Please know that I've purely rated this as a ten for subjective reasons--those reasons being I adore this show and these characters, regardless of the flaws I found throughout this film, and I'm so sad to see this world go but happy to have a suitable conclusion to it. This film was pretty choppy, which is really my main issue with it, but honestly, that's pretty standard for Free! films. There were lots of moments where the scenes would be cut together oddly or the focus would be about one character/relationship and immediately flip to something else, kind of out of nowhere. Plus, I thoughtthere wasn't enough time allotted to certain things that I was looking forward to, like Haru's swim record, Haru's fight with Rin, and the rivalry between Albert and Haru. In fact, I found myself wishing there was a bit more of a solid storyline, rather than it being kind of plotless beyond the final race--which also kind of came out of nowhere since I thought Haru would be doing one type of race but ended up doing another.

I did end up loving said race quite a bit though, and seeing as the characters in Free! are really the things I love, the plot being odd wasn't that important to me. Rather, I was super pleased with some of the character developments and interactions, especially between the people we haven't seen interact all that much yet. There were some interesting pairings for scenes throughout the film that I liked, and I liked getting to see more of Kinjou and his story. There wasn't much time wasted on things we've already gotten closure on, which was nice, but there were still some points of nostalgia, in terms of the characters, that the film played with to really solidify that this was the final journey these characters will ever go on. I found the ending, though strange, a pretty satisfying final chapter for Haru and the rest; it made it clear that their journeys together won't ever end but we, as an audience, can safely leave them now. I feel so fortunate to have finally seen this film and to have been a part of this story for so long. Free! will always be my comfort series, and the fact that it ended so well is awesome. Thank you KyoAni and the Free! team for giving us such an amazing ride with characters that will stay in my heart forever. Finally, to this series that gave me so much:

ありがとう.