Forum - View topicShelf Life - Free! Eternal Summer
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NeoStrayCat
 Posts: 610 |
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I'm not much into "Free" except the times either by pure coincidence or by watching the hilariously abridged "50% off", but all I can say its alright.
Other than that, nice keychain collection, besides the "Sven" patch there, I have only a couple keychains..."Train" wise, so yeah, lol. |
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Zalis116
Moderator
 Posts: 6867 Location: Kazune City |
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None of this is meant to say that I resent Free!'s existence or that KyoAni temporarily stepped away from its usual male-catering fare to make it. Only that I disagree with Free!'s characterization as "exactly like everything else KyoAni makes, but for female audiences." |
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SigmaFlare
 Posts: 3 |
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Probably brought up before, but nice that the stock art work for date a live 2 shows a limited edition, and I think it was in the coming soon video too. But no limited edition was released, wish there was one to go with the first season. Going to guess this will be a thing now if stream numbers aren't hit? I personally didn't stream it to wait for the release to watch it but that's me.
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limabeanicecream
Posts: 13 |
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Thank you so much Gabriella. Finally ANN posts an in-depth and critical review of free! eternal summer as a whole including going into detail about the dub controversy.
I loved how you pointed out how fans love the series because the boys wear their hearts on their sleeves. That is why Free! is a phenomenon and Meganebu! is a blip on the radar. Funimation's box set for the series is really pretty so I'm sad to pass it up because of the awful dub script and miscasts. The critical mistake seemed to be the decision to go after the 50% off fans, the majority of which don't watch free! in the first place. The scripts heavy use of slang and "humor" says it all but Funimation stunt casting the two voice actors from 50% off with bit parts and having them introduce the dub episodes at conventions was the final nail in the coffin. I highly recommend the crunchyroll dub of season 1 (with the same cast) for those who prefer english dubs. |
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Stuart Smith
 Posts: 1298 |
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Free is hands-down the most sexually pandering and blantant show KyoAni has ever done so comparing it to their previous work seems odd. The swimsuit episodes of K-On and Hyouka are extremely tame compared to your average episode of Free with it's gratuitous close-ups and blantant sexual situations. It's more comparable as a male version of Highschool DxD or something. I always assumed KyoAni had a reputation for being extremely tame, so it surprises me to see it being labeled as a fan service company. -Stuart Smith |
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RestLessone
 Posts: 1426 Location: New York |
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Free is based on a novel, though. Or do you mean it's different in the sense that KyoAni consciously chose to up the fanservice (and character ages) for the purpose of selling it? |
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relyat08
 Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
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I could have swore Durarara was coming out next week. I'm still waiting for mine to ship, in any event, while my friend already got his last Friday.
I entirely agree with this. I hear the argument a lot, but there really isn't anything else that they've done that is the equivalent of Free. At least not until after, when they did Amagi and Myriad. Which both feel extremely cheap and half-assed compared to the amount of thought that was apparently put into Free. I haven't seen it myself, but from what I've heard, the actual characters and story are quite good, while Myriad and Amagi are about as lame and generic as an male-otaku-pandering show can be. I wouldn't mind having a male-trageted version of Free from KyoAni. |
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-Ana-
Posts: 75 |
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MarkyMarc413
Posts: 104 |
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As a male fan of almost everything KyoAni has ever done, I actually really enjoyed Free! and it's sequel season Eternal Summer! The drama was really interesting and I liked the characters and their relationships. Free! came at a time in my KyoAni viewing life after having seen K-On! (and LOVING it), as well as their more recent shows like Beyond The Boundary, Chunnibyo, and Tamako Market. All very different shows, but they all had that high caliber animation that makes everything so smooth and beautiful, and Free! was no exception. Based on the art alone, it was a gorgeous series, and the man-service doesn't bother me in the least. My female friends didn't seem to mind either when we watched it lol
As for the dub, I didn't HATE it, per se, but it wasn't the best. The writing for Eternal Summer seemed to taper off in terms of trying to be "hip", and I ever asked J. Michael Tatum at Otakon 2015 what the whole "Backstroke For Days!" quip was all about! He was a good sport in answering it, though when I told him "the internet loves him for it", I don't think he knew I meant that the internet sort of made fun of it...a lot. It was a dub script that was trying TOO hard, but like I said, Eternal Summer's script got better. Season 1's script was FAR FAR better in terms of being a straight translation, though, and thus, it was far more enjoyable. I watched Season 2 episodes 1-10 on FUNi's website, then Season 1 got uploaded to Crunchyroll and I marathoned through that, noting the differences in the script style and just the general voice acting, then I finished Season 2. The cast isn't HORRIBLE by any means, and they really do enjoy their roles as I've met nearly every one of them at conventions over the last year and have asked them about their time doing Free!, and at least with Tatum, Ayres, and Sinclair, they really enjoyed their work, and honestly, I enjoyed their roles as well. The most controversial of all, though, was Vic as Rin (stealing another Mamoru Miyano role), but to be honest, I had the LEAST issues with him compared to Haru and Makoto. I thought Vic was OK once he settled into the role, and his parts in Season 1 were far better, knowing the character a bit more. Anyways, before this turns into a term paper, I just have to say, I'm REALLY happy with my box set, and the case is really nice and splashy, and the extra case inserts I got from the guys at the FUNimation booth at Katsucon are REALLY nice (six of them total, for the main 4 Iwatobi guys, then Rin and Sousuke), as is the signed postcard with 6 of the cast members (Team Iwatobi, Rin and Momo/Jerry Jewell, the ADR Director). -Marc. |
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corinthian
Posts: 264 |
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I hadn't really been following the Free dub "controversy," save for being aware there was one. I'm surprised (but only slightly) that it's the usual dub criticism suspects Miscast and Unfaithful. I have more tolerance for that stuff than most, so I thought everybody did a fine job. It's a fangirl show, it got a fanbase dub. I'm not going to fault Funimation for making the obvious decision.
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Ali07
 Posts: 3333 Location: Victoria, Australia |
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While I haven't seen Free!, and have only heard about the fan service, I've always thought that those that were happy that females were being catered to with Free! was mostly down to pandering, and that came in the form of fan service. Have seen many say older KyoAni pandered to males through moe...to this day, I still don't know what moe is. 
As for the mentions of Amagi and Myriad, are they really that fan service heavy? I remember a certain bikini episode of Amagi, but can't say that the show overall was filled with it. And, I was worried for a bit for Myriad, seeing as it looked like Mai would always feel herself up whenever she'd use her power. It seemed like that would become Mai's equivalent of a magical girl transformation scene. But, after the first few episodes, they stopped doing that, and you mostly just hear her saying the incantation. Mai also hasn't been seen in her sports uniform much, after the first few episodes. But, there was the onsen episode, which would be the most fan service episode in Myriad. In all honesty, that's about all the fan service I really remember from those 2 shows. I will admit though, I've forgotten the amount of fan service some shows have in the past. And, upon re-watches, I was surprised by how much they'd contain. So, maybe I've just forgotten, when it's come to Myriad and Amagi.
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Greed1914
 Posts: 4421 |
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Ok, so I wasn't off when I placed my order months ago. I just received, and watched, my copy of Date A Live 2, and was wondering if I had somehow missed an LE version, which I would have ordered. |
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Megiddo
 Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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I'll admit that I skimmed the review given that the subject didn't interest me, but I saw somehow Ping Pong the Animation was name dropped and I read the paragraph again and again, attempting to decipher any minutia of detail as to how these two shows are similar beyond both being about a group of guys who compete at some sport.
Okay, so I got a few sentences how about they are different and then I got some spiel about Disney making mass-audience family friendly movies as well as some beloved films. Am I missing something? Where does Ping Pong come in? How is Free like Ping Pong? That's what the paragraph's initial claim was, but then I scoured every detail of that paragraph and couldn't find a shred of reason as to how Ping Pong is similar to Free? I'm bewildered. Did I miss something? If I could get someone to provide very detailed examples of how the two are similar, that would definitely give me am impetus to watch Free. As it is though, that paragraph didn't make much sense. |
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killjoy_the
 Posts: 2459 |
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^ This sentence
In Ping Pong the main point was seeing how different Smile, Peco, and the other characters I forgot the name of took the sport, and how that reflected their lifestyles. I haven't watched the second season of Free! to know if it also has that, but that seems to be what the sentence is implying. |
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Megiddo
Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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That's an innate aspect of sports anime. Koh doesn't treat baseball the same way as Aoba does in Cross Game. Eiichiro doesn't treat tennis the same as Takuma in Baby Steps. Tsubaki doesn't treat soccer the same way as Ouji in Giant Killing. Same with Hikaru/Touya in Hikaru no Go and Chihaya/Taichi in Chihayafuru
Stories would be rather bland if the main characters didn't each have their own perspective of the sport. There has to be more to it than that if Gabby was surprised at how similar Free! Eternal Summer was to Ping Pong the Animation. |
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