Free! Eternal Summer Episode FINAL - The Eternal Summer of Beginnings!

Finally, after so very long, we come to the end of Free!.

I imagine this may somehow NOT be the last we see of this series. But it may be the last that we see of this series here on this blog.

Then again, who knows? If there's one thing that should be blatantly obvious by the shows I've talked about here so far, it's that I am downright crazy.

Let's do this!

Today's episode begins not on a bus... but on something close enough to it.

Well at least we have an idea of why they're here.

Haru and Rin get off the plane, meet up with Mako, and there's an awkward silence as Haru gets all bashful and shit when Mako welcomes them back home.

They immediately head out to the pool where the other couple is having a wonderful time getting used to the pool.

Whatever you do, do NOT take this out of context.

Then they look at the time, and realize Mako should be back with their buddy soon. Time to get out of the pool and wait Rei why are you getting all weepy and crap in the pool? Of course Nagi thinks Haru will feel better why wouldn't he I mean HE WENT TO THE MAGICAL WORLD DOWN UNDER.

Outside, Mako is telling the other two about how they all came out here today to prepare for the big showdown in two days. Rin heads off to meet up with his team, but Haru has to say thanks first before that can happen.

Also this entire time they've been slow-rolling credits, so you know what that means? No intro. While I am kind of sad, on the other hand it is kind of the last episode, so they're doing everything they can to pack every little bit of extra extra-ness into it they can. Because unlike some other f***ing shows I might be watching this week, these guys actually care.

So finally the team is all back together, everyone's glad Haru is back, Rei was worried blah blah Haru is sorry. So let's get to the intense resti- oh Haru has something important to say? Oh.

Haru says that he didn't really care about anything, but that Rin is going for the International stage to achieve his dreams. Haru, on the other hand, has been asking some very serious questions of himself.

It only took you 24 episodes to ask yourself what you won't do
in order to swim. Stark contrast to the first episode.

He reveals that he isn't like Rin, and doesn't really feel strongly about swimming, at least like Rin does. He's not a huge fan of the whole winning and losing bit. Which is part of why he suddenly did a 180 and became a complete brat for the last half of this season.

*sigh* I'm not going over how stupid this is again.

Now that he's gone to Australia though, Haru has discovered that suddenly he wants to competitive swim and giving his all. Because... of his dream? Which is... what exactly? I mean it's nice and all that you realized the world is a big place and all that but uh... you're not making a whole lotta sense here. Ah well.

That's a word for it, he and Rin totally shared a bed together.

Then Rin shows up at his team, asks if anything's dif-

I got you a knuckle sandwich. Two, in fact.

The kid is placated by an authentic Australian boomerang. Which to be fair is kind of an awesome thing. I was given one of those by an Aussie friend a long time ago. Some things, you just hang on to.

Shame he didn't swing just a little bit harder.

Oh but where's Sousuke? He's off doing other stuff I guess. Which means its time for Haru and Mako to have a talk about the things Haru said before running off to another country with some other man. Mako feels bad for not telling him earlier, and how he just doesn't think he can compete in the world of swimming, and instead chose to pursue college.

Of course after teaching kids how to swim, he's got some different ideas now. After all teaching that one kid really changed his outlook on things. He wants to teach other kids how to swim. Which is why he's going to Tokyo to become an actual teacher.

Now we get to see Rin has stripped down and is limbering up, and Sousuke shows up to admonish the orange brat some more about how he needs to tighten the f**k up. Hi Rin sorry I'm late welcome back blah blah time for a boring conversation about how the trip was totally worth it. The other team waves at them as they chat idly, and now it is evening. Which means its time for dinner with the girls!

The teacher even says that since she's paying, they can order whatever they want.

Nagi, anybody tell you that you're kind of a dick?

After basically ordering everything on the menu and a few things that probably aren't, she stops him, yanks the menu away, and declares that he's not getting the lobster.

"Yeah he went off to a magical place with my brother."

Then, I think for the very first time, Ms. Ama sees Haru smile. I know he's smiled a couple of times but I don't think anyone else has ever seen it, so it kind of shocks the hell out of her.

Now the boys go and walk off all their energy and talk about what a fatass Nagi is going to become. They stop to look out at the water, and reminisce about how the show started.

Oh, so I'm not the only one that remembers this. Ha!

Thanks to the others, Rei was able to learn to swim and make it this far, and thanks to Nagi, they actually got this thing started and wait are they just going to rehash all of their character growth segments real quick? I mean it kind of makes sense but... I dunno it comes across as a bit awkward to talk about. Though they do make a good point: Nagi really did a lot of the work putting this thing together. He convinced the others to start a swim club, got Rei to join, and has continued to basically be a pain in everyone's ass in one way or another.

Everyone's come a long way. But they're also thankful to Rin for being a dickass the entire first season, and getting them to swim together. I guess.

Man they really are just recapping all the stuff that happened last season. Good god. But then Rei lays a sobering truth on Nagi - after the tournament, it's just going to be him and Rei.

The moment Nagi realizes he'll have Rei all to himself.

But Rei is the first one to start crying because he's a big baby, which gets Nagi going because he wants to keep swimming with the others forever.

Subtly insinuating there must be a third season.

They have themselves a nice cry while Haru and Mako just kind of look on dispassionately, and how they should be more like men but instead they just want to act like children. But hey, forget about all of that future stuff, because tehy are connected through SWIMMING. So it's not the end. ITS NEVER THE END WITH SWIMMING.

That would have been a nice place to end the episode but somehow they've got like another seven minutes to fill, at least, so off to the big finals! With some unintentional hilarity ensuing.

Seriously that bird is a damn work of art with how crappy it is.

And then, we see the team walking down that hallway, towards the light, jackets on their back, wondering if they'll see something new today.

Finally, we get to the point of this entire show. Young men jumping into pools and getting their muscles all wet. THEY'RE OFF. Cue the montage with Mako seeing some amazing blue sky and swimming with the dolphins or some shit.

Oh. Okay....? Nagi's off and he gets to doing his thing, when he too begins to trip all of the balls.

Seriously bro, you really should have laid off the Kool-Aid.

After leaping into the sky with his whale pal, Rei dives in, and he also starts hallucinating. With penguins.

"Dude, the f**k are you doing in our hallucination?"

I'm really not sure why everyone is suddenly tripping balls, but Haru is off now, just beating the ever-living hell out of that water, and it turns into butterflies that explode into a vortex and... wait why is the rest of the team suddenly swimming with him? THIS MAKES SO VERY LITTLE SENSE. I MEAN YES THEY ARE FRIENDS AND STUFF BUT WHO ACTUALLY SEES THAT KIND OF CRAP?

But they finish the race, and it's like Haru is suddenly a SWIM GOD. They finish the race, and the team has a little cry, including Haru. Meanwhile, Rin is standing off to the side going "well shit."

Speaking of Rin, he... is suddenly asking the rest of his team who is a bad enough dude to challenge him? And it's time for them to prepare to reform and become a new, better swim team with new dudes and a not captain. Who is going to be... Nitori?

Sousuke later on looks out at the pool all sad-like, but Rin is all "bitch, get your shoulder fixed so you can swim with me." Which has a totally profound impact on the guy.

Meanwhile, over at Casa de la Mako, his little brother and sister are waiting for him to come home. He's late. And... I guess he's now living in Tokyo? Because he runs over to some other apartment, finds the door unlocked and oh god not this again.

"Seriously dude, like, every f***ing morning."

Mako says something about them being late for their flight... wait did we just jump ahead through time or something? Is that what's going on? Because I'm kind of unclear about that. But they get off the the airport, meet up with Nagi and Rei, and decide before they head off to Rin's they need to stop by the old swim school and bury a box with some letters in it.

Even their old coach is kind of wondering what the hell is the deal.

Y'know, normal stuff.

They plan on opening them a few years from now or something when they get together again so no peeking until then. It gets buried and... we go into the new outro I guess.

.... the f**k am I looking at.

Rin declares that he will show them the greatest sight that they have never seen before.

Okay, seriously KyoAni, how many times will you use this joke?

What is it they see, you ask? Well...

KyoAni wanted to show us they can do the Gurren Lagann thing
just as well as anybody at Trigger can.

So the boys all immediately rip off their clothes for a swim in the cherryblossom filled pool.

Now Mako is in class doing boring studying. And people are swimming and talking to Haru in the pool. And Mako is eating dinner with Haru and...

God damn it Nagi.

Somehow, they manage to sucker in some poor, poor schmucks into joining their club.

Gou is totally gonna rape you guys.

Nagi continues studying, that one dude's brother keeps learning to swim, and we see that the team placed 6th in Nationals.

Huh. Kind of nice of them to tell us this sometime after the credits started rolling.

People continue swimming, or looking out at bodies of water, or posing with some other bros, and we fade to black... only to see a roaring stadium full of dudes. Rin looks over at Haru, they grin, and holy shit that was in English OH SHIT THE SHOW IS OVER PSYCHE THE END.

Far as endings go, this one's not too bad.

Well... we're finally done. And thank god, it looks like we won't be getting any sequels. Even though they could totally milk it for that if they wanted to, I think they made their point.

THEY CAN TOTALLY F***ING ANIMATE LIKE NOBODY'S BUSINESS SO F***ING HIRE THESE GUYS OKAY?! THEY MADE A SHOW ABOUT DUDES SWIMMING. IMAGINE WHAT THEY COULD DO WITH A GOOD CONCEPT.

THAT'S ALL FOLKS. NOTHING MORE TO SEE HERE. MOVE ALONG. SHOW'S OVER. FOR GOOD.

POOL'S CLOSED.