As many people may know, the second season of Free!, Eternal Summer, was licensed for a dub by Funimation. Licensing issues with Crunchyroll and Discotek Media have kept them from obtaining the rights to the first season. This has not stopped the dub of season 2 from coming out though! Today is the day of the premiere, with baited breathe. Fan girls wait to hear the English voices of all of these sexy men. How did it turn out? Well let’s take a look sha’ll we?

Haruka Nanase, voiced by Todd Haberkorn. What to say about this voice, it’s probably won’t be what you’re expecting. That in no way means it’s bad, yes, it may be a little jarring at first. Compared to the Japanese almost monotone take on Haru, Todd comes off as more sarcastic then monotone. I have to say, that was a pretty good directional choice, while a Japanese person might be able to pull off a monotone voice, it doesn’t translate as well in the English language.

So a sarcastic tone may be a much better choice.

Makoto Tachibana, voiced by Johnny Yong Bosch. HE’S SO PRECIOUS, I mean, we know from the Japanese that Makoto is a precious cinnamon roll, too good and too pure for this earth but Bosch really nailed it home. You can feel the sweet caring person that Makoto is from his first interaction with a random woman in his neighborhood. Spot on casting here, I’m really happy to hear Johnny getting more of these sort of roles where he’s not the main character nor is he crazy, he’s just a good guy.

Next up! Greg Ayres as Nagisa! Need I say more? If anyone didn’t see this casting coming, they were fooling themselves and he nails it pretty dang well. Alright, it’s getting a little tedious to move through this character by character. Well, we only have one of the Iwatobi boys left to cover!

Rei Ryugazaki, voiced by J. Michael Tatum. Have I ever heard this man in a role I didn’t like him in? [‘Well, there was that one time you got really bias about Kyouya and…’] HUSH me of the past! If there was anyone in the world that could voice this dork, it was Tatum. The perfect tone to pull off both his calm moments, and those moments where he is just an absolute idiot.

Now there is one that I need to stop at and talk about in particular. This role and their casting for it has been controversial since the day before it was announced.

Vic Mignogna as Rin Matsuoka, I have not scene a league of angrier fans in my entire life watching anime for whatever reason anyone had there was a huge uproar since the day BEFORE the casting for Rin was officially announced. Whatever your stance on this was, I honestly don’t care. What I will say though is like Haru, it’s not the voice you’re going to go into the dub expecting but that doesn’t mean that it’s bad.

While you might want to jump immediately and scream about how it’s not the right voice for Rin, what kind of voice do you honestly want him to have? One with a little more gruff but is not too deep, but can pull off some of his sappier moments like nearly crying at the pool? It’s a tall order for any VA, the point is, the voice fits his body. His face, and most importantly his character.

I can’t say much on Sosuke yet, honestly, he’s not in much of the first episode aside from a few lines here and there. The rest of the cast, including Kou, the teachers and side characters all seemed to have their parts nailed. I’m sorry if you came into this post expecting a sea of hate and nasty things, but I think Funimation really nailed this one. The first episode was a joy to hear, though I have to say. I am just TINY bit disappointed that when Haruka says that the cold doesn’t bother him. They couldn’t of said “The cold never bothered me anyway.”, come on scriptwriters. You could of stuck that reference in.

You can watch Free! -Eternal Summer- on Funimation.com, with new episodes of the dub airing every Friday. Happy Summer everyone!

~MidnightDevont

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