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ハイ☆スピード！ #1
ハイ☆スピード！ [High Speed!]
The original novel that inspired the 2013 Kyoto Animation series Free!
TVアニメ「Free！」の原案となった、第2回京都アニメーション大賞〈奨励賞〉受賞作【ハイ☆スピード！】のライトノベルです。 七瀬遙は、幼なじみの橘真琴、一つ年下の葉月渚と共にスイミングクラブに通う小学6年生。そこに、別のスイミングクラブに通っていた松岡凛が転校してくる。 奔放で好戦的な凛と、勝ち負けにこだわらずに泳ぐことが好きな遙。 対照的な二人だったが、真琴、渚たちと共に同じ目標に向かって泳ぐことになって――。
TVアニメ「Free！」の原案となった、第2回京都アニメーション大賞〈奨励賞〉受賞作【ハイ☆スピード！】のライトノベルです。 七瀬遙は、幼なじみの橘真琴、一つ年下の葉月渚と共にスイミングクラブに通う小学6年生。そこに、別のスイミングクラブに通っていた松岡凛が転校してくる。 奔放で好戦的な凛と、勝ち負けにこだわらずに泳ぐことが好きな遙。 対照的な二人だったが、真琴、渚たちと共に同じ目標に向かって泳ぐことになって――。
231 pages, Paperback
First published July 8, 2013
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August 8, 2019I have been meaning to review this one ever since I finished it, if only because I do not see many reviews on gr that focus on the original Japanese text, in its integrity but I postponed it. As a result I find myself in the awkward situation of reviewing a light novel that is so closely related to KyoAni that what should be just my opinions of High Speed! must carry a somber tone. I considered not reviewing it altogether but decided against it: this will be a small and hardly consequent but honest tribute to every single person who has been affected by the tragedy that claimed the life of over thirty KyoAni staff.
HS! is the light novel behind the extremely famous Free! anime. It can be viewed as something of a prequel. This review will refer to the anime for comparison but specific events will be spoiler-tagged. As already mentioned, it concerns the Japanese text with no reference to any fan-translated material. Perhaps for this reason, but mostly, I suspect, due to my personal interaction with said text- be it in terms of tone, style, or content- my overall opinion is very much different from the majority of the fandom.
HS! is first and foremost a book about children. At the same time, it is hardly one aimed at children. This mismatch between cast and target audience is hardly that rare but there is something a bit off-putting about 6th graders (and one 5th grader) involved in such an intense entanglement of personal relationships, frustrated expectations, emotional turmoil and often crippling sense of identity crisis. This affects the entire cast with varying degrees of intensity, reaching peaks of great stress so that one cannot wonder where are the adults in all this.
The answer is, the adults are almost entirely missing. Even more than a book about children, this is a book about children to the exclusion of the adult world. Grownups are mentioned and only very rarely () and never actually interact with any of the children. There is something to be said about zeroing in on the daily routine and inner life of children without bogging down the narrative with adults, in this case it creates a more vivid world but it also gives it an added sense of isolation.
Haruka, Makoto, Rin and to a lesser extent even Nagisa, are more or less left to fend for themselves even when it is very clear that they are in dire need of adult intervention. No-one seems at all consider that these children need help and unfortunately this is so true to the reality of Japanese schools that one cannot help wondering if the author meant to strike a chord. Ironically, Free! in which the characters are in high school, actually has a supporting cast of two adults that while mostly there for comic relief do appear.
Haruka, the protagonist, is severally detached from everything and harbors a kind of such monumental indifference that it often comes across as disturbing. Free! toned it down by turning him into the typical 'whatever' character and by hyping his love for water into several running jokes. Haruka as a teen is often amusing since his deadpan delivery can be used in all sorts of situations but as a child he is terrifying.
At first glance, Haruka is your average quiet boy who has one great obsession with swimming, dislikes unnecessary confrontation and limits his conversation to the bare minimum. The light novel goes into his thought processes and it is here, more than anywhere else, that Haruka's issues become clear. These run much deeper than just not liking being around people too much and wanting to be left alone to swim.
On many occasions Haruka comments inwardly about how little he cares about, well, anything. There are times when he tries to care but this causes him such strain that he simply cannot bring himself to do it. Much has been said about the wonderful bond between Haruka and Makoto and this is such an important part of the entire franchise that it will be analyzed in greater detail later but for now it suffices to say that while Haruka does care for Makoto, a lot of his inner dialogue is heavily critical of him. Haruka finds Makoto 'meddlesome', thinks that Makoto cramps his style, would rather Makoto shut up more often than not and does not approve of Makoto's befriending others.
In fact, the very first scene has Haruka fuming at Makoto for daring to call him by his given name since it is 'girly'. Haruka has a great complex about this- all the boys have names usually attributed to females but this only bothers him- and has no problems telling Makoto that he keeps at it, he will never speak to him again. Makoto has the patience of saint and this too requires deeper looking to as I hardly think it is a good thing.
Haruka has this Zen relationship when it comes to swimming and this drives much of the drama and wonder of the entire franchise. Some of the most beautiful and evocative passages are those in which Haruka thinks about how he feels about water. The opening line, ‘Water is alive’, was brilliantly adapted by KyoAni into a visually rich and charged epiphany of sorts. But it is very telling that Haruka seems to connect much more readily with water and trees than he does with human beings. For the most part, Haruka is not even troubled by his lack of connection with those around him.
But there are a few occasions when it dawns on him that maybe something is very wrong. These are subtle and usually he brushes them off right immediately but when they happen one senses that as dark as High Speed! gets for a story with kids, it could have been much darker if it followed its premise to its logical conclusion by showing us exactly what happens to kids like Haruka.
Haruka gets by with barely speaking in part because Makoto does that for him. Makoto translates Haruka grunts into proper Japanese, Makoto anticipates what is on Haruka's mind and does spare Haruka the chore of ever voicing it and Haruka exploits this shamelessly. Whenever Haruka is cornered into having to interact with others and Makoto is not there, he will find himself peeved that his best friend has let him down. The sheer selfishness of this is never truly brought home either.
For some reason, everyone indulges Haruka and thus Haruka remains in a state of stasis from which Rin forces him out. In a sense, the main thrust of HS! is precisely this: Rin needs Haruka to change (for reasons of his own, to be fair) and Haruka resists him every step of the way.
Haruka is a very reliable boy as we are told by several characters and that may be reason why some telltale signs that he exhibits regularly have gone apparently completely unheeded by the invisible but surely somewhat present adults. Haruka finds it very difficult to look people in the eye and prefers to gaze into a distance. He regularly decides not to reciprocate the interest that his peers may have about him. For example, Aki, a girl that KyoAni wrote out of existence but who is quite important in HS!, will every now and then ask Haruka about sundry matters. To these Haruka replies with the typical nonchalance followed by inner dialogue in which he decides that she can ask all she wants, he will not ask her in return because he is just not interested.
In fact, Haruka’s defining line may very well be ‘none of my business’. He will apply this across the board but eventually coalesce around Rin. Haruka’s intense dislike of Rin is perplexing and nothing short of nasty. While it is true that Haruka is very critical of all his peers when it comes to Rin he seems to see no redeeming quality.
At the heart of this conflict are two diametrically opposed ways of relating to swimming. Rin’s is competitive in nature, he wants to be faster, studies how to do and obsesses about technique being already proficient in all four styles; Haruka’s is self-reflective in nature, he does not care about being faster as such, his one concern is to reach an emotional connection with water via the act of swimming. The moment Rin pushes for Haruka to join him in a relay at the upcoming swim meet, Haruka immediately bristles up as his very sense of self is under the attack.
The stakes may seem absurdly high for what is, in essence, a competition between 6th graders but the novel manages to keep it credible. As the author explains in the afterword, he picked this particular period of the boys’ life because it is one rife with questions about self-identity and how to navigate between childhood proper and teenage years. There is also a cultural element here as in the Japanese school system year 6 is the final one of elementary school, year 7 being the entrance into middle school. This means that the boys (except Nagisa) are very much in a threshold moment of their lives. On one hand they are seniors at their elementary school about to graduate and on the other hand they are about to enter another school with greater demands as freshmen.
The action takes place in the winter months as the school year is winding down and so Rin’s transfer into Haruka and Makoto’s school, with only two more two months of elementary school to go, is indeed odd. Haruka takes it a personal affront. Makoto and the rest of the class are bemused and not exactly sure what to make of it.
This brings me to Rin and how his role as a secondary character does, to some extent, subvert the narrative of HS! and by implication the whole of Free! as primarily sports related cultural products. Rin is in many ways- although not all- what sports anime leads tend to be. He is enthusiastic, brave, hard working to the extreme, gets along with others and likes to gather them together into teams. His task of recruiting a recalcitrant member, namely Haruka, is almost a staple of early days sports anime.
HS! chooses a different route, though, in that it is Haruka who is the lead and Rin who by necessity must play second fiddle. Rin is displaced of the protagonist role in more ways than one, on a more immediate level he is catalyst to Haruka’s coming to realize his true potential but in a more subversive manner Run is sidelined on account of a power imbalance that is two-fold. Rin needs Haruka in order to make his dream team and Haruka does not need Rin at all; Rin cannot win against Haruka despite all the effort and training he puts into it. Then there is also the fact that while they clash, Rin clearly admires Haruka and Haruka, being who is, does not admire Rin (this does change somewhat but the power dynamics are what they are).
At first I, along with some other readers of the light novel, thought that KyoAni went a bridge too far in turning Rin into a brooding, angst-filled teen whose obsession with Haruka borders on disturbing. But upon further reflection, I think it is a possible and entirely believable evolution of his character.
If Rin and Haruka are the axis that justifies the plot, the other boys are interesting in themselves and of even greater interest is how they relate to both Rin and Haruka.
Makoto is by far the most popular and the one KyoAni retooled more completely. Overall, from HS! to Free! the cast evolved in a coherent and plot consistent manner so that the first can be called a prequel without much of a problem. But when it comes to Makoto there are actual changes in canonical events that are surprising.
Makoto’s co-dependence is not explored as such but I cannot help seeing it in any other light. Especially when it is contrasted with the deep bond between Rin and Sousuke. Sousuke barely appears in this volume and KyoAni shuffled him to the second season, leading to some awkwardness when he is finally introduced, but he is pivotal nonetheless. As Rin explains, Sousuke is his best friend, the one who truly understands him better than anyone else and yet did not place any obstacles when Rin decided to switch schools and thus leave him behind.
I found it very interesting that Rin seems very aware of the potentially crippling effects of letting a friendship replace agency altogether. While Rin does not put it in such terms nor does the author directly make the connection, Rin seems to fear that his very close friendship with Sousuke will become what Makoto and Haruka’s is.
Makoto clings to Haruka and Haruka is comfortable using Makoto. They are indeed friends and I am not devaluing that but there is a very dark aspect to their friendship that hardly ever gets addressed.
Amid all this turmoil, Nagisa is a breath of fresh air. Nagisa is one year younger and considerably less troubled than his seniors. In a novel in which characters withhold information that would have made everything easier had it been shared at the proper time, Nagisa who lacks a filter and voices his thoughts is precisely what the cast needed.
Nagisa is also genuinely funny. Free! is filled with running gags and moments of that zany situational KyoAni humor that is almost entirely absent in HS!. Nagisa is the one who brings a smile to everyone’s lips, both characters and readers, and this across both works. In HS! he has an intensity and sincerity to him that affects Rin, Makoto and eventually even Haruka. If it is Rin who works hard to build up a team, it may be Nagisa who ends up actually sealing the deal.
Free! narrowed down the focus somewhat when it came to character interaction but HS! spends a lot time expanding Rin and Nagisa as a pair. Nagisa actively seeks out Rin’s attention and asks for his coaching. Nagise then goes on to call out Rin’s bluff in an amusing but never malicious manner. It is a stark contrast with Haruka whose hostility comes out in the way he sneers at Rin: Nagisa, the ‘little brother kind’, makes Rin laugh despite himself while Haruka, by always assuming Rin has bad intentions, replies in kind and only annoys Rin.
There is another character that is crucial to the story and that is Iwatobe itself. The way Iwatobe is portrayed in the HS! is both radically different and paradoxically remarkably similar. The anime followed the description very faithfully, in particular the steep narrow stairway leading to the shrine and overlooking the sea. The way in which the landscape is all involving, the natural world represented by the sea beyond and greenery above, the human world in which Haruka and Makoto live in the houses gathered along the incline and the spiritual- for lack of a better term- in the Shinto shrine, make this location very representative of Iwatobe as a whole.
Iwatobe and this location in particular is beautifully described in the novel in a passage of great descriptive power and KyoAni went above and beyond in recreating it. Yet the tone of the town and its overall atmosphere are very different. The novel adds information that skewed my impression of Iwatobe. In HS! we learn that Iwatobe is a virtual island of sorts, it is blocked by the sea on one side and by steep mountains on all others. As a result it has been isolated for most of its history and even at the time of the story is only connected to the outside world by a road. Another consequence of the mountains encroaching on the village is the lack of building space. The houses are crammed so closely together not for the quaintness of it but because any kind of available space is a commodity. The same goes for the scant farming land.
It follows that the shrine is not just beautiful but very ambivalent. We are told that ancient rites have be performed there to appease the sea god in the hopes of calm seas and abundant catches of fish. Iwatobe comes across as claustrophobic, potentially dangerous, existing in a perilous and delicate balance along a thing edge. Iwatobe is both intensely physical a place and a psychological locus.
Overall, HS! is surprisingly deep and layered. I am looking forward to the second volume.
HS! is the light novel behind the extremely famous Free! anime. It can be viewed as something of a prequel. This review will refer to the anime for comparison but specific events will be spoiler-tagged. As already mentioned, it concerns the Japanese text with no reference to any fan-translated material. Perhaps for this reason, but mostly, I suspect, due to my personal interaction with said text- be it in terms of tone, style, or content- my overall opinion is very much different from the majority of the fandom.
HS! is first and foremost a book about children. At the same time, it is hardly one aimed at children. This mismatch between cast and target audience is hardly that rare but there is something a bit off-putting about 6th graders (and one 5th grader) involved in such an intense entanglement of personal relationships, frustrated expectations, emotional turmoil and often crippling sense of identity crisis. This affects the entire cast with varying degrees of intensity, reaching peaks of great stress so that one cannot wonder where are the adults in all this.
The answer is, the adults are almost entirely missing. Even more than a book about children, this is a book about children to the exclusion of the adult world. Grownups are mentioned and only very rarely () and never actually interact with any of the children. There is something to be said about zeroing in on the daily routine and inner life of children without bogging down the narrative with adults, in this case it creates a more vivid world but it also gives it an added sense of isolation.
Haruka, Makoto, Rin and to a lesser extent even Nagisa, are more or less left to fend for themselves even when it is very clear that they are in dire need of adult intervention. No-one seems at all consider that these children need help and unfortunately this is so true to the reality of Japanese schools that one cannot help wondering if the author meant to strike a chord. Ironically, Free! in which the characters are in high school, actually has a supporting cast of two adults that while mostly there for comic relief do appear.
Haruka, the protagonist, is severally detached from everything and harbors a kind of such monumental indifference that it often comes across as disturbing. Free! toned it down by turning him into the typical 'whatever' character and by hyping his love for water into several running jokes. Haruka as a teen is often amusing since his deadpan delivery can be used in all sorts of situations but as a child he is terrifying.
At first glance, Haruka is your average quiet boy who has one great obsession with swimming, dislikes unnecessary confrontation and limits his conversation to the bare minimum. The light novel goes into his thought processes and it is here, more than anywhere else, that Haruka's issues become clear. These run much deeper than just not liking being around people too much and wanting to be left alone to swim.
On many occasions Haruka comments inwardly about how little he cares about, well, anything. There are times when he tries to care but this causes him such strain that he simply cannot bring himself to do it. Much has been said about the wonderful bond between Haruka and Makoto and this is such an important part of the entire franchise that it will be analyzed in greater detail later but for now it suffices to say that while Haruka does care for Makoto, a lot of his inner dialogue is heavily critical of him. Haruka finds Makoto 'meddlesome', thinks that Makoto cramps his style, would rather Makoto shut up more often than not and does not approve of Makoto's befriending others.
In fact, the very first scene has Haruka fuming at Makoto for daring to call him by his given name since it is 'girly'. Haruka has a great complex about this- all the boys have names usually attributed to females but this only bothers him- and has no problems telling Makoto that he keeps at it, he will never speak to him again. Makoto has the patience of saint and this too requires deeper looking to as I hardly think it is a good thing.
Haruka has this Zen relationship when it comes to swimming and this drives much of the drama and wonder of the entire franchise. Some of the most beautiful and evocative passages are those in which Haruka thinks about how he feels about water. The opening line, ‘Water is alive’, was brilliantly adapted by KyoAni into a visually rich and charged epiphany of sorts. But it is very telling that Haruka seems to connect much more readily with water and trees than he does with human beings. For the most part, Haruka is not even troubled by his lack of connection with those around him.
But there are a few occasions when it dawns on him that maybe something is very wrong. These are subtle and usually he brushes them off right immediately but when they happen one senses that as dark as High Speed! gets for a story with kids, it could have been much darker if it followed its premise to its logical conclusion by showing us exactly what happens to kids like Haruka.
Haruka gets by with barely speaking in part because Makoto does that for him. Makoto translates Haruka grunts into proper Japanese, Makoto anticipates what is on Haruka's mind and does spare Haruka the chore of ever voicing it and Haruka exploits this shamelessly. Whenever Haruka is cornered into having to interact with others and Makoto is not there, he will find himself peeved that his best friend has let him down. The sheer selfishness of this is never truly brought home either.
For some reason, everyone indulges Haruka and thus Haruka remains in a state of stasis from which Rin forces him out. In a sense, the main thrust of HS! is precisely this: Rin needs Haruka to change (for reasons of his own, to be fair) and Haruka resists him every step of the way.
Haruka is a very reliable boy as we are told by several characters and that may be reason why some telltale signs that he exhibits regularly have gone apparently completely unheeded by the invisible but surely somewhat present adults. Haruka finds it very difficult to look people in the eye and prefers to gaze into a distance. He regularly decides not to reciprocate the interest that his peers may have about him. For example, Aki, a girl that KyoAni wrote out of existence but who is quite important in HS!, will every now and then ask Haruka about sundry matters. To these Haruka replies with the typical nonchalance followed by inner dialogue in which he decides that she can ask all she wants, he will not ask her in return because he is just not interested.
In fact, Haruka’s defining line may very well be ‘none of my business’. He will apply this across the board but eventually coalesce around Rin. Haruka’s intense dislike of Rin is perplexing and nothing short of nasty. While it is true that Haruka is very critical of all his peers when it comes to Rin he seems to see no redeeming quality.
At the heart of this conflict are two diametrically opposed ways of relating to swimming. Rin’s is competitive in nature, he wants to be faster, studies how to do and obsesses about technique being already proficient in all four styles; Haruka’s is self-reflective in nature, he does not care about being faster as such, his one concern is to reach an emotional connection with water via the act of swimming. The moment Rin pushes for Haruka to join him in a relay at the upcoming swim meet, Haruka immediately bristles up as his very sense of self is under the attack.
The stakes may seem absurdly high for what is, in essence, a competition between 6th graders but the novel manages to keep it credible. As the author explains in the afterword, he picked this particular period of the boys’ life because it is one rife with questions about self-identity and how to navigate between childhood proper and teenage years. There is also a cultural element here as in the Japanese school system year 6 is the final one of elementary school, year 7 being the entrance into middle school. This means that the boys (except Nagisa) are very much in a threshold moment of their lives. On one hand they are seniors at their elementary school about to graduate and on the other hand they are about to enter another school with greater demands as freshmen.
The action takes place in the winter months as the school year is winding down and so Rin’s transfer into Haruka and Makoto’s school, with only two more two months of elementary school to go, is indeed odd. Haruka takes it a personal affront. Makoto and the rest of the class are bemused and not exactly sure what to make of it.
This brings me to Rin and how his role as a secondary character does, to some extent, subvert the narrative of HS! and by implication the whole of Free! as primarily sports related cultural products. Rin is in many ways- although not all- what sports anime leads tend to be. He is enthusiastic, brave, hard working to the extreme, gets along with others and likes to gather them together into teams. His task of recruiting a recalcitrant member, namely Haruka, is almost a staple of early days sports anime.
HS! chooses a different route, though, in that it is Haruka who is the lead and Rin who by necessity must play second fiddle. Rin is displaced of the protagonist role in more ways than one, on a more immediate level he is catalyst to Haruka’s coming to realize his true potential but in a more subversive manner Run is sidelined on account of a power imbalance that is two-fold. Rin needs Haruka in order to make his dream team and Haruka does not need Rin at all; Rin cannot win against Haruka despite all the effort and training he puts into it. Then there is also the fact that while they clash, Rin clearly admires Haruka and Haruka, being who is, does not admire Rin (this does change somewhat but the power dynamics are what they are).
At first I, along with some other readers of the light novel, thought that KyoAni went a bridge too far in turning Rin into a brooding, angst-filled teen whose obsession with Haruka borders on disturbing. But upon further reflection, I think it is a possible and entirely believable evolution of his character.
If Rin and Haruka are the axis that justifies the plot, the other boys are interesting in themselves and of even greater interest is how they relate to both Rin and Haruka.
Makoto is by far the most popular and the one KyoAni retooled more completely. Overall, from HS! to Free! the cast evolved in a coherent and plot consistent manner so that the first can be called a prequel without much of a problem. But when it comes to Makoto there are actual changes in canonical events that are surprising.
Makoto’s co-dependence is not explored as such but I cannot help seeing it in any other light. Especially when it is contrasted with the deep bond between Rin and Sousuke. Sousuke barely appears in this volume and KyoAni shuffled him to the second season, leading to some awkwardness when he is finally introduced, but he is pivotal nonetheless. As Rin explains, Sousuke is his best friend, the one who truly understands him better than anyone else and yet did not place any obstacles when Rin decided to switch schools and thus leave him behind.
I found it very interesting that Rin seems very aware of the potentially crippling effects of letting a friendship replace agency altogether. While Rin does not put it in such terms nor does the author directly make the connection, Rin seems to fear that his very close friendship with Sousuke will become what Makoto and Haruka’s is.
Makoto clings to Haruka and Haruka is comfortable using Makoto. They are indeed friends and I am not devaluing that but there is a very dark aspect to their friendship that hardly ever gets addressed.
Amid all this turmoil, Nagisa is a breath of fresh air. Nagisa is one year younger and considerably less troubled than his seniors. In a novel in which characters withhold information that would have made everything easier had it been shared at the proper time, Nagisa who lacks a filter and voices his thoughts is precisely what the cast needed.
Nagisa is also genuinely funny. Free! is filled with running gags and moments of that zany situational KyoAni humor that is almost entirely absent in HS!. Nagisa is the one who brings a smile to everyone’s lips, both characters and readers, and this across both works. In HS! he has an intensity and sincerity to him that affects Rin, Makoto and eventually even Haruka. If it is Rin who works hard to build up a team, it may be Nagisa who ends up actually sealing the deal.
Free! narrowed down the focus somewhat when it came to character interaction but HS! spends a lot time expanding Rin and Nagisa as a pair. Nagisa actively seeks out Rin’s attention and asks for his coaching. Nagise then goes on to call out Rin’s bluff in an amusing but never malicious manner. It is a stark contrast with Haruka whose hostility comes out in the way he sneers at Rin: Nagisa, the ‘little brother kind’, makes Rin laugh despite himself while Haruka, by always assuming Rin has bad intentions, replies in kind and only annoys Rin.
There is another character that is crucial to the story and that is Iwatobe itself. The way Iwatobe is portrayed in the HS! is both radically different and paradoxically remarkably similar. The anime followed the description very faithfully, in particular the steep narrow stairway leading to the shrine and overlooking the sea. The way in which the landscape is all involving, the natural world represented by the sea beyond and greenery above, the human world in which Haruka and Makoto live in the houses gathered along the incline and the spiritual- for lack of a better term- in the Shinto shrine, make this location very representative of Iwatobe as a whole.
Iwatobe and this location in particular is beautifully described in the novel in a passage of great descriptive power and KyoAni went above and beyond in recreating it. Yet the tone of the town and its overall atmosphere are very different. The novel adds information that skewed my impression of Iwatobe. In HS! we learn that Iwatobe is a virtual island of sorts, it is blocked by the sea on one side and by steep mountains on all others. As a result it has been isolated for most of its history and even at the time of the story is only connected to the outside world by a road. Another consequence of the mountains encroaching on the village is the lack of building space. The houses are crammed so closely together not for the quaintness of it but because any kind of available space is a commodity. The same goes for the scant farming land.
It follows that the shrine is not just beautiful but very ambivalent. We are told that ancient rites have be performed there to appease the sea god in the hopes of calm seas and abundant catches of fish. Iwatobe comes across as claustrophobic, potentially dangerous, existing in a perilous and delicate balance along a thing edge. Iwatobe is both intensely physical a place and a psychological locus.
Overall, HS! is surprisingly deep and layered. I am looking forward to the second volume.
June 25, 2025
’I Swim Best Free For The Team’
la mia opinione nei confronti di questa light novel (e di tutto ciò che riguarda l’universo di Free!) è assolutamente non oggettiva ma a qualcuno interessa? A ME DECISAMENTE NO. sono contenta, dopo tutti questi anni, di essere riuscita a recuperare questo romanzo che mi ha dato un pezzettino in più per conoscere e amare la storia dei miei piccoli nuotatori preferiti, è stata una lettura davvero soft ed adorabile!!
e niente, 5⭐️ pienissime e ci si rivede nel prossimo volume!!
(Rin davvero il mio tesoro prezioso he’s the cutest mi ammazzerei per lui e la sua felicità)
la mia opinione nei confronti di questa light novel (e di tutto ciò che riguarda l’universo di Free!) è assolutamente non oggettiva ma a qualcuno interessa? A ME DECISAMENTE NO. sono contenta, dopo tutti questi anni, di essere riuscita a recuperare questo romanzo che mi ha dato un pezzettino in più per conoscere e amare la storia dei miei piccoli nuotatori preferiti, è stata una lettura davvero soft ed adorabile!!
e niente, 5⭐️ pienissime e ci si rivede nel prossimo volume!!
(Rin davvero il mio tesoro prezioso he’s the cutest mi ammazzerei per lui e la sua felicità)
January 25, 2016
So.... Technically I haven't finished yet because I can only find translation until Chapter 5 but I know that after reading the next chapter I won't regret the rating I'm giving it right now.
Free! is one of my favorite animes EVER! These boys mean everything to me and seeing them once again was made me really, really happy and crying with feels.
All the missing parts from the anime are here and it's glorious.
MakoHaru is OTP, life, perfection. I want someone in my life who looks at me like my beautiful Makoto looks at my dear Haru.
"It's all right. Haru's is here with me." <3 <3 <3 <3
It warms my heart so much their relashionship and how much they love each other. Makoto is so afraid of the water but just the though of Haru being there with him makes everything okay.
In here is also even more clear how much Haru struggles with his thoughts and how confused he is. He just wants to be free but he can't help but feel things he doesn't want to feel, care about people and stuff he doesn't want to care, he can't help himself of overthing things and being moody and annoyed with everything.
I relate so much with Haru, sometimes.
I love this babes so so so so much! <3
Nagisa is the most adorable boy on the planet! It's impossible to resist this cutie. He makes me smile every time. Seriously, Nagisa is just a ray of sunshine and I love him so much. Even Haru can't resist him. He's just too adorable.
Going back to when they were little makes me see how much Rin has changed. Rin is such a competitive and persistent boy. Really bossy, too. Shame that Sousuke isn't here yet.
Yazaki-chan appears more than I was expecting. She clearly looks up (and more than that) to Haru and the others.
I can never get too much of Free! and my boys.
I can't wait for more.
Free! is one of my favorite animes EVER! These boys mean everything to me and seeing them once again was made me really, really happy and crying with feels.
All the missing parts from the anime are here and it's glorious.
MakoHaru is OTP, life, perfection. I want someone in my life who looks at me like my beautiful Makoto looks at my dear Haru.
"It's all right. Haru's is here with me." <3 <3 <3 <3
It warms my heart so much their relashionship and how much they love each other. Makoto is so afraid of the water but just the though of Haru being there with him makes everything okay.
In here is also even more clear how much Haru struggles with his thoughts and how confused he is. He just wants to be free but he can't help but feel things he doesn't want to feel, care about people and stuff he doesn't want to care, he can't help himself of overthing things and being moody and annoyed with everything.
I relate so much with Haru, sometimes.
I love this babes so so so so much! <3
Nagisa is the most adorable boy on the planet! It's impossible to resist this cutie. He makes me smile every time. Seriously, Nagisa is just a ray of sunshine and I love him so much. Even Haru can't resist him. He's just too adorable.
Going back to when they were little makes me see how much Rin has changed. Rin is such a competitive and persistent boy. Really bossy, too. Shame that Sousuke isn't here yet.
Yazaki-chan appears more than I was expecting. She clearly looks up (and more than that) to Haru and the others.
I can never get too much of Free! and my boys.
I can't wait for more.
September 21, 2014
The anime adaption of their younger years and beginning friendships really doesn't do it justice. It also gives a better insight to Haru's character as you can't read his thought process in animation.
If you love the anime, I definitely recommend reading.
Thank you to the translators around the internet for making it possible for those that can't read Japanese!
If you love the anime, I definitely recommend reading.
Thank you to the translators around the internet for making it possible for those that can't read Japanese!
June 13, 2018
Second book in the Cramathon.
-A book out of your comfort zone.
La verdad es que elegí este libro no solo por ser una novela ligera (que está claramente fuera de mi zona de comfort), sino también por los buenos recuerdos que tengo del anime Free! que está basado en ella.
Al principio no pensaba ponerle más de 3 estrellas, ya que me estaba resultando un poco tedioso (ya que cuenta todo el pasado de los cuatro criaturos de Free, el cual ya conozco). Pero es que ese capítulo en el que compiten en la final de relevos fue sencillamente increíble, tanto que se me pusieron los pelos de punta.
No solo ha sido una lectura bastante bonita (en serio, son todos demasiado cuquis para este mundo), sino que toda la parte en la que habla sobre el agua y como se sienten al nadar me ha recordado a mí época como nadadora y me ha traído recuerdos muy bonitos (y es que Kōji Ōji cuando habla del agua solo sabe escribir preciosidades). La verdad es que he quedado gratamente sorprendida y muy muy contenta.
-A book out of your comfort zone.
La verdad es que elegí este libro no solo por ser una novela ligera (que está claramente fuera de mi zona de comfort), sino también por los buenos recuerdos que tengo del anime Free! que está basado en ella.
Al principio no pensaba ponerle más de 3 estrellas, ya que me estaba resultando un poco tedioso (ya que cuenta todo el pasado de los cuatro criaturos de Free, el cual ya conozco). Pero es que ese capítulo en el que compiten en la final de relevos fue sencillamente increíble, tanto que se me pusieron los pelos de punta.
No solo ha sido una lectura bastante bonita (en serio, son todos demasiado cuquis para este mundo), sino que toda la parte en la que habla sobre el agua y como se sienten al nadar me ha recordado a mí época como nadadora y me ha traído recuerdos muy bonitos (y es que Kōji Ōji cuando habla del agua solo sabe escribir preciosidades). La verdad es que he quedado gratamente sorprendida y muy muy contenta.
January 21, 2022
Харука Нанасе е момче, което не обича много да говори, не винаги успява да изрази с думи чувствата си, често разчита на най-добрия си приятел Макото Такибана да отгатне и артикулира мислите му. Макар да е добър ученик, той се чувства свободен само когато плува във водата, където всичките му грижи сякаш се стапят. Но в шести клас идва нов ученик – Рин Мацуока, който настоява плувците в училището Иватоби да сформират отбор за щафета. Хару не обича състезателното плуване, мисълта за класирания или времена. Но когато към екипа се присъединява още мъничкия, но усмихнат Нагиса Хазуки, Нанасе решава да стане част от екипа и борейки се за победата, намира нещо още по-ценно…
Цялото ми ревю прочетете в Цитаделата:
https://citadelata.com/high-speed/
Цялото ми ревю прочетете в Цитаделата:
https://citadelata.com/high-speed/
August 24, 2016
The Light Novel is basically the Japanese version of Young Adult literature. Just like our western YA-literature has a few very pervasive tropes (the obligatory love triangle, dystopian future, etc.), the Japanese Light Novel also has a distinct style. I was curious to find out more.
Since I am nursing a small swimming obsession now, I thought I'd start with High Speed!, a light novel about four kids in late elementary school forming a team for a relay match. There aren't a lot of official translations for Light Novels yet, so I'm reading a fan translation. Thank you, anonymous fan!
Let's be clear. This not great literature, it's a book for young teenagers about sports, in fan translation. But I had a good time reading it, and I had an equally good time deconstructing it.
High Speed! is not what I was expecting at all. I was expecting a fun, fast and funny romp. This is a slow paced novel with a very melancholy tone. There's a lot of descriptions of the wind blowing through the trees in the morning, the view of the mountains above the fishing village, and a TON of lyrical descriptions of swimming. Check out the opening paragraph:
Creating a rift in the water with his fingertips, he slips into it. From arms to head, chest, stomach, then feet. He doesn’t use all his force, nor does he surrender himself. Accepted by the water, then accepting it. They both accept each other’s existence. You don’t exclude each other. You don’t become one body. While being of different qualities from the start, a relation continues without denying each other. That’s what swimming meant to Haruka.
There are other peculiarities to the style: the narration is very much tell-not-show, and doesn't mind taking you out of the story to explain, say, the layout of the fishing village. There's a ton of exposition, but brought in such a way that it slows the story down to a pleasant walk. The descriptions are very visual so the experience is still very much that of reading a manga or watching an anime.
There is little interaction between characters and a lot of focus on the character's thoughts and feelings. The main focus of the novel is the character's relationships with each other *and* with the water. Describing the interaction between the water and each character is where the novel really shines and grows out of the YA tropes.
For Makoto, the water is a dangerous enemy that needs to be subdued. Haruka 'feels' the water and can't stand it if faster swimmers somehow encroach on that relationship. Rin is convinced that swimming well requires sincerity, that you need to swim with honest feelings. Nagisa is the embodiment of that sincerity, an unthinking competitive swimmer,
The story is incredible simple but elegant. It's presented as very much *slice of life*, but in the end all the random elements are tied together into one harmonious whole. Even the descriptions of the mountains turn into a metaphor for the competition between the two main characters. There's a small layer of magical realism that works well to express the nature of sports and give emotional resonance to the story.
Since I am nursing a small swimming obsession now, I thought I'd start with High Speed!, a light novel about four kids in late elementary school forming a team for a relay match. There aren't a lot of official translations for Light Novels yet, so I'm reading a fan translation. Thank you, anonymous fan!
Let's be clear. This not great literature, it's a book for young teenagers about sports, in fan translation. But I had a good time reading it, and I had an equally good time deconstructing it.
High Speed! is not what I was expecting at all. I was expecting a fun, fast and funny romp. This is a slow paced novel with a very melancholy tone. There's a lot of descriptions of the wind blowing through the trees in the morning, the view of the mountains above the fishing village, and a TON of lyrical descriptions of swimming. Check out the opening paragraph:
Creating a rift in the water with his fingertips, he slips into it. From arms to head, chest, stomach, then feet. He doesn’t use all his force, nor does he surrender himself. Accepted by the water, then accepting it. They both accept each other’s existence. You don’t exclude each other. You don’t become one body. While being of different qualities from the start, a relation continues without denying each other. That’s what swimming meant to Haruka.
There are other peculiarities to the style: the narration is very much tell-not-show, and doesn't mind taking you out of the story to explain, say, the layout of the fishing village. There's a ton of exposition, but brought in such a way that it slows the story down to a pleasant walk. The descriptions are very visual so the experience is still very much that of reading a manga or watching an anime.
There is little interaction between characters and a lot of focus on the character's thoughts and feelings. The main focus of the novel is the character's relationships with each other *and* with the water. Describing the interaction between the water and each character is where the novel really shines and grows out of the YA tropes.
For Makoto, the water is a dangerous enemy that needs to be subdued. Haruka 'feels' the water and can't stand it if faster swimmers somehow encroach on that relationship. Rin is convinced that swimming well requires sincerity, that you need to swim with honest feelings. Nagisa is the embodiment of that sincerity, an unthinking competitive swimmer,
The story is incredible simple but elegant. It's presented as very much *slice of life*, but in the end all the random elements are tied together into one harmonious whole. Even the descriptions of the mountains turn into a metaphor for the competition between the two main characters. There's a small layer of magical realism that works well to express the nature of sports and give emotional resonance to the story.
June 2, 2016
اولین چیزی که باید گفته بشه اینه: اگر از انیمه ی Free!خوشتون اومد و یا با هاروکا احساس نزدیکی می کنین از دستش ندین. من از اینجا دانلودش کردم (ترجمه ی ژاپنی به انگلیسی):
http://www.mediafire.com/download/h97...
خب، می ریم سراغ ریویو.
داستان به طور مستقل از انیمه در مورد چندتا دوست ششم و پنجم دبستانیه و رشد شخصیتی که تو این مدت پیدا می کنن - در واقع به طور ویژه تر تمرکز روی رشد هاروکاست. اگر بدون دیدن انیمه میومدم سراغ لایت ناول، به خاطر توضیحات خوب نویسنده در مورد افکار هارو و رین و رابطه ی بین هارو، رین، ماکوتو و ناگیسا و همچنین به خاطر اینکه داستان اصلا مطابق سلیقه م نبود، 2.5 ستاره می دادم، احتمالا رند به سه.
اما با توجه به اینکه من انیمه رو دیده بودم و برای اطلاعات بیشتری در مورد شخصیت ها به لایت ناول مراجعه کردم، باید بگم وظیفه ش رو به خوبی انجام داد و تقریبا همه ی اون چیزی که من می خواستم در مورد کودکی شخصیت ها بدونم بهم گفت. در واقع، خیلی از صحنات انیمه با خوندن لایت ناول توی ذهنم زنده می شد و از این جهت انیمه تقریبا در بیان گذشته ی شخصیت ها کوتاهی نکرده بود (به استثنای حذف یکی از شخصیت های مهم دوران کودکی شون که دختریه به اسم آکی)، ولی خوندن کل اون مدتی که رین و ناگیسا به هارو و ماکوتو پیوستن لطف دیگه ای داشت و درک رابطه شونو برام راحت تر کرد.
امتیازی که به کتاب با فرض دیدن انیمه می دم 4 ئه. داستان باز هم برام در حد 2 ستاره بود - مخصوصا اینکه من قسمت هایی که در مورد نحوه ی شنا کردن هرکدوم از شخصیت ها بود و به ویژه محاسبات ذهنی رین و حدس زدن حالت های مختلفش و آزمایش کردنشون اگرچه برام جالب بود (چون نمی دونستم یه شناگر برای پیدا کردن سبکش به چه چیزایی فکر می کنه. تصورم بیشتر شنا کردن غریزی بود، نه حساب کتاب شده و از روی تئوری.) اما خیلی سر سری خوندمشون، چون حوصله شونو نداشتم.
اما شخصیت ها برام 5 کامل بودن. با خوندن هر خط و جمله، رفتار های فعلیشونو با رفتار های آینده شون تطبیق می دادم و مقایسه می کردم و شناختم ازشون بهتر می شد.
ترجمه ای که خوندم روون بود و اصلا اذیتم نکرد. از خوندن داستان واقعا لذت بردم و برای همینم امتیاز کلی رو 4 دادم.
اگرچه این سومین لایت ناولی بود که خوندم و مطمئن نیستم که در مورد بقیه ی لایت ناول ها هم این قضیه صدق می کنه یا نه؛ اما از دید من رمان به صورت یه اثر مستقل چندان خوشایند نبود. شاید کلا روند اینطور داستان ها برام دوست داشتنی نیست، نمی دونم؛ اما اگر اول انیمه رو ندیده بودم تمام مدت حس می کردم که داستان "بیش از حد" داره تو کله ی شخصیت ها می گذره و واقعا اتفاقی نمیافته که من بتونم درست و حسابی بشناسمشون و باهاشون ارتباط برقرار کنم. افکار رو خوب بیان کرده بود، ولی به نظرم برای شناخت این چهار دوست - یا دست کم شناخت هاروکا و رین - هم کافی نبود.
اما به عنوان یه اثر وابسته به انیمه، و لایت ناولی که قراره اتفاقات پیش از انیمه رو بیان کنه، عالی بود.
http://www.mediafire.com/download/h97...
خب، می ریم سراغ ریویو.
داستان به طور مستقل از انیمه در مورد چندتا دوست ششم و پنجم دبستانیه و رشد شخصیتی که تو این مدت پیدا می کنن - در واقع به طور ویژه تر تمرکز روی رشد هاروکاست. اگر بدون دیدن انیمه میومدم سراغ لایت ناول، به خاطر توضیحات خوب نویسنده در مورد افکار هارو و رین و رابطه ی بین هارو، رین، ماکوتو و ناگیسا و همچنین به خاطر اینکه داستان اصلا مطابق سلیقه م نبود، 2.5 ستاره می دادم، احتمالا رند به سه.
اما با توجه به اینکه من انیمه رو دیده بودم و برای اطلاعات بیشتری در مورد شخصیت ها به لایت ناول مراجعه کردم، باید بگم وظیفه ش رو به خوبی انجام داد و تقریبا همه ی اون چیزی که من می خواستم در مورد کودکی شخصیت ها بدونم بهم گفت. در واقع، خیلی از صحنات انیمه با خوندن لایت ناول توی ذهنم زنده می شد و از این جهت انیمه تقریبا در بیان گذشته ی شخصیت ها کوتاهی نکرده بود (به استثنای حذف یکی از شخصیت های مهم دوران کودکی شون که دختریه به اسم آکی)، ولی خوندن کل اون مدتی که رین و ناگیسا به هارو و ماکوتو پیوستن لطف دیگه ای داشت و درک رابطه شونو برام راحت تر کرد.
امتیازی که به کتاب با فرض دیدن انیمه می دم 4 ئه. داستان باز هم برام در حد 2 ستاره بود - مخصوصا اینکه من قسمت هایی که در مورد نحوه ی شنا کردن هرکدوم از شخصیت ها بود و به ویژه محاسبات ذهنی رین و حدس زدن حالت های مختلفش و آزمایش کردنشون اگرچه برام جالب بود (چون نمی دونستم یه شناگر برای پیدا کردن سبکش به چه چیزایی فکر می کنه. تصورم بیشتر شنا کردن غریزی بود، نه حساب کتاب شده و از روی تئوری.) اما خیلی سر سری خوندمشون، چون حوصله شونو نداشتم.
اما شخصیت ها برام 5 کامل بودن. با خوندن هر خط و جمله، رفتار های فعلیشونو با رفتار های آینده شون تطبیق می دادم و مقایسه می کردم و شناختم ازشون بهتر می شد.
ترجمه ای که خوندم روون بود و اصلا اذیتم نکرد. از خوندن داستان واقعا لذت بردم و برای همینم امتیاز کلی رو 4 دادم.
اگرچه این سومین لایت ناولی بود که خوندم و مطمئن نیستم که در مورد بقیه ی لایت ناول ها هم این قضیه صدق می کنه یا نه؛ اما از دید من رمان به صورت یه اثر مستقل چندان خوشایند نبود. شاید کلا روند اینطور داستان ها برام دوست داشتنی نیست، نمی دونم؛ اما اگر اول انیمه رو ندیده بودم تمام مدت حس می کردم که داستان "بیش از حد" داره تو کله ی شخصیت ها می گذره و واقعا اتفاقی نمیافته که من بتونم درست و حسابی بشناسمشون و باهاشون ارتباط برقرار کنم. افکار رو خوب بیان کرده بود، ولی به نظرم برای شناخت این چهار دوست - یا دست کم شناخت هاروکا و رین - هم کافی نبود.
اما به عنوان یه اثر وابسته به انیمه، و لایت ناولی که قراره اتفاقات پیش از انیمه رو بیان کنه، عالی بود.
December 30, 2014
First time I had read a light novel with sports as a genre but since I had already finished watching Free!, it wasn't new to me. Now really there were some parts in the novel where I had to say "this was in the anime!!" because the references were exactly the same. The series was pretty much the sequel to the light novel. Also, I couldn't completely shut out my knowledge of the series while reading because Rin's relationship with the other boys which the series couldn't fully accommodate for the lack of episodes, had now become understandable thanks to High Speed!. I think that the translators of this novel really did a good job. This wouldn't be possible without them. They had to be good writers as much as being good translators because if the translations were done sloppily no one would've dared read this. Kouji Ouji played with my emotions damn well especially when it came to my favorite character, Makoto. He was still that sweet worrywart in High Speed! and by just reading his thoughts, I know this really sounds pathetic but he melted my poor heart, this guy seriously needs a big hug. Well, just read the light novel. It made me want to look back at the things I did and didn't do in grade school. Considering their age, these kids were great compared to myself when I was their age.
October 16, 2015
I obviously picked this up because of Free! and I'm glad to see how the anime is pretty faithful to the book. Sure, there's no Rei but the main themes of friendship and dreams were translated from book to screen. I really liked reading on Haru's character development; participating in a relay made him understand the true meaning of friendship rather than thinking that other people are 'burdensome'. Also, Rin's development is pretty great too! Loved how he shared his and his father's dream of becoming an Olympic swimmer at the end :D The only criticism I had was that since it's geared towards primary school kids, the language is pretty simple. Moreover, I'm not sure if it's because I read a translated version but some of the sentence structure felt a bit awkward.
Still enjoyed my time reading it though!
Still enjoyed my time reading it though!
October 19, 2013
Wow, pre-teens shouldn't be suffering that much. It really gives you a new perspective of the anime and all the drama going on between Rin and Haruka. Brace yourselves, it has all the MakoHaru feelings. Five out of five because I think I might too in love with the whole team, even if I miss Rei terribly.
January 15, 2015
BABIEEEES!!!! <3<3
June 22, 2015
NO I AM NOT OKAY
uhh actual review to come
uhh actual review to come
June 11, 2018
Note: There is still currently no official translation of this into English. This is the light novel that the anime Free! came from and in all honesty, I think it is probably better as an anime. Then again, I'm not a contemporary literature fan nor am I a sports fan. I read this for the popsugar challenge.
Don't get me wrong, it's not bad at all. It's just not a me thing. It centers on a school swim team, Haruko, Rin, Makoto and Nagisa. They don't start out as a team. Haruko and Makoto have known each other for year. Haruko only feels at home in the water. Makoto is there more to conquer his fear of water. Rin wants nothing more than to be a competitive swimmer and Nagisa is like everyone's obnoxious little brother.
For me the first half of the book works better. We learn about the boys, their motivations and their personal lives. Once Rin convinces them to give up on the individual matches and swim as a team the book focuses more on their training. This is why I think in the long run it works better as an anime. That's great as a visual, a little less exciting to read about.
Mixed in with the stress of competing as a team is the stress of ending their careers in middle school and moving on to high school.
Overall, it's a good story with nicely fleshed out characters. I'm glad I found a translation.
Don't get me wrong, it's not bad at all. It's just not a me thing. It centers on a school swim team, Haruko, Rin, Makoto and Nagisa. They don't start out as a team. Haruko and Makoto have known each other for year. Haruko only feels at home in the water. Makoto is there more to conquer his fear of water. Rin wants nothing more than to be a competitive swimmer and Nagisa is like everyone's obnoxious little brother.
For me the first half of the book works better. We learn about the boys, their motivations and their personal lives. Once Rin convinces them to give up on the individual matches and swim as a team the book focuses more on their training. This is why I think in the long run it works better as an anime. That's great as a visual, a little less exciting to read about.
Mixed in with the stress of competing as a team is the stress of ending their careers in middle school and moving on to high school.
Overall, it's a good story with nicely fleshed out characters. I'm glad I found a translation.
August 3, 2019
I finally, finally finished this book. It took me a year, and not just because of the endless amount of kanji regarding swimming vocabulary I didn’t know (but know now).
I was in a bit of a reading slump so I decided to get all the japanese novels finished off from my currently-reading list, starting with this one. So let me tell you something. High Speed is not a good book, it’s not even well-written, and although in the anime I love Haru, in this he was just an irritating brat. Why did I suffer through a whole book mostly written from his point of view then? Because of Rin.
After the whole thing with KyoAni, I started rewatching Free, and I’m sorry but I’m still convinced that Rin is the best character in this whole franchise. This book gave so much additional insight on his character, he is such a nice boy, I loved every line he was in, hence the three stars. (I could’ve easily give this one, to be honest: star number 2 is for Makoto, even thought the book didn’t give anything to his character, but I love him still. And number 3 is of course for Rin.)
Other than the above mentioned things, this book has nothing going for it. If you liked the series, or wanna learn some pretty cool kanjis, go for it, you’ll probably even like it to a degree, but as an independent read, it’s pretty bad.
I was in a bit of a reading slump so I decided to get all the japanese novels finished off from my currently-reading list, starting with this one. So let me tell you something. High Speed is not a good book, it’s not even well-written, and although in the anime I love Haru, in this he was just an irritating brat. Why did I suffer through a whole book mostly written from his point of view then? Because of Rin.
After the whole thing with KyoAni, I started rewatching Free, and I’m sorry but I’m still convinced that Rin is the best character in this whole franchise. This book gave so much additional insight on his character, he is such a nice boy, I loved every line he was in, hence the three stars. (I could’ve easily give this one, to be honest: star number 2 is for Makoto, even thought the book didn’t give anything to his character, but I love him still. And number 3 is of course for Rin.)
Other than the above mentioned things, this book has nothing going for it. If you liked the series, or wanna learn some pretty cool kanjis, go for it, you’ll probably even like it to a degree, but as an independent read, it’s pretty bad.
April 16, 2022
No hay forma de que pueda ser objetiva con esta novela!
Leí la historia para entender mejor el anime Free! Y claro quedé más que encantada.
La historia se centra en los eventos que pasaron en el último año de primaria de Haruka. Eventos que son también mencionados en el anime, pero que al ser descritos en la novela tiene más significado porque se narran a través de cada personaje.
Me encantaron las descripciones de la natación, definitivamente sentí la sensación de estar dentro del agua.
Solo me sorprendió conocer a Aki, ya que no vuelve a aparecer en el anime, y es un personaje importante, al menos en esta novela.
Leí la historia para entender mejor el anime Free! Y claro quedé más que encantada.
La historia se centra en los eventos que pasaron en el último año de primaria de Haruka. Eventos que son también mencionados en el anime, pero que al ser descritos en la novela tiene más significado porque se narran a través de cada personaje.
Me encantaron las descripciones de la natación, definitivamente sentí la sensación de estar dentro del agua.
Solo me sorprendió conocer a Aki, ya que no vuelve a aparecer en el anime, y es un personaje importante, al menos en esta novela.
February 15, 2022
free es una novela ligera en la que se basaron para el anime del mismo nombre. Como ya lo vi puedo decir que me gustó mucho todas las descripciones que tienen de las competencias y de la natación, como nadadora me alegra mucho leer algo que sea de mi pasión.
En cuanto a los personajes es muy diferente su desarrollo y la percepción de cada uno porque en el libro puedes saber que está pensando cada quien algo muy raro que exprese haruka por ejemplo
3.5/5
En cuanto a los personajes es muy diferente su desarrollo y la percepción de cada uno porque en el libro puedes saber que está pensando cada quien algo muy raro que exprese haruka por ejemplo
3.5/5
March 13, 2018
Being a person who doesn’t really like light novels I really enjoyed this! Since this book never got an official English release the translation was a bit awkward to read. Often times I found myself a little confused what was going on or who was talking but overall I’m so happy to have more content in the Free! series :D
November 12, 2022
日本語は私の母国語ではありませんから誤りがありましてもお許しください。
「Free!」といういアニメをきっかけにこの本を購入し、読みました。面白くて、綺麗で友情がテーマな物語です。四人の小学生時代も凛と遙の初めて出会いも詳しく書かれました。
それに、渚ちゃんは相変わらず可愛い^^
「Free!」といういアニメをきっかけにこの本を購入し、読みました。面白くて、綺麗で友情がテーマな物語です。四人の小学生時代も凛と遙の初めて出会いも詳しく書かれました。
それに、渚ちゃんは相変わらず可愛い^^
August 12, 2024
They are so precious! They are my comfort characters, tbh. They mean so much to me. I hope they're all well, and always near their waters.
January 11, 2023
that’s what it means to be in the relay. you can’t swim for just your own sake. victory or defeat, responsibility, teamwork, he becomes influenced by such things. all the things that haruka had avoided were packed into that.
until now, he swam while seeking a place in the water where he could be released from his ties. however, swimming in the relay means that he’ll be creating ties in that water.
yazaki aki we love you
until now, he swam while seeking a place in the water where he could be released from his ties. however, swimming in the relay means that he’ll be creating ties in that water.
yazaki aki we love you
October 22, 2014
First of all I have to say how nice it was to see what a good job Kyoani did with the personalities of the characters. The Free! anime was kind of like fanfiction for the novel... but the best kind of fanfiction in which the characters stay true to their source characterizations and everything makes sense within the original universe. I don't know how much Ouji Kouji was involved with the production of the anime, if at all, but I really feel the anime stayed true to the world of Iwatobi. Having seen the anime before I read the novel, this was almost a relief. If it had been too different, it wouldn't have felt like it was the world of Free! that I love. I really felt that reading the novel helped me better understand and gave me deeper insight into the personalities and motives of characters that I've grown to love very much. I loved reading the flashbacks we saw in the anime in a written format, and having Haru's inner monologue about the events of the story rather than taking an objective view. Because I'd already seen these scenes, I could picture them so clearly in my mind. Seeing the thoughts and feelings of the characters in elementary school also serves to really drive home how much they change and grow throughout the series, especially Haru.
February 21, 2015
This is my second time reading High Speed!, so this time I knew what would happen as I read. However, it was nice to read it as someone who has watched both seasons of Free! (the spin-off of this book) and has read both this book and its sequel before. I could see the foreshadowing for the end of the novel and could see how certain events were later paralleled in the anime. It was also really interesting to remember just how close Haru, Makoto, Rin and Nagisa were before Rin went to Australia, despite how mismatched their personalities are.
Obviously since I was reading the English translation of the novel, some of the grammar was a little mismatched, but I understand that that is how it was translated.
I definitely recommend for all Free! fans to read both this and High Speed! 2 because it gives such a great insight into how the characters met each other and what their relationship was like back then - especially for relationships like Rin and Makoto and Rin and Nagisa, both of which are rather downplayed in the first season of Free! especially, making it look like they weren't as close during High Speed! as they actually are.
Obviously since I was reading the English translation of the novel, some of the grammar was a little mismatched, but I understand that that is how it was translated.
I definitely recommend for all Free! fans to read both this and High Speed! 2 because it gives such a great insight into how the characters met each other and what their relationship was like back then - especially for relationships like Rin and Makoto and Rin and Nagisa, both of which are rather downplayed in the first season of Free! especially, making it look like they weren't as close during High Speed! as they actually are.
December 3, 2016
Tengo una pequeña afición por la natación desde siempre y si me conocen saben que la única razón por la que vi los Juegos Olímpicos fue por la natación. Y por eso (y por un sport anime que estoy viendo), es que encontré High Speed! también conocido como la precuela de Free!
Me encantan las ilustraciones y la inocencia que puedo percibir de ellas, aunque fue la profundidad de los sentimientos que transmiten fue lo que me enganchó desde el principio. Sin embargo, también disfruté la relación de los personajes con el agua / la natación, sus motivos, sus luchas y lo que representa para ellos no es igual, pero mediante cada capítulo se van mostrando y de alguna forma la historia se las arregla para entrelazarlas (no sé ni que estoy diciendo pero lo adoré completamente).
Personalmente, leer esto me ayudó bastante a entender Free! y sobretodo, a Haru y como es su proceso de pensamiento en general. Además, ayuda a llenar algunos de los vacíos que deja el anime.
July 12, 2014
La novela te da toda una nueva perspectiva de la primera temporada del anime, así que la disfruté mucho por toda la resignificación en cuanto a las relaciones que pueden verse en Free! :)
Me gustó mucho la narración de la novela, me resultó fácil de leer, ni me di cuenta cómo avanzaba. Pero creo que de pronto todo pasó muy rápido, quedé como con esa sensación, de que todo terminó muy apresuradamente. Así como se rotaban los POV creo que podría haberse sacado más partido a eso para ahondar más en las historias de los personajes, a veces todo resultaba desordenado.
Me pareció muy interesante poder ver los sentimientos de estos niños y sus diferentes personalidades siendo tan pequeños, me hizo pensar en mi niñez también, en los problemas y las sensaciones de esa época, fue bonito :')
En consecuencia, quiero leer la 2º novela.
Me gustó mucho la narración de la novela, me resultó fácil de leer, ni me di cuenta cómo avanzaba. Pero creo que de pronto todo pasó muy rápido, quedé como con esa sensación, de que todo terminó muy apresuradamente. Así como se rotaban los POV creo que podría haberse sacado más partido a eso para ahondar más en las historias de los personajes, a veces todo resultaba desordenado.
Me pareció muy interesante poder ver los sentimientos de estos niños y sus diferentes personalidades siendo tan pequeños, me hizo pensar en mi niñez también, en los problemas y las sensaciones de esa época, fue bonito :')
En consecuencia, quiero leer la 2º novela.
December 29, 2014
Free! is my favourite anime of all time, with Princess Tutu being a very close second. I adore slice-of-life stories like these and it shares a few common elements with my favourite manga, Yotsubato! (Basically, if you have an exclamation at the end of your title it's my favourite thing in the world, it seems.) Both of them are slice-of-life, have gorgeously-drawn characters and detailed backgrounds, a beautiful display of Japanese culture and I learn something from their stories. Before Free! I didn't know much about swimming techniques (I kept failing the same stupid swimming level as a kid because I couldn't perform one of those techniques correctly) and now I can tell you the differences between the butterfly stroke and freestyle.
Full review to come.
Book #53 of the 2014 Reading Challenge.
Full review to come.
Book #53 of the 2014 Reading Challenge.
August 15, 2015
I love Free! more than words. It's the first proper anime I watched and it will always be a favourite of mine. Seeing all the characters from Free! as kids preparing to swim in their first relay together was really cute. But this translation is terrible. The first half of the book was fine but for some reason the second part was just horrendous: the sentences are haphazardly constructed, the conversations are wooden and awkward and the narration constantly switches between past and present tense as if the person who wrote this has never written anything before and doesn't know how.
The low translation quality is probably only present in this copy (I think it isn't an entirely legal one), but it was so bad that I started to see reading this as a chore instead of a joy. I hope I can find a proper copy because if not for the god-awful translation, I would have loved this.
The low translation quality is probably only present in this copy (I think it isn't an entirely legal one), but it was so bad that I started to see reading this as a chore instead of a joy. I hope I can find a proper copy because if not for the god-awful translation, I would have loved this.
February 6, 2015
Unas cuantas cosas:
AKI!!! Por que demonios Aki no esta en la serie! HARU LE LAVO LA BUFANDAAAA!!! es lo mas romantico que ha podido hacer en su vida y no fue para un chico. Ella es importante, necesito mas de Aki, porque tambien es tan mona :3
Makoto esta tan completa y absolutamente enamorado de Haru, que duele... siempre fue asi, oh, por dios. Mako-chan, no mereces esto :(
Rinnn amo este Rin, el que todos añoran en la serie y luego se vuelve una version mas fuerte de si mismo.
Por nagisa muero de amor y asi es y sera hasta el fin de los dias, amen
Me encanto el libro, pero siento que le faltaron cosas, o tal vez es porque ya conocia la histroria de la serie y el unico agregado aqui es Aki, pero aun asi, merece la pena ser leido
AKI!!! Por que demonios Aki no esta en la serie! HARU LE LAVO LA BUFANDAAAA!!! es lo mas romantico que ha podido hacer en su vida y no fue para un chico. Ella es importante, necesito mas de Aki, porque tambien es tan mona :3
Makoto esta tan completa y absolutamente enamorado de Haru, que duele... siempre fue asi, oh, por dios. Mako-chan, no mereces esto :(
Rinnn amo este Rin, el que todos añoran en la serie y luego se vuelve una version mas fuerte de si mismo.
Por nagisa muero de amor y asi es y sera hasta el fin de los dias, amen
Me encanto el libro, pero siento que le faltaron cosas, o tal vez es porque ya conocia la histroria de la serie y el unico agregado aqui es Aki, pero aun asi, merece la pena ser leido
March 28, 2015
I enjoyed the anime so obviously I had to read the light novel that inspired it. The anime doesn't show nearly enough backstory to do this novel justice so you should read this if you want to gain more insight on what went down during their elementary years. The ending scene where they won the medley relay was so heartwarming. <3
It was nice revisiting these lovely characters again! (although sadly there was no Rei)
Recommended to all fans of Free!
It was nice revisiting these lovely characters again! (although sadly there was no Rei)
Recommended to all fans of Free!
September 13, 2025
2.5 dnf page 66………. besides the unfortunately rough translation (my brain hurts) these kids drive me crazy i miss them so much
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