Forum - View topicREVIEW: Free! - Iwatobi Swim Club Sub.DVD
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SailorTralfamadore
 Posts: 499 Location: Keep Austin Weeb |
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Yeah, I didn't realize I should have mentioned this until after I submitted my review, but the FrFr specials weren't on there either and that was a real shame.
I think that might be because Discotek's license is connected to Crunchyroll's streaming rights, and they never released those. Hopefully Funimation will get them and dub them for the Season 2 release. |
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Maidenoftheredhand
 Posts: 2633 |
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I had no clue this was even out but looking at the lackluster release I won't be getting it.
I will be getting season 2 and I hate not having season 1 but At this point I rather just watch Season 1 streaming. I understand Funi is a direct competitor with CR but I wish they could have worked something out so this series could of got the release it deserves. |
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FireChick
 Subscriber Posts: 2397 Location: United States |
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Jeez. I think you guys are being too hard on Discotek. They're a small company, and they likely don't have the kind of money to go all out with their releases most of the time. They usually license old, classic shows. Hey, look on the bright side! If you don't like dubs, then you can buy it subbed! And it's here in the US, so why not? It's not like it's being hacked to death by 4Kids or Saban.
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Chrysostomus
Posts: 335 |
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Why is it that ANN reviewers get hostile and turn on their feminist goggles when they're reviewing anime which sexualize females in order to pander to males, but it's totally okay and hot to sexualize males for female convenience?
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rizuchan
 Posts: 975 Location: Kansas |
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Nobody's hard on Discotek when it comes to their classic stuff. In fact they're pretty universally loved around here. The problem with Free! is that there's an HD version on Crunchyroll, so it's difficult for a lot of us to justify paying for a physical release when it's mostly inferior to what's online for free(ish), and the collectors who might buy it anyway are turned off by the ugly packaging. Plus it's easy to be bitter when we see what Funimation has planned for the second season and would really like to see something similar for season 1. |
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FMAvatard
 Posts: 195 |
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You put this so excellently. This article doesn't even go into the technical aspects of the DVD, but those are a bit of a problem, too. I can understand wanting to put a product out for those who simply wish to own it, but there should be some sort of standard, especially when it's a title that's taken as a rather large property. I can watch subtitled Free! on my Wii U in 1080p for a very small fee. I bought this DVD (which, I really feel I have to say even if it's nitpicking, the subtitles are yellow) purely to support it and the possibly of getting a Blu-Ray in the future. If it gets rereleased, I will double-dip. |
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Ashen Phoenix
 Posts: 2912 |
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Harem anime that exist solely to titillate its audience by objectify its female cast are fine; I don't personally enjoy them and that's okay. By the same token I hate some reverse harem anime for their cardboard cutout guys who serve as little more than shallow eye candy. 
What drew me to Free! initially was its fanservice, but what kept me tuning in was its humor and its unexpected heart. It's far from a masterpiece, but it continually surprised me by going just a little bit further than it "needed" to to sell a series about cute boys swimming. I would argue that, to an extent, Free!'s sexualization of its male cast is genre savvy; Gou--one of the sole female characters--is an audience surrogate. The blatant, slow pans over the boys' backsides or abs, and the truckloads of homosexual subtext are all done in a tongue-in-cheek manner. Free! is a self-aware series, a few steps behind lovable reverse harem parodies like Ouran High School Host Club. 
In the same way I, as a female fan, laugh at D-Frag's wink-and-nod jokes of the club president's sizable rack, I enjoy the over-the-top nature of Free!. I guess the difference comes down to delivery: whether it's "played straight" or done with a bit of a nudge and a laugh at its own expense. 
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Chrysostomus
Posts: 335 |
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Also, Meganebu is not a reverse harem, it needs a female for her to have said harem of boys but it doesn't. It's just a standard fujoshi anime. |
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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How many of the shows objectifying men are doing so in a manner that also plays into power fantasies about subjugation? How many of them rely on negative stereotypes about men in their character writing, only to then turn the man into an object of sexual desire and little else?
Pretending that the playing field is totally equal and that these two things are exactly alike, although one gets "picked on" unfairly more than the other, is disingenuous at best. Regardless, fanservice gets called out usually if the series has one of two traits: either the show has nothing to offer BUT fanservice, and thus isn't a very good show, or the fanservice is going hand-in-hand with a bunch of really crappy regressive attitudes about women. If it's just boobs, rarely is that ever treated like a negative on its own. |
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Ashuraou
 Posts: 14 |
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^^ Kill la Kill is fanservice heavy but pretty universally loved... because it's more than fanservice.
Re: the packaging. I had asked to work on this show but it was already assigned, however, I will note that despite the fact that there might be dozens of really great pieces of art out there the license may not actually come with any of it or access to even get it. If it's actually offered, the licensor may want to charge a lot to use it. There was CLAMP created art like this for the CCS Movie Bluray, for instance, which would've cost a lot more money to use. I didn't pursue it though because I felt the original artwork looked better. |
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Northlander
 Posts: 901 |
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Furthermore, there's been quite a few times when ANN's female writers have waxed positive towards fanservice and/or harem shows. For instance, if Bamboo hadn't spoken positively towards it, I would never have watched High School DxD, and I remember the worst thing that was said about Senran Kagura is that it's a little bit shallow (in the story, that is; the way the fanservice was presented was generally described in a positive way.) I think another female writer was fairly ambivalent towards Ikkitousen too, or at least one of the seasons. And those are just the ones I remember offhand.
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championferret
 Posts: 765 |
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I am never, ever going to understand why so many guys think that the fanservice in Free! is comparable to the fanservice in the shows that tend to get panned here.
If Free! was anything like the typical 'lets see how far we can push the envelope' tripe that comes out at least once a season, you would see the following: -Repeated nudity, and often (probably censored with beams of light) - Crotch bulges that are painstakingly outlined as to actually depict the shape of the genitalia; also moving -At least once an episode, Gou would accidentally land her hand or face on one of these bulges and the guys would cry out in suggestive embarassment -extremely long scenes of the boys sucking on/eating suggestive and/or goopy food -a scene where one of the boys trips and the goopy food gets all over him and theres a slow pan with him in a submissive pose that looks like it was pulled from a H-manga as he cries -During the intense swimming scenes, someones swimwear would come off due to the sheer speed at which they are swimming, and they cry pathetically about it while screaming at the others not to look (the camera does so anyway) -Every time anyone leans over or down or even moves at all, their ass would fill the entire screen. -Literally nothing happening per episode but these things To my knowledge there is no show aimed at women that is anything like this, and it's unlikely that there ever will be. (I wouldnt be interested even if there were). So many male fans have no idea exactly how amazingly gross some of the stuff they're into is - I mean sure, watch it all you want, I don't care...just don't try to pretend the fanservice in Free! is anyway comparable. For reference (since I'm sure the commenter has never actually seen the show) what Free usually features is: -some slow pans over male bodies that are standing in a neutral state or in some kind of powerful way. -wet boys -closeups of muscles -occasional closeup of butts/swimwear bulges that are incredibly undetailed (to the extent that there have been jokes about them being ken dolls) -the fanservice coming from the fact that they are shirtless, as male swimmers tend to be, and not for some contrived reason -A whole load of other content that has nothing to do with the fanservice, which is what this review was talking about. |
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Keichitsu0305
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To be perfectly honest, I was kinda hoping that would happen to Rei. 
But everything else you mentioned has happened even in non-ecchi anime like when the camera closes in on a girls 'glistening' mouth over a phallic looking food or, more annoying, whenever there are more than two girls in a furo or shower hall scene and start grabbing each other's boobs. Because yeah, that's what women do all the time in public baths. How about I just use this song every time people try to compare Free! fanservice to the otaku style fanservice because I know it's gonna happen again once Funimation releases Eternal Summer. |
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enurtsol
 Posts: 14767 |
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I'll have ya know that a relative's best friend's cousin's female confidant said it's true! Makes sense; after all, what else are they gonna do in there |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11368 |
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Oh for pete's sake, the "sexualized" guys in Free! don't even have nipples. That alone should put an end to the argument. 
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