HonorableShadow wrote:

Thanks for the recs! I like to think that Haruka is one of the Sea People from Nagi no Asuka. It'd make so much sense.

That would make sense! Headcanon accepted.

One thing that always made me wonder, how come Makoto is the one who is afraid of the ocean when it was Rin who lost his father in a fishing accident? You'd figure Rin would be the one to develop such a phobia instead of Makoto.

I think the key to understanding why Rin isn't scared of the ocean is in High Speed 2 in that scene with Rin's grandmother. Apparently Rin's dad isn't the only one who drowned, [his grandpa and great grandpa also died young from drowning, all in separate incidents. His grandma had to bury 3 generations of Matsuoka men and yet it's revealed that she's still a deep sea pearl diver even in her old age. I think that the Matsuoka family isn't one to fear the ocean no matter what. (Though they probably should develop a healthy fear of it at this point... and Rin really should be wearing a life vest at all times since odds are his family is cursed or something. ) ]

Thanks for the info, I'm still in the first chapters of volume 1 of HS. The anime also downplayed Makoto's water phobia to a great degree, to the point that going by HS canon it is very difficult to imagine how Makoto would have been able to swim in the open water at all. Then again, the whole incident with the training camp was great for drama but it shows a huge lack of insight as you do not take someone who can barely swim to the sea like that. It would have been much more sensible to swim along the coastline.


Aw, thanks! The links do not seem to work, though, maybe it's a problem my way.

It amuses me that Ai's official animal is a duck. Poor guy. His role in the drama CDs is absolutely hilarious, from his amazing Rin-centered diary (what more does Ai even write about?) to his decision to match Rin's speed in *stripping* only to be caught in the act, everything about Ai is pure gold. Bonus points for the fact that despite its shortened version, 'Aiichirou' actually is a manly name as opposed to most of the Free! boys.

@YamPuff, the link does not seem to be working.

I absolutely love how everyone has some kind of aquatic animal and Rei is a butterfly. I know it's because of his specialty stroke, but it still makes me lol.

Nocturnalux wrote:

@YamPuff, the link does not seem to be working.

The Free! merchandise link? I clicked on it and it opens in my browser. Maybe this? http://ameblo.jp/ct-blog-kounin/entry-12028898163.html

Ai-chan is a beautiful and precious baby.

Last edited by YamPuff (05-27-2015 03:07:14 PM)

I think it's because orcas have large family pods, and teach all their survival techniques and hunting strategies to their children rather than relying on instinct (which fits well with Makoto's nurturing personality and desire to teach swimming as a profession).  Orcas are cool fat dolphins

I think the sharks are used for Rin and Soubutts (shipping aside) to in part represent their competitiveness/aggression when it comes to swimming.

Nocturnalux wrote:

Now that I think about it, I suspect the killer whale element for Makoto comes from HS as it is mentioned very early on that his forceful style of swimming is like that of an orca.

Ironically enough, whale sharks are herbivorous and cannot hunt to save their lives. They may be the biggest fish currently living but are not known for their strength and have no violent instinct at all.

Orcas, on the other hand, gobble up seals left and right and are called 'killer' whales for a reason.

As for Rei, the butterfly symbol is not just connected to his swimming style, he is just that fabulous.

Rei should have been a gorgeous jellyfish!! 

Hmm... are whale sharks solitary?  Sousquishy is revealed to be a nice if pretty serious and standoffish guy, but he is markedly more solitary and introverted than the rest of the cast, even Haru, and a large part of his plot-line dealt with him disliking team swammin'.  I assume the shark thing was a deliberate bluff meant to play on the fact that Sousuke is big and looks menacing, but throughout S2 the viewer learns he isn't to be feared.  They also, while gentle, for the most part tend to ignore divers and other animals. The opposite of an Orca, really.  I always thought there would be this moment in the series where we would see Makoto stand up for or against someone and use his size because of his Orca symbol. 

[ And I cannot really consider Orcas too menacing, all things considered.  They are not any more or less cruel than other predators, they are just insanely good at it.  Playing with their partially injured but still alive food is part of how they teach their young to hunt and keep their own skills honed.  I always wondered if that was the trade off of high intelligence, the need to repeat behaviors and movements to mind and muscle memory, especially, because there is less instinct to fall back on.  ]


I just realized I need a Lisa Frank style fanart of all the Free! casts animal counterparts.

To be honest, I do not think a lot of thinking went into assigning each boy a spirit animals. Otherwise Haruka would hardly be a dolphin since dolphins are known for being very gregarious, lively and even eager to interact with people. Odds are he gets a dolphin for a symbol because it's a cute animal and because his swimming style does get compared to a dolphin.

I always thought that Haru's secondary animal (a kite bird) was more suitable for him. It seems to get more use in the anime too. He's always looking out the window at that bird and when he found his dream, it looked like he had wings. There was a shadow of the bird flying over the pool in the OP - plus when he was a kid, Rin described him as being like a water bird. Iwatobi is also a kite and Haru likes him a lot. I can see why they wanted to go with a marine animal over a bird, but sometimes I wish they had just stuck with the bird imagery.

Makoto comments that Haruka swims like a dolphin right in the first chapter of High Speed which probably had something to do with his spirit animal choice.

HonorableShadow wrote:

I always thought that Haru's secondary animal (a kite bird) was more suitable for him. It seems to get more use in the anime too. He's always looking out the window at that bird and when he found his dream, it looked like he had wings. There was a shadow of the bird flying over the pool in the OP - plus when he was a kid, Rin described him as being like a water bird. Iwatobi is also a kite and Haru likes him a lot. I can see why they wanted to go with a marine animal over a bird, but sometimes I wish they had just stuck with the bird imagery.

Haruka also gets compared to a water bird in HS and in both cases his 'elegance' is highlighted.
Is Iwatobi-chan supposed to be a kite? I had no idea, I thought it was a penguin. Granted, it's not easy to see as its anatomy is a tad...strange.

OnlyInThisLight wrote:

We need more swimmers.  We need a stoner sea turtle distance swimmer, a speedy little badmouthed barracuda, a gorgeous and powerful leopard seal, and an androgynous sea horse.

This. It may happen with the novel boys in the movie.

Ai could have been a sea horse. It'd be better than a duck.

Oh, I see! Samezuka-chan is easily recognized as a shark but it's a bit difficult to see just what Iwatobi-chan is supposed to be by just looking at it. This reminds me of Haruka's love for mascots, he was really excited about Shimashima-chan in the drama CD. The sand cake was a really adorable moment, too.

If Haruka were an Idol he'd be like Kasuka from Durararara except less dedpan.

And speaking of the wonderful Iwatobi-chan, this figure cracks me up:



If Iwatobi-chan became real I bet Nagisa would really jump on its back and go 'yahoo!'.

Rather than Rei on a butterfly I'd rather have Rei with actual butterfly wings. He's fabulous enough to pull it off, complete with super dramatic posing along with the fluttering of rainbow colored butterfly wings. The more I think about it, the more sense it makes.

Today I had the pool all to myself (due to some problem there was no hot water in the showers and the pool water was rather cold as well so everyone bailed out) and had some delicious mackerel for dinner. I'm turning into Haruka.

Nocturnalux wrote:

Rather than Rei on a butterfly I'd rather have Rei with actual butterfly wings.

He's fabulous enough and he knows it.


Found this randomly...

I'm starting to ship Makoto/Gou. He's a sweet guy and she doesn't mind it when he calls her Gou-chan. Maybe I'm just a hopeless romantic, but I see potential.

YamPuff wrote:

Nocturnalux wrote:

Rather than Rei on a butterfly I'd rather have Rei with actual butterfly wings.

He's fabulous enough and he knows it.
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i232/ … g~original

Found this randomly...
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i232/ … f~original

LOl, this, so much! But what's with the swimsuit, show some skin, Rei! Oh well, Nagisa can easily persuade Rei to even put on a bikini.

This reminds me of a crazy fan theory about how Nagisa is calling the shots on everything. It was Nagisa who first wanted to bring back the school's swimming club, it was Nagisa who wanted Rei to join the team and even as early as HS it was Nagisa who managed to convince Rin into letting him join the relay.

I have no het ship for this except maybe one sided Aki for Haruka.