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| THIS IS AN ANIME ONLY DISCUSSION POST. DO NOT DISCUSS THE MANGA BEYOND THIS EPISODE. ---------------------------------------- This was more a refreshing episode. Lol, Gou still has that admirer after her. I found that almost cute. I like the built-up this episode though especially in regards with Sosuke. AND GO, the swim competition also under way. I like the efforts from both teams although Rin really did well. I can't say the same thing for Haruka though...damn. |
Stark700Aug 27, 2014 8:46 AM
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| Trying to shorten the time. Everyone, including the principal is happy about the main guy being scouted. They finally got to stay in a proper room. Miyata-san's character is finally in the team. Kind of switching pairs (having problem pair and worrying about friend pair) while having little talk. Scary dream about scouting = not free. That also affects in his swimming. Red hair guy is mad about his behavior, and also shocked about his sudden reply. So that guy's shoulder got worse with the hotel staff accidentally hitting him before. Suzuken's character getting excited when hearing about last year's relay is cute. Relay time + more red hair guy and his friend's memory. |
I ♥ Two Syaorans from Tsubasa RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE and TRC!!! |
| JFC... THAT EPISODE WAS PAINFUL..... Especially the ending with Sousuke Q _________ Q babyyyyyyyy //cryingggg SOMEONE TELL RIN HE IS INJURED!!! Q_________Q This is a show about swimming but it just gives me so many feels T ~ T Everything is a mess T~ T, Haru makes me want to cry, Sousuke's shoulder..... I cant live like this Q____Q //cries |
| Momotarou can't just contain himself in front of Gou! Haru's nightmare was a bit unnerving though I found it funny, especially how Ama-chan-sensei has a saying for everything! "You mustn't run away. You will only find yourself in a dead end alley." XD Sousuke still has his shoulder injury taking a toll on him. He should just come clean and explain his problem. That Rin though.. So friggin' fast! I wish they'd show us his time record too. But damn, Haru.. What's wrong man? He could've at least finish the race instead of stopping completely. *Sigh.. Well, lets hope he doesn't mess up again on the relay. Good episode. Sousuke is still in pain. I doubt Samezuka would win this time. |
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| All that pressure is getting to Haru. Sousuke is in pretty bad shape too. Makoto only came 4th in his race, the regionals must be tough. |
| I never thought that an episode of Free! could make me cry.... This episode was sooo good. Haru showing his overflowing emotions was great. DAMN |
| I feel bad for Haru. People keep putting too much pressure on him and Rin won't accept that Haru's reasons for swimming are different from his. Rin should be with his own team not having a go at Haru! :( I also felt bad for Sousuke at the end since he was on his own and in agony. He should have told Rin about his injury, but I guess Rin would have stopped him from swimming. I hope Sousuke will talk to Rin soon before Rin finds out about his injury from someone else! Overall, great episode despite all this pain. :'( I hope everyone can sort out their problems before the end. I'm looking forward to the relay! |
dkjijiAug 27, 2014 9:37 AM
N☆  |
| kay, i've had enough of rin ... finally something about haruka.. Finally... but then the next episode is rin-centered AGAIN... and they completely ignore makoto and the rest.. i didn't enjoy S2 as much as S1. very disappointed |
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| This episode was executed perfectly! I cannot begin to describe the roller coaster of feels it just gave me. KyoAni, please don't ever change~! |
| oh SHIIIIIIT. haru broke. :/ all the pressure got to him. i really liked how they handled the drama in this episode. and rin got some more screentime again!~ |
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| This episode, man... T^T That scene where Haru was being constricted by the water was damn near perfect in my opinion. It shows him not being 'free' anymore. And then that shot of him just standing in the pool, looking up, all lost... Hnnnnngggg, the feels... And we finally got to see him angry! I loved that he spoke up and went against Rin. It's like the feelings of the last few episodes reached a boiling point and exploded. By the way, does anybody know whether this season is going to have 12 or 13 episodes? It says 13 here, but I saw 12 on ANN and CR isn't really helping with their incomplete schedule. |
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| Good episode. Nice to see an episode centered more around Haru. I feel sorry for Haru, he's got so much pressure on him though seeing him showing emotions was great. |
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| Great episode! :) It got me a little tense. Can't wait for the next one!!! Looks like there will be incoming feels from the preview |
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| Evangelion-esque elevator scenes and trippy dreams, Free, is that still you? Aaaand Free! goes back to its worst part and that is forced angst and drama. Well, at least Rin is talking some sense this time, not cowering in the corner and blaming everybody for his own mishaps. |
| Awesome episode! So Rin did it, as expected. FUCK YOU, HARU PIECE OF SHIT. I can't hold my rage. |
| Damn he snapped hard there at the end, wtf. |
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| Such a dramatic episode. Was not expecting Haru to let all that pressure get to him. So when he stopped swimming I was like "whoa!" The Rin and Haru argument, just so many feels man. Great episode!!! |
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| Honestly I'm not sure if I like how Kyoani handles drama but this episode still made me emotional. Not as much as Nagisa's but still. It's really dangerous that Sousuke hasn't told Rin that he's injured, at this rate he's just going to make his injury worse (which is possibly how he got injured in the first place...) |
| Eh I personally don't see any problems with Haru stopping midway. I mean... it must've been a really freeing moment, to let go of all the pressure at the instant. If he really doesn't care about professional competitive swimming then *shrugs* it's not like he's gonna end up under the bridge. Mental health > scouts and university Sousuke though. |
| Haru is bad with pressure. I don't think its about him not going pro, its about people's expectations. You see every time he's scared of everyone looking at him, being the center of attention. He obviously has difficulty coping with pressure because he can swim fine in a team ^^' |
I I actually... Usually when I watch an episode, I'm ready to start writing as soon as it finishes, beginning my review as the ending track is playing. But for this episode, I just sat there, letting the ending continue playing, like some sort of background music as I tried to put the pieces together. And I realized that now, even the ending makes more sense than it did before. Every episode, I think that it's the one that's made the most impact on me yet, that there can't possibly be anything worse or anything that just leaves me as speechless. But this episode is the one to really destroy everything. I'm still trying to search for the words to say...because even though the preview was frightening, nothing could have prepared me for this. It's funny, I watched this anime because I wanted something lighthearted about a sport I loved, but this is a lot more than I expected. It's good. But I really didn't see any of this coming. "We need to worry about ourselves right now." This doesn't just apply to Iwatobi. Yes, Iwatobi needs to worry about themselves, not Samezuka, not Sousuke's injury. Nothing beyond sympathy. But I think this really pertains to Haru and Makoto. When he says that, Makoto is urging Haru to move on with his life, not to worry about Makoto being left behind or Rin or anyone else. Haru needs to pursue his own path and it's important that he figures out what he's going to do before it's too late. At this point, he can't afford to spend time worrying about anyone else. I noted that when Rin mentioned scouts, Makoto had that glimmer of hope in his eye. I don't know if scouts have contacted Makoto, but what I'm guessing is that even so, Makoto believes that he can't become a professional swimmer not because he's too slow, but because that would probably hold Haru back. Haru would always be waiting for him, and Makoto would never be the one to be dead weight. But this episode is all about Haruka. I knew something was terribly wrong when the dream began. It was...something I'd never thought I would use to describe this anime, but it was actually scary. Behind that quiet facade, Haru is beginning to crack under all the pressure. Everyone is urging him to go far, swim better, swim faster, impress others with his speed. But Haru was never about racing. He was about swimming. Swimming for fun, for peace, just because it was something he liked to do. There was no need to get competitive about it. Those words that his team might see as encouraging- "Go for it, Haru-chan! Swim fast!"- are terrible for him. They signify additional stress to perform well. For an ordinary competitive swimmer, those lines might be stressful because they they're under pressure to swim fast, indeed, but for Haru, it's more than that. Much more. For him, those words, like those threads that entangled him when he swum, pull him away from what swimming truly means to him. They defy his sense of who he is. It's often the most silent people who have the most emotions bottled up inside. It's not healthy, and eventually it'll result in something terrible. I know that well- I'm one of them. Writing is my outlet for it, but before, those emotions of sadness, fear, anger, all accumulated into something terrible and formed a monster- depression that haunted me for a year, and the constant thoughts of suicide. If I had found some way to let those feelings out, I probably wouldn't have had to go through that. I've worked through it now, defeated the monster, but I doubt that Haru has. He's starting to break apart at the seams, and this is when we see all of the emotions he's been having to deal with expressed in that momentary burst of anger, that slam against the locker, something so uncustomary for the usually quiet Haru that it sent chills down my spine. And even with that, I doubt it was a full catharsis of his emotions. Swimming is something that Haruka enjoys, but I don't think it helps him release his emotions, it simply placates the turmoil within him and keeps him content for a short while. So that's why I see swimming and Haru in a different way now. Maybe the swimming helps keep everything else drowned out, and that's why he wants to swim all the time. But when those emotions of fear and the pressure to do well invade into the domain of the water, there's no escape. That's when swimming doesn't become something that brings him joy, it becomes a nightmare. The water he swam in during his freestyle race was as dark as that of Sousuke's earlier vision. Now, what can he do? He's alienated by everyone. He doesn't know where he can be safe. He stopped swimming right after he dove off the starting block because when he was there, he realized that he's not swimming for the scouts because they're the ones who tainted the water, that made nothing left for a sanctuary for him. In a way, Haru has, even though he might appear stubborn at first, always been changing himself to please others. He started racing to placate Rin, and swam faster to placate his team who wanted him to be scouted. In the ending, he wants to be a mermaid, but he changes himself to be a cook because inevitably somebody must have told him to do so. Simple swimming was the only thing that really molded itself into his identity, it's the only thing that has really belonged to him. I sensed something distinctly cold when he addressed the rest of his team, after he spoke to Rin. And maybe, just maybe, he's now afraid of the people who are closest to him. |
 ［ ａ ］ ［ ｉ ］ ｗｏ ａｔｓｕｍｅｔｅ たくさん の あい お あつめたら ≽ tumblr ことば で きみ に とどけよう ≽ deviantart みえない きもち お かたち に したら ≽ last.fm こころ の なか まで とどく から |
| haru finally cracked under the pressure. because of all the expectations pushed on him and because he's not sure what he wants to do in the future, haru sees no other option than to run. however, i think him stopping halfway into the competition was probably a relief since it put everything into perspective for him regarding what he wants and what he doesn't. rin also should've realized that his reasons for swimming and haru's reasons for swimming are different. however, i think after haru yelled at him, haru's words will force rin to think things over because haru basically blew off any chance he had of swimming with rin in the future and rin needs to think about what that means. when haru told rin that he only swims for his friends, rin must've felt all kinds of awful since haru basically implied that rin wasn't one of those friends haru was swimming for and that he doesn't want to swim with rin any longer. it was a blow to their friendship even if haru didn't mean his words to sound that way. i'm starting to feel bad for sousuke. he's worsening the condition of his shoulder just so that he can continue swimming with rin but he has to realize that if he continues swimming carelessly he'll probably never swim again much less with rin. from next episode's preview it looks like rin might find out sousuke's secret. i can't see the relay ending well tbh |
orchidorkAug 27, 2014 11:31 AM
ElenirLachlagos said: SleepyBear said: So, if he's been scouted because he's such a good swimmer, but then can't swim anymore because of an injury... What happens then?It's really dangerous that Sousuke hasn't told Rin that he's injured, at this rate he's just going to make his injury worse (which is possibly how he got injured in the first place...) Well, I'm guessing that being scouted means that he's getting a scholarship in exchange for swimming for whatever university, so depending on how severe his injury is it's possible he'll have that invitation declined... The university probably doesn't want to pay money to an athlete who can't compete. But I'm not entirely sure, since shoulder problems were relatively common among talented swimmers on my old high school team, so scouts probably expect that sort of thing and just use their own judgement as to how long the swimmer can perform well and whether or not the investment is worth it. More importantly (at least, health-wise), sports injuries can stay with you for life. Well, I should say that all injuries of that nature do stay with you for life, how well you can manage with them depends on how well you take care of yourself, which in Sousuke's case would probably mean seeing a physical therapist and adjusting his training. But he apparently isn't doing the latter. |
| That episode was so painful. THE FEELS !! And Sousuke :X His condition's totally getting worse... I wonder how will be the relay. |
| eff this episode was so depressing ;__; |
| Gou's brother complex was over 9000 in this episode :P |
| Heated moment at the end there. I hope Sousuke's gonna be okay for the relay. |
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| This was a nice episode. The hotel they're staying at is really swanky too. I thought Haru might go pro, but i guess it's too suffocating for him, the opposite of freedom. It was weird that he just stopped. I found it cute that Rin got mad at him though. |
y123y said: This episode was about pressure: Sousuke with the physical pressure Haru with the mental pressure I agree. ^^ This episode almost made me cry. Everyone's gasps when Haru stopped in the middle - just omg The pressure finally got to him. Sousuke's shoulder too. If he doesn't do anything and keeps going, it's just going to be way more painful in the end. |
 "Later on, you will become a lively person causing headaches as the shrine-god." |
| SHISHJDFHDJSAH The Tension!!! This was too much for me... Makoto in the shower scene... All the pressure on Haru made him snap... Hearing him yell at rin was just uber awesome and so depressing... You will find your dream Haru! >///< |
  爆ぜろリアル！ 弾けろシナプス！ バニッシュメント・ディス・ワールド ! |
| Haru ;-; Sousuke ;-; Rin ;-; that was emotional |
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| Momotarou's a lovely character, always happy to see Gou. And Haru doesn't finish because he doesn't like the idea of being scouted. He could just refuse... |
| Did they really need to pull the losing from doubt/hesitation/whatever crap here? Seems like a loss with no point to it. |
| I feel you there, Haru. Been in a similar situation as that. Like he is literally me now that i think about it. And Sousuke is in so much pain as well. Such a dramatically engaging episode, just amazing... |
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Silver4000 said: Momotarou's a lovely character, always happy to see Gou. And Haru doesn't finish because he doesn't like the idea of being scouted. He could just refuse... it's not about being scouted. it's about the fact that lots of people have high expectations of haru and therefore are putting pressure on him. he doesn't want to be scouted and doesn't want to go pro but he's being pressured to do it and the way people are pressuring him it's like he doesn't have a say in his own future. he's basically drowning from the pressure as shown in the episode |
y123y said: If Sousuke tells Rin, then Rin will pull him out of the relay. And also, Sousuke has already been scouted and he has already accepted an offer. If they find out that Sousuke is hurt, then they might even pull away their offer. i think people are going to find out regardless of whether sousuke's anyone. idk if sousuke's shoulder was supposed to be actually red or not but if it was, when he goes out to compete everyone's going to notice his red shoulder. since shoulder injuries are not uncommon in swimmers people are going to have a decent idea as to what's going on with sousuke. even if his shoulder wasn't red, rin and the audience would definitely know that sousuke's injured since it doesn't look like he can hold out much longer |
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