Fans of Free! may be familiar with these novels, and since I’ve already posted these to tumblr some time back, I figured I’d go ahead and post them here, since many don’t seem familiar with them.

For those of you new to the series or unfamiliar with these novels, the High Speed! novels by Ouji Koji are what Free! is based on. Volume 1 covers 12-year-old Rin’s transfer to Iwatobi and convincing Haru, Makoto, and Nagisa to form a relay team with him, culminating with their race and Rin’s departure for Australia. Volume 2 takes place 3 months later as Haru and Makoto enter middle school and deals largely with their forming a relay team with new friends, as well as touching on Nagisa’s struggles as he’s still in elementary school and Rin’s issues in Australia. Yamazaki Sousuke, a prominent character in Season 2 of the Free! anime, plays a large part in Volume 2.

While I haven’t translated these novels, I did write up detailed summaries with many select passages translated, so you can view then in PDF format for easy reading!

Download the High Speed! summary
High Speed! 2 summary

(of note, the HS2 summary is a bit sparser than 1, because I had less time and interest in being SUPER detailed; also, volume 2 was a LOT longer than volume 1, so I had less time and rushed through a lot of it, leaving only the largest, most important details of the book).

Enjoy!

• summary