English Dub Review: Free! Dive to the Future “Streamline of Unity!”

We leave Iwatobi on a good note. With no regrets.

Overview (Spoilers!) 

Makoto meets up with the Iwatobi team for a meal in Tokyo. Across town, Mikhail and Rin are eating lunch together when Mikhail calls Ryuuji to catch up. Makoto invites the team to practice at his swim club. Ryuuji learns about Kinjou Kaede, a college-age swimmer who has beaten national records and will be racing Haru, Rin, Ikuya, and Al in free.

The Iwatobi team and the Samezuka team check out the venue for Nationals. Ai and Nagisa promise each other a good race, while Isuzo bonds with Gou over their shared love of muscles. Even though it means changing his training schedule, Haru accompanies Rin to Nationals to surprise their friends. Makoto, Asahi, and Kisumi show up early to make sure they don’t miss anything, and Asahi disappears to hang out with his high school team. Rin and Haru get stuck in traffic, but Haru suggests parking far away and running to the competition.

A nervous Rei heads outside to get some air; he runs into Asahi, and they catch up after not seeing each other since middle school. Asahi delivers Rei a pep talk, allowing him to believe in himself. Just before heading to the pool, Rei remembers all the wonderful moments he’s spent with Nagisa over the years.

Haru and Rin arrive just in time, and Haru reveals himself to the Iwatobi crew. Invigorated and encouraged, Rei scores fourth in butterfly. Ai and Nagisa square it out in breaststroke; despite some great swimming, Nagisa comes second to Ai. Rei didn’t make the finals, but he beat his personal best time and feels that he’s “graduating on a good note. With no regrets.” Nagisa, too, is in a great mood: “I just love swimming, and I’m pretty sure I always will!” The gang takes a commemorative photo. Sosuke talks about swimming again. Rin says that he came this far because of the bonds he made with his team, which he’ll never forget. Next week, stay tuned for the All-Japan!

Our Take

This is a sentimental episode. The Iwatobi boys look back fondly on the time they’ve spent together, and the audience is meant to do the same—to remember all the great times we’ve had watching Free! and how much we care about these lovable, silly characters. And, well, the second half of the episode does achieve its gushy goal—I was genuinely touched. The episode’s first half isn’t quite as successful; there’s some funny dialogue, but not a lot of actual substance there. The end result is the cinematic equivalent of a high school reunion: nothing all that life-changing, but you’ll probably have an okay time chewing the fat and reminiscing.

More than anyone else, this is a good episode for Rei. I was pleasantly surprised that he was handed the spotlight so directly, as the season thus far has pushed him and Nagisa into the shadow of their college-age companions. But it was great to watch Rei swim with such confidence, especially when he announces at the starting block, “All I have to do is be myself.” It’s kind of funny, after all the jokes about Asahi’s weird mantras before matches, that he’s actually learned how to beef up someone’s mental game. The montage of Rei’s memories with Nagisa is genuinely sweet (and it gives Reigisa shippers something to cry about for weeks). Likewise, Nagisa tells Makoto that he has so many good memories of swimming with his friends that he can’t even count them. The message of this season comes through loud and clear: sports are great because of the lasting friendships that come from them. It’s a moral with all the subtlety of Momo (i.e. none), but it’s a sweet moral nonetheless.

I could drone on about how tired I am of characters giving recap to each other (I am very tired of all the characters giving recap to each other), but instead, I’ll point to the humor in this episode, because boy is it funny. Some highlights: Rin bursts Mikhail’s metaphor by reminding him that sashimi doesn’t actually swim. In Ryuuji’s phone, Mikhail is listed under “Muscle Freak.” Isuzo asks Gou if Rin really has pecs so big that he has cleavage. The Iwatobi newcomers identify Haru and Makoto based on their roles in that promotional video (Makoto is “the evil king,” and Haru “the guy who was riding Chappy.” Incidentally, are we ever going to actually meet this camel? Please? Come on, there’s only one episode left!). My personal favorite is getting to watch Gou and Ayumu gawk at their favorite types of guys in Tokyo—Gou swallows at the sight of a man’s abs, and Ayumu swoons for a big paunchy stomach. I would die for you, Ayumu.

The only joke that doesn’t really land is probably, unfortunately, lost in translation. Ryuuji tells Mikhail to say he’s “totes hip with the kids, yo” so that he’ll make a fool of himself in front of the youths, but it just doesn’t sound believable coming out of the cynical Ryuuji’s mouth. I wonder what the joke was in the original Japanese. Ah well. This episode is dripping with so much sweetness that even Ryuuji gets infected: he grumbles “Who the hell does that?” at the idea of Haru skipping practice for his friends, and then smiles. Ryuuji loves that Haru is passionate, that Haru disobeys him, that Haru is just the tiniest bit weird. It brings to mind the coach Victor from Yuri!!! on Ice, who lives to surprise his audience; he adores his student Yuri’s disobedience because it means that Yuri is constantly surprising him. Ryuuji is exactly the same.

But yeah. Sweetness. Shizuru gives fancy fish to the Samezuka team. Makoto smiles so brightly when he’s able to make his old team happy. Rin and Haru risk everything for their friends. There’s very little conflict here, and after tranquil episode 9—just two episodes ago—this show is starting to feel a little stagnant, like all its problems, have already been solved. “Streamline of Unity!” feels like the denouement after the climax, with all the loose ends wrapped up in a neat bow. But I just can’t dislike this episode, because it makes me laugh, and our boys’ charm game is just too darn strong.