>>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.
