Manga 55867 High%e2%98%86speed

I've kind of only read this because I wanted to read the full story of the elementary school relay these characters did (because the middle school team already has a movie done about them), so I'm already coming into this with a clear picture of how I think the characters are. That being said, the characterization of the five main characters of Free! in this story isn't what I was hoping it would be. The characters aren't as likeable; for instance, they either feel quite selfish or quite cold, which didn't help my impression of everything else going on around the characters, either. The story ... itself--some of those moments were really fun to read and some weren't. For example, the friends these characters had in elementary school added nothing at all the plot and felt very flat and unnecessary within the scope of the story (which is mostly only concerned with the boys, right), so I didn't really enjoy the scenes with them in it. However, I thought there were some great emotional moments and character developments, like Makoto's fear of the ocean. Also, I did love seeing how these characters changed after meeting each other, and I think the overall shift from who they were prior to the story beginning was coaxed out of the plot developments well. All in all, this is a cute story to give some context to the anime, but it isn't at all necessary to read.