In fact, I fear I am a jack-of-all-trades.

When Swimming Becomes Painful

Spoilers and whatever.

So, this anime is about swimming. Obviously. So, since this anime revolves around swimming, it makes sense that our main characters would have negative experiences with it at one point or another. In my rewatch of the anime, though, I’ve noticed that practically every character has found swimming painful at some point, not just the main characters.

Since swimming is something that all of the characters really love, I like the plot developments that cause them to not like it so much anymore. I don’t know if any of this makes sense, but hopefully it will as you read. I’m gonna start from the bottom up with the characters that barely had negative moments involving swimming, and I’ll end with the character that swam in pain for the longest time.

Hiyori Tono

So, I think Hiyori is the only person on this list who found swimming painful for more indirect reasons than direct reasons. Those reasons would be Ikuya, obviously. To me, when watching Dive to the Future, it seemed like Hiyori wanted Ikuya to be the strongest swimmer in the world while, at the same time, recognizing that swimming was causing Ikuya pain. I’ll get to Ikuya later, so I’m not gonna talk about him much yet, but Hiyori ended up being in silent pain while watching Ikuya in pain.

I think that bled over into swimming itself every time Ikuya sank through the water and nearly drown. I realize I’m pushing it by putting Hiyori on this list, but I think that there’s something there that did cause Hiyori to find swimming painful for a little while. For the record, I think it was similar thing for Natsuya, but I’m not putting him on this list because I don’t think he connected it with swimming as much as Hiyori did.

Rei Ryugazaki

I think Rei, Nagisa, Makoto, and Rin all felt pain watching Haru in pain during Eternal Summer, just like Hiyori did with Ikuya, but Rei also found swimming painful for personal reasons at one point. That would be around the time he asked Rin to teach him to swim.

When Rei started feeling like he was inferior to Nagisa and the rest, I think he had a short period where swimming at practice with them every day caused him pain. Of course, once he started to improve, that feeling went away, but for a little while, it was there.

Nagisa Hazuki

I think the only time that Nagisa found swimming painful was in middle. And he didn’t really find swimming painful, but the idea of swimming was definitely painful for him. Considering the fact that swimming what would’ve made Nagisa the happiest at that time (as it’s the thing that always makes Nagisa happy), being deprived of it wasn’t the best for him.

In Eternal Summer, I imagine that some of those old feelings resurfaced when he thought his parents were going to keep him from swimming again. Thankfully, that didn’t happen, but it is sad that it almost did.

Asahi Shiina

I guess Asahi’s experience was sort of similar to Rei’s in that practice became difficult for him for a while. Also, Asahi had similar feelings of inferiority after he saw Haru swim. I don’t think swimming in general became painful for him, but free definitely did. I suppose, for Asahi, that was enough, though.

It probably felt a lot more be all, end all to Asahi than it actually was. Either way, it couldn’t of been an easy few weeks.

Aiichiro Nitori

Again, this is another story that’s sort of similar to Rei’s. I put Ai a little higher up on this list because I think the pain he put himself through mentally was pretty harsh. He spent a lot of time trying to get better at swimming, and the whole time, he didn’t really believe he could do it.

I don’t think it was until Sousuke decided to coach him that Ai really started believing that he could get stronger. Up until that point though, he was almost resigned to the idea that he would never get to swim in a relay with Rin.

Sousuke Yamazaki

Sousuke and Ikuya are a lot alike I think, but I guess I should wait to make that full comparison until later. So, I think Sousuke had painful experiences with swimming even before Rin left. I’d say when he swam in the relay Rin, it caused those types of feelings for Sousuke because he didn’t used to be the type to swim with a team.

After Rin left, most of the rest of Sousuke’s time as a swimmer was spent feeling the absence of his best friend. Obviously, Sousuke did feel actual, literal pain because of his shoulder, but metaphorically, Sousuke felt it for a pretty long time.

Makoto Tachibana

Makoto’s negative experiences with swimming happened in both middle and high school. In Starting Days, Makoto lost himself because he lost his reason for swimming. I think he even told Haru that being around him hurt because he didn’t know if he was swimming for Haru or for himself.

Again, in high school, Makoto struggled to figure out if he was cut out to be a professional swimmer or not. On both occasions, Makoto threw himself into swimming to help him figure it out. I think he lived Haru’s pain just as much as his own, as well. He’s since become a stronger person, though, so all of that was worth it.

Rin Matsuoka

Well, I mean. Naturally Rin would be one of the top characters, right? There’s a lot I could explain here, but do I need to? He hit a wall in Australia, lost to Haru in middle school, and for most of his second year in high school, all he felt while swimming was pain.

He said over and over that he was going to quit swimming as well, which would’ve caused him more pain. In the end, Rin keeping with swimming and not quitting is the reason why he was able to heal. That and Haru, obviously.

Haruka Nanase

Honestly, the only reason Haru isn’t the number one on this list is because he had more reprieves from the pain than the number one. Again, I don’t really think I have to explain, but I will. So, swimming has almost caused more pain to Haru than it hasn’t. That sounds really bad, but it’s kind of true, right?

When Rin left, he couldn’t get past swimming without him. In high school, realizing that he may never swim with Rin again also caused him pain. Then there’s the whole journey of self discovery he went through in high school where he couldn’t find his dream, and in university, Haru wondered if he should be swimming competitively at all. However, obviously, Haru’s highs outweigh the lows. Just like with all of these characters, the pain made them stronger.

Ikuya Kirishima

Yo. Other than the end of Starting Days and the last half of Dive to the Future, Ikuya has always been in pain while swimming. I mean, obviously, when he was kid, he wasn’t in pain, but during most of his time in the anime, he was.

I think, for the most part, his distance from Natsuya was the main source of pain. Not that it was Natsuya’s fault, but had they been closer, Ikuya might not have felt so alone. When Asahi, Makoto, and Haru quit the swimming club, Ikuya must’ve felt like he had no one left. Everything we’ve seen in the anime can be attributed to Ikuya feeling alone: him nearly drowning twice, him hitting a wall in college, him being so angry and closed off, etc. It took nearly his whole life for him to get the closure he needed. Thankfully, now swimming is something hopeful for Ikuya instead of painful.

I don’t know if this post interested anyone, but hey. The concept of something you love causing you pain is always really interesting to me because I love plot devices like that, so I wanted to talk about the existence of it in Free! Thanks for reading! I’m not sure what I’m posting next, but I’ve had this on my mind for a while, so I’m glad it’s finally out there.