A trailer for Free!-the Final Stroke- The Second Volume has been released ahead of the movie’s April 22 Japanese premiere. The theme song “This Fading Blue” by OLDCODEX is previewed in the trailer.
The Free! anime franchise, which is loosely based on the High Speed! light novels by Kouji Ooji, began in 2013 and includes three TV series and multiple films. The Second Volume sees protagonist Nanase Haruka training intensively for a rematch with Albert Volandel following the events of 2021’s Free!-the Final Stroke- The First Volume.
Crunchyroll describes Free!‘s first season as:
Nanase Haruka loved to be in the water – loved swimming. In elementary school, Nanase Haruka, Tachibana Makoto, Matsuoka Rin, and Hazuki Nagisa attended the same swimming class together. Time passed, and as Haruka was living an uneventful high school life, he suddenly encountered Rin again. Rin challenged Haruka to a race and showed him how much stronger he had become. Soon enough, Makoto and Nagisa also rejoined the group, and along with a new classmate, Ryugazaki Rei, they established the Iwatobi High School Swimming Club.
Free!–the Final Stroke– the second volume‘s staff includes Eisaku Kawanami (Free! -Dive to the Future-) as director, story composer, and scriptwriter, Masahiro Yokotani (Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World Season 2) as co-scriptwriter, the late Futoshi Nishiya (Free! -Dive to the Future-, Liz and the Blue Bird) as character designer, and Kouhei Okamura (Free! -Dive to the Future- assistant chief animation director) and Miku Kadowaki (Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid S character designer) as chief animation directors.
Other staff include Shingo Kasai (Free! -Dive to the Future-) as art director, Yuuka Yoneda (Violet Evergarden: The Movie) as color designer, Kazuya Takaoka (Free! -Dive to the Future-) as photography director, and Tatsuya Katou (Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight movie) as music composer.
Meanwhile, the cast of includes Nobunaga Shimazaki as Haruka Nanase, Tatsuhisa Suzuki as Makoto Tachibana, Mamoru Miyano as Rin Matsuoka, Kouki Uchiyama as Ikuya Kirishima, Toshiyuki Toyonaga as Asahi Shiina, Yoshimasa Hosoya as Sosuke Yamazaki, Ryouhei Kimura as Hiyori Tono, Tsubasa Yonaga as Nagisa Hazuki, Daisuke Hirakawa as Rei Ryugazaki, Daisuke Ono as Kaede Kinjo, and Jeff Manning as Albert Volandel.
The High Speed! books are published under KyoAni’s KA Esuma Bunko label. The first volume was released in 2013 with the second volume following in 2014. KyoAni’s Osaka branch Animation Do, which merged with its parent company in 2020, had a prominent role in the production of most of the Free! anime.
Source: KyoaniChannel
