Wednesday, March 14th was the date of a special one-night-only screening of the brand new movie Free! Take Your Marks in American theaters.
I went to the showing at Emagine Canton, having pre-purchased my tickets weeks beforehand. Funimation had advertised a presale and made a link on their website to find a nearby theater that was showing the film. There were just two theaters in Michigan that were playing the movie, but I was actually happily surprised to see there were any at all, considering that anime film is not something with mainstream fame in America I had expected just a few theaters in the largest cities across the country.
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Tip: To catch announcements for anime films like these, you need to be connected to the anime community somehow, perhaps by following the biggest animation, streaming, and translation companies for the US (or very popular fan accounts) on social media.
About the Free! series
Free! Take Your Marks is a part of the anime series Free! Iwatobi Swim Club, which first aired in 2013. For those of you who don’t know, the Free! series follows a group of high school boys as they struggle to form a swim club and repair long-time friendships. The words ‘swimming’ and ‘friendship’ basically summarize what this show is all about. Each character is lovable in their own right, which lends to the attachment fans feel toward the show.
After huge success which resulted in a massive fan-base, the second season, Free! Eternal Summer, was released in 2014. In 2017 they released two movies Free! Timeless Medley Kizuna (Bonds), and Free! Timeless Medley Yakusoku (Promise), which were kind of like recaps of the series, with perhaps a splash of extra content. But more importantly, in December 2015 they released the movie High Speed! - Free! Starting Days which was a flashback to the main characters’ middle school days, and an homage to the original novel that the show is based off of and was set around this age. It introduced some long-teased, and therefore long-awaited, characters who were friends with the main characters in these younger days.
These same characters also had brief cameos in the new movie, Free! Take Your Marks, so fans got to see them all grown up. This is, of course, to excite the fans who liked these characters in the previous movie, but also to be a bit of a setup for the third season of the television series of which it seems these new characters will be a part. Season three of Free! is set to come out July of this year. For those who have been fans for any of these past five years, the news of a new season was especially thrilling. The third season is going to revolve around the older characters’ new college life, and the younger characters’ attempts to fill the shoes of the graduated ‘senpai’.
Free! Take Your Marks – In-theater experience
At the beginning of the movie, there was a “pre-show” that featured some extra content that was only available in Japanese theaters, in which the main characters were in a sort of interview setting. For a period of time we were allowed to take pictures of the screen because it spoiled nothing and allowed us to be a part of the show. When that was over, the characters told us to put away our phones and cameras. The characters even gave us the theater safety rules, which was a cute touch that the audience seemed to enjoy.
Free! Take Your Marks was so entertaining that it would be enjoyable even to a first-time viewer of the series. The theater was filled with laughter at the ridiculous or dry humor that the series is known for, and which seemed especially on-point in this movie (perhaps because of a new director). There was even one man, likely in his thirties, sitting in front of me in the theater who was possibly laughing the loudest of everyone. Unlike what I expected, being someone who likes solitary viewing, the audience's reactions were a bit infectious and made the viewing experience even more fun. The theater was almost full (something else I wasn't sure whether to expect, since I had heard from a friend that theaters were usually nearly empty when he had seen anime movies), and full of all sorts of people. Though I highly recommend seeing this movie, I wouldn't recommend skipping over the previous material, of course, because you would miss out on all the emotion behind the changes happening in the characters’ lives on which this film is focused.
Free! Take Your Marks – Short description
At the end of the second season of Free!, the seniors were graduating from high school, planning where they wanted to go for college, and deciding on their dreams for the future. In this film, they showed a bit of the characters beginning to embark on this journey, and the younger characters sending them off.
Haruka Nanase (aka Haru) and Makoto Tachibana have both decided to go to college in Tokyo, and this film showed them searching for Haru's perfect apartment (as expected of Haru, most important are a large bath for his daily soaks and a gas stove for grilling mackerel), and getting used to the idea of moving on to the big city. Especially after the previous High Speed! movie, which focused on the friendship of these two characters and left us with fresh emotions, it was precious to see these two moving towards their dreams together.
Rin Matsuoka and Sousuke Yamazaki are shown moving out of their dorm and going on a goodbye trip with their Samezuka underclassmen teammates Nitori Aiichirou and Momotaro Mikoshiba. We already knew that Rin was going to be moving to Australia to continue intensive swimming training in order to work toward his Olympic dream, but we had been left not knowing what would happen to Sousuke. In the last season, we found out that Sousuke had injured his shoulder over-training, and could probably no longer follow his dream of swimming with Rin. From this movie, though there were no concrete answers, we got some hope that Sousuke would not give up, and would look for his own happiness. Here’s hoping he will one day swim again (perhaps in season three…)!
Rei Ryugazaki and Nagisa Hazuki were prepping to recruit new swim team members to fill the holes that Haru and Makoto would leave when graduating Iwatobi High School. They worked on filming a promotion to show classmates, featuring the Arabian theme that was seen in their season one OST ending, which was a well-loved favorite among fans. This was filled with the particular brand of humor unique to Rei and Nagisa that created some of the funniest moments of both the show and this movie. Though, I have to say, the show was stolen by Rin’s enormously fat cat, Steve.
Free! Take Your Marks – As a whole…
There was no grand plot, but rather this film was made of pieced together moments from their lives that spoiled nothing about what was to come in their future adventures, only teased and left you with further anticipation. It wasn't action packed (so don’t anticipate big events and moments like in the series), but more about joyful and heartwarming reminiscing, and laughter. It seemed that Free! Take Your Marks was less a ‘film’ in the traditional sense, than a way to get us warmed up and ready to see these swimming boys again. This movie left everyone in the theater, myself included, just feeling… happy! I, myself was definitely in a great mood for the rest of the night -- it was an enjoyable theater experience. The movie was animated with its usual quality, and was sweet, moving, charming, and filled with hilarious moments. Those who loved the Free! series will not be disappointed if they know what to expect, and will be left anticipating the third season.
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