The official Free! Twitter account revealed that its recently announced anime film is titled Free! The Final Stroke and will be a two-part film project. The first part will premiere on September 17, and the second part will premiere on April 22, 2022. The film is advertised as the “final chapter” for the franchise with the tagline “Let’s go, to the stage of glory.” A trailer for the film was also live-streamed for the eighth anniversary of the franchise.
The trailer reveals that Eisaku Kawanami will return to direct the film at Kyoto Animation and Nobunaga Shimazaki will reprise his role as Haruka Nanase. The film was initially planned to premiere in summer 2020 but was delayed due to “various circumstances.”
The Free! franchise follows the Iwatobi High School Swim Club and its members. The first TV anime aired in 2013 and has spanned multiple sequels and films.
Crunchyroll streamed the anime’s first season as it aired and describes the story 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.
Sources:Free! Twitter account, ANN
