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High Speed! Free! Starting Days (映画 ハイ☆スピード！-Free! Starting Days-)

High Speed! Free! Starting Days (映画 ハイ☆スピード！-Free! Starting Days-) is a 2015 Japanese animated sports film produced by Kyoto Animation, directed by Yasuhiro Takemoto (武本康弘), and distributed by Shochiku. It adapts the light novel High☆Speed! by Kōji Ōji (おおじ こうじ), the work that inspired the television anime Free!, and depicts the junior high school years of the series' main characters before the events of the TV anime.1 • 2

Key factDetail
ReleaseTheatrically released 5 December 2015 in Japan, distributed by Shochiku2
Studio and directorKyoto Animation; directed by Yasuhiro Takemoto1
SourceOriginal light novel High☆Speed! by Kōji Ōji (KA Esuma Bunko/Kyoto Animation)1
Runtime and rating110 minutes (some listings give 111 minutes); rated G2 • 3
Main castHaruka Nanase (Nobunaga Shimazaki), Makoto Tachibana (Tatsuhisa Suzuki), Asahi Shiina (Toshiyuki Toyonaga), Ikuya Kirishima (Kōki Uchiyama)1
Music and theme songScore by Tatsuya Katō (加藤達也); theme song by OLDCODEX1 • 2
Place in the seriesPrequel to the Free! TV anime, set in the characters' junior high years4

Spoilers

Story

The film follows Haruka Nanase, a first-year student at Iwatobi Junior High School who holds a special attachment to touching and feeling water. Together with his childhood friend Makoto Tachibana, he joins the school's swimming club, where the two are placed in a medley relay team with Asahi Shiina and Ikuya Kirishima. The four have different ways of thinking and different goals, and each carries personal worries, so relay practice does not go well at first. Haruka remains preoccupied with a medley relay from his final elementary school competition, in which he swam with Makoto, Nagisa Hazuki, and Rin Matsuoka and reached what he calls a "sight he had never seen before." Over time the four gradually come to new feelings about what it takes to become a team.5 • 2

In the series' chronology the film is a prequel: it shows Haruka and Makoto taking their marks in junior high, before they made waves in high school in the Free! television anime.4

Production

Kyoto Animation, the studio behind Free! and works such as K-On!, produced the film as a fully new animation adaptation of the original novel rather than a compilation.2 The staff list combines several recurring Kyoto Animation collaborators: series composition by Masahiro Yokotani (横谷昌宏), screenplay by Maiko Nishioka (西岡麻衣子), character design and chief animation direction by Futoshi Nishiya (西屋太志), art direction by Jōji Unoguchi (鵜ノ口穣二), color design by Yuka Yoneda (米田侑加), photography direction by Kazuya Takao (髙尾一也), sound direction by Yōta Tsuruoka (鶴岡陽太), and music by Tatsuya Katō.1

In a director interview on the official site, Takemoto described the challenge of making a work sandwiched between the Free! television seasons, saying the aim was to portray the characters' junior high era without a gap from the TV series, and that the comedy-heavy, manga-like expressions used in Free! were toned down for this film. He also noted that Asahi's worries and trauma were drawn from the original novel, and that the scenario stage involved considerable work deciding how those problems could be resolved and which team members would help.6

Cast

The film uses the same voice cast as the Free! television anime for the returning characters, with Nobunaga Shimazaki as Haruka Nanase and Tatsuhisa Suzuki as Makoto Tachibana.2 The junior high era introduces Asahi Shiina, voiced by Toshiyuki Toyonaga, and Ikuya Kirishima, voiced by Kōki Uchiyama, as the other two members of the medley relay team.1 Supporting roles include Ikuya's older brother Natsuya Kirishima (Kenji Nojima, 野島健児), Hisashi Serizawa (Satoshi Hino), and Takumi Shigino (Chihiro Suzuki). Elementary school versions of Rin Matsuoka, Nagisa Hazuki, Rei Ryūgazaki, and Sōsuke Yamazaki are voiced by Akeno Watanabe, Satomi Satō, Yōko Hikasa, and Aoi Yūki respectively, while Mamoru Miyano voices Rin Matsuoka and Yoshimasa Hosoya voices Sōsuke Yamazaki in the present timeline.1

Release and reception

The film opened in Japanese theaters on 5 December 2015, distributed by Shochiku, with the tagline "The best teammates and the best moments are not necessarily only one" (最高の仲間と最高の瞬間は、一つとは限らない).2 • 7 It was rated G by Eirin, the Japanese film classification board.2

Aggregator scores place the film in the mid-to-upper range for the franchise. JustWatch lists a user rating of 7.2 based on several hundred votes,5 AniList records an average score of 77 percent with the film ranked among its most popular titles,4 and Rakuten PLAY users give it 4.1 out of 5.8 On eiga.com, user reviews average 4.6 out of 5 across 54 reviews.2

Home media and streaming

The film received a Blu-ray and DVD release, promoted alongside a special event, "Iwatobi Junior High Swimming Club Record Meet Thank-You Party" (岩鳶中学水泳部 記録会お疲れ様パーティー), whose recording was also released on Blu-ray and DVD in 2017.9 A television broadcast on Nittele Plus was announced in September 2017, and in September 2018 the film was screened in an all-night program at Shinjuku Piccadilly together with the two Free! -Timeless Medley- compilation films.9

In Japan the film is available on subscription streaming. A JustWatch check of 79 services in October 2026 found it streaming on Netflix, U-NEXT, Netflix Standard with Ads, the dAnime Amazon Channel, and FOD, with no free (ad-supported) option at that time.5 U-NEXT carries it as part of its subscription catalog alongside other Free! series entries such as Free! -Eternal Summer- and Free! -Timeless Medley- Kizuna.3

References

  1. 映画 ハイ☆スピード！－Free! Starting Days－ 作品情報, 京都アニメーション
  2. 映画 ハイ☆スピード！ Free! Starting Days, 映画.com
  3. 映画 ハイ☆スピード！―Free! Starting Days―, U-NEXT
  4. High☆Speed!: Free! Starting Days, AniList
  5. 映画 ハイ☆スピード！-Free! Starting Days-, JustWatch Japan
  6. 監督コメント, 映画 ハイ☆スピード！－Free! Starting Days－ 公式サイト
  7. 映画 ハイ☆スピード！ －Free! Starting Days－, allcinema
  8. 映画 ハイ☆スピード！―Free! Starting Days― 作品・配信情報, Rakuten PLAY
  9. 映画 ハイ☆スピード！－Free! Starting Days－ 公式サイト

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026

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