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  • Why are they having Rei, the least experienced swimmer, swim Butterfly?
    • As far as I can see anywhere, he himself has chosen to learn this technique.
    • I meant the writers, not the Iwatobi team. But having seen the latest episode, I understand Rei's determination.
      • In one way it does make sense as the butterfly is known for being hard mostly because it requires good stamina, impeccable form and precise timing... and given how methodical Rei tends to think anyway it sort of works. You'll also notice that when he was swimming the other strokes his main issue was propelling forward and the butterfly is known for being able to get the most propulsion forward when mastered properly. The writers did do their homework even if they were rather fanciful about it.
    • It makes sense. Rei's big issue with the other strokes is that, since he has a pole vaulter's body instead of a swimmer's, he's not buoyant enough to swim well. But his pole vaulting experience also means he has a huge amount of upper body strength, which the butterfly requires, so it offsets it a bit.
  • Why didn't Rin join the Samezuka team immediately when he transferred there? Considering that he wants to be an Olympic swimmer (unless that's changed, too), you would think that he would take as much practice and training as he could get.
    • He probably forfeited that dream when Haruka beat him, or else, didn't want to join unless Haru still beat him. It's shown in episode 2 that Rin is sort of bitterly depressed over losing even when he beat Haruka.
  • Why doe Rin keep saying that he only swims freestyle whenever the issue of the relay comes up? The relay is swum in freestyle in the first place, and even if they're talking about the Medley Relay, there's a freestyle leg. So him being a freestyle specialist is no barrier to him participating in the relay.
    • I think you mean Haruka. And I would assume that this will be revealed in later episodes, but my guess is that he preferred to swim alone, without a team ("free", as it were).
    • Because the whole point was that Haruka doesn't swim for competition, he swims because he likes to, so he swims "free". And joining the medley relay when they were kids was the only exception to that because, in the novels, Makoto asks Haruka to join the race since he would be afraid to swim otherwise (long story). Haruka never liked the idea of competitive swimming, but only did it for his best friend. So besides the one competitive swimming race he participated in when he was younger, he only swims freestyle simply because he feels free to swim whenever and however he feels like.
      • Don't forget that Nagisa being excited to be on the same team as Haru was what finally convinced him to join the relay. Haru was moved by Makoto's impassioned plea but he didn't say anything until later.
  • Is there a reason why so many of the boys names are feminine?
  • I don't know how much of a can of worms the ending still is, but but after looking at the YMMV page, why are the different views on the last episode considered Values Dissonance between Japan and Westerners? Aren't the A Friend in Need / Greater Need Than Mine tropes culturally universal? And caring more about the team than one's own personal glory is a common aesop in sports stories in general.
    • I think the issue is harmony vs justice. To use an analogy: imagine you've been saving up for a once-in-a-lifetime trip. You've worked hard for a long time, you've made sacrifices, but now you've got the cash and you're ready to go. However, right as you're about to walk out the door, your mother phones you in floods of tears. Her brother, who walked out on the family years ago, and whom you've never even met, is in hospital. He is in dire need of a life-saving, but extremely expensive operation. You're the only one with the money to provide for it. She begs you to make the sacrifice, fully aware that you will never have this opportunity again. Now, most would argue that handing over the money is the noble thing to do, perhaps even the right thing to do...but very few would argue that this is fair, that you should have to hand over your hard-earned reward to someone who doesn't really deserve it and has basically no connection to you. This is basically what happens to Rei. He was hijacked from the sport he was actually signed up for, he worked his tail off, fully aware that he was The Load, got up to racing fitness, showed devotion and respect to his current teammates (not the nostalgia-tinted versions of themselves that they're so hung up on), qualifies and...loses his spot to a guy who has refused any and all help offered, has sulked and snarled his way through most of the series, and who has now finally thrown all of his toys out of the pram. The message his teammates seem to be sending him is "you're only here to make up numbers - if we could replace you with Rin, we would." Remember, Rin not only took Rei's spot on the team — he cost them the whole competition.
      • But Rei suggested the switch himself, without anyone else asking him, and Haru asked him if it was really alright. If Rei was hijacked, he deliberately did it to himself. To make that analogy more accurate, your mother would be more hesitant after you offered your money and wouldn't have held it against you if hadn't offered. And promises to take you on the "once-in-a-lifetime" trip next year.
      • True enough — I'm just suggesting a reason for the sense of discontent (and remember, there's no guarantee that the team will get through the first round next year). As to it being of Rei's "own free will..." I suspect that anyone in his position would feel enormous pressure to be the one who "fixes" things. Would the rest of the team really have forgotten Rin and moved on if Rei hadn't made the sacrifice? Plus, it's a little jarring given that a couple of episodes ago, Rei who calls the rest of the team out on being so focused on the past that they forget the present, and yet he validates this way of thinking by prioritising the old friendship with Rin over the present friendship with Rei. For my part, I'm fond of both Rin and Rei...but I still found the finale was a case of the screaming child getting the cake over the well-behaved one. Rin's reaction at the very end was really heartwarming, but while he thanks Haru and apologises to his own team, we don't actually see him thanking Rei. I think if we did, the displeasure would be less vocal. The final shot of the relay, where Rei is looking down at the other four, doesn't help either. It doesn't look like a teammate looking over his equals — it looks like an outsider looking in. Perhaps that'll be a season 2 plot point?
      • Rei does call out the group for that, but that was when he still thought Rin was some sort of bad guy trying to mess with their heads by joining the relay. The second confrontation between Rin and Rei, where Rei got a better understanding of Rin, most likely had a part in Rei's decision. It wasn't just to placate Haru, and if it was enormous pressure he was feeling, it would be from himself because no one else pushed him to do anything. And Rin wasn't screaming to make them accept them into the relay, so I don't think that's an apt comparison either. He was even angry at first that Haru went to seek him out, and by the time he said he wanted to swim with them, they already made the decision. There have been interviews/notes that say that even if Rei wanted to swim with them, he still felt like a part of them during that relay and didn't regret anything. If it becomes a plot point in the second season, that would be pretty redundant because ever since Rei joined the club, the others have always tried to make him feel included. Why wouldn't he want to give back to them for that? And when he talked to/about Rin, he clearly had empathy for him. I think it takes away from Rei's decision by trying to frame it like he was pressured into it by his friends or any social mores, when it's more about how compassionate he can be and how grateful he is to his friends. Sure, people don't have to like the decision, but it's still important to recognize how it was being deliberately framed as opposed to personal interpretation.
      • As for Rin not thanking Rei, we see both of them posing happily in the picture implying he may have thanked him offscreen. And in the very next season, Rei goes to Rin for swimming lessons, where Rin tells him how he feels he owes Rei for his sacrifice. When Sousuke later asks him why he is going out of his way to train Rei, he tells him to back off because they might be from different teams but Rei is still his friend.
    • As to the Values Dissonance...as far as I understand it (more knowledgeable tropers, please feel free to correct me), but in Japan, the major emphasis in social situations is on "keeping the peace" not "taking responsibility for your actions." I believe there are instances of people who were undeniably in the right being forced to apologise to an attacker just to maintain harmonious relations (especially if the screw-up is senior to / older than them). Rin screwed up...but he never had to face any consequences that he didn't inflict on himself, because other people made major allowances and sacrifices for him. Most Western audiences would probably have expected some sort of comeuppance.
      • Responsibility also is important in Japan ("I expect you to take...") so I don't think that's it either. Those consequences that were inflicted on himself were the story punishing Rin. Should he have faced consequences that he didn't inflict on himself, like some sort of hamfisted Laser-Guided Karma that wouldn't do any better at showing him that he was on the wrong path? His friends just don't want to see him suffer any more, they know his suffering is what's making him a Jerkass and if they ease his suffering it'll all get better. If it was about harmony, that could have been achieved by just forgetting about Rin eventually. By episode 12, Rin would more than likely have disappeared again if the group didn't chase him down. It sounds it more comes down to if you're a more compassionate person (to a fault or not, you decide), which isn't exclusive to any culture.
      • Perhaps I worded that badly — what I should have said was that demanding that other people to take responsibility for their actions, especially if they are senior to you, is seen as a more extreme course of action — if people can simply "smooth things over," that seems to be the most agreeable path, since the other way leads to confrontation of some sort.
      • Demanding others to take responsibility is what I was referring to in that first part about expecting others to take responsibility. But honestly, if Rei has no problem starting a physical confrontation with Rin (with no apologies or backing down), how is Rei's choice at all about him being deferential to a senior? He certainly didn't care about smoothing things over then, and as mentioned above Rei had other reasons for what he did. I think the idea that the discontent perceived to be Japanese-Western Values Dissonance is more from not looking at the entire picture, as well as making broad strokes about Japanese culture.
  • Maybe this is just Values Dissonance, but the treatment given to the whole Kou/Gou thing just sits poorly with me. What's the deal with that? Is it a matter of respecting the name her parents gave her? As someone who's called by my birth name rather than my preferred name all the time, it's pretty hideous. But it just drops out of the story entirely without any explanation - she asks them to refer to her as Kou, they don't, and it vanishes. What the hell?
    • Well, there is one scene where she is going to correct them and gives up because it got tiring ("It’s Kou—ah, nevermind…"). From that moment on she just stopped asking. I think the whole "Call me Kou!" thing was more intended as Rule of Funny than it came off as; I believe Gou/Kou didn't actually hate being called Gou, she just didn’t find it to be girly enough (seeing as Nagisa and Makoto called her Gou and Haruka called her Kou, I’m guessing she used to alternate between both of the names or something when she was younger, so the former two boys probably didn’t think it mattered all that much to her).
  • Regarding Haru's home situation, is leaving a teenager to practically fend for themselves illegal in Japan? Haru mentions his parents only once and no one else says anything about their absence.
    • Haru can take care of himself, but it is sad how it looks like it has affected him emotionally.
  • Ok, Rin, I know you wanted to fulfill Sosukes wish and all and Sosuke insisted on it... but WHY THE HECK would you allow a severly injured swimmer on your team in a very important race, not only risking your teams' chances but above all the swimmers health? You are supposed to be responsible and all that and while I get why you allowed it from an emotional standpoint I would have really apprechiated you to use your brain too. ... Also, did Rin ever face any consequences? As I said, he's the captain, he's on some level very responsible for them, so... was he ever held accountable for that stunt by his school or did they just say "Well, at least he didn't spontaneously swap teams, so we'll let it slide."
    • You answered your own question. Sousuke insisted on it and Rin didn't allow him until the rest of the team chimed in. Viewers would have called him an asshole if he didn't let Sousuke join and you might have realized by now that Free is more about emotions than bothering by the book, for better or worse. My problem is that Sousuke didn't tell Rin that this was going to be a problem until the very last minute, with the reason being "because I knew you'd cry". That's nice and all, but didn't he realize he would possibly be causing even more problems for his friend when even lifting his arm was too difficult?
    • In response to the above, Sousuke only told Rin when he did because it became impossible to hide. Before he aggravated it in the elevator, his shoulder hurt and probably slowed him down, but it didn't stop him from swimming because he still had a fairly normal range of motion. He was convinced he could stave off being permanently broken until after the relay at regionals, and he didn't want Rin to feel bad for him or stop him from achieving the last attainable dream he had.
  • The real question we all want answered: why don't they have nipples?
    • Because nipples only exist in yaoi and this (sadly) isn't one.
  • For most of Eternal Summer, we see Sousuke twisting and stretching his left shoulder, but it turns out the injury is to his right. Is he not stretching the right shoulder because it hurts, or did the studio just forget?

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