It’s amazing how an anime about swimming boys can helped me to gain insights about myself and the life around me #WorldMentalHealthDay2021
Hi, um, so I just spent last weekend rewatching almost every episodes of Free franchise (you know, the reason you’re here in the first place). I really miss the infamous Kyoto Animation’s swimming anime and it was then the spiraling and binge-watching episodes started.
So, to respond this brain rot spiraling and to accompany my 24/7 feelings how badly I want to court Yamazaki Sousuke, I decided to direct half of my brain rot spiraling energy into writing a “4 life lessons that you can take from Free!”.
I spent my teenage days with Free so I feel sentimental every time I picked up this anime again. I feel like I have this huge bond with them since these handsome, 2D swimmer boys were there with me since my high school days.
The first season aired when I was in my sophomore year in high school, Eternal Summer (2nd season) was aired when I was a senior, and Dive to The Future (3rd season) aired when I was a junior in college. The airing time was so in-sync with my real life that it just strengthened the connection I have with this series even more.
This is one of the series that would take me back when I was younger and I could enjoy them as if I was watching them for the first time. So, props to Kyoto Animation team and the Free! Committee for making them!
In this article, I will also be covering some spoilers from the 2nd season onward, including the OVA and recap movies. If you enjoyed this franchise, I suggest that you also watched the OVAs and recap movies since they have a lot of bonus content and storyline! So, without further notice, here we go!
1. Its okay if you’re taking extra time to know what you want to do in life
My favorite scene from this entire franchise had to be when Haru and Makoto had a big blown fight in the Eternal Summer. I mean sure yeah, it hurts in the feels to witness the two bestest friends had their first, big fight. However, I have to say that their fight was very-well needed and it was very, very realistic.
All Nanase Haruka want is to just spend his entire time swimming, which is something he’s very good at. He wrote that he wanted to do “free” in his career path questionnaire, he didn’t care much about time when he swim, about winning, or about the opponents (except when he was racing Matsuoka Rin). Haru himself thought he was very content with that only. Or so he thought.
However, as he approaches his high school graduation, he was “forced” to know what he’s going to when he graduates. The pressure was even more intense during the qualifiers where he was approached by several university scouts and was heavily praised by the principal, saying that he was one of the school’s greatest pride.
Of course, this made him greatly uncomfortable, since all what Haru want is to swim for himself, not others. The pressure was too huge that at one point he even sabotaged his 100 meter regional race by stopping at the middle of pool.
This prompted him to have a huge argument with Rin, as Rin was frustrated why Haru would pulled that kind of stunt in a middle of an important match. When Rin asked angirly, what Haru dream was or what wanted to do in life, at one point Haru screamed out this line:
“What dream? What future? It’s you who cares about all of that! I‘m not like you! I don’t care any of that!” — Haruka Nanase (Free!)
It was until Makoto stated that he’s worried that Haru would be confused without any dream nor goal that made Haru even more distressed. This itself has already affected his overall and team’s performance. Deep down, Haru knew about that he himself wanted to have a dream or goal to achieve, yet the truth is, it is not easy to be attained.
And yes, finding dreams are hard and it is not as easy as “find your dreams!”
It also involves investing your energy into things that are still unknown, betting in yourself that it will turn well, along with the never-ending doubts playing whether you made a good choice or not.
When Makoto stated that he’s going to go to college in Tokyo, this made Haru loss at words. Makoto, who was described as someone who knew Haru inside-out and possibly, one of the person who helped him to be grounded, will leave him. At one point, Haru was silently frustrated on being left behind.
Haru was eventually asked by Rin to accompany him to Sydney, Australia. In a very spontaneous trip, Rin took him sightseeing to places that involves competitive swimming. Rin asked Haru whether he wanted to swim together with athletes and Haru was reluctant at first. However, he and Rin then walked into the swimming pool with confidence, as if challenging the fellow Australian athlete swimmers for a race.
This was when Haru finally reached an epiphany that he wanted to keep on swimming in a more competitive context. He decided to be more aware of his time and investing his time in growing stronger fitting for a competition context.
As I mentioned earlier, I watched Eternal Summer when I was a senior in High School, just like Haru. So, I really relate with what he was going through. The pressure to find a dream, to already know what you want in life, and all. I have to say that the conflict was portrayed really, really well.
Haru was feeling frustrated feeling left behind whilst his peers already know what they want to do after graduation and we may know what it felt like back then. In the end Haru still feel a bit reluctant to pursuing this competitive swimming path 100%, however he was determined to try his best to be really good at it.
However, when watching Haru slowly realizing what he wanted, I notice that the takeaway from Haru’s story is:
Finding what you want in life could be a messy experience. It will take a lot of time, energy, and effort. However it will give you an end goal that fits you so much and sometimes, it will be something you might never have considered before.
There are stuffs that could be found when you invest more time and energy in it, and stuffs that could only be found when you are willing to experience them firsthand, like what Haru did. Sometimes, you also needed someone to help you out on finding them out.
So, if you’re still unsure what to do, take a deep breath, and try kneading them slowly.
2. It’s normal to sometimes questioning the road that you were pursuing
The second one are still tied with the dream and finding what you want in life; but this time comes out from Makoto’s story. To be honest, I didn’t really like it at first, but then I experienced this dilemma myself and I found out it to be incredibly realistic.
Since the beginning, Makoto loved swimming very much, yet he couldn’t see himself pursuing competitive swimming after graduating high school. Then, Makoto found himself helping out Coach Sasabe on his swimming pool. He also began to learn how fun and fulfilling it could be teaching children how to swim through Hayato, Kisumi’s little brother. As a person, Makoto was already a caring, empathetic individual who’s great with children so it kinda made sense that he began to took huge interested in teaching children. In the end, he decided that studying sports education in an university in Tokyo.
By the time Dive to The Future rolls around, Makoto succeeded in getting into the Sports Education as a freshman and took a part-time job as a swimming teacher. However, he also find himself feeling confused and a bit in a dilemma. Makoto knew that he really like teaching children how to swim and the fun aspect of it, he felt like he wanted to do more.
One of the reason this dilemma appeared is because he spent a lot of time with Haru, Rin, Ikuya, Hiyori, and Asahi; his friends who took part in competitive swimming.
Well, he didn’t questioned it per se, but he did have second thoughts whether all he wanted to do is teaching children only or is there something else. The feeling became even more bigger when he met Misaki, a child hat he was teaching at the beginning of the OVA along with Haru, in order to assisted him winning a match against his rival.
When Misaki was feeling confused and anxious, Makoto would talked him out and calmed him down. Something that Serizawa Nao, his ex-upperclassman, take notice.
Makoto told about his dilemma to Nao as well and Nao, who used to be in the same situation as Makoto, asked him whether or not Makoto was interested in becoming an athletic trainer. Nao tried to point out that Makoto really cared for other’s well-being and performance, this being seen when he interacted with Misaki. Nao also said that Makoto seemed like someone who would try to bring out the best out of the swimmer, and is also willing to engaged emotionally with the athletes, along with motivating them. The takeaway that I could take is this:
It’s totally understandable to sometimes questioning whether or not you are pursuing the right track. It’s a sign telling us that we’re currently growing as a person.
As a human, we are continuously growing and developing ourselves.
We may learn new values and perspective as we meet new people, exposed ourselves to new problems and relationships, and experiencing something first-handed that may shifted or widened our perspective and understanding.
I experienced it once when I graduated with a degree in Psychology. Back then, I knew that all I wanted was teaching and doing intervention on children. However, it suddenly shifted as I found interacting with adults and helping them process their emotions and problems to be more fulfilling.
I used to think of it as a bad idea, however I was told that it is not necessarily a bad thing. I was then told that questioning the road that you pursued are normal and that is the reason why we must accepted that it could happen to us. Makoto encouraged himself to try learning more about what being Athletic Trainer really is and tried to widened his perspective about the definition of “support” that he could give to fellow athletes.
So, instead of rejecting the thoughts, try to navigate on why do I questioned it?
You can also try asking questions: What stuffs that happened to me recently? What are the things that I experienced lately? How long have this thought lasted on my head? to yourself. Try to write it down though as it could help you to navigate around it better, rather than trapping you in a never-ending rumination process.
3. Frustration is a Valid Emotion.
This one is also from the Eternal Summer franchise. (Yes, I love Eternal Summer with my whole heart). So this time, it’s about Yamazaki Sousuke, Rin’s best friend.
Sousuke was a very gifted swimmer and was destined to achieve high feat in swimming. He had the perfect swimmer body built, he’s one of the top 10 fastest Butterfly swimmers in the country, he knew the right techniques that worked for him in accelerating during race, and was accepted in one of Tokyo’s prestigious swimming school before transferring to Samezuka High on his 3rd year.
He had everything within his grasp but then, he lost them all.
Due to overtraining and repetitive use of his shoulder, Sousuke injured his right shoulder. It was so bad that he was diagnosed he couldn’t swim without damaging his shoulder much longer. He even need a surgery and tons of rehabilitation to go through in order to swim properly again.
Sousuke was visibly distressed, as he should be. He was really good at swimming and it was everything for him, yet he was forced to stop doing in order not to damage his shoulder even further. In the end, he eventually come to a conclusion to quit swimming altogether.
Frustration is an emotion that was breed through a gap between expectation and reality. And you’re there, trying to close off the gap with no avail.
Sousuke poured his time, energy, emotions, and soul to becoming a swimming athlete yet he received an injury. It would be totally weird if he feel glad or happy about it, the mathematics doesn’t added up. So, it is normal to feel frustration about it.
However, there are a lot of things to navigate through frustration instead of letting yourself to self-destruct (just, WHY, Sousuke). You can take a step back and breathe. Calm yourself down and try to look things in different perspective. When the matter was more serious, it could take more time to try navigating through the frustration, along with other ugly emotions, before reaching a conclusion on what you’re going to do.
I do think the Sousuke’s storyline was good and it wrapped the “medley relay is a support system” kind of feel that was keep being brought on as the franchise evolves. I also adore how through the relay, he eventually found himself that he loved swimming too much to just quit it altogether.
He remembered his dream again, before finally feeling content that he needed more time to make his dream come true. Truthfully, I just really want to give that huge boy a hug :(
4. Cherish your bonds!
One of Free’s running theme through the year is “the bond that you make, will last through life” and honestly, even though it was cliche, I really like the theme. The medley relay team bond of Haru-Makoto-Nagisa-Rin; Haru-Makoto-Ikuya-Asahi; Rin-Sousuke-Nitori-Momo; and Haru-Makoto-Nagisa-Rei was potrayed as equally strong, no matter how long years have passed.
However, the strong bond that they have with them didn’t stop the boys with creating even more bonds with new characters. It just warmed my heart whenever the finale episode rolled out and KyoAni would give us these get-together super cute photograph of all the main cast in one frame.
And it’s true!
Bonds are tricky, since for some people it was really easy to create yet hard to maintain; while for some people it was the vice versa. However, one thing that we could know for sure is that,
We all need bonds and connections with other people.
While we cannot entirely sure that all of the bonds and connections we make with everyone that we’ve met in our course in life to be better and everlasting, we can try to make sure to cherish the ones that are with us right now.
Some bonds could be severed or destroyed if you or the person chose to do so, and it’s fine. There are a lot of valid reasons to end a relationship, especially if that relationship is not healthy for the two of you. However, if the two of you really wanted to, you can build the bond back together again.
Just like how Haru and Rin tried to do together during the first season, or how Haru and Ikuya tried to patch things up in Dive to The Future.
You can patch things up a rough-up-patch bond like the one Haru and Sousuke had. The two of them didn’t start with a very nice start, with Sousuke had an explosive argument with Haru during their junior high school days, yet they managed to patch things up during the survival game in Samezuka’s culture festival.
It was a little awkward to witness at first, with them arguing on how to strategize. Yet you can see how both of them tried to give their best and conscious effort to become friends, and the OVA ended with Haru calling Sousuke with first-name basis, as opposed to calling him with his family name, Yamazaki. Sousuke was surprised but immediately followed suit, calling Haru with his first name.
In the end, you have the power to choose whether or not to cherish the bond that you’ve make throughout your life.
If the bond and relationship that you created are healthy and are good for you, why not investing your energy and time to cherish them?
Ask them out on a spontaneous outing, send kind messages or meme that remind you of them, hug them when you could, and just, appreciate the bond that you all created and maintained together. You deserved that and I hope you found people who will cherish you with everything they’ve got.
It’s World Mental Health Week, so I hope you can also cherish your mental health too ❤
Stay healthy, safe, and sane everybody!
