Yeah why the hell not? This is Free! Iwatobi Swim Club.
Free! begins with four boys- Haruka, Makoto, Nagisa and Rin- who have a history of being together in a swimming team in elementary school. They won a big tournament, but parted ways. Now in high school, Haruka, Makoto and Nagisa reunite and meet Rin after he was away for years in Australia in a swimming school. Sparks fly as Rin has grown this obsession to beat Haruka in a race after a small scuffle years earlier.
Hoping to go back to competitive swimming, Haruka, Makoto, Nagisa and another boy named Rei work together to start up a swimming club at their school and make it a success against Rin when he joins his school's swimming team.
Yeah about as simple as it gets and it's a bit silly, but at the same time very enjoyable to watch. And that's because these characters are dynamic and have great chemistry with each other, even with the side characters like Rin's little sister, Gou. They learn from one another to get better, put up with each other through their arguments and at the end of the day are still great friends.
There's a lot of comedy but also a nice dash of drama. Yeah by the time you hit episode five it gets pretty fucking intense and eventually do you see a lot of emotions the guys are going through having to struggle with the past. I won't lie some of the dialogue is pretty cheesy but there's still genuine emotion being put into it that I don't really care if the content is silly. And like any sports anime, there's a nice dose of swimming.
While we're at it, the animation is pretty damn impressive. This anime was produced by Kyoto Animation which is well known for work with Lucky Star, K-On!, Clannad, etc. Obviously the characters do have similar styles to such animes and the swimming sequences are just eye candy. Actually watch those scenes and compare to say Olympic swimmers; it's on the dot accurate. Even the designs of the male swimmers are anatomically correct to that of Olympic swimmers, so it's not like they just created muscular guys for fanservice though there are moments of pure fanservice which are pretty hilarious.
So if you're looking for a short series to watch, a lot of comedy and eye candy and some crazy, fun characters, check out Free! Iwatobi Swim Club.
