Free! iwatobi swim club analysis

  I've been watching Free! Iwatobi swim club and I've really enjoyed it, there were some points about this anime I would like to share my thoughts on and you can comment on what you thought too, this is going to be riddled with spoilers but I did make a post about the show overall without any major spoilers but I think if you're interested you should just give it a chance and if you don't like it you can stop watching so there's no harm done.


I was watching the tributes videos and looking at fanart on the internet and someone on memebase said that evidence points to Haru being autistic because he: has poor people and communication skills, has an obsessive interest and excels in one particular activity (although he is pretty good at art as well as swimming) but as far as I can see that sounds about right and it would certainly explain a lot although I would say he has rather mild autism because he seems to understand how Rin feels and is feeling guilty about beating him in middle school, this isn't official of course but I feel it makes an interesting point none the less.


Another thing is this anime is great for shipping, I think it's because of the close friendships and the fact that they spend so much time semi nude together, I think the only relationship that will be made official will be Gou and the Samezuka swimming club's captain.
 I like that pairing because from what we've seen he seems nice and I like Gou, I think she's really cute, they are really the only pairing (other than the coach and the swimwear model turned teacher pairing) that seems to have mutual feelings for each other but at the same time I like the idea of her being with Haru.

Honestly I want to pair Haru with everyone, I want Haru to be with Gou because she swoons over him so much and he called her Kou!
She stated that she prefers to be called Kou but everyone else calls her Gou any way also they seem like a more likely coupling than Gou and any other member of the swim club.

It's true she swoons over pretty much everyone but Haru seems to be a favorite when it comes to ogling, I can't really explain but their relationship feels more romantic than her relationship with Makoto, does that make sense?
They just seem kind of awkward together, it's like when you have a bit of a crush on someone and  you're shy about and don't want to say anything bad and make them dislike you so you talk to them but not too much, well not until you feel more comfortable.
Maybe that's just me but Nagisa teases her too much and Mako openly criticizes her for ogling men, either way if there is something between those two it's probably unrequited on Gou's part as Haru is more interested in swimming than romance.

I also want to pair Haru with Rin, there was clearly some tension between Rin and Haru in epiosde 1, 8 and 12, they clearly like each other, Haru just wants Rin to be his friend again and for him to be happy and Rin doesn't really seem to know what he wants, he strives to beat Haru but he doesn't feel any better when he does and it's because he secretly just wants to swim with him and be his friend too and it was cool seeing Rin realizing this.

  I think Mako and Haru have a great friendship, they're just so close. Mako is so caring towards Haru, they are the kind of friends that are so close they practically live in each others pockets its so sweet.
They had an interesting moment in the first episode that seemed a bit over-intimate where Makoto pulled Haru out of the bath,he seemed slightly shocked that he was wearing swimming trunks in the bath which doesn't seem to dodgey but it implies that Mako was looking and worse still he was expecting him to be naked, maybe they're a little to close.

The more I think about it Haru only has eyes for water and nobody else will ever come close so, he even described finding a waterfall as a romantic encounter so maybe he won't have a romantic realtionship (well not with a person anyway), I hope that in season 2, which I guess they will make I hope they will cover a little bit of romance.


I think what made this so good in my opinion was the characterization and this anime is very character driven.

I think fiction is split into 3 groups; character driven, plot driven and world driven.
For any fiction to be good it has to be at least 2 of these for example:

Adventure time would be character and world driven because there isn't an ongoing plot, there is an on going theme and a history but that is more to do with the world it's self then an on going story, the world and characters are interesting and that drives the show.

A soap drama would be more plot and character driven because they are meant to live in the same world as us, it's meant to be familiar so the focus is on the people and their story lines.

Things like harry potter, and the hunger games have all 3.

Free! Iwatobi swim club is character driven and plot driven although the plot it's self is derived from the relationships of  the characters any way, I love the relationship of Rin and Haru, Haru and Mako, and Rei and Nagisa, the characters react with each other so well, it's almost like somone found a real group of people and modeled their relationships after real people, I loved that feeling as a kid watching cartoons like recess and ed,edd n eddy and feeling like some where in the world there must be people just like that, it's great writing.

I thought how each character represented an animal was cool, it was a bit in your face at times like Nagisa bringing up rock hopper penguins at every opportunity then being a penguin in charades and I don't think that was necessary there was enough subtle hints, I had no idea that Mako was a killer whale until the relay in episode 12, I liked the relay sequence in episode 12, it would have been so easy (and boring) to have had them simply swimming but I think how each of them had a fantasy swim sequence was cool and gave you something to think about, From the relay sequence you can interpret how each character feels and how they've grown.

Mako was relaxing in what looks like the ocean under a clear sky, this could show that he is relaxed and happy about having finally got through to Rin or it could show that he has overcome/accepted his fear of the ocean, I think it represents how he was scared of the ocean something he struggled with and wanted to get over it for the sake of the team and now he feels better about it.

Nagisa see's a dolphin, a killer whale, and shark and 2 butterflies.
The dolphin represents Haru (he is described as swimming like a dolphin, he has a toy dolphin in his bath and in the changing room his background was a dolphin.) Haru is an elegant swimmer like a dolphin, I also think his appearance is rather elegant too and out of penguins, sharks and killer whales he is the most elegant.

The killer whale is Makoto, I don't really see how/why they went with a killer whale seeing as Mako is a sweet quiet boy who wouldn't hurt a fly and killer whales will pretty much prey on everything, a killer whale might be more suited to to Rin but I guess sharks look intimating, maybe that is what they wanted for Mako something that looks cute but can actually be deadly like what Rin said episode 8 that he has a "rough dynamic stroke that leaves everyone behind." maybe he seems sweet and friendly but is a though opponent to beat, Interesting enough Makoto is tall so that could be why he was given such a big animal.

Rin is the shark, he is ruthless and quick.
He looks like a shark with his pointed teeth and a shark would seems like a natural predator to the other animals, I know that technically a killer whale could eat penguins, sharks and probably dolphins so the shark isn't really on top but I think that's the point. (I'm not saying that secretly Makoto is a bully or something.)
Rin is misunderstood really, he is angry because he feels guilty about his dad and he thinks that if his father hadn't had Rin he could've been an Olympic swimmer and wouldn't have died in a fishing accident and he doesn't know what he wants he just acts mean and like the shark isn't really that bad or maybe they didn't mean it like that, maybe killer whales have a different reputation in japan and he's just a shark because he's angsty.

There are butterflies in the sequence but if you blink you'll miss it, I played the clip back a few times to make sure and sure enough after the shark there are two white butterflies.

Butterflies represent Rei, during the swimming costume/changing room scene Rei has a butterfly for a background like Haru, Maokto and Nagisa who had a dolphin, a killer whale and penguins respectively, during the scene he tired on a butterfly swim suit like Nagisa who sometimes wears penguins on his speedos not to mention he also swims the butterfly stroke, I think he's a butterfly because he is interested in sports that looks beautiful and the perfect form and butterflies are very pretty, graceful creatures.
Butterflies can't swim and neither could Rei to begin with, they symbolise how he stands out from the group.

Rei doesn't actually swim in the end relay but he's in Nagisa's swimming fantsay probably because if it weren't for him they wouldn't be where they were, he's still apart of the team so he's still apart of the race.
 (metaphorically speaking.)
Nagisa's sequence concludes the fact he wanted to swim with his friends so had the idea for the swim club and now Rin is swimming with him his wish has been granted.

Rin's sequence is rather short and involves him swimming through the dark and into the light which I guess obviously shows how he learnt to love swimming (he had hated it for so long for not being good enough) he was enjoying it, swimming from light to dark shows the transition.

Haru's sequence involves him sinking in the dark depths of the water, hearing his friends cheering them on and swimming to the surface.

Haru for a long time has struggled with competitive swimming, he gave up when he beat Rin because he felt so bad about how Rin reacted he stopped, he still loved water but couldn't motivate himself to do anything serious about it, it's like he forgot why he liked swimming and has been sulking for years and letting himself go.
Now he worked out that he wanted to swim because of his friends and now he patched things up with Rin he could enjoy competitive swimming again, him coming to the surface was him regaining his motivation to swim properly.

I loved the end of the race when Rin hugged Haru, it was nice to see that they had rekindled their friendship it was such a happy ending even though they were disqualified, because of the win the samezuka captain put Rin on his relay team and it was nice to see they all remained friends afterwards, nice ending to a nice anime.