English Dub Review: Free! Dive to the Future “Interval in the Evening Calm!”

Be more chill.

Overview (Spoilers!)

Isuzo Mikoshiba is crushing it at an arcade fighting game—until mysterious Swede Albert Wåhlander appears and beats her effortlessly.

Ikuya and Asahi share playful banter at a competition, and Hiyori seems to be comfortable with their friendship. Natsuya and Nao watch from afar; Natsuya is trying to qualify for the All-Japan Invitational, too. Haru attends a training camp for All-Japan athletes and returns to focus on freestyle. Isuzo, captain of the Taka University swim team, challenges Haru to a freestyle race, insisting that her gender is irrelevant to her swimming ability (go Isuzo!). Unfortunately, Seijuro drags her off before she and Haru can actually race.

On his lunch break, Haru encounters Albert, who is struggling to buy food. Haru helps him to order and gets him a fork, but Al is adept at using chopsticks. Al’s friend Ralph finds them and admonishes him for disappearing.

The Iwatobi team visits a shrine, and Rei psyches them up for the regional tournament. Ikuya’s friends celebrate his successes in 100M free and breast, even though Asahi lost at free. Asahi qualified in 200M butterfly, though, and Natsuya qualified for the IM; Rin qualified in 100M free and butterfly.

Rin shows up to surprise the Samezuka team, and Ai reveals that Mikhail is his uncle. Ai and Momo are worried about Sosuke, but Rin tells them to focus on their own swimming. Arriving home to visit his family, Rin recalls the advice that Mikhail gave him back in Australia: to be wary of Albert, whose swimming is apparently “not of this world.”

Just before friendly races begin, Seijuro reveals that Albert is the current world record holder in 100M and 200M freestyle. Makoto takes a sick Misaki home from practice; Misaki explains his promise to reunite with a friend at a swim meet. Makoto rushes to the training camp to discover that Albert easily beat Haru.

Our Take

After the high drama of the last few episodes, it’s refreshing to see our boys just hanging out and having fun together. Hiyori and Ikuya have come so far—I can forgive a few scenes of recap because it warms my heart so much to watch these two get along with the Iwatobi boys. It was nice to see Rin reuniting with his team, Haru returning to freestyle (showing that he can be flexible but is still true to himself in the end), and Rei demonstrating how important swimming is to him now (an amazing evolution from his first-year self, who didn’t even know how to swim). Even though this episode is chill, I didn’t want more tension and conflict. It felt like an earned moment of calm after the storm.

I was worried about the addition of yet more characters to an already jam-packed cast, but this episode does a good job of immediately presenting Isuzo and Al as intriguing, well-defined figures. Isuzo’s tomboy style, competitive nature, and excitement about life endear me to her at once; Al’s skills and mysterious nature marks him as a character I want to know more about. Instead of introducing huge groups and expecting us to figure out who’s who later, Dive to the Future has finally discovered how to round out their lineup in a less overwhelming way.

This episode also does a good job of setting up what’s to come. We’ve been promised a Haru/Isuzo race, and I’m excited for that; it’s so rare that we get to see female swimmers in Free!, and Isuzo’s enthusiasm is infectious. Plus, her personality combined with Haru’s is rife for comedy—there’s a great moment where the Mikoshiba siblings laugh maniacally before the scene cuts to Haru’s deeply unamused face. Additionally, if we get to see more of this Makoto and Misaki storyline, it could act as a parallel to Ikuya’s arc: Makoto will make sure Misaki takes breaks so he doesn’t end up like Ikuya did.

And I’m super excited to watch the gang race Albert in a serious competition. At the All-Japan Invitational, Haru, Ikuya, Rin, and Al will all fight for the 100M freestyle title, which will certainly keep us on the edge of our seats. The casual race between Haru and Al is already stunning to watch and listen to—pulsating beats and swelling strings combine with dark and shimmering water to create the “otherworldly” feel of swimming with Albert. I’m a huge fan of the music in this scene—thanks, Tatsuya Kato!

As for the quality of the dub, the Japanese version of this episode presents an interesting dubbing conundrum: in order to emphasize the “foreign” nature of Albert, he speaks his lines in perfect English, even while conversing with Japanese-speaking characters. In the Funimation version, the same effect is achieved through Albert’s halting and accented English; his friend even speaks a bit of Swedish to him at the beginning. It’s a different strategy, but it’s actually pretty effective. Both Albert and Isuzo’s voices feel natural and fitting for their characters.

I don’t have that many complaints about this episode’s execution. It’s not all that exciting, but think it’s necessary to carry the story along. My main gripes are 1. I’m still not exactly sure what competition Ikuya and Asahi are competing in, and 2. it’s a bit sad how everyone is focused on Haru when Makoto is there too. Rin returns home and immediately thinks of Haru. Hiyori was jealous at the idea of Ikuya spending time with Haru. Does Makoto ever feel left out, especially as he’s the only member of their friend group who doesn’t swim competitively anymore? Does he ever miss it? I’d love for this show to delve more into Makoto’s psyche, as his story feels unfinished at present.

In the end, “Interval in the Evening Calm” is just that—a relaxing viewing experience, uneventful but still entertaining.