First Impressions: Free! - Iwatobi Swim Club

Free! Promo Image. Source: Wikipedia

In recent months there has been a lot of hype surrounding the much anticipated anime, Free!, since this promotional clip for Kyoto Animation and Animation DO emerged online in March. A fandom developed (particularly within the Tumblr community) immediately in response to the unconfirmed and unnamed anime resulting in fanart and fanfic for what was dubbed the 'swimming anime'.

In the last few weeks Free! - Iwatobi Swim Club has caught my attention and inevitably I have now watched the first two episodes.

The story revolves around four boys - Haruka (our main protagonist), Makoto, Nagisa, and Rin - who all participated in a competitive swimming tournament before graduating elementary school (aka primary school). They parted their separate ways after Rin announced his relocation to Australia to advance his swimming skills. Years later, the group reunites and Rin challenges Haruka to a race and wins. Haruka rediscovers his passion for competitive swimming (even though this kid literally lives in his bathers/swimming trunks every single day) and along with Makoto, Nagisa, Gou, and the yet to be introduced Rei, they form the Iwatobi High School Swimming Club.

The tension between some of the characters is really intriguing and I hope that more details about their pasts and their current predicament will be raised throughout the remainder of the series. It's clear that Haruka, Rin, and their relationship with not only swimming, but also their connection with each other and the rest of the group, will need to be explored in more depth. I love Haruka's intense passion and emotional connection with water, and there is a beautiful scene that reflects this as Haruka reaches out to a hand made of water while he's swimming, demonstrating elements of magic realism.

There is plenty of fan service, which essentially means that the intended audience is given exactly what they want - and in the context of Free! this means there are A LOT of topless guys with plenty of close-ups and as Haruka has a deep connection with water he basically starts stripping off the second he steps near the stuff (I am not kidding).

On top of this, the animation is wonderful and the music is brilliant. I can't get enough of the outro song and have been listening to it on repeat. I'm definitely going to keep watching and I would recommend checking out the first episode if you haven't already - I've been watching it over at Kiss Anime.

Doctor Who EP 7.13: The Name of the Doctor

This review post is really late but here you go anyway. If for some bizarre reason you're reading this and still haven't watched the episode yet, there are spoilers ahead.

clara saving the universe and all that. caps from here

Episode Summary: The Great Intelligence has returned to rewrite history and destroy the Doctor, threatening not only him but also his friends, at the final resting place of the Doctor - Trenzalore.

"I blew into this world on a leaf. I don't think I'll ever land. My name is Clara Oswald. I'm the impossible girl. I was born to save the Doctor."

The finale was mindblowingly amazing, particularly in comparison to some of the previous episodes of series 7, which have kept Clara's mystery secret but have lacked character development (Clara, the Doctor, and some of the villains). Throughout this series we have seen Clara die in several different timestreams, leading not only the Doctor, but also the audience, to wonder how this could be possible if she's an ordinary human? I think this contributed to my annoyance with the series because at times Clara was positioned as a mystery to be solved, a plot device - "You are the only mystery worth solving" - rather than an actual person.

i really want to know more about the whispermen

Clara finally became aware of past conversations with the Doctor that had wiped from her memory, and she realised that she had only one choice to save the Doctor and the universe from being rewritten - namely, stepping into the the Doctor's timestream after the Great Intelligence (GI) so that, she too, could be split into a million pieces and be scattered across time and space to save the Doctor from the GI's plan to destroy everything he had done. I remember reading a Clara theory that I agreed with on a discussion forum early in the series that suggested Clara was similar to that of a Horcrux, that parts of her soul had been scattered across time and space for some reason. I think it's safe to say that this theory has in essence proved to be true and that we now know the reason behind it - to save the Doctor.

Doctor Who EP 7.12: Nightmare in Silver

I am so unbelievably close to watching the finale right now. As soon as I finish writing this post you can guess what I'll be doing and a review will come in the next day or so. Spoilers ahead folks.

the doctor vs mr clever oh yeah. caps from here

Episode Summary: What do you get when you put the Cybermen, Clara, two children, the Doctor, and the most hopeless army you've ever seen, together? A whole lot of trouble. Especially when the Doctor is attacked by cybermites and keeps switching between his identity as the Doctor and the Cybermen's Mr Clever.

This episode (penned by Neil Gaiman) was, enjoyable, but nothing compared to his triumph with The Doctor's Wife, arguably one of the best episodes of the last series. What's bothering me about series 7B is that there is simply not enough character development for Clara. I know I said this in the last post but I still don't know her. She meets with the Doctor every Wednesday, when the Doctor tells her to do something she does it (but this is mainly because the alternative is terrifying), she's a nanny, and she's the impossible girl! But where are her opinions? Her beliefs? How does she really feel about the Doctor and what he does? Does she want to know more? WHO ARE YOU CLARA? I just??? I'm hoping that this will be somewhat rectified in the finale.

u go clara. 4 for u.

Moving on to Nightmare in Silver, this new generation of Cybermen allowed them to attach cybermites to the flesh of humans (or time lords) and move in lightning speed - which only happened once - but overall they were quite brilliant. Usually, the Cybermen just sort of stomp around grabbing people to build up their army and attack the Doctor. However, the Doctor ended up being one of their first targets and it resulted in a battle between his cyber-identity, Mr Clever, and himself. The fight for survival moved backwards and forwards, as Mr Clever mocked him and flirted with Clara, and it was hard to tell who was who at times. But with a slap in the face or a neck-jerking twist, the Doctor was back in control of his body, but most importantly his mind, leaving Clara with the job of ordering the army and making sure the planet didn't get blown up. Nonetheless, the identity struggle was definitely my favourite part of the episode, partly because I so desperately want to see the Doctor break loose and turn dark and evil. Or start flirting with Clara. Yes. And by Clara I actually mean me.