I’m assuming we have to wait then to see Rei in a swimsuit?
- Episode 2 Recap: Last week we watched Nagisa’s quest to form a swim club at their school go from lofty dream to something they whined about to reality – with a bit of thanks from Kou (Gou?) We were given a bit more info about the drama between Haruka and Rin. This was followed by a “cleaning the pool” montage complete with uplifting music and Haruka obsessing over a water tank in the hardware store. Later, we cut to the race between Rin and Haruka that happened in between the end of episode one and episode two. We see that Haruka may have thrown the race in order for Rin to win, because he wanted to. Or he maybe just likes the idea of sinking to the bottom of pools. We were then taken to the present to watch the swim club celebrate the clean pool filled with water – which was to Haruka. But you knew all this already.
A perfectly acceptable reason to join any club.
- Summary of Episode 3: We start this episode seeing (well, actually hearing) Haruka battling a cold, obviously caught due to him jumping in a freezing cold pool in the middle of April. We then jump to Kou putting up a strong effort for Best Coach EVER due to her extra work in securing a practice time with the swim team down the road. You know, the one that Rin happens to be a member of. (Drama bomb!) The one condition of this joint swim practice is that the Iwatobi Swim Club needs one more member to take part in the practice. Nagisa rises to the challenge and begins to
stalkstake out other students that might be interested, which is when we finally meet Rei Ryugazaki. Rei is already on the track team and not very interested in hearing Nagisa’s sales pitch but after some nagging and begging, he comes around to join the team for one trial practice on the condition that he doesn’t swim. The team celebrates, plans are made and we fast forward to the Iwatobi Swim Club joining Samezuka Academy for a joint swim practice.
- My Take: And this would be all fine and dandy except for two things – first off Rin decides to pout about his old team mates practicing with his current team. Second, apparently Rei isn’t afraid of drowning because didn’t tell the other members of the swim club that he doesn’t know how to swim – even after being made to put on an itty bittty tiny swim brief because that’s all they had left. Rei jumps in the pool and doesn’t do so well, luckily Haruka likes the water so much and saves him. Upon being saved from drowning, Rei sees Haruka swim for the first time and decides that he must learn to swim like him, “to be free.” Or freestyle. Really it’s the same thing, trust me.
Rei decides that swimming is the bee’s knees.
- So the gang is all together finally. Well, ok – except Rin. But honestly, so far I haven’t really felt any compelling reason to care about Rin except that Haruka may have hurt his feelings by beating him in that race. About that last sentence – if all this drama is really just because Haruka beat him swimming and that’s why Rin is a punk with pointy teeth and a bad attitude, then I’ll be pretty disappointed. Hopefully the build up to the real mystery behind these two will be worth it because right now, I can’t see the hype living up to what the writers have planned.
- How are you guys enjoying the series? Share in the comments below!
Editor’s note: Post is late due to Sabrina suffering at SDCC. Free should be posted regularly this week.