Free! Eternal Summer Episode 11 - The Open Turn of Destiny!

Once again it's time to delve into the realm of anime that totally just doesn't want to admit what it really is.

... damn, I thought I had something way more witty to write when I sat down, but after fifteen minutes of cat pictures later, it's totally gone. DAMN YOU INTERNET! DAMN YOU AND YOUR INFINITE CAT WORKS.

... I will be so happy if that actually trends as a thing.

Hey guys, remember last week when our swimbros went to the National level to compete as a team? Well we start up with them going to school and being insta-celebrities.

By which I mean to say this one girl recognizes Rei and Nagi are in the swim club and decides to congratulate them in front of other people. That's a kind of celebrity right?

We are then treated to a nice little montage of people telling them congratulations, Nagi stands on a chair and proclaims they will be the numberest of ones in the nation, and Rei talks to that dude from the track team who probably had a name but I forgot because who predicted that dude would ever show up again? Definitely not me.

"Is that a gay joke because I've been hanging around Nagi a lot."

Then Haru and Mako show up and the baseball team is all "yo way to go" and Haru is like "man screw the winning thing" and nobody gets it which makes him kind of upset. Baseball bros think that maybe if they care less about winning they can win more too or something? Which is totally missing the point that I'm not sure even Haru himself is able to articulate.

Sure, it's not about winning for Haru, but that doesn't mean he doesn't care. However, winning isn't the most important thing in the world to him, which clashes with what most people would think. It's kind of a very weird thought process which I'll try to go into later, but for now let's just watch as Mako chases after the love of his life.

Or we could just skip right to the intro as Haru walks away, that works too.

After the OP, we see that the lady teacher is at the Principal's office listening to him drone on and on about how great it is that for once in their miserable existence as a school they have managed to get into the nationals since the Judo club twelve years ago.

... wow that is pretty sad.

He then tells her what a great job she's done.

Give yourself some credit. You did stay at a Holiday Inn
that one time.

Oh but then he brings up the whole Haru throwing the race in his individual thing right after being scouted and seems to not understand that it was basically an intentional thing. Which brings her to remind him of some old famous saying.

Seriously lady, I am getting really sick of your shit.

She chalks it up as him just being a teenaged kid under a super crazy amount of stress that he's probably not used to. I mean you know that kid lives alone right? Have you ever seen Haru's parents? Because I sure as hell haven't. So she asks him to cut the kid some slack, and now Gou is watching dudes swim while the old coach shows up with a bag of goodies to talk about how awesome it is they're going to nationals.

Then Rei notices that Haru isn't really swimming like usual, and Nagi goes all "man you like to watch him swim huh?"

Sure. His swimming. Whatever helps you sleep better at night.

Blah blah leave Haru alone he's a good boy and old coach tries to drown some dudes.

Now we get to see those guys at the other school where they talk about who is going to Nationals. There's no relay team, but hey that's cool I mean Rin has all the scouts knocking down his door now and of course his coach has to pull him aside to remind him about this.

He should probably start really thinking about his future, which causes Nitori to look at him longingly while talking to that other annoying asshole.

First, what is Nitori holding, and second, why do you need
all those kickboards carrothead?

Then Orange is all about "SUMMERS WILL NEVER END THERE IS ALWAYS TEH NEXT YEAR" and Rin is all "dudes what the hell get to swimming."

The Iwatobi bird team are all tuckered out from the swimming, but Haru decides that he's gonna swim a bit more. Without the others. Because swimming is THE ONLY THING THAT GIVES HIM PURPOSE IN LIFE.

Everyone else is kind of worried about Haru, and Rei wonders if maybe Haru not making it to Nationals is really for the best. After all, dude was really all about swimming "Free" the whole time, but now he doesn't get to swim freestyle, he has to swim in the relay. Is that really even the same thing?

Rei's theorizes that maybe they're all to blame for this change in Haru, and whether its a bad thing or not is besides the point - he just likes seeing Haru be 'free'. Because it's basically his only dream, but now he can't swim 'free', because he's swimming for some other people. Or something.

Then we flip back over to Rin walking in on his old flame getting dressed and is all "man you looked good out in that water son".

Eh close enough.

Oh and Rin got a letter. FROM AUSTRALIA. From a dude named... James Brown?

Someone thinks you got SOUL brotha.

Rin doesn't even bother reading it though, and decides to have a heart-to-heart with his pal, asking what he'll do after graduation. Get into the family business? Quit swimming? Man that sucks. But hey, Sousuke's dream came true so who cares?

Speaking of dreams ending, let's head back over to that other school where Gou talks to that one friend of hers whose name always eludes me, as she talks about how depressing the clubs seem after they lose every. F***ing. Year.

Well aren't you just a burst of sunshine.

But as they talk about how much it sucks to get older, they see Mako heading off to see the guidance counselor. And outside, Sousuke shows up to talk to Haru out of basically nowhere. For reasons.

If this isn't you taking him on a date to make up for being
a complete asshole the entire season, I will slap you.

Where do they go? Away from the front of the school... to the back of the school.

You could have gone anywhere. ANYWHERE. WHY WOULD YOU CHOOSE THE SIDE OF THE SCHOOL BUILDING THAT HE WAS JUST LEAVING TO HAVE A CONVERSATION ABOUT WHY HARU STOPPED IN THE MIDDLE OF THAT SUPER IMPORTANT RACE. WHY NOT TALK ABOUT IT SOMEWHERE NORMAL. LIKE NOT AT A SCHOOL YOU DO NOT ATTEND AND THAT HE WAS JUST LEAVING.

You can tell how important this conversation is by the way that the animators are lazily showing us just about everything but the individuals talking, instead choosing to linger sleepily over windows reflecting the sky, screaming "LOOK AT THIS WE CAN DO ARTSY BACKGROUNDS TOO!" The point Sousuke is talking about is that if Haru stops swimming Rin might stop swimming and that's just not even cool in his book because Sousuke doesn't 'acknowledge' Haru and who gives a flying f**k dude? You are literally some random asshole.

Is that what the kids are calling it these days?

He needs you, Sousuke says almost dreamily, perhaps with a hint of sadness in his voice.

Haru of course asks why this dude seems to give such a shit, and his answer is simple: He wants to see Rin on the international stage. Because he can't go there, so he might as well live vicariously through someone more talented than he is. But he sees Haru waffling, and decides to deliver his incredibly powerful speech.

Wait, that was your whole speech? Uh, damn.

Then Mako shows up to walk Haru home, surprised to see him just kind of hanging around for no reason, and they go along their usual sunset beach walk because that's what couples do right?

Two episodes wasn't that long ago!

Haru wants to know why Mako was around for so long, and he says that he wanted to talk to their teacher about stuff. Oh hey isn't there a festival coming up? They should totally see the fireworks together, which makes Haru perk up just a little. Though when they get to the usual parting of ways spot, Mako tries to talk to Haru about what they're gonna do after graduation, but before they can actually try to talk about it, Mako's siblings show up to tackle him out of nowhere because everyone loves Mako.

Dinner's ready and boy Haru can come too! Oh what, he's suddenly too cool for that? Well fine jerkface, go eat by yourself.

Then we cut to Nitori grabbing his roommate for some meeting, and we see that they're about to get a week off or something so everyone is going on vacation or some such nonsense.

Everyone at the meeting, Rin is all "you all got a week off, and then we get to nationals so you gotta be there two days early. Get some rest, be at your best, and don't do anything I wouldn't do."

Back at the mainbro pool, the pizza coach swimmer is supervising some swimbros under duress.

I'm sure he's more than happy to help you out in any way he can.

And then Gou slaps the boys with a spreadsheet of times, noting that individually they've been doing well, but together they're kind of sucking since regionals, so they had best step up their game. Short story: They're sucking together. As a team.

Then we see Rin lying on his bunk staring at that letter from Mr. Brown, which appears to have a ticket to Aussie land for some reason. Then Sousuke shows up is all "dude we should go", but before they can that annoying asshole shows up screaming at the top of his head for an actual reason.

Sorry, was the sarcasm not clear enough? I should work on that.

What is this gift, you ask yourself?

... yeah I should have seen that coming.

Sousuke grabs hold of the jar and is all "I'm gonna let this dude out in my backyard" while Rin gets a PHONE MAIL. ZOMG WHO COULD IT BE?

Shut up Ichibro plot things are happening!

Then we cut to a very rare scene of Nagi and Rei hanging out together. By which I mean to say they are practically goddamned inseparable at this point.

And then Rei said "oh thank god."

They talk about just how far Nagi has come about not really wanting to stop despite wanting to stop, and how he's gotten a lot less lazy, and then Nagi spies that phone strap Haru made last year. One of them actually managed to survive. My god.

You can't help but admit, it is actually majestically crappy.

They recount the time Haru did that just because he wanted to swim, and they wonder if they're going to get new members next year. But of course, they've made it to Nationals right? Sure Haru and Mako are leaving, but they'll find replacements right? But what will Haru do after school? They talk about how they don't like Haru looking so lost, and they're not sure they can stomach letting things end like this and resolve to talk about their feelings to Haru tomorrow.

Cut to tomorrow when the team shows up to take Haru to see some fireworks. In normal clothes since I guess they're on a budget or something?

So... no Metal Gear Yukata this year?

This is the perfect time for them to talk to Haru about swimming at Nationals. It's time to get all those feels off their chest and decide to let everything loose. Nagi and Rei think it's kind of a shame that Haru can't swim Free now, and they feel that's making him worse as a swimmer because he's only swimming for the team, and that isn't what really made Rei like watching him swim so much.

No, it's the thing about how Rei was inspired by Haru's freestyle swimming, and he just wants to see Haru swim free for the whole world, so that other people can also be inspired by it. He wants to see other people moved like he was to try to be as awesome as Haru.

Truly, Rei can think of nothing greater than for that to happen.

But Haru says he doesn't get it and walks off alone.

Eventually Mako goes to join him at the quiet place, and decides to lay out his feelings too, saying that he doesn't think that Haru can go on like this. Ignoring all of that stuff Rei said, Mako is concerned with what was said to Rin back at Regionals, about not having a dream. And being the totally kind of sensitive dude that he is, he's willing to support whatever it is Haru decides to do. But if Haru really doesn't have an actual dream, well that's just too unbearable for Mako to consider. He'd want his bestest pal to find a dream, to find something worth reaching out for.

That is generally how finding something works, yes.

Haru tries to go walking off again saying he doesn't give a shit and is totally fine with how things are, but Mako is not going to listen to any of that, grabs his arm, and calls him out on his bullshit. Because it's bullshit. It's bullshit, and Haru is lying because he may say that he's fine with things staying the way they are but clearly, that's not the case.

Holy hell. Is... is this actually happening?!

F***ING FINALLY!!!!!!!! YOU FINALLY SAID IT!

YOU FINALLY SAID IT!

YOU FINALLY F***ING SAID IT!

YOU FINALLY SAID THE WORDS I HAVE BEEN WAITING TWENTY PLUS EPISODES TO HEAR! THANK YOU F***ING GOD!

Oh my god this may be the single greatest day in all of anime. THE SINGLE. GREATEST. DAY. Also, ignoring the fact that they just keep randomly blurring out the scene to add DRAMATIC TENSION because THINGS ARE HAPPENING MAYBE. Haru gets all angry and pushes Mako back, screaming back at him about how everyone is always on him about finding a dream and stuff, but does Mako even have a dream? Isn't he just a hypocrite or something?

Calmly, Mako lets go of Haru's arm, and lays down some sick knowledge.

He's moving to Tokyo. Yo.

After delivering this bombshell of information overload, we quickly zoom in to Haru's face as a mortar sails into the air, exploding into what strangely looks like a heart-shaped thing.

It's very subtle, but the colors in this particular firework
really help to sell the image, in my mind.

Mako then says that he'd been meaning to tell Haru about this, but couldn't find a way to do it until now. But then Haru tells him to do whatever he wants and runs away into the ending credits.

I know I promised to talk about a thing earlier, and I will get to that momentarily, but I have to say I am actually amazed by this show. In one episode, they have managed to do that thing which absolutely infuriated me with the first season. And in retrospect, almost makes it somewhat ingenious.

F***ing KyoAni, does your genius truly know no bounds? I should never have doubted you, who were responsible for Endless Eight. I should have believed. I should have always known that you had a plan, and that this was it.

Which makes what I'm about to say, I hope, a very interesting take on some of the thought processes that should be going on here, and that I'm actually kind of happy I waited, since it's given me time to truly consider where I'm going with it.

I've come to think that for Haru, he doesn't care about being the best swimmer, or having the highest scores, or being famous for what he does. He's always just wanted to swim, to feel free. Swimming makes him feel this way, and swimming with his pals, well that's just the greatest joy in life. Recently, I think Haru has come to feel that he doesn't just want only that, but he wants to be part of the best team, not in that they are the best in the world at competing, but that they are the best of friends, sharing a thing that no one can truly explain.

He wants them to be the best team possible, by sharing these kinds of bonds. But he doesn't seem to understand that by doing so, they are also expanding their own skills and growing better too, meaning that they could well become world famous homoerotic swimbros that makes all the ladies fiddly bits tingly. That they can be best bros, and be able to live their dream doing it - or at least try to be.

At the end of the episode, however, we see not just the earth-shattering realization that Haru's best friend is leaving him - a fate truly terrible for someone who has no family. We also see that he can't continue to swim freely with the people who make his life worth living, and that upsets him.

In this one, single episode, KyoAni have managed to do something which I think will finally allow this series to become that which I always hoped it could be. Which is not something I can clearly communicate at this time, other than simply being something more.

I'm actually looking forward to seeing the end of this series now. There is no more torture for me. There is only the desire to see how it all ends.

... I think I'm mostly happy that Mako finally admitted his love for Haru. Even if he lumped the others in with him. That in and of itself is a momentous occasion, and I for one found it very cathartic.