English Dub Review: Free! Dive to the Future “Sprouting Dive Start!”

“Haru’s still got it!”

Overview (Spoilers Below!)

Free! Dive to the Future opens on the college life of Haruka Nanase, a recent graduate of Iwatobi High School and new member of the Midaka University swim team. While walking to his first college swim practice, Haru runs into Asahi Shiina, an old teammate that he hasn’t seen since middle school. At practice, Haru meets the other members of the team and swims some good ol’ freestyle.

Meanwhile, on another continent entirely (cheesy Australian accents and all), Rin Matsuoka shows his new coach Mikhail what he can do in a pool.

We then see Makoto Tachibana is sitting down to a college lecture when he receives a few texts from past classmates Nagisa and Rei, announcing that they’ve found some more people to fill Makoto and Haru’s vacant spots in the Iwatobi Swim Club.

After practice, Haru hangs out with Asahi and Kisumi, another friend from middle school. They call up Makoto, and the four hang out in a restaurant and reminisce.

At the newcomer tournament—a competition for first-year college swimmers all over Tokyo—Haru defeats Asahi. But tensions run high when he catches sight of Ikuya, the fourth and final member of their middle school swim team.

Our Take

I loved the first two seasons of Free!, so it was first and foremost exciting to inhabit their world again. Despite a few movies in the interim, it’s been a four-year hiatus since we last saw Free! on the small screen, and I was super happy to come back to these quirky and lovable boys.

And after four years apart, it makes sense that a lot of this episode’s runtime would be spent on recap. I appreciate that the show set up the relationships between the major characters—especially ones who only appeared in the prequel High☆Speed! Free Starting Days—in case some fans forgot details or skipped the movie. At the same time, recap and setup do not make this a particularly fresh first episode. Haru and friends spent much of the episode lost in nostalgia for their middle school days; likewise, this episode felt more like a nostalgia fest for Free! fans than the catalyst of any new plot developments.

But some moments of “Sprouting Dive Start!” are genuinely exciting. I love a scene early on in the episode, where Haru’s first swim for the Midaka team and Rin’s practice in Australia are cut alongside each other to look like the two are racing. The music is upbeat and heart-pumping, the colors are vibrant, the swimming animation is absolutely gorgeous, and I remembered why I love this series all over again. I felt like I was right there with Haru and Rin, cheering them on from the side of the pool. Animation-wise, this episode never disappoints. From the reflections on characters’ goggles to the fresh, clear water they swim in, this episode’s visuals made me want to go swimming, too.

As much as I care for our old favorite characters, I did feel a little overwhelmed by the volume of new characters introduced. There’s three new members of the Iwatobi Swim Club, a handful of college teammates for Haru, and some colleagues of Rin’s in Australia. Honestly, the Iwatobi newcomers and the Midaka team all blend together in my mind at this point—I don’t remember their names or what stroke they do, let alone any distinguishing characteristics that might mark them as unique characters. The only new character who remotely stands out is Ayumu, a potential new manager for Iwatobi who shocks Gou by expressing her preference for fat bodies. It’s a funny scene that made me really warm to Ayumu—I hope we get to see more of her in the future. But in general, this cast of characters just keeps growing, and while Free! is usually great at creating fun personalities, I worry that this massive cast might make the show feel disjointed if it tries to focus on all of them (which it most certainly won’t be able to do in any depth).

As for the dub itself, Christopher Llewyn Ramirez (Asahi) and Ian Sinclair (Sosuke) stand out with their natural and believable voicework, and I’m looking forward to hearing them going forward. While the acting is decent all around, I can’t help but think some dub actor’s voices don’t really work with their characters’ personalities—notably, Vic Mignogna’s smooth and mellow voice seems odd for Rin’s feisty and gruff personality, and Todd Haberkorn’s calm, introspective speech at the episode’s opening doesn’t quite fit the expressionless, awkward Haru. Additionally, the Funimation tradition of using very obviously fake accents to signify foreign characters (Australian and, in the case of Mikhail, possibly Russian?) makes those characters seem pretty much wholly comedic. It’s fun for sure, but it doesn’t allow me to take Rin’s setting seriously.

But this episode isn’t supposed to be totally serious, anyway. I laughed a bunch of times—from the fun puns used by Haru’s teammates to Rei being delightfully himself in his quest for beauty. Free! is great because the characters have so much fun swimming that their viewers can’t help but have fun, too.

During Haru’s swim at the episode’s opening, Asahi declares, “Haru’s still got it!” Since this episode was mostly introductions and nostalgia, it may be too early to decide that Free! has still got it as well. But “Sprouting Dive Start!” does indeed make me hopeful for the series to come.