Free! Eternal Summer Episode 13 (Final Thoughts)--For the Future

I bet you thought I forgot about this post!

Free! Eternal Summer finished airing one year ago on today’s date, but it feels like much longer than that for me. Not because I missed the show (although I do), but because a lot has happened in my life during that space of time. I wasn’t able to finish this post a year ago due to the fact that I had just started a program to get my teaching credential, and ended up massively underestimating how much time my last year of school would take away from my hobbies. However, this was one of the posts that kept tugging at the back of my brain, and since I’ve long lost my notes for how I originally planned to write this, I started over from scratch.

And by “scratch,” I mean I rewatched the entire series again. Both seasons. A nice little marathon for myself while I get back into my work schedule. And to be honest, I was expecting to feel some distance from Free!. I’ve long left the fandom in favor of my Attack on Titan obsession; I used to watch each episode of Free! multiple times when it came out, but I only saw this final episode once, a year ago. I used to scour Tumblr for fanworks, but now I do that for Attack on Titan instead. I wasn’t sure if I would feel the same way about Free! as I did in the past, or even be as invested in the characters as I was before.

But I was wrong. In fact, I think I might love Free! more now than I did a year ago.

The final shot of Free! is what I feel the show is really about: reaching for your future, whatever that might mean for you personally. The show opens with Haru reciting a dismal saying: “When you're ten, they call you prodigy. When you're fifteen, they call you a genius. Once you hit twenty, you're just an ordinary person.”. All he wanted to do was swim; he couldn’t wait to be “ordinary” so that the people around him could leave him (and his water) in peace. However, over two seasons Haru realizes that what he thought he wanted isn’t good enough anymore. In the final episode, he says that he’s going to start caring about winning because doing so will help him move towards his new dream, to compete on an international stage.

Despite the frequent silliness that Free! indulges in, it’s not a show about fanservice, implied BL, or how many fans Funimation can upset with a single dub trailer. It’s about the journey towards finding your passion and pursing it, and it shows all the different forms that journey can take through its cast of characters.

From being a prodigy

Or following an inspiration

To learning what you don't want your life to be like

Or even discovering that you want to help others

To just having fun

Or giving it your all

From realizing what you truly want from your dream

And finding a rival to challenge you at every step

Starting on a journey to either find or pursue your dream is a beautiful thing.

Parts of this episode hit me a lot harder than they did a year ago. Part of that has to do with Makoto’s arc in the second season where he realizes that he wants to teach. Makoto’s reasoning is similar to mine, although I have my credential in English, not for teaching swimming lessons. There’s something amazing about helping a kid accomplish something that they thought was impossible, and watching them grow from that point is amazing as well. Makoto has a great combination of patience with children and skill in his field to be a successful teacher, so I love this arc to pieces.

The other part was the comparison between the part of the episode where the characters talk about how far they’ve come versus the epilogue moments that show how things continue on. When I first saw this episode, I thought that first part was just padding for time. Now, I think it fits in nicely with the theme of the season.

Part of following a dream also means to embrace change. Things can’t stay the same forever, and pursuing a dream means growing and accepting that you can’t stagnate until you are at a place where you are comfortable with your life and your progress. It’s not always easy, and sometimes it comes with a lot of tears, but the growth that comes from that change is worth it. This last year was really difficult for me for that same reason, but even though I’m still working on my path to my dreams, I know that pushing forward will pay off. I think Free! captures that feeling perfectly.

On the other hand, MY BABIES ARE CRYING. SOMEONE HUG THEM

Also, success doesn’t necessarily mean standing at the top of heap. In a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, the show reveals that despite the parallel from the relay at the end of the first season where the group took the top spot, they didn’t win nationals. They came in sixth—which is still incredible, but I like the underlying message that winning it all was never the point. It was about swimming together as friends who mutually inspired each other.

Also my Reigisa shipping googles have not and will never come off

The show also does a fantastic job of providing an endpoint while still staying true to its message of “nothing ever really ends.” I have no idea how Rin got the approval to open the pool ceiling to let cherry blossoms into the pool, but it puts a nice capstone on everything.

I love Rei's concerned face. "GUYS IT'S STILL TOO COLD FOR THIS"

Their future is bright—getting to nationals nets Iwatobi new swim club members, Makoto goes to school to get certified, and Haru and Rin are getting closer to meeting at the international stage.

But there are some things that never change

I hope that all of my rambling in this post has made sense. Free! has meant a lot to me over the past few years, and now it means even more in light of my personal experiences. I’m still crossing my fingers that someone might bring the prequel movie over here for a convention premiere, but otherwise this is a great stopping place for the show. I started watching it out of curiosity of what an anime show show made by a majority female staff for female viewers might look like, but I think that Free! became something bigger and better than that. I feel sorry for the people who have brushed it off for thinking it’s “too gay” for them, since the show is more than its implications and fanbase. Its a show about struggling to find your dream, and then struggling again to achieve it, and it pulled off that theme with amazing results.

While I’ve expressed strong opinion about some of the directions that the show chose to take with its characters in the first season and pacing in the second, Free! is a show that’s entered my personal Hall of Fame. I encourage anyone even a little interested in it to give it a watch—it’s quite the experience! Maybe Free! can encourage even more people to go after their dreams. Who knows!

But until the next time I write about this series, keep looking forward to the future!

Check out those parents

Images from Crunchyroll.com. Please support the official simulcasts.

~

Want to support posts like this one? Check out Subdued Fangirling's Patreon! Backers get to vote on which series I cover and photo previews on figure reviews! Thanks for looking!