[Summer 2018] Free! Dive to the Future Discussion Thread

[Buckeye]

フリー!-Dive to the Future-

The third season to the bishonen swimming show. Haruka, Makoto, and Rin all have graduated, and now they are working hard to realize their dreams, all while Nagisa and Rei are leading a new swim club as high school seniors.

Airs: Wednesday, July 11, 2018

Studio: Kyoto Animation

ANN Entry
My Anime List
Official Site
Crunchyroll

Season 1 Discussion
Season 2 Discussion

Haruka, who is attending college in Tokyo, meets Asahi again and reawakens his memories from his middle school years, including those of Ikuya. Makoto is working toward a new dream while he is in Tokyo together with Haruka. Rin has an unexpected meeting in Sydney.

Notes
As usual, please try to follow these three easy forum courtesy habits when replying:
1) If you're the first person to post about an episode in any given week, please respond to the root post (this post) and indicate in the subject line which episode you're posting about.
2) If someone has already posted about an episode before you, please respond to that post (or a relevant reply to that post). Keep in the right subthread.
3) Don't use the "Reply to Thread" button because it causes your reply not to correctly inherit the subject line of the post you're replying to. Just click "Reply" to the post you want to reply to.

For more guidelines please refer to this thread.

[Buckeye]

Episode 1

Here comes a new challenger.

After the epic ending to season 2, I didn't think that there would be more of this show coming out, but here it is as the fanbase pretty much speaks for itself there. The setting is much different now that Haruka and Makoto have graduated and going to college, all while Rin is aiming for the Olympics, and Nagisa and Rei are leading a new Iwatobi High School swimming club that has gained to guys and a girl. Haru is meeting some new friends, and old ones as well as there's Asahi, who used to be best buds in middle school, and then there's Rin's replacement as a rival in Ikuya, and he's a bit too quiet that it's concerning, but his admiration of Haru is reflected in his swimming style. Pretty nice way to start things off, and as usual KyoAni is at the top of their game. And then there's the ending where this time all the boys are putting on a musical keeping things the same way they were in the first two seasons.

[GingaDaiuchuu]

Re: Episode 1

I'd say it's weird to get a third season of this, but considering its popularity, it's not surprising at all. Fun to be back. Very pretty. Not much else to go on yet.

[Buckeye]

Episode 2

He would rather swim alone.

This episode is all about Ikuya as he does only individual events and not any relays as he grew pretty distant from his teammates. He used to go to the same junior high school as Haru, Makoto, and Asahi, and one time he nearly drowned after pushing himself too hard and because of that, the team couldn't do the relay until next summer. So now, he's doing the individual relay where he's crushing the competition, but not exactly doing it gracefully. It will be interesting to see where he goes from there now that he has met Haru again.

[GingaDaiuchuu]

Re: Episode 2

It's so weird to have our classic Free! cast so split up now. I guess maybe I should've watched at least the one of the movies that is actually a sequel of Eternal Summer. If only it had come to my theater instead of only being hours away. I don't know that it would've changed much, though; it's still a strange feeling. It's nice to have that big of a change for a third season, though; otherwise it would've gotten really old and while it may not have felt any more like a cash grab, it wouldn't probably felt like a much lazier one. I hope they can balance the adventures of the different groups split from the original team (including Rin) throughout the season. Definitely mostly Haru now, but he is the lead, after all.