Staff Talk Reports Gathered in a Big Ol Translation lol *MASSIVE FS2 SPOILERS (and feels) AHEAD*
These are in no order lol
-In the night pool scene Makoto while looking at Rin & Haru has a flashback to that scene when they're kids by the sakura tree the "sight you've never seen before", and baby Makoto watching baby Rin: Kawanami said the scene is "Makoto whose heart is shot through by Rin" 😂 - Like how there's a scene where Haruka meets Rin and is like, "What is this guy!?", Makoto also, he has a cut (scene) like being shot through the heart by Rin
-similar scenes have been frequently included until now, such as in RW when Rin's like "Hey Makoto, what's your dream?" and in TYM when Haruka and Makoto see Rin in Misaki-kun and remember him.
-Also the night pool scene, for the scene where Makoto reaches out, that until now has been depicted by Haruka and Makoto, in the night pool Haruka & Rin together grab a hold of him. It has the meaning of "it's too soon to get out on land", to Makoto
-They released actual RGBs for everyone's image colors, I rted some lists but KA is going to put out an official report too and I'm betting they'll be listed there as well
-There's a girl in it towards the end that I believe is supposed to represent us The Fans, her clothes and design, though they weren't originally created for this purpose, were created by Nishiya-san (Kawanami didn't mention the character by name, but indicated the brick that said 'Best', and said it was this girl's design originally ((originally they had a plan to have her in s1 apparently)))
-The clothes Haruka, Makoto, and Rin wear in Hungary also came from some of Nishiya-san's rough designs
-There is a written message on the last image in the credits; it was written by Nishiya-san together with his same-year coworkers
-Before Nagisa and Makoto accidentally go buy the omamori for 'safe delivery,' they see Elvant (I am certain there's proper spelling for that forgive me) Volandel, Albert's father, buying one. Because 10 year old Albert was at a hotel there at the time, he came to Japan, and because a younger brother was about to be born soon he bought the omamori for safe delivery. Nagisa saw this, and they bought the same. Someone else pointed out that if Albert's 10 here then Makoto and Haruka are 9, and Nagisa is 8 (apparently a spoon interview somewhere said Albert is one year older lol)
-Haruka's video interview starts at 06:30 and yes it was on purpose
-In Yakusoku, when Rin is talking to Makoto on the phone and it cuts off at "Someday, once more with everyone...", the rest of the sentence is "I hope we can all swim together with Makoto one day" ie. the nuance of the OG Iwatobi members swimming again (everyone = the 4)
which that OG relay member invite reference apparently overlaps with
-at the end (?) towards the end idk at some point near the end of FS2, lol it has the OG Iwatobi 4 as kids and Rin says "Hey Haru, swim a relay together with me" but he doesn't say "Nanase," he says "Haru," so its -after- they've already swam their relay, so he's inviting them to again (meaning of 'once again, together') (somebody wondered if this was connecting to s1)
-The colors of the misanga bracelet they wear for team Haru-chan were taken from the Tokyo Olympic ticket colors (i rted them lol), which are also the colors of the four in the final. However as they were they'd be dark/dull, so there were some adjustments
-In the last half of FS2 Haru's shirt is white, Yoneda-san apparently wished for "definitely white"; it's because in Free! up until now it's been the kind of development where Haruka is the hero who saves those around him, but in FS, in contrast to that Haruka is picked up/rescued by everyone. A dark color would end up having a meaning. A white t shirt expresses Haruka's beauty and fragility of Haruka