Free! Eternal Summer Episode 5--You Can't Quit When You're a Main Character

How could anybody say no to that face?

Here we go again

After Rei's episode, I didn't think that that the show would jump into another "someone might be quitting the swim team" plotline so soon, but here we are. Nagisa's episode takes a surprisingly serious twist, where he runs away from home and refuses to tell his friends why at first. Eventually he reveals that his recent test scores were so bad that his parents want him to quit the swim team (...Japanese sports teams don't have minimum GPA requirements?) and he decided to run away rather than try to argue with them on the topic.

If Trolling was a class, Nagisa would get an A+

We also get a little more of Nagisa's backstory, covering what happened to him in middle school. His description of studying so hard that he lost sight of the point was very relatable to me, and I'm sure it was for other people as well. That scene visually captures the feeling of pointless overwork as well--all the colors fade to gray, the quick flashes between test sheets for different subjects that end up blurring together, and the faceless people working just as hard for the opportunity to become a worker drone... I know the feeling, and I love Nagisa, so it was sad to see him worn down by that. And the episode is right in pointing out that the only cure for that kind of numbness is to find something that you truly care about to work towards, and for Nagisa that's swimming.

 
I'm also glad that Rei was the voice of logic in this episode as well. If Nagisa cares that much about swimming, then why would he give up on trying to explain to his parents how much it meant to him before he could even try? That also ties into my problem with this episode as well; we only get this from Nagisa's point of view. We never see his parents or get any further context into his home life aside from what he says. And from what little we do get about Nagisa's mom and dad, it doesn't sound like they're that unreasonable. They didn't push him to continue cram school when they saw how badly it was affecting him, and the fallout from Nagisa running away heavily points towards them just being worried rather than mad. If they were as hardline as Nagisa made them out to be, I doubt that this would've ended the way it did. (Also, as a sidebar--who texted him about his mom coming to get him?)


Overall, I guess I'm just disappointed that the true core of the conflict--Nagisa standing up to his parents--really happened off-screen. This episode would've hit a lot harder if we could've actually seen him interact with his parents, in my opinion.

Although, it's hard to stay mad when the episode offers even more shipping fodder.


With all that said, I'm starting to wonder if this season is actually leading up to anything. The character-specific episodes have been great, but when are we gonna see some rivalry? Last season's overarching plot tied into Rin's problems, but nothing like that has been going on in this season so far, even with the exception of the one scene where Sousuke threatened Haru. What happened to that?

I'm hoping that Iwatobi needing to go far in this year's tournament will put them at odds with Samezuka. They all have their reasons to reach for that goal, but only one of them can make it. Maybe this will start next week, but the preview makes it look like it'll focus on Haru and Makoto's relationship more than the races. Just no more "oh noes, what if they quit" plotlines, please.

In the meantime, I guess Rin's harem friends can keep themselves occupied by admiring his abs.


Images from Crunchyroll.com.