Free! Iwatobi Swim Club Season One DVD, Blu-ray Announced

If you like competitive swimming and have a thing for shirtless anime boys, then you might already be a fan of Free! Iwatobi Swim Club. The popular sports anime made its debut a few years back, and the series has gained an impressive following since. With two seasons under its belt, Free! continues to send fans into fits of tears and laughter thanks to characters like Rin and Haruka.

MORE: Free! Iwatobi Swim Club To Get New Stories In Upcoming Novelization

But, if you haven't had a chance to watch the anime yet, then don't worry! You can soon catch up on it at home thanks to Funimation.

Not long go, the studio confirmed it would be releasing Free! in the U.S. later this year. The first season of the anime will go on-sale July 1st for both DVD and Blu-ray packages. Of course, fans have been looking forward to this announcement for some time. When Crunchyroll and Funimation announced their unprecedented partnership last year, Free! finally had the chance to get a home release as the anime had been an exclusive for the former site. With Funimation's production powers, the anime will be able to watched whenever you don't have a solid WiFi connection.

If it is the second season of Free! you are looking forward, then don't worry. You can actually go ahead and get the season on DVD and Blu-ray now. Funimation started selling the home release with its English dub back in Feburary 2016.

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