High☆Speed! is a light novel by Koji Ouji about the lives of four boys— Haruka Nanase, Makoto Tachibana, Rin Matsuoka, and Nagisa Hazuki – and their tribulations forming the Iwatobi Swim Club. Formally published by KA Bunko in 2013, it’s a self-contained Sports Story about competition swimming and all the drama in between.
A Time Skip series all about the cast in their teenage years debuted the very same year, titled Free!. Futoshi Nishiya, character designer of the anime series, would later draw the art for the books’ rerelease.
It received a sequel in 2015 titled High☆Speed! 2, focusing on Rin's relationship with his aloof friend Sousuke. The first book would eventually get a manga adaptation in 2015, while its sequel would get an anime adaptation in the form of the film High★Speed! - Free! Starting Days, meant to bridge the gap in between the books and the timeskip anime.
Click here
or here to read the chapter summaries and the chapter translations of High☆Speed! (complete) and its sequel (in progress).
For tropes concerning the movie, see High★Speed! - Free! Starting Days.
Not to be confused with the Chase Scene-based pinball game.
Tropes:
- Canon Immigrant: Rei of Free! makes his retroactive debut in High☆Speed! 2 as a minor character.
- Contrived Coincidence: Rin not only ends up in the same class as Haru when he transfers, he also joins the Iwatobi Swim Club.
- Lucky Charms Title: The title typically has a star where a hyphen would be in katakana.
- New Transfer Student: Rin transfers into Iwatobi Elementary at the beginning of volume 1.
- Pun-Based Title: The katakana for "Speed" (スピード) can also be read as "Speedo".
