The Free! soundtrack art and the evolution of Haruka Nanase 🐟
aka: Dragon is obsessed with the Free! soundtrack and finds symbolism in everything
Ok, here I am again, overanalyzing aspects of the official art of Free! and finding symbolism too obvious or taken from heavens knows where, Specifically, and in honor of Haruka's birthday, I'm going to be talking about a subject that drives me completely crazy in a good way:
The album cover art of the soundtracks of the different seasons/films of the series
🏊♂️*** 🏊♂️
The Free! soundtrack makes me immensely happy, and for that matter, not only the music perfectly conveys the feelings and motives of each season and scene, but also the art of the album does it, in addition to showing the stage of the series and especially the character development of Haruka
Ever Blue Sounds
The first music album of the entire franchise,
In this first art we can see Haru with headphones made of bubbles in what appears to be an underwater environment.
I really like the shades of blue and the fragmented and triangular shapes, because despite giving a feeling of "imprisonment" due to the shades of colors, we have a kinder aura, the blue that surrounds Haru is bright and shinny, as if that light came from the surface...
And precisely we have Haruka, with an expression softly amazed and even nostalgic looking at the surface, that is to say: the origin of light
I think you already know where I want to go with this, Haru underwater, still sunk in the waters of the past, longing for the light that is on the surface
All this concept of Haru submerged and being guided to the surface by "the light" reminds me a lot of this specific part of the opening
it's too obvious the headphones are there because this is the soundtrack art, but imagining they had some kind of hidden meaning I would like to think that they symbolize how alienated and isolated that Haru was with his own feelings, stopping swimming as he usted to even tho he longed to swim again with his friends like that time,
Clear Blue Notes
The soundtrack of the second season (and of the following ones) is at times basically a variation and reference to the most important melodies of the first season, and the concept of art is also similar and seems to refer to the previous one but with a completely different attitude.
The environment is already more "watery" if we can say it that way, the darker shades of blue no longer occupy part of the the foreground and blend very nicely with the other tones, The same goes for the bubbles that hardly appear anymore.
However, we still have the light, here, in fact, way more clearer and more visible, the surface feels closer and the light surrounds everything. Haru here has an expression of amazement, that light getting closer, waiting for him, so coarse and beautiful, his attention is totally focused on that brightness, and from the pose he is in he gives us the feeling that he is about to follow it, to swim after it as freely as he can, as if he were about to reach out his hand towards that light, that light in a brand new scenery
JUST LOOK AT THE BRIGHTNESS IN HIS EYES, HES FINALLY KNOWIING THE FUTURE HE WANTS TO FOLLOW, THE WORLD HE WANTS TO BE PART OF IS JUST SO SLXNOENXLSNX
Deep Blue Harmony
I'll have my opinions about DTF but something undeniable is that the soundtrack is just so cool (i mean, this is where "Rhythm of a new sensation" appears), but, anyways, the intentions in this one are quite clear...
The surface is positioned right above Haruka, a smile is drawn on his face, the future its just around the corner, I feel that those circles In addition to being used to emphasize the light that now directly bathes Haru, it also gives me the feeling of "being accompanied" all of Haru's friends will be there to support him and he has returned to meet old "circles" of friends.
Over Blue Refrain
The soundtrack of the first part of The Final Stroke, unlike what happens with the soundtrack of the first and second season, here the music of the first part is actually a reference to the second part (specifically to the main melody "the final stroke"), and something paradoxical that I think happens with this art is that the pose, expression and environment seem to be a reference to the art of another album... but i'll talk about that in a moment.
HARU IS FINALLY ON THE SURFACE!!
The blue of the sky and the blue of the water that splashes they unite and contrast, Haru observes something, as if analyzing his new horizon, amazed and finally at the starting point to fulfill the dream...
Now, The reference and parallel I was talking about earlier is this:
Pure Blue Scenes
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH
This is the art of the "Starting Days" soundtrack, and i love it so so much, Haruka's uncertainty, entering a new phase of her high school life and the inevitable changes that entails, his look, with a hint of nostalgia precisely turning to see the cherry blossom petals (aka: memories of the relay and specifically of Rin)
The parallel here is very straightforward, the entrance to the "new world" and changes and remember the true core of swimming (swim with friends / be free)
🏊♂️***🏊♂️
I could talk about the artwork for the character songs or the other movies, but to keep this short, I'll end with a quick mention of the artwork for The Final Stroke vol. 2 because it's literally the one that breaks the chain that I've been trying to explain and that threw me off when I first saw it, but hey, here I go
Never Ending Blue
To be honest as much as i totally adore the TFS2 soundtrack the cover of this latest album makes me quite boring compared to the others, but it still has its charm...
A determined expression, Haruka in a more "sketch style" as if implying that it is the beginning of a new era.
I think that one of the reasons why this cover doesn't cause me much emotion is because it looks more like a cover that one could find on some music record without thinking that has to do directly with a series or something like that is how I feel, and precisely thinking about this was that I remembered what album it vaguely reminded me of:
This is the OLCODEX album in which Rage On (the opening of the first season of de Free!) can be found (there is also the single but conveniently let's ignore that), the design of their albums is similar to each other and, idk, im probably reading too much into it but my theory is that by having an OLCODEX song for the anime one last time, the soundtrack art is a tribute to the album where the first song comes out...
ANYWAYS, THAT WAS MY RAMBLING OF THE DAY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY HARUKA, THANK YOU AS ALWAYS FOR EVERYTHING I HAVE BEEN ABLE TO LEARN AND SMILE THANKS TO FREE!, I HOPE I CAN FACE THE FUTURE WITH THE SAME RESOLUTION AS YOU, U R LITERALLY BEST BOY LOVE U 😭💙🐟🌊❤️
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