The anime did away entirely with Aki, a somewhat important female character from the light novels. Not important enough to have description at all but her great interest in everything Haruka related and her conversations with Makoto about what 'free' means to Haruka are pretty important points of development. In another occasion she also talks to Rin about why she too wants Haruka to join the relay race since she sees Haruka as someone people all rely on but who does not rely on others.

Unlike Gou, Aki is a swimmer and enters the relay in the 'free' category so she is interested in finding out exactly what it is that allows Haruka to be so fast so that too can become faster. Interestingly enough, the whole thing with the flower beds for graduation was Aki's idea.

Last edited by Nocturnalux (06-01-2015 04:57:13 PM)

I'm sure Aki will appear in the movie. I'm curious to see just what they do with her appearance, I keep imagining her with glasses and pigtails for some reason. Rin himself does not get a lot of description but there are the illustrations to guide us while Aki remains a mystery.

Makoto calls her 'Zaki-chan', shortening her family name 'Yazaki'. He's the only one who does that, too.

And on the subject of having pet names, shortly after the relay team gets formed Rin decides that the boys must address him as 'leader'. The Engrish confuses Nagisa who just figures he'll go for 'Rin Rin' instead much to Rin's dismay. It was Rin's idea that they use given names to build a sense of belonging to a team, little did he expect Nagisa to 'Rin Rin' him and '-chan' everyone. Haruka was drying his hair the first time Nagisa 'Haru-chan's' him, it causes him to drop the towel.

I'm reading the novels in the original so I have no idea of what the translation is like but since it is made by amateurs it might be less than stellar.

I won't say the novels are all that thinly written but they are more focused on inner dialogue than anything else. You get a lot about what each character is thinking which is often very interesting, especially for those characters who are less than expansive like Haruka. It also contrasts the different ways each boy responds to his environment.

As for description, there is a stunning rendering of Iwatobi that really brings the village to life while at the same time making it seem rather frightening and perhaps even claustrophic. There is a lack of physical description, Makoto is the one who has more of this, Haruka has a little along with Nagisa, Rin has virtually none. This is probably because the reader is already supposed to know how each character looks like.

As for Aki, while we have no idea what she looks like we do have an idea of her personality. Still, I would have added some description just so we could visualize her and/or add an illustration in which she appears. Granted, she is a secondary character but it is still a bit odd. Apart from her smile being compared to a sunflower (which immediately made me think of Sumika from YKA, that's probably why I imagine her with glasses) we are a bit left in the dark.

Last edited by Nocturnalux (06-01-2015 08:53:40 PM)

Ahh July can't get here fast enough. I really want to see what the Rin and Haru mook will be about! I wonder if it will be a continuation of the story in the Makoto and Haru one, since he found out Haru was a merman and then nothing came of it lol.  I'm so curious and waiting is suffering.

For Gou, I'm a fan of her with Sousuke. It's really sweet how they stayed in contact even when Rin isn't around, and the way her face lit up when she saw him in episode 2 or 3 of ES was pretty adorable. Then the OVA when he gave her his jacket. For people who like Momo x Gou, did you read the Momo and Nitori mook? It ended up being more Momo/Gou than anything, haha. (He wanted Nitori to steal something from her so he could be the big hero and stop him and she would fall in love with him. It was hilarious. The Momo and Nitori one was surprisingly my favorite so far.)

Last edited by HonorableShadow (06-02-2015 08:26:50 AM)

Snow wrote:

Can we just ship everyone with everyone?

Btw, whacha guys think of Nagisa/Rei? I think they're my favorite ship in Free! thus far, the cuties

I see a little subtext between the two. I'm only on episode seven.  Being a big fujoshi I'd be happy to see any two shirtless guys kissing. If I had to choose a favorite shonen-ai couple at this point it'd be Haru/Makoto.

Also, I think I'm starting to fall for Rin. At first I was attracted to the character's looks but then I found out his reason for wanting to beat Haru and realized he wasn't just a giant angry jerk. Poor baby.

(Man, why do I always fall for the hotheaded bishonen? I think I have an unhealthy attraction to dangerous men.)

Nocturnalux wrote:

I love Rei/Nagisa. I can imagine Nagisa talking Rei into doing virtually anything and making sure he took pictures and filmed it for future reference.

"Rei-chan, you know how you used to pole vault?"
"Yes...?"
"It's time for learn how to pole dance next!"
"Why?!"
"Because it'd be so beautiful. Just imagine it, Rei-chan!"
"Well...I guess you have a point,"
"All swimmers do it, too! It helps with the aerodynamics."
"Is that so? Sign me in, Nagisa-kun!"
"Yatta!" *prepares camera*

Lol!

I adore Nagisa and Rei but my headcanon is the two as very close, lifelong friends that everyone thinks are gay for each other but are totally not and completely oblivious to what people think of them.

Doujins tend to portray Nagisa as this total manslut/whore but he's practically the only character I don't ship with anyone romantically.



Oh my goodness, look how each boy has their little animal symbol. :3 Except Rin for some reason unless I just can't spot it. Rei is too precious for words. I'm wondering if that's how his parents dress him or if he was fussy as a boy in how he dressed. XD

YamPuff wrote:

Nocturnalux wrote:

I love Rei/Nagisa. I can imagine Nagisa talking Rei into doing virtually anything and making sure he took pictures and filmed it for future reference.

"Rei-chan, you know how you used to pole vault?"
"Yes...?"
"It's time for learn how to pole dance next!"
"Why?!"
"Because it'd be so beautiful. Just imagine it, Rei-chan!"
"Well...I guess you have a point,"
"All swimmers do it, too! It helps with the aerodynamics."
"Is that so? Sign me in, Nagisa-kun!"
"Yatta!" *prepares camera*

Lol!

I adore Nagisa and Rei but my headcanon is the two as very close, lifelong friends that everyone thinks are gay for each other but are totally not and completely oblivious to what people think of them.

Doujins tend to portray Nagisa as this total manslut/whore but he's practically the only character I don't ship with anyone romantically.

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i232/ … g~original

Oh my goodness, look how each boy has their little animal symbol. :3 Except Rin for some reason unless I just can't spot it. Rei is too precious for words. I'm wondering if that's how his parents dress him or if he was fussy as a boy in how he dressed. XD

Aw, that really is adorable. It's a bit of shame we never got to see Rei as a kid in canon.
I can see Rei being oblivious of people seeing him as gay but I bet Nagisa would be different. He's more the type to sell compromising photos of himself and Rei, or of any other of the boys, for funds. 

I see Kisume as much more of a manslut than Nagisa. He really does all he can to get in the way of Haruka and Makoto. Add to that the fact he seems to really enjoy teasing Haruka by being weirdly over friendly and a name that really sounds like a pun and you're all set.

FREE! ILLUSTRATION WORKS VOL.2, TRACK 08

Nagisa: I dreamed about Rei-chan-sheeps.
Rei: Rei-chan-sheeps?
Nagisa: You had become a sheep,  and so I counted the Rei-chans leaping in the pool, but then it got filled with Rei-chans!
Rei: What kind of dream is that?
Nagisa: And you were kinda angry too, but since you were a sheep, it didn’t feel like you were angry at all…
Rei: (sighs)
Nagisa: You were all soft and fluffy, after all! And so I ended up leaning in your fluffiness and falling asleep, and it felt so nice…

Riri-kins wrote:

I always thought otaku who got body pillows were kind of pathetic until I realized how much I want these.

http://i62.tinypic.com/2zyvh92.jpg

Squee! My new BL OTP in pillow form!

That's really cute/hot but a strange feeling for me seeing Haru and Mako the same size as each other. XD

Last edited by YamPuff (06-03-2015 03:17:16 PM)

Great minds thinks alike!
I was just coming here to post this:

Those are so cute! Free makes so many nice figures, and I have way too many already...

(Sorry for the blurry pic!)

I'm getting the Rin scale figure soon too.

Please stop making such nice stuff Kyoani...

Last edited by HonorableShadow (06-05-2015 05:37:34 PM)

Thanks!  I'm running out of room there. XD

Ahh, you should! I really want to see your doujinshi collection!

So here's my entire collection of Free! stuff, minus the figures that I didn't manage to find:



It includes the novels, an Eternal Summer guidebook and the doujin that are easier to see here:



From left to right, top to bottom the titles are:
Souten no Southern Cross
Kotoshi mo Maid no mama deite
Mirai e no Time Machine
Rin to Tomodachi de iru tame no 4tsu yakusoku

And the Arabian Nights ones:



Kimi no Hitomi ha sapphire no Houseki
Arabian Love Dream (vl1)
Magical Temptation
Paradise Regained (vl1)

I've heard about the whole 'gay signs' before, I have no idea whether there is any truth to it but partially because of that I was mistaken for a boy back in 6th grade (my hair was boy-short and I only had one pierced earring) and a bunch of religious girls fell in love with me...but that's getting way off topic.

Last edited by Nocturnalux (06-06-2015 12:17:56 PM)