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)