#just interactions

just the interactions. during their training and after when they’re official idols/hunters.

like I had one idea of jinu and jae during their training days having to navigate the woods at night during a trial mission, and getting lost and jinu is stressing out and jae calms him down and they climb up a tree to get a better look of their surroundings.

and then, meanwhile beomseok, daeun, and garam are trying to figure out how to get through an obstacle course together. to varying degrees of success as beomseok and daeun are butting heads, and garam is just caught in the middle.

or a moment of the boys going out for dinner and garam not expecting to be invited to go, until the others ask if he wants to come and they all go to a restaurant and have dinner together.

or beomseok missing his siblings and parents, and jinu laying down next to him and having a quiet talk with him about families.

jae and daeun both matching each other's weirdness and energy levels. finding out that they have similar tastes in music and singing hard rock/metal together at karaoke.

I can see jae going "do you think I'm weird?" and daeun going "yeah, but so what? everybody's weird".

the boys learning how to read garam and his gestures, and understanding him even when he doesn't talk. and them being accepting of him helps him feel more comfortable in the group because he doesn't have to force himself to talk to be understood.

also garam subconsciously clinging or leaning towards one of the boys when he’s anxious. or when they’re in large crowds.

jinu getting his nails done by jae because its criminal that he is the only one in the movie that doesn't have any nail art. truly criminal.

also jae getting excited to finally do jinu’s nails and being all proud at the end when jinu says that they look good.

daeun finding out that garam is really good at doing impressions, and saying they should prank the other boys with it. and then hijinks ensue as chaos gremlin awakens another chaos gremlin.

beomseok and jae lowkey bringing out each other's playful and sassy energy, and just making each other laugh with the silly jokes they come up with. (my brain thought of them being kind of like game grumps in how they make jokes and laugh together).

add daeun to the duo and the sass just increases tenfold.

add all five of them when they’re on the same wavelength and you have them conspiring and scheming all while being goofy dudes about it (they all say “hehehe” like the menaces they are).

beomseok giving the other boys (mostly daeun) piggyback rides. or carrying all four of them at once.

and eventually, after a lot of training, garam becomes strong enough to carry the others too.

jae putting little clips and styling everyone’s hair during movie nights, or just when they’re chilling around their tower.

jae helping garam style his hair so that the right side of his face is always covered so he feels comfortable.

daeun looking jinu dead in the eyes after he notices that he’s getting stuck in his own thoughts, and going “you’re great, now be kind to yourself or else” and jinu thinks it’s the most intense way anyone’s ever cheered him up.

beomseok being the big brother of the group in that he’s always checking up on everyone and can be very caring, but he’s also a big jokester with them and teases them when he sees fit to.

beomseok and garam both cooking together and trying to make new recipes. and them both arm wrestling and being each other’s spotter when lifting.

jinu and garam both going to the aquarium together when it’s just the two of them on an outing. they both share a love of sea creatures, and both probably go buy one stuffed animal from the gift shop at the end.

the boys helping each other re-dye their hair. I wonder if they ever tried to convince jinu to dye his hair with them.

physical affection. I need to see it.

the boys being protective of each other.

the boys play fighting.

the boys sparring together with their weapons.

the boys hyping each other up. (such sillies)

all of them snacking together. (of course)

First thank you so much for those messages, anon! 

I’m barely on Tumblr anymore (seeing how much they ruined this website with unnecessary updates) but you can still see me ranting on Twitter. SouMako are still SO precious to me but not so much Free! anymore mainly because of what you’re explaining here (+ being into other anime/manga). 

Eternal Summer could have been a lot better with few tweaks and giving us more SouMako interactions indeed to show Sousuke that even if his dreams were over, he could find a new one with friends who cared about HIM and not swimming with him. This is why I hate Rin and Sousuke’s relationship. Rin is selfish, reminds him that he wants to swim with Sousuke, that this dream can’t be over yet, etc. He isn’t there to help Sousuke choose a new dream, he just keeps pushing Sousuke for his dream to be the one they had for about a decade instead of moving on like Sousuke is shown and support him. This was why I would have loved after episode 10 of ES to show Sousuke more with the others (and not just the Samezuka guys) to help him find a new dream. 

But ES by leaving Sousuke’s future open for interpretation was fine next to the mess that was Dive to the Future... I swear the backflip they did on Sousuke was annoying and painful to watch.

Instead of letting him move on, they kept on pushing him back towards being a pro swimmer again. Hell, that line when Sousuke asks Kou to not tell Rin about him starting to swim again after his therapy is such obvious that Sousuke knows his supposedly best friend would alreadybe deciding that Sousuke is going to be a pro swimmer if he hears that and won’t consider his feelings at all.

About Natsuya, he could have been a better friend than Rin like that, by talking about Nao, telling him to take his time like he did in DtF:

That line alone in TYM from Natsuya could have been enough, showing Sousuke that there is more to swimming than being a pro swimmer and then indeed meeting Nao (+ Makoto since they worked at the same place) could have helped Sousuke choosing for himself by being shown and not being pressured to do it. 

But instead, Natsuya is just a reminder of Rin that “hey even if you’re the one injured you have to get into swimming again for others and not for yourself” and then in Dive to the Future, it’s already too late for Natsuya to have a meaningful discussion about Sousuke’s dreams cause KA already decided that it HAS TO BE being a pro swimmer. His surgery is only shown as a way to be a pro swimmer and not to be healed from his injury... 

So yeah they forced Sousuke back into being a pro swimmer again by pressuring him and making him nostalgic but also never allowing him to have another dream on his own. Sousuke had been shown being such a good trainer and could have also been a therapist with his experience but instead, KA gave up on those ideas to shove him back into this although clearly in ES he was happy ending this dream with his last relay with Rin, after understanding how it felt to be connected as a team, etc. 

It’s such a lost opportunity to show other sides in sports anime. Makoto being the only one to be a trainer is such a ridiculous compensation but at least he wasn’t influenced by Rin (who I remind you guys also pressured him to think about being a pro swimmer without giving a crap about what Makoto was wanting, thinking, worried about, etc. )

Now I am hoping that somehow, Makoto would be Sousuke’s trainer. Haru and Rin already have their weird-ass trainers so I’m hoping that AT THE VERY LEAST Sousuke would be with someone that cares about him and helps him improve but also knows how to be there outside of the trainings so I’m hoping desperately that Makoto would be the one for him. Because for sure, Makoto would be 10000% committed to Sousuke. Haru’s and Rin’s trainers are only focusing on their abilities and not really getting to know them personally. Hell, they had to ditch their training secretly to go watch their kohais’ competition instead of being able to talk about it with their coaches...

Also finally there’s something that I truly hate about how we’re getting our SouMako interactions. Not only is it scarce as if they aren’t friends despite them being compatible as fuck, but it’s also ALWAYS on the side stuff. First SouMako interactions? The audio bonus and the special episode in Free! ES. The interaction we get in DtF (although thank god there’s at least one)? Only about Ikuya and cutting before they talk to each other about themselves. And now it’s in the movie.

They are supposed to be the main characters’ best friends but they are yet considered side characters when they are together. As if people wouldn’t care about them if they aren’t with Rin and Haru. This is what truly pissed me off with how KyoAni has been dealing with them personally, seeing them as only side characters to Rin and Haru who can’t be on their own. 

I’m hoping this movie and whoever is in charge of the coming new Free! stuff would change how Sousuke and Makoto are viewed and we somehow get more of them being together, talking about themselves and not just being plot devices.