Free! Watch Order
(Easy To Follow)
Free! is one of the most popular sports anime of all time. With its well-chiseled male characters, it has a large female fanbase. However, the anime is much more than just the attractive characters. Free! is the type of anime that will refresh your soul because of its wholesome story, animation, and refreshing colors. The story of the anime is mainly focused on swimming and the life of our MC named, Haruka Nanase. He’s surely one of those cool-looking anime characters that remain quiet.
If we talk about the plot, it revolves around our gifted swimmer MC, Haruka Nanase. He’s a very skilled swimmer and after reconciling with his childhood rival named Rin Matsuoka, he decides to work even harder and strengthen Iwatobi’s Swim Team. If you don’t know what Iwatobi is, it’s a small town in Japan that is hinged on Iwami, Tottoro.
Table of Contents
Watching a whole new anime gets confusing since we don’t know the right watch order to do so. Therefore, you must be wondering what’s the right order to watch Free!? Well, we’re here to let you guys know! Don’t worry and strengthen your seatbelts for a refreshing ride!
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Table of Content
HOW TO WATCH FREE!
Quick Watch Order
TV Series
- Season 1: Free! Iwatobi’s Swim Club
- Season 2: Free! Eternal Summer
- Season 3: Free! Dive To The Future
Specials
- Season 1: Free! OVA 1: Makoto’s Problem
- Season 1: Free! OVA 2: Recruiting New Members
- Season 1: Free! OVA 3: Rin and Nitori, A Week With Us
- Season 1: Free! OVA 4: Rei’s Entry Training!
- Season 1: Free! OVA 5: Rei, Theory, and Speedo!
- Season 1: Free! OVA 6: The Iwatobi Family!
- Season 1: Free! OVA 7: A Distant Tremble!
- Season 2: Free! OVA 1: Forbidden All-Hard!
- Season 3: Free! OVA 1: Buildup of Early Spring!
Free! Iwatobi’s Swim Club
Free! has a refreshing animation which makes it stand out from other such sports anime. This anime is set in Iwatobi Town which is basically based on Iwabi, Tottoro. Yes, it’s an actual place in Japan. You’re lucky if you live in Japan, you get to see all the places from anime. Anyways, let me tell you a bit about the plot of the anime and our MC. The story of this anime revolves around a talented swimmer named Haruka Nanase who’s a rather quiet individual.
He’s strongly determined to become one of the best swimmers in Japan. His greatest ability is to make the correct decision in emergencies. We all know it’s not easy to re-encounter your childhood competitor, right? Therefore, it wasn’t easy for Haruka to encounter his childhood mate, Rin Matsuoka. After reconciling with his childhood competitor, he was very determined to make the Iwatobi Swimming Club stronger and better. Even though there were some memories from his past that haunted him, his endless determination didn’t make him give up.
Season 1 is mainly based on their friendships and their past. What actually happened in the past to make Haruka Nanase stand where he is right now? All these confusions will be cleared once you start watching Free! Along with his best friends, Makoto Tachibana and Nagisa Hazuki, he was recruited onto the team. Seeing his childhood rival surely fired him up but we know there are consequences to everything. Therefore, Haruka Nanase being the “careful” type of guy wasn’t up for risks and decided to move forward and constantly improve so that he could defeat Rin Matsuoka. The relationships of these characters improve with time. I won’t give you guys any spoilers, so if you’re curious, you should surely watch Free! Like, what are you waiting for?
Free! Eternal Summer
After graduating from high school, we all have to think about what we really want to do next, right? Just like that, our MC had to think about the things he wanted to achieve in his life. For athletes, their game is the most important thing for them. Realizing that he has been swimming all his life gets him overwhelmed and confused.
On the other hand, Rin’s childhood friend injures his shoulder and cannot swim anymore, therefore, he’s unable to continue swimming. Rin wanted to continue swimming with his childhood friend but he wasn’t aware of this fact.
Moving on, regionals come and Haruka feels the pressure to perform in front of the scouts thinking that swimming is everything for him. It’s true that athletes don’t think about any other thing except for the game they’re playing. After the regionals, he learns that his best friend is attending a university in Tokyo. However, that’s not the end. Our boy realizes the importance of Swimming in his life. He pays a visit to Sydney along with his friend, that’s when he decides to continue swimming on a college level. Now, we’ll see this boy excelling in life since he found his passion and his interest.
After returning from Sydney, he tells his friend that he will continue swimming and will do it on a global level. Then, one night, Makoto shares his dream. He says that he dreams of becoming a swimming coach. Honestly, he’s very reliable and has leadership skills. Therefore, Makoto can be a really nice swimming coach. Anyways, then this whole team gets reminded of the hardships, good times, and the things that brought them where they are right now. Iwatobi wins the Nationals and takes 6th place.
After the match, the Iwatobi team buries a time capsule that tells the summary of things that happened during the nationals. Sounds pretty wholesome, right? The last episode of this season shows the visit of Iwatobi to Samezuka Academy’s Cultural Fest. The team wanted Sosuke and Haruka to get along, that’s why they trapped them in a water-shooting match. Will their attempt to get them along be successful?
Free! Dive To The Future
Free! Dive To The Future tells us about the university life of Haruka where he meets his friends from junior high. We also get to see the salty behavior of Ikuya Kirishima because the team broke up during the match. It’s a long story. Anyways, to get along with Ikuya, Haruka decides to do his freestyle swimming and he also competes with Ikuya to make amends with him. Haruka knew that it won’t be easy to compete against people who are on a higher level than him. Despite all these circumstances, he decides to compete with an endless determination just to be on a global level.
On the other hand, Rin meets Ikuya’s elder brother named Natsuya Kirishima. He races in relays at an international level for cash prizes. Natsuya wants Mikhail to be his mentor but Mikhail doesn’t want to teach this distracted boy since he’s after money. Rin doesn’t really get scared of Natsuya attacking him at times. Therefore, Rin attacks him and points out his weak points as well. This all leads to a relay race in the rain and that’s how Natsuya returns to Japan to meet his younger brother and a close friend named Nao Serizawa.
As the story proceeds, we get to see many new characters being introduced. Hiyori at Shinogami University holds a grudge against Haruka and tells everyone that he’s a bad influence. Haruka wants to decide something with him through swimming but Makoto swims instead of him. After losing, Makoto thinks that whatever happened is for the better.
During one of the practice matches between Iwatobi’s team and Samezuka, one of the new members of Iwatobi’s club faces false anxiety that gets better with the help of his teammates. On the other hand, Natsuya advises Sosuke to not be worried about his shoulder surgery. As the story proceeds, Haruka gets offered by a suspicious man from Hidaka University to become his personal coach. Everyone finds it weird for Haruka to do freestyle swimming. It forced Haruka to learn other strokes and learn more things about swimming. Now that he knows everything, will he become unstoppable? What do you guys think?
Now there’s a match between childhood friends or should I say rivals? Haruka and Ikuya stand beside each other and are ready to rumble! How will the match between these two go? Will it be intense? To find out, watch Free!
Specials
Season 1: Free! OVA 1: Makoto’s Problem
So, Makoto has this problem of not being able to strip down his swimming suit while being near water. He explained that when he went shopping with Haruka, he saw a fish tank and attempted to jump into it and swim. When he stopped, Haruka was very irritated. To find out what irritates Haruka so much, Nagisa decides to come up with an experiment.
The first experimentation includes holding a cup of water in Makoto’s hands. Haruka walks and scoffs behind them when they do this. The second experimentation includes a basin filled with water which catches his attention and allows him to look back as he was walking. When he saw the bucket of water he looked as if he was suffering. After that, they used a tub which made Haruka lose his temper. Finally, Makoto blows up a kiddie pool and we get to see Haruka stripping and coming from afar, he eventually jumps into the pool. That’s how they get the reason behind Haruka’s unusual habit.
Season 1: Free! OVA 2: Recruiting New Members
During lunchtime, Nagisa asks everyone how they should bring more members to Iwatobi’s Swim Club? One of the members suggests introducing and offering the new member the new version of Iwatobi-Chan. If you don’t know who Iwatobi-Chan is, I’ll let you know. It’s a bird-like mascot of Iwatobi’s Swim Club. He’s a really cute little fluffy thing. Others think that it’s a bad idea. When Haruka is being asked, he doesn’t really say much. Makoto, during lunchtime, notices that Haruka’s plate has no mackerel in it and reminds everyone of how Haruka’s mother prepared a bento box for him in the morning.
Suddenly, Nagisa mentions his older three sisters who tease him for dressing up as a girl. It leads to the conclusion that Haruka is pretending to have a twin so that everyone would think that the club is HIT and there are many members. However, Makoto declines this idea and suggests just putting up posters so that a lot of people will see and get encouraged to swim. In the end, they create a very hilarious poster which surely gets the attention of everyone.
Season 1: Free! OVA 3: Rin and Nitori, A Week With Us
Rin and Aiichiro living together learn about each other. Aiichiro shows off his work and busy schedule for the next week. Seeing the work well done, Rin criticizes his messy desk. Aiichiro says that he’ll keep it as it is since he knows just where his books and other supplies are.
One day, Aiichiro’s desk keeps on piling up more and more books, Rin was highly annoyed this time since he had to take a book from this bunk. Anyways, just when Aiichiro is about to ask for Rin’s help to translate something, Rin criticizes his desk once again and asks him to organize it before he loses his cool. When Rin helps him with the translation he gets complimented by Aiichiro for his proficiency in English.
Wednesday comes but Aiichiro’s desk remains the same as ever. Rin gets really annoyed and asks him to leave his clutter at home. Aiichiro then explains that all of the stuff that he has is valuable to him on an emotional level. Before Aiichiro could get in the details, Rin tosses his books on his face. LOL! It’s really hard to live with a messy person, isn’t it?
Season 1: Free! OVA 4: Rei’s Entry Training!
Rei Ryugazaki dresses up in a penguin Speedo and gets ready to dive from the edge of the pool on Iwatobi’s School Campus. When he dives, he suddenly shakes and it turns out that he has been daydreaming all this time. His classmate bursts out with laughter and Rei stops him by shouting. Aww, that’s pretty cute though, isn’t that right?
Season 1: Free! OVA 5: Rei, Theory, and Speedo!
This OVA mainly revolves around Rei’s worries about his swimsuits. He’s worried that he doesn’t really have swimsuits other than the one he had in elementary school. As he’s super worried, Nagisa appears in front of him with a bunch of swimsuits and asks Rei to choose one out of all those swimsuits. Since Rei can’t make up his mind, Makoto and Haruka come to save the day. They give out their opinions about which swimsuit will be better for him. In the end, Rei ends up choosing a funny-looking swimsuit. HAHA, all this for nothing.
Season 1: Free! OVA 6: The Iwatobi Family!
This OVA mainly revolves around Rin observing the Iwatobi Family, their handstands, exercises, warmups, and whatnot! The Iwatobi Family is indeed one of the most wholesome families. By family, I mean the swimming club. Their sheer determination and unity make them successful every time. Be like the Iwatobi Family!
Season 1: Free! OVA 7: A Distant Tremble!
Rin, after meeting the Iwatobi Family, tells everyone that he has never heard our MC, Haruka Nanase laugh. I mean, same! I haven’t seen this character laugh, he’s just super composed and calm all the time. He’s focused on his goals. Dude, that’s green flags. As everyone becomes curious about his laugh, they decide to come up with a plan of tickling Haru just to hear him laugh. Isn’t that hilarious? Anyways, they act upon their plan and tickle Haruka. It ends up making him burst into laughter. They all hug Haruka then. HAHA, sounds wholesome, right?
Season 2: Free! OVA 1: Forbidden All-Hard!
This OVA is the second to the last OVA of the series, Free! It revolves around the Iwatobi Swimmers admiring the cultural festival at Samezuka. That day, Haruka bumps into a beautiful young woman wearing a traditional dress who later on, turns out to be Aiichiro Nitori. LOL! Aiichiro explains how their club runs a maid-themed cafe. They decide to visit the Maid-Themed Cafe. There, they see other such guys in maid outfits. Some of the guys including Momo, Nitori, and Sosuke are going on a break so that they can enjoy the festival too.
Later on, they all come across a water shooting competition. They play the game and figure out different hacks to win as well. In the end, everyone calms down and we get to see the sunset with Rin and Haruka. Also, Samezuka’s students said that they will pay a visit to Iwatobi’s festival too.
Season 3: Free! OVA 1: Buildup of Early Spring!
This OVA revolves around the annual High School Mascot Competition. The three students from Iwatobi High School are in town to get the costumes. They’re very hyped up but are also stressed since the beak of the costume is too long and they can’t really do anything about that. Makoto Tachibana runs into them and tells them the history of the costume and how he was forced to wear it.
Recommended Watch Order
- Season 1: Free! Iwatobi’s Swim Club
- Season 1: Free! OVA 1: Makoto’s Problem
- Season 1: Free! OVA 2: Recruiting New Members
- Season 1: Free! OVA 3: Rin and Nitori, A Week With Us
- Season 1: Free! OVA 4: Rei’s Entry Training!
- Season 1: Free! OVA 5: Rei, Theory, and Speedo!
- Season 1: Free! OVA 6: The Iwatobi Family!
- Season 1: Free! OVA 7: A Distant Tremble!
- Season 2: Free! Eternal Summer
- Season 2: Free! OVA 1: Forbidden All-Hard!
- Season 3: Free! Dive To The Future
- Season 3: Free! OVA 1: Buildup of Early Spring!
Who's your favorite Character from Free!?
That’s it for Free! Watch Order. I hope you guys enjoyed it and will watch it Free! Not to lie, it’s a worth-watching anime that will refresh your soul. And Summer is coming. I’m sure you won’t regret this masterpiece. Also, let us know in the comments about your favorite character from “Free!”. Don’t forget to share it with your friends who are crazy over this anime. Stay tuned for more content. See you guys on the next blog!
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