Free! Road To The World – The Dream Trailer Released

Free! is the pinnacle swimming tournament anime, though to be honest, there aren’t a ton of examples of this kind of storytelling in the medium. To be fair, this series also represents one of the more popular sports anime as well, behind mainstays such as the always popular Slam Dunk! With a growing fan base, it’s no wonder that a fifth movie of the series has been approved. Free! Road to the World-The Dream has a new trailer, promising a more in-depth look at the main characters of the series and what they’re hoping to achieve.

Crunchyroll broke the news for the new trailer’s release, combining old and new footage into a feature film that will release in July 2019 on the “Road to 2020”:

Free!’s fifth film is a compilation, taking footage from the series’ third season along with new episodes that give fresh insights into our main characters’ motivations and what they will be facing as the series continues. Condensing the series’ third season, Dive to the Future, the movie will give old fans, and new, a flashy re-telling of the events along with unexplored territory in the depths of the pool. The film following this compilation will supposedly be released in conjunction with the 2020 Summer Olympics in Japan, which seems perfect for the series and where they were looking to take Haruka and friends.

Will you be seeing the upcoming fifth film in the Free! series? What do you expect to see from these characters to coincide with the 2020 Olympics? Let us know in the comments or feel free to hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics and anime.

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 the first animated film debuted in December 2015.

Free! follows 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.