Free! Eternal Summer Episode 6--Racing Happens

I feel like I am running out of things to say about Free!


Last year, writing these posts was easy, since I had so many thoughts on every single episode. This time around, it feels like I'm reaching every week. It's not that I love the show less; it's just that there's not much to speculate on with the current pattern. Almost every episode so far has been pretty self-contained--a problem is presented, some tension happens over it, and then the problem is resolved. There's nothing wrong with that, and many anime use this exact pattern, but I'm having an increasing problem with the fact that the tension in Free! Eternal Summer doesn't really deliver.


For example, this episode is Haru and Makoto's episode, and the preview made it look like there would be some conflict in their relationship. Most of the "mystery" in this episode comes from not knowing what Makoto asked Haru in the opening. The time is padded out by switching the focus to the races and the friendly rivalry between Iwatobi and Samezuka, but that connection doesn't seem like it's going to come to head until later this season (or maybe even in the next episode?). When we get back to Haru and Makoto, we find out that Makoto asked Haru to swim seriously against him. There was an excellent opportunity here to bring out the themes of planning for the future and becoming aware that this is their final chance to race together that this season has been hinting at.


However, the result feels like they just skimmed the surface of an iceburg. There was a ton of potential to mine here about Makoto feeling like he was being left behind, or even to discuss his conflicted feelings about why he's racing in the first place. Instead, we get some hand symbolism that could mean any number of things, Makoto saying "I lost! :D" to Haru, and then dropped the subject. I'm hoping that this comes up again later or something, because I feel like Makoto didn't really get his due here in favor of returning to the way things have always been.

I really think that this needs to be examined a bit more

I turned this general complaint into a bit of a joke with my post title last time, but none of the problems so far this season have actually threatened the status quo. We know due to television and anime tropes that Rei and Nagisa won't actually quit the club, for example. However, we go along with the plot for entertainment's sake, and I'm not saying that every episode must put the viewer at the edge of their seat. There are ways to present a setup that won't really threaten the status of the show and still make it fun to watch--for example, by increasing the focus on humor, like in Rei's episode. However, Free! seems to want to have it all, but it's not as good at convincing the audience to invest in its drama. That's partially because this season refuses to follow through on situations that would change the status quo, i.e. the makeup and relationships between the club members, ignoring the fact that this is their last year.


Before I get accused of expecting too much from a homoerotic swimming anime, I'd like to take a second to remind everyone that episode six of the first season dealt with the aftermath of Makoto almost drowning, and had a ton of character development packed in to boot. To use the same argument about tropes, I knew that the show wouldn't kill off Makoto, but the show successfully convinced me to be scared for him anyway. I think it's fair to say that this season feels thin compared to that.

The first season was about 1) establishing the status quo (getting the club together), and then 2) tearing it down (dealing with Rin's drama). This season, so far all we've had is...business as usual. None of the problems the characters have faced so far have felt like genuine emergencies, yet the show still treats them like they are. Free! has pulled off convincing character drama before; why hasn't it been able to in its second season?

I don't know, maybe I can just spend the rest of the episodes crying over Rin.

MY HEART

At this point, I'm hoping that whatever beef Sousuke has with Haru will be enough to kick the second half into gear. He's still the outsider here; maybe he'll be the starting point in the discussion about what they're going to do after high school, since Sousuke's entry into a professional competitive career has already been decided. There's a lot of stuff that the show could cover. It's just getting frustrating watching it ignore all of that.

Well, that explains why we didn't see Nagisa's parents last time. They're background people!

Images from Crunchyroll.com.