Starting earlier today, Kyoto Animation officially began streaming the announcement video for the upcoming Free! television anime series; Free! Dive to the Future. The video originally debuted this past October at the Sony Vision screen in Shibuya, though hadn’t surfaced online in any official matter in the proceeding months until now. The new series is set to be debuted alongside the yet-to-be-aired episode 0 of the original anime series and is scheduled to begin screenings on June 23. Free: Dive to the Future will mark the third season in the ongoing series, and will air this summer.
The first Free! anime was released in 2013 in Japan, and it was simulcasted by Crunchyroll. Two seasons and several anime movie offshoots were steadily released over the years. Since then, Kyoto Animation’s anime sensation has broken out of Japan and gone international with a massive following around the globe. The synopsis for the first season is as follows:
“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.”