#haru missing rin

RinHaru scenes of Haru missing Rin in High Speed! Starting Days

Okay but I’m really trying to understand how anyone can watch Starting Days and not see RinHaru all over it?? Haru can’t help but constantly react to anything pertaining to Rin, and Rin isn’t even in the same country as him, let alone in the movie like that.

And again, I will reiterate: this is the Rin who was only in Haru’s life for 3 months MAX. And look at how much of an impact he has on Haru’s life.

MH stans will try to claim this movie as the “mAkO/hArU” movie…but like, sis…

the entire Starting Days movie is Haru being hung up on Rin and trying to (not-so-successfully) get over him.

Not discrediting the mako//haru in this movie because The Pool Scene was so sweet and precious, and Makoto’s inner identity conflict had strong ties to Haruka and was so important for both their friendship and Makoto’s character growth (it was much better in the novel, though, and I wish the movie added the depth of his conflict that the novel had). But I’ve seen too many people use that scene to try and distract from/drown out how the major conflict of the movie was that Haru was so hung up on Rin, and the fact that he struggled embracing a new team because Rin was not there. I hate to say it, but it didn’t matter that his best friend was there—what kept Haru struggling swimming relays, struggling emotionally, and struggling to accept being part of a new team was the fact that Rin was gone, that Rin had “left him” (and not only just left him, but moved to a totally different country 4,000+ miles away).

This drives the main conflict within Haru and therefore the story as well. Of course there are other conflicts that come together to drive the story, but if Rin had not left the picture, we wouldn’t have a sad and angry Haru who must overcome his resentments and embrace his new team. This is why Rin being gone and the effect it has on Haru is the driving conflict of the movie. I mean, the poor boy hallucinated Rin swimming towards him in the relay practice, then proceeded to fall apart while swimming his best (and only) stroke. 

No one can honestly deny the impact Rin left on Haru’s life, especially emotionally. Haru isn’t an emotionally expressive person—especially when he was in elementary and middle school—yet when it comes to Rin, Haru can’t help but react. And throughout the movie we see him constantly and visibly reacting whenever anything remotely related to Rin Matsuoka is mentioned.

“Things Haruka reacts to: water, swimming, mackerel, and things relating to Matsuoka Rin.”

—Shimazaki Nobunaga-shi, Spoon Magazine