Free!

Free! (Free! - Iwatobi Swim Club) is a sports anime by Kyoto Animation surrounding the lives of High School swimmers. It premiered on July 3, 2013 and it is based on High☆Speed!, a novel by Kouji Ouji. The show follows a group of four male swimmers, all in high school, who start a competitive swim club at their high-school.
The anime became a reality after a commercial garnered widespread attention on the internet, especially from yaoi fans on Tumblr.
The first season of the show started on July 4, 2013, and had a twelve episode run, ending on September 26. A second season, dubbed Eternal Summer! was later confirmed, "Free!" 2nd Season Confirmed At Official Event and aired on July 2, 2014, completing the series in September.
The show also has several extras/side stories, light novels, and a prequel film titled High Speed! -Free! Starting Days-' which aired on December 5, 2015.
==Fandom==
The fandom for Free! sprung up literally overnight. In March 2013 a commercial by Kyoto Animation, which had been created to try out animating 2-D water, aired during episode 10 of Tamako Market., Kyoto Animation: Suiei-hen on MAL It quickly spawned a fanbase on Tumblr, Pixiv and elsewhere within 48 hours of its release, due almost entirely to the attractive shirtless Bishōnen featured in it.The Daily Dot, "Fake Anime Series inspires real fans on Tumblr," March 11, 2013.The Mary Sue, "Tumblr Invented Entire Anime Based on Thirty Second Promo? Must Be Monday", March 11, 2013. The fandom was quickly dubbed "Swimming Anime" before it was an official show and its actual name was revealed., Anime: Free! (TV Tropes Wiki)
However, the popular idea that Free! was an entirely original project, or that the original commercial was all that was intended to be created for the project and fan reaction caused the project to become an actual anime when it would not have otherwise is actually a popular misconception, as the anime was intended to be a sequel to High Speed!, a light novel written in 2011 by Kōji Ōji.Anime News Network, "Kyoto Animation Unveils Swimming Team TV Anime Free! for July," April 26, 2013.
Responses to the commercial, and show, have included role-playing blogs, fan art, videos, and fanfiction. Like many anime shows with a predominantly male cast, it has garnered a large following of yaoi fans. The series is know for it's fanservice focusing on male characters, which appeals to a female audience which technically being a shounen anime.
In October 2014, Free! reached 5,900 works on Archive of Our Own, becoming one of the top 5 most tagged Anime & Manga fandoms on the site when it surpassed Kuroko no Basuke. The fandom stayed in the top 5 until October 2015, when it was surpassed by Haikyuu!! reaching over 10,800 works.
==Main Characters==
* Haruka Nanase
* Makoto Tachibana
* Rin Matsuoka
* Nagisa Hazuki
* Rei Ryugazaki
Significant supporting characters:
* Gou Matsuoka
* Sousuke Yamazaki
* Aiichiro Nitori
* Seijuro Mikoshiba
* Momotarou Mikoshiba
* Kisumi Shigino
==Shipping==
The majority are slash (yaoi) pairings., Most Favorite Free! Pairings There was a major Ship War between the RinHaru and MakoHaru fandoms, however tensions have cooled over time.
===Major Pairings===
* Makoto/Haruka - MakoHaru
* Rin/Haruka - Also known as RinHaru.
* Rei/Nagisa - Also known as Reigisa or NagiRei. They have around 2,000 works on Ao3.Archive of Our Own, Works tagged Hazuki Nagisa/Ryuugazaki Rei. This is a generally uncontroversial ship and is often featured as a background ship in fics for other pairings.
* Sousuke/Rin - SouRin. Gained popularity during Season 2.
===Other Common Pairings===
* Sousuke/Makoto - SouMako
* Rin/Nitori - Rintori
* Makoto/Rin - MakoRin
* Sousuke/Haruka - SouHaru
* Rin/Rei - RinRei
* Haruka/Rei - ReiHaru/HaruRei
* Haruka/Water - HaruH2O
* Seijurou/Gou: SeiGou
* Haruka/Gou - HaruGou
* Seijurou/Makoto - SeiMako
* Kisumi/Makoto - KisuMako
* Kisumi/Haruka - KisuHaru
* Haruka/Nagisa - Harugisa
* Momotarou/Nitori - MomoTori
* Ikuya/Haruka - IkuHaru
* Hiyori/Ikuya - HiyoIku
* Isuzu/Gou - IsuGou
===Common OT3s===
* Makoto/Haruka/Rin - MakoHaruRin/Marinka
* Sousuke/Makoto/Kisumi - SouMakoKisu
==Fandom Events==
In the height of the fandom's most active years, many fans held "shipping weeks" and other such events. The purpose of the events were to create more fanworks for a particular ship or character. Shipping events generally cropped up during the month of a character, for example, Makoto's birthday month in November had 6 different events ranging from ship-specific to Makoto-centric. At one point, there were so many ship-specific events, there were even weeks dedicated to rarepairs. Discontinued events would be resurrected by different fans moderating new blogs, usually differentiated by the year in the url. In 2014, a fan even created a calendar to keep track of all the events on behalf of the fandom, encouraging people to send in news of new events through the askbox. The calendar blog posted monthly 'digests' compiling what events were occurring and upcoming, so fans could follow and participate in any they were interested in.
Most of the events followed a simple format: generally running for a week or two, each day would be assigned a different prompt (or more, depending on the moderators). Fans would be encouraged to post their works on their AO3 or Tumblr and send in links, and/or post about their work in the event's trending tag (e.g. #fyeahbottommakoto), or add to the Ao3 collection for the event if it existed. During the week itself, blog mods would reblog and share the various works submitted. Hence, the blogs essentially acted as archives for all the fics and fanart. Gift exchange was also a favourite format, especially for the character-centric or birthday events.
Rules for the events generally encouraged friendly participation and banned ship or character hate. 
===Haru-related events===
* Haru's Birthday Bash
* Haru Appreciation Day 2k15
* RinHaru Week | AO3 Collection
* RinHaruRin NSFW Week
* the makoharu fanfiction festival
* The Official MakoHaru Festival
* MakoHaru Week 2016
* MakoHaru Naughty or Nice, a Christmas-themed NSFW event
* NSFW MakoHaru Week
* SouHaru Week
** SouHaru Week 2015 with different mods
* HaruRinHaru Christmas Exchange
* Sakurathon 2015-17
* FOR THE FUTURE FESTIVAL | AO3 Collection
* Sakurathon 2023
* The Night Pool, a rinharu event series (2022-ongoing)
===Makoto-related events===
* Makoto's Birthday event
* Tachibottom Festival 2k14
* Tachibana Birthday Exchange | AO3 Collection
** Ran for 5 years before being handed over to new moderators with a new event blog.
* the makoharu fanfiction festival
* The Official MakoHaru Festival
* MakoHaru Week 2016
* NSFW MakoHaru Week
* MakoHaru Naughty or Nice, a Christmas-themed event
* MakoRin Week | AO3 Collection
** A different moderator ran the first MakoRin Week in 2014.
* MakoGou Secret Santa
* SouMako Week
* KisuMako Week
* SeiMako Week
===Rin-related events===
* 30 Days of Rin
* Maid!Rin Week
* RinHaru Week
* RinHaruRin NSFW Week
* MakoRin Week
* SouRin Week
* RinRei Week
* RinRei Secret Santa
** RinRei White Day Gift Exchange was created when the original moderator thesparklylady discontinued the Secret Santa exchange.
* NagiRin Week
* RinReiGisa Week
* RinTori Week
** RinTori Week 2016 with different mods
* MikoRin Week
* Sakurathon 2015-17 | AO3 Collection
* FOR THE FUTURE FESTIVAL
* Sakura Week
* Sakurathon 2023
* The Night Pool, a rinharu event series (2022-ongoing)
===Miscellaneous===
* The Style Five Week
* Gou All Out
* Rei's Birthday Festival
* Rei x Senpai Week
* Nagisa's Birthday Fest!!
* ReiGisa Week
* ReiGisa Celebration
* Ai's Birthday Festival
* The Free! Week
* The Free! Shipping Relay
* Free! RarePairs Week
* MomoTori Week
* MomoGou Week
* SouNagi Week
* SouKisu Week
==Example Fanworks==
===Fanfiction===
* You and I by themorninglark
* The Library of Lost Things by the morninglark
* What the Water Said by themorninglark
* Overflow by themorninglark
* Denial is Not Just a River in Egypt series by Ad_Astra
* mister coherent by mosaicos
* sand-filled determination by mosaicos
* The Rin and Makoto Show: Entertainment on a Cosmic Level Brought to you by Divine Intervention by doublelead & isuilde
* Butter Side Down aka makotoasterfic by supercrunch
* extraordinary boy by mangemouth
* the captain's game by mangemouth
* he looks cute standing next to you (& i don't know what to do!) by mangemouth
* bellyflop or dive by mangemouth
* never knew who i kissed until i kissed you by lisettedelapin
* dandelion heart by lisettedelapin
* A Boy with A Telescope (And Your Stars Smile Down on You) by isuilde
* Respite series by isuilde
===Fanart===
* Thank you Free! for giving me a blast of a summer, Im excited for the next! by 66lulu
* RinRei comics by fallen-lucifiel
===Vids===
* Kyoto Animation: Suiei-hen the commercial that first excited fans of a possible new anime
* FREE! trailer the trailer released for the official anime Free!
* 50% OFF Episode 1 - Prologue / 50% OFF by Octopimp - is an abridged/spoof fan series on youtube that became massively popular
===Zines===
*A Sight You’ve Never Seen Before
==Archives & Fannish Links==
* Free! kink meme community on Dreamwidth
* Free! anon meme on Dreamwidth
* Free! 400m先の未来へ LiveJournal Community
* Free! at AO3
* Free! - Iwatobi Swim Club on FF.Net
* FREE Iwatobi Swim Club a FB fanpage
* Free-IwatobiSC fangroup on DA
===Tumblr===
* Tumblr tags: Free! - Iwatobi Swim Club, Free!
* Free! cosplay blog
* A Tumblr fanblog
* Texts From Gay Swimmers, a text blog devoted to Free!
* Eraser-Kun/Makoto
==Further Reading==
* Fanservice and Anime - My problem with Free! and fanservice in general (2013)
==References==
Category:Free!