The latest promotion video for the second season of Kyoto Animation’s Free! (Free! – Iwatobi Swim Club) anime was revealed on the Akihabara UDX Vision screen in Tokyo’s Akihabara district last Saturday. The video shows the title for the second season as Free!: Eternal Summer, and it also confirms that the season will premier on the 2nd of July on Japan’s ABC, Tokyo MX TV, TV Aichi and BS11 stations. The video shows some of the characters wearing winter clothes, as well as a previously unseen character, Sousuke Yamazaki.
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Free! 7月放送開始予定
え？！今年？！！！
秋葉原UDX 最新PV
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おそらく毎時30分頃に放映。 pic.twitter.com/jBbhiGKqSo— かなづち🐬 (@Be382chan) May 3, 2014
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A commercial for the upcoming second season aired during Thursday’s rerun of the first season in Japan.
The commercial stated: “Summer is coming. Our first and last eternal summer. Free! Coming soon.”
The first anime premiered last July. Kyoto Animation announced that a second season was in production at a Free! talk event in January. The first season ended with a “See you next summer” message in the final episode.
The previous promotional video for the second season has Haruka (Voiced by Nobunaga Shimazaki) saying, “As promised, I’ve arrived”:
Free!: Eternal Summer PV:
Narration: The seasons change.
Narration: The days are calm… but, they can’t keep going on like this.
Narration: I just…
Text: …want to swim
Narration & Text: Summer is coming.
Narration & Text: Our summer
Text: I want to see that sight…
Text: …Just one more time
Narration & Text: Our first and last eternal summer
High Speed 2, the second volume of the light novel which the anime is based on will be released a few days before the broadcast on July 2nd. Just like the anime, High Speed 2 will have new characters and even more characters were teased on the alternate cover for the second novel which was just revealed.
The alternative cover was tweeted by Esma Bunko on his official Twitter account. The second cover features Rin’s friends, Sousuke Yamazaki, the new character who will appear in the anime as well, in front and the novel’s new character, Kisumi Shigono in the back.
The first cover revealed a while ago features the swimmers from Iwatobi Middle School. From left, Ikuya Kirishima, Nagisa Hazuki, Haruka Nanase, Asahi Shiina and Makoto Tachibana. the boy with purple hair in the back is Nao Serizawa, who is a team manager of the swimming club.
The official site was also updated with the above character diagram and the plot of the new novel. Look at all the lines connecting characters to Haruka Nanase! A pop up window with more information about the character opens when you hover over a character on the official site. The second volume of the novel takes place when Haruka and Makoto attend Iwatobi Middle School while Nagisa is still at Iwatobi Elementary. The story evolves around the in-school time trial match Haruka and Makoto need to compete as a team with the new teammates at Iwatobi Middle School, Asahi Shiina and Ikuya Kirishima. Although he is appearing on the alternate cover, Rin’s bubble says he is studying in Australia. Sosuke attends Sano Middle School and will be matched up with Haruka in the novel, inevitably.
Free! Synopsis from Haruhichan.
The story revolves around Haruka Nanase, a boy who has always loved to be immersed in water, and to swim in it. Before graduating from elementary school, he participated in a swimming tournament along with his fellow swimming club members, Makoto Tachibana, Nagisa Hazuki, and Rin Matsuoka. After achieving victory, each of the boys went their separate ways.
Time passed, and in the middle of their uneventful high school lives Rin appears and challenges Haruka to a match, showing Haruka his overwhelming power. Not wanting it to end like this, Haruka, gathers together Makoto and Nagisa once again and brings a new member named Rei Ryugazaki to create the Iwatobi High School Swimming Club in order to defeat Rin.
Source: Crunchyroll, ANN
