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REVIEW: Free! -Take Your Marks-




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getchman
Space Cowboy



Joined: 07 Apr 2012
Posts: 9117
Location: Bedford, NH
PostPosted: Thu Mar 15, 2018 9:08 am Reply with quote
Drove an hour last night to see this. It was worth it. It was a lot of fun and the theater was nearly full. Mostly ladies, and they certainly had a good time. one was bouncing in her seat for most of the film
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ShinraDog



Joined: 26 Jul 2006
Posts: 15
PostPosted: Thu Mar 15, 2018 10:09 am Reply with quote
I'm surprised you thought the 3rd one was the best one. For me that was the most boring one. 4th one was the highlight to me.
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zztop



Joined: 28 Aug 2014
Posts: 642
PostPosted: Thu Mar 15, 2018 10:19 am Reply with quote
Quote:
It wrings 100 minutes out of that couple months the boys spend apartment hunting, vacationing, and reminiscing under the summer sky, without so much as dipping a toe into the next phase of life that fans have been spoiling to see for almost four years now.


I strongly suspect Kyoani's saving the "next phase" for the upcoming S3. This movie (and the 2 recaps) are just to fire up the fanbase and keep their interest in the franchise alive.

Quote:
sprinkled with a couple teasing cameos from the High Speed! -Free! Starting Days- cast that suggests they'll all play a bigger part in this summer's third season.


Some of the Starting Days cast made guest appearances in the 2 recaps.
As always, the drama may only come into play for S3.

PS. Given the coincidence that is the Tokyo Olympics in 2 years' time, it would be a shame if the storywriters didn't incorporate that into S3.
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Kanot



Joined: 15 Mar 2018
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 15, 2018 11:46 am Reply with quote
Quote:
Haru and Makoto's tour of Tokyo is uncomfortably quiet and languid without the energy of their more emotionally unguarded teammates, leaving us with a low-stakes vignette that builds blandly to a weak payoff.

I'm very confused about this part and how it's right after Hiroko Utsumi (and she not being part of the project) is mentioned by OP. Ever since episode 1, that's how the scenes between Makoto and Haru have been, with Makoto doing the talk and Haru... being just there, not even listening to it most of the time. Don't get me wrong, they're very precious but noticing that just now it's weird.

Quote:
Remember the high of that perfect finish to a triumphant season?

Well, I do, but I also remember that the last scene, which is also the actual final scene--something that makes it VERY important if we're going to highlight the finale (and of an anime about swimming to boot)--are Haru and Rin about to compete and the fact that this is not mentioned, just like a couple of important points from the movie were ignored, makes me understand a lot of things and "complaints" in this review and OP's maybe-not-that-unbiased view.
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JacobC
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 15, 2018 12:07 pm Reply with quote
Kanot wrote:

I'm very confused about this part and how it's right after Hiroko Utsumi (and she not being part of the project) is mentioned by OP. Ever since episode 1, that's how the scenes between Makoto and Haru have been, with Makoto doing the talk and Haru... being just there, not even listening to it most of the time. Don't get me wrong, they're very precious but noticing that just now it's weird.


I'm familiar with their dynamic, but how it's filmed is very different from how Utsumi would frame their rapport. It's not like I was expecting wild excitement or unprecedented hijinks, but that first vignette is just very protracted and dull compared to the rest of the movie (aside from parts of the second vignette as well). It doesn't help that the movie opens with a superfluous, yet gorgeously animated dream sequence Makoto has straight into this transitionary sequence of shruggo. It's literally 25 minutes of them spoiler[meeting Kisumi's acquaintances, checking out apartments, and wandering around Tokyo before the punchline where it's revealed they'll be rooming next to Haru's old middle school swim-senpai, who's now a teacher. That's just a lot of time for not much impact.]

Quote:

Well, I do, but I also remember that the last scene, which is also the actual final scene--something that makes it VERY important if we're going to highlight the finale (and of an anime about swimming to boot)--are Haru and Rin about to compete and the fact that this is not mentioned, just like a couple of important points from the movie were ignored, makes me understand a lot of things and "complaints" in this review and OP's maybe-not-that-unbiased view.


Not mentioning another scene after the credits that also clearly takes place after the events of this movie doesn't have any bearings on my issues with it. Like, adding that to the list of scenes in that first paragraph wouldn't change anything about the points I was making, nor would mentioning more key scenes from the movie except to spoil them.
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Keichitsu0305





PostPosted: Thu Mar 15, 2018 5:04 pm Reply with quote
Jacob I think you mean spoiler[Haruka takes Nao-sempais old apartment since Kisumi's uncle mentioned that the former tenant left his phone behind.]

I had a blast at the screening. A full house, cosplays, cute ita.bags, and all the good hearted cooing/squees from fellow die hard fans. A few male fans but mostly all women in the audience and for us the fourth segment was hilarious. I'll admit there wasn't much fanservice beyond Haru's quick stripping moment at the opening of the film but, I would have preferred more screentime of Sousuke and Rin at the hot springs segment. Also Rin & You'd mom is super cute.

Sucks that Funimation didn't include the photo sessions in-between the segments since I heard the Japanese fans could take pictures during those moments. Or at least my theater didn't. *shrug*

Really hope Funi does this again once the YOI film is announced.
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KENZICHI



Joined: 16 Oct 2010
Posts: 1101
PostPosted: Thu Mar 15, 2018 7:52 pm Reply with quote
Really enjoyed the movie! Slow start, but got better after the first part. Felt less like a movie though and more like 4 or 5 episodes put together. That made it seem a whole lot longer than it was which of course I half didn’t mind because I saw my Free! babies again, but did because it was late.
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JacobC
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 15, 2018 8:53 pm Reply with quote
keichitsu0305 wrote:
Jacob I think you mean spoiler[Haruka takes Nao-sempais old apartment since Kisumi's uncle mentioned that the former tenant left his phone behind.]


Ah, my bad. That's...even less interesting, somehow I was remembering it as more significant than it was, I guess. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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Keichitsu0305





PostPosted: Thu Mar 15, 2018 9:15 pm Reply with quote
JacobC wrote:


Ah, my bad. That's...even less interesting, somehow I was remembering it as more significant than it was, I guess. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Nah it's cool. :3

I recalled in the theater that anyone who didn't seek out the High Speed novels /Starting Days film were either underwhelmed by the reveal or confused. Those who had were mildly pleased. They really played it off as a mere conicidence. Anime hyper
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JacobC
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 15, 2018 9:20 pm Reply with quote
keichitsu0305 wrote:
JacobC wrote:


Ah, my bad. That's...even less interesting, somehow I was remembering it as more significant than it was, I guess. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Nah it's cool. :3

I recalled in the theater that anyone who didn't seek out the High Speed novels /Starting Days film were either underwhelmed by the reveal or confused. Those who had were mildly pleased. They really played it off as a mere conicidence. Anime hyper


Yeah, there were some "OH!--oh? what? huh?"s at my very animated screening and one or two squeals of recognition. I hadn't seen the movie either, I just looked up information beforehand, so I understood who the character was (and the other couple High Speed! boys we see later), but that was about it. Anime hyper
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