>>3625225Season 2 is also my favourite. Everything else is fine or, as the case of S3, bad. The lead director, Utsumi, left KyoAni after S2 and went and worked on a couple other shows before heading up Banana Fish and Sk8, and I think the series suffers for it.
The release order post-S2 goes:
>High Speed! Starting Days!Movie adaptation of the LN High Speed 2, which covers Haru's middle school swimming career. I didn't watch it because I'd already read the LN, but I know they changed some plot points around. If you're watching S3, either read HS2 (TLs available online) or watch this movie, because it introduces a lot of characters who show up in S3 that will come out of nowhere otherwise.
>Timeless Medley ~Bond~ & ~Promise~A pair of recap movies for S2 which have a little bit of extra footage. Bond is about the Iwatobi team plotlines and Promise is about Samezuka. Promise has the most new footage, but even then it only amounts to a couple new minutes that you could watch on YouTube. Fine if you want a refresher on S2 without watching the whole thing again.
>Take Your Marks!A four-episode OVA packaged as a movie about the boys preparing to transition to adulthood post-grad. All fluff, no drama, it's cute and fun enough.
>S3: Dive to the Future & Road to the WorldGarbage pile. There are a few parts in it that I like, but overall it's a huge fumble. The fun energy and atmosphere that appeared in S1/S2 have dwindled severely. The majority of the season is wasted on stupid bullshit drama copy-pasted from old characters onto new ones. Plotlines are sloppily handled. Introduces tons of new characters despite having not enough time to handle them all. Similar to Timeless Medley, RtW is a recap movie version that would save you a lot of time and frustration vs. watching the entire season and adds new scenes.
And the finale:
>Final Stroke Pt 1 & Pt 2Pt 1 comes out next month. Pt 2 will come out in 2022. I'm hoping they stick the landing but we'll see.
