiful than you'd find them at any high school, and entirely complete with fanservice for the female audience (^__^ go figure). The animation is pretty much flawless, especially where it comes to water effects and swimming action, however the background music can be distracting as it doesn't ever seem to stop/take a break.
At the beginning, I watched Free! mostly for the sheer amount of LOL WTF moments. Those haven't decreased, yet now that the actual conflict's beginning to be unveiled (and, hopefully, progressing), the storyline as well has gotten interesting, and both characters and story show great potential IMO. Free! won't be for everyone (shoujo style ;)), however I'm definitely enjoying it so far.
9/10 from me, not my favourite this season, yet it's become a close tier. (show less)