English Dub Review: Free! Dive to the Future “The Mermaid of the Abyss!”

You must be level six to unlock my tragic backstory.

Overview (Spoilers!)

Buckle your seatbelts, because it’s time for Hiyori’s tragic backstory! As a child, his parents were constantly working, so Hiyori was often left alone. Although he put on a happy face for others, he was deeply lonely until meeting Ikuya. Now, Hiyori would do anything for the friend that saved him from solitude.

In the modern day, Ikuya is frustrated that his swim times have gotten worse. He rejects any invitation to hang out, from his teammates or even from Hiyori. Ikuya believes that he used to rely too much on his friends and brother—now, he is trying to be strong by doing everything alone.

At home, Hiyori reminisces about their friendship in America, and how he saved Ikuya from drowning. Although Ikuya often compares himself to the little mermaid, Hiyori sees himself as the mermaid and Ikuya as the prince.

Makoto, Haru, and Asahi catch up with Nao. Haru is still worried that those who swim with him suffer, but Asahi and Makoto vehemently disagree.

In their college cafeteria, Mysterious Stubbled Man once again approaches Haru and Asahi, but he only wants to tell them about his food blog. Asahi’s brother-in-law shows up; he recognizes the man as Ryuji, a former competitive swimmer who got to the global level before quitting out of nowhere. In his heyday, he raced against Mikhail.

Haru is haunted by Ryuji’s question: why does he only swim free? He doesn’t really know why and begins to doubt his own choices. Meanwhile, Ryuji is considering coaching Haru.

At night, Hiyori confronts Ikuya on a playground slide. Hiyori desperately wants Ikuya to see that he is a talented swimmer, but Ikuya denies his own achievements. Hiyori believes that Haru is the root of all Ikuya’s suffering, and begs Ikuya never to see him again.

Our Take

Astute reader, you may remember that I was once very fond of Hiyori. When he was introduced in episode 4, I cheered that Dive to the Future had found a delightful villain. After this episode, though? I’m not sure how I feel about him. Mostly just confused.

I applaud Free! for trying to give us complex characters with meaningful emotional arcs. This show builds depth by utilizing character backstories, which is a pretty standard way to do it—tell us what the character was like during his childhood, and throughout the story, show us how this past affects his current actions. I assume that’s why we’re shown Hiyori’s backstory: to explain the motivations behind his behavior.

But in this case, Hiyori’s backstory really doesn’t fit with his actions. Hiyori loves Ikuya deeply and wants him to be happy, or so we’re told. But Hiyori’s childhood was plagued by chronic loneliness, and he credits friendship with turning his life around. If Hiyori really wants Ikuya to be happy, it doesn’t make sense that he would accept—and even encourage—Ikuya’s isolationism. Why is he so obsessed with shooing Haru away from Ikuya? And why, after promising Natsuya he’ll stop Ikuya from pushing himself too hard, does Hiyori continue to talk to Ikuya about his future swimming career, instead of, oh, I don’t know, reminding him to take care of himself?

Maybe Hiyori is jealous at the idea of Ikuya having other friends because Hiyori’s afraid he’ll be left alone again—but that’s just guesswork and reaching on my part. On their own, the canon facts don’t make a whole lot of sense. I’m also disappointed that we don’t hear more about how Hiyori feels like he’s always playing a part because it’s an interesting idea that gets dropped as soon as it’s mentioned.

On the other hand, Ikuya’s motivations confuse me almost as much. After his second drowning incident, he swore that he would become strong alone. But he’s still friends with Hiyori, isn’t he? Incidentally, Hiyori muses that Ikuya doesn’t know who saved him the second time… even though Natsuya literally thanks Hiyori for saving him in front of Ikuya’s face, so I’m not sure what that’s about.

While we’re on a roll here, the Little Mermaid metaphor is starting to confuse me now, too. We’re shown a drawing that Hiyori supposedly did as a child, of himself as a mermaid and Ikuya as a prince. But during high school, Hiyori thinks of The Little Mermaid as a story Ikuya loves, not one that he’s familiar with himself. As an adult, Hiyori says he doesn’t even like the story. So what is the truth?

I’m also not sure what to make of the fact that both Hiyori and Ikuya see themselves as the mermaid. Ikuya identifies with her sacrifices to achieve her goals; Hiyori identifies with how she saved her prince. It’s interesting that they see themselves as the same character, but I’m not really sure what it means symbolically. Hiyori also brings up the fact that the mermaid turns to seafoam in the end; I’m not sure why he would feel that way about his own future.

I do feel bad for Hiyori, though. If anything, this season is good at making me feel for the characters. I want to spend time with tiny Hiyori. I want to hold Ikuya’s hand and tell him it’s okay to have friends!

And the animation in this episode? Still lovely. The katsudon looks yummy. The stars are gorgeous. The mermaid’s tail is shiny. And middle school Ikuya continues to be so pretty.

To be clear, this episode isn’t necessarily bad. For all the faults I pointed out, the Ikuya and Hiyori storyline is pretty engaging. My main concern at the moment—other than the inconsistent characterizations of these two—is that Dive to the Future seems to be becoming the Ikuya And Hiyori Show. We’re seeing less and less swimming, less and less of the four Iwatobi swimmers (and one Samezuka) that first endeared me to this show. Sure, this episode is okay enough. But it doesn’t really feel like Free!.