One the few anime this season that is aimed at the illusive female demographic, Free!. At first I wanted to watch this just in spite of the backlash that some people have -- who are fans of KyoAni -- and not-so-surprising I'm digging this one.
As I got further into the episode, Free! kept reminding me of Chihayafuru, and that isn't a bad thing. We have a person who is obsessed with some aspect of the sport -- basically the Ayase Chihaya of the group -- Nanase Haruka and the rival who moves away, but show up during high school -- the Wataya Arata of the group -- Matsuoka Rin. And that thought will probably keep popping up as the anime goes on; I just hope it is anything close to the greatness that is Chihayafuru, but still set itself apart from it -- beside the fan/man service that wasn't present in Chihayafuru.
Really, besides Haruka having an itchy finger to take his clothes off every second, I think I could get into this anime -- it wasn't like half-naked men bothered me in the first place. I'm just glad this turned out being pretty good for a first episode. The only complain from this episode was near the end... dubstep, really?