For those of you going through Free! withdrawals, then your suffering will soon be over. Later this year, a brand-new Free! Iwatobi Swim Club story will be released after plenty of anticipation. Today, Kyoto Animation confirmed that the popular sports anime is getting a novelization in June.
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Masahiro Yokotani will be writing the novel as he has supervised Free! since the start and been its script writer. The anime’s character designer Futoshi Nishiya will be illustrating the novel, and the book will feature new stories and drawings of fans’ favorite swimmers.
Of course, this announcement may not be the one fans were all hoping for. Last year, the studio announced it was working on a new screen project for Free! but no further details about the project have been released. For now, fans can’t be sure if the series will return as a series or a film, but the new novel is a promising step forward.
If you are not familiar with Free!, then you have time to catch up. The anime made its debut in July 2013 after it was adapted from a light novel by Koji Oji. Before the show was ordered, a short animated PV featuring the novel’s cast was released. Fans from all over the world flocked to the video, buzzing over its animation style and concept. So, when Kyoto Animation green-lit the project for a full season, few were surprised.
When the anime’s first season aired, the show became a success with international fans despite its sports content. In 2014, a second season of the anime was released before an animated film debuted in December 2015.
As for its story, Free! follow a group of high school students who were introduced as children on a local swim team. The anime’s primary lead Haruka is a prodigal swimmer who can think only about swimming but does not wish to turn his passion into a profession. When the boy teams back up with his friends Makoto and Nagisa on a swim team, Haruka is stunned when their third childhood friend reappears in his life. Rin, who had gone to hone his swimming skills abroad, is back in their hometown and holds plenty of bitterness towards his former friends. And, as the series goes on, fans watch as swimming rekindles the friends’ once-tight bonds.
[HT] ANN
