High Speed! -Free! Starting Days - (ハイ☆スピード!)

★Special Saori Press★Commemorating High Speed! A special article for Free!

High Speed! -Free! Starting Days – is an original movie of Free! (Iwatobi Swim Club), and it describes Nanase Haruka and Tachibana Makoto when they were junior high school student.

The story starts when Haruka and Makoto were junior high school students, several years before Free! (Iwatobi Swim Club)

Haruka and Makoto, who entered Iwatobi junior high school, joined swimming club.

They encountered there
Shiina Asahi, who is forward-looking, active and positive,
Kirishima Ikuya, who has difficulty in expressing himself,
Serizawa Nao, who is manager and takes care of junior members because of injury,
and Kirishima Natsuya, who is brother of Ikuya and is leader of swimming club.

In the swimming club with various members, Haruka, Makoto, Asahi and Ikuya compose a medley team and will attend a contest.

These four are all different in ways of thinking and in goals. All of them had their problem. Because of it, they practiced medley relay but couldn’t succeed…
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What is needed to become a team? Will they be able to swim at the contest?

The members are described as a team and as individuals who overcome their problems or worries through swimming.

The movie lasts for 110 minutes which is long for an animation, but I felt it was short because there were many happenings and it was interesting.

Problems or worries of junior high school children are described in detail, which makes this story interesting.

It may be trivial, but the scene that Makoto starts to call himself “ore (me in a cool way)”, not “boku (me in a childish way)” is described. You should be moved because those nostalgic scenes are described in detail.

I was most impressed by the scene which Makoto overcomes his worries. As I watched Free! (Iwatobi Swim Club), I know the stories of their future (when they are high school students).

When I was watching the animation, Makoto seemed to be like an adult and a big brother to count on.

Makoto starts to worry if he really like swimming or if he is really acting according to his belief, when Nao asked him “Makoto, do you really like swimming? Isn’t it because Haruka (she is a friend since childhood and she was always with him) is there? ”

I thought it was good because Makoto seems to be ordinary compared with Haruka, Asahi or Ikuya, but I could see what he was thinking about.

The four members’ smiling faces, who overcome these problems and finished the relay, are brilliant, and you will envy them for their youth.

Please check out the movie High Speed! -Free! Starting Days -!