#and don't get me started on makoto; utsumi went out of her way so he'd be his own character

[skania]

i get losing interest in the free series after utsumi left because its the same for me. S3 was just shit and the writers didn't care about writing a story, just wanted a way to force every character to have a role in the series and neglected the main characters. high speed was eh but i enjoyed my RH angst. the movies had potential but execution wasn't good. i enjoyed my RH moments but i know utsumi would've made those moments even better. its a shame since i dont care about her new series SK8.

This is more or less how I feel too, and I feel terrible for saying it because I've been trying to keep it to myself all these years 😭 But I think it's time to let it all out.

I think the current Free! stopped working for me because when I watch it, I don't find in it the same heart that blindsided me when I watched S1. And it's funny you mention SK8, because I don't care for it either, but a friend forced me to watch it, and it had heart. By the time I was done watching it, I couldn't help but feel sad. Because you're right anon, Utsumi would've taken Rin and Haru so, so much further if only she kept working on Free!

I know Utsumi had her issues, the biggest one (for me) being how neatly separated she kept the Samezuka and Iwatobi storylines until it was time for the RH climax. Which was kind of ridiculous because they lived in a small ass town and they all knew each other.

But I feel like the new team has the exact opposite problem.

We have a bazillion characters in a huge city but they keep running into each other for no reason whatsoever, simply so KyoAni can say that every single character interacted with each other at least once. Characters run into each other into the middle of nowhere, literally materialize into each other's cars for no apparent reason, every time Haru breathes you have 15 different characters talking about it without really contributing anything... it's all so disingenuous?

It's like the franchise has become a merchandise-selling machine, so they go out of their way to create scenarios that will allow them to sell merch of 50 different combinations of cute dudes. And they achieve this by doing the same thing over and over again except slightly different each time, because if it worked for Utsumi it'll work for them. And this is an issue that's been there since S3, which honestly had zero originality, but sadly the last two movies failed to fix this for me.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the RH from the last two movies as much as anyone else. There was some genuinely brilliant stuff there, like all the imagery with the level crossings stopping Haru from reaching Rin? Imagery that they've been using since the S3 opening? That was fantastic and it had me in tears. Haru trying to tell Rin that he wants to keep swimming by his side forever? The literal marriage proposal I've been waiting for since S1, because this is as close to a confession as one can get in Haru-speak. Haru thinking of Rin when he is asked about what changed his life? Stunning, breathtaking. Rin admitting that he has been deliberately playing dumb about Haru's feelings? A huge game-changer that literally had me stopping and staring because holy shit the fanfic potential for that line alone is astronomical. Probably the best line in the entire movie for me because it's the one thing that felt genuinely new.

And that's the thing, because the rest—while great, because RH has always elevated the story and that will never change—felt... terribly safe? It's like they didn't dare to do too much, so they just rehashed stuff that's already happened in S1 and S2. Rin hugs Haru? Already did it in S1. It'd have been incredible if we finally had Haru initiating a hug, but nope they don't dare to go beyond what Utsumi already did. Rin tells Haru he admires him? Already did it in S2. Haru tells Rin he taught him lots of important things? Already happened in S1. There are SO many things Haru has yet to tell Rin, you could fill an entire phonebook with it. But instead of everything Haru has yet to tell Rin, they chose to have him say... one of the few things he has already told him? Why??

It’s like they don’t dare to go out of the dotted lines Utsumi already traced, so instead they just end up adding the same colors over and over again. And Rin and Haru do end up globetrotting together, but... we already knew they would? That’s never been at stake. The important thing was to see how they got there, but they wasted an entire movie on drama that they resolved within the first 30 mins of this second movie, only to then add even more drama in the form of Haru getting injured.

The movies should have been about Haru and Rin getting used to the professional world and getting to form a relay team. Instead the relay team is a second thought and formed in a rush. And for what? The drama felt like it was there only for the sake of drama, because the conclusion Haru reaches after all of that is just a combination between this S1 and S2 conclusions. The main difference is that S1 and S2 alternated between showing and telling, while now we get some forced showing so they can do the telling.

So while there's some really cool stuff there and I am and will always be happy that RH got their happy ending, the last stretch of Free! just really pales in comparison to S1 and S2 for me 😭