Sorry to keep you waiting. I'd been holding out hope that I would be able to recover the links from the previous thread, but I cannot seem to find it in the archive. I thought I at least had the site that aggregated all the places you can stream Free's OSTs bookmarked, but apparently not.>Orchestral Events in Tokyo and Tottori still set for 2025>An event in Tottori hosted by Haru's VA also set for 2025Sousuke just had his birthday recently. Happy belated birthday, Sousuke!
Much respect to OP for keeping this going more or less on their lonesomeWhat's the state of the fandom like in 2024? It's not a show I think about at all these days, honestly
>>3919627I haven't been able to dump Free! as much lately, but I'll keep going as long as I still have stuff to post.>What's the state of the fandom like in 2024?Nowhere near the heyday of 2013-2015, but still has a surprising amount of juice.>Japan SideStill a regular stable of artists doing fanworks on a semi-regular basis. My understanding is that at least a few longtime fanartists have gone pro, doing BL or otherwise, I can't recall names off the top of my head though. I catch wind of the occasional fan event, though they seem to be mostly online rather than in person. IIRC there was one for Haru's birthday a few months ago. There's always still a nice flood of fanart on characters' birthdays as well.>Western SideTraffic has slowed down significantly but it's not at a total crawl quite yet. I think most of the fanartists have moved on to other franchises, so things are very fic-centric right now. There's been a RinHaru group that's been extremely active the past couple years, running multiple events per year. IIRC there was also a MakoHaru event recently and I think I've heard talk of some rarepair events being floated at some point.To my surprise, KyoAni is still willing to keep supporting Free! through live events even though the series has been over for several years at this point. I guess they'll keep it going until everyone's tired and it stops printing money for them.
Found the streaming link:>Listen to Free!lnk.to/iwatobi-sc_playlist>Previous Thread: >>3900046
>>3919672Thanks for typing all that out! A very detailed overview.Glad to hear the fans are still out there doing their thing on both sides of the ocean. It's a sad feeling when you see fandoms gradually dying off, though I guess it's the natural life cycle when there's no new official material being produced. >I think I've heard talk of some rarepair events being floated at some point.I had a friend back in the day who was very into SouMako, we spent a lot of time thinking about fic ideas (none of which ever went anywhere)
https://x.com/kyoani_goods/status/1838127071710880162Speaking of KyoAni support, they're making new(?) merch involving their birthday art line.
>>3919811They announced the merch:>Art cards with special print treatment, which you can buy individual blind packs (includes six cards) or a full set>Memorial book that includes all illustrations as well as the previous birthday stories and character messageshttps://kyoanishop.com/shopbrand/list_FR1199-1201
https://x.com/Ensky_Hobby/status/1850768812603511080 Ensky celebrating ten years of manjuu by rereleasing the first Free! manjuu set and some additional merch.
Happy Halloween!
Another Orchestral Concert in 2025.https://x.com/iwatobi_sc/status/1854722630148120973
New merch. KyoAni taking keyframes and recolouring them for canvas prints.https://x.com/kyoanishop/status/1856247921131540749https://www.kyotoanimation.co.jp/shop/canvas-reart/
It's Makoto's birthday. Happy birthday, Makoto!
