By Melissa Goh
“Free! Timeless Medley – Promise” was really amazing, as there was a lot of focus on Rin and Samezuka.
The film provides much more backstory for Rin and Sousuke than in the anime. If you remember, Samezuka’s side of the story was not covered in depth in the anime.
The beginning of the film starts with Rin reminiscing his younger days with his family and most importantly, his father. His strong determination to succeed comes from the traumatic impact of what happened to his father. That scene makes you feel so much for Rin and you just want to cry with him.
“Free! Timeless Medley – Promise” then progresses to his days in elementary school with his childhood friend, Sousuke, where they both took interest in competitive swimming. During a competition Rin meets Haru & friends from Iwatobi, and inspired by their teamwork, decides to transfer to Iwatobi to swim with them.
As Rin became more ambitious in swimming and wanted to be an Olympic swimmer, he decided to move to Australia to improve his swimming. Rin worked very hard but the feeling of loneliness eventually got to him and he couldn’t progress the way he wanted, and so he returned home with a heavy heart.
Rin did not keep in contact with Sousuke or Haru when he came back to Japan, as he felt ashamed of not achieving his dreams and wanted to give up swimming. However, with the power of friendship from Haru and friends, Rin was able to continue competitive swimming.
At the start of his third year in Samezuka Academy, he became the captain of the swimming team and that’s when the story starts in earnest.
Rin is definitely more direct about his feelings than Haru, so much that he ends up seeming hot-blooded and impatient yet very sentimental at the same time. His character actually felt more endearing than Haru because he really pours out his feelings and thoughts. Rin’s voice actor, Miyano Mamoru, did a great job in making Rin confident when he has to be the captain of his team and also gentle when Rin is with his close friends.
Sousuke and Momo definitely had more screen time than in the anime, there are so much feels for them. To be honest, Sousuke was not one of my favourite characters because of his rivalry with Haru – in the anime it felt like Haru got bullied by him a little. There is a backstory for Sousuke why he acted in such a way, but it wasn’t enough to make him more likeable. However, in this film there is a remake of Sousuke’s scene where he explains to Rin his strong conviction to swim in a relay with him, and Rin’s friendship meant so much to him that it would make you teary-eyed.
Nitori’s scenes were quite similar to the anime, he doesn’t seem very outstanding at first but because of his hard work and determination, he achieves his dream of being in the relay with “Rin-senpai”. When Rin and Sousuke were watching him practice, Rin was so confident in Nitori’s improvement that he commented, “hard work beats talent.”
Momo was super funny in the movie, almost all of his scenes were hilarious and they emphasized his carefree personality, up to the end where he too feels happy to be a relay with Rin and the others. After an intense moment takes place, Momo appears to liven up the atmosphere. In the anime, Momo only had a few scenes so it was hard to know him in depth. I’m really glad there’s more of Momo this time, he became a very likeable character and I’d definitely want to see more of him next time.
Even though this is Samezuka’s side of the story, Haru, Makoto, Nagisa and Rei still make their appearance throughout the movie as supporting characters.
I’m quite happy that Kisumi appeared for one scene too, he’s an adorable side character.
Asahi and Ikuya from “Free! Starting Days” made their appearance in one of the flashbacks and at the end of the film. Sousuke forewarns Rin of their talents at the end of the film and it seems like Asahi and Ikuya would be formidable opponents for Rin.
There were glimpses of character motifs for fans to spot, like the word ‘Shark’ on Rin’s towel and a picture of a cartoon duck on Nitori’s towel. It adds a cute touch to the whole film.
It would be nice if the whole Samezuka team had a similar sequence as Iwatobi when they swim with their character motifs. There are also not many victory scenes of Samezuka because their team lost to Iwatobi, but you do feel happy for them when they get to swim together in a relay. The message that Free! always emphasises is friendship, and not so much on winning every competition, unlike most sports anime.
This movie was very touching and one about the sincere friendship of high school boys who live their everyday lives full of enthusiasm.
Should you watch this at weekend movie ticket prices? Yes.
Should you watch this more than once? Nah.
Score: 3.8/5
Secret ending? No.
Running time: 99 minutes (~1.75 hours)
“Free! Timeless Medley – Promise” is the second compilation movie for the “Free!” franchise, following “Free! Timeless Medley – Bonds”.
It is directed by Eisaku Kawanami. It features the voice talents of Mamoru Miyano (Rin Matsuoka), Yoshimasa Hosoya (Sosuke Yamazaki), Koki Miyata (Nitori Aiichiro), Kenchi Suzumura (Momotaro Mikoshiba), Nobunaga Shimazaki (Haruka Nanase), and Koki Uchiyama (Kirishima Ikuya). It is rated PG.
“Free! Timeless Medley – Promise” opens in cinemas:
– 15 March, 2018 (Singapore)
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Melissa Goh is a self-proclaimed anime & 2.5d musical addict who wrote this for Free!
This is an original article on marcusgohmarcusgoh.com
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I’m a Singapore television scriptwriter who’s written for Lion Mums, Crimewatch, Police & Thief, and Incredible Tales. I’m also a Transformers enthusiast and avid pop culture scholar. You can find me on social media as Optimarcus and on my site.
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