Are Free! and Haikyu!! related?


I've only watched _Free!_ and _Free!: Eternal Summer_ , but recently a friend
recommended I watch _Haikyuu!!_ and looking at images of it, I'm reminded of
_Free!_ a great deal.

The characters even look similar and they both contain a plot based around a
sports team.

Are they related, or could this just be a coincidence?




Apart from being of the same genre and containing similar enough art style, I
don't think the productions are related.

Differences:

  * The authors are different ( **Masahiro Yokotani** vs **Haruichi Furudate** )
  * The production studios are different: _Haikyuu!!_ is produced by **Production I.G** , _Free!_ by **Kyoto Animation**
  * _Haikyuu!!_ is shonen whilst _Free!_ is mostly targeted at women.

Similarities:

  * Character style (but this could just be that the style of the characters has been found to appeal to their target market and chosen for this reason)
  * Exclamation marks in their title!! (but so has _K-On!!_ and many other shows)
  * Sports genre

The similarities between the shows aren't really substantial enough to warrant
a link between them, so I doubt they are.

[I thought that _Chihayafuru_ (another sports title) was similar to
_Haikyuu!!_ also, but it also doesn't have anything in common, so I think this
is just an art style that sports anime have evolved into]

