Free! -Dive to the Future-

Episode 8

Welcome to the Ikuya and Hiyori healing half-hour! Boys got problems? Free! -Dive to the Future- is gonna solve them. Episode eight, “Metamorphosis of the Soul", is all about giving validation and comfort to the season's two most long-suffering boys. That melodramatic episode title is no exaggeration, considering the over-the-top feelings fest it delivers. After seven episodes of torture, this was a relief to watch, but Haru's practically magical way of solving people's problems felt a little too convenient.

Just a few episodes ago, Hiyori told Haru that everyone who swims with him gets hurt. But this episode showed the exact opposite effect. There's something about being in the same water as Haru, feeling the current from his strokes. Somehow, Haru hypnotizes people with his freestyle, and this turns everything around for both Ikuya and Hiyori instantly. After the race, Ikuya suddenly tapped into his oldest and most personal problem—his fear of people leaving him alone. This sets off a chain reaction in which he decides to spontaneously join the relay (which occurred on that same day, talk about speedy plot development!) and not only that, but he invites the dejected Hiyori to swim it with him. As for Hiyori, it just takes one swim in the lane beside Haru to do a 180 on his opinion of the guy. We should all swim beside Haru to get good fortune, perfect skin, and/or unexpected windfalls of cash.

“Looks like everything's okay now,” Nao says to Natsuya after Ikuya and Haru embrace, and he's right; this episode is basically a waterfall of happy results. After all this time, Ikuya finally remembers meeting Hiyori as a child. After all this time, Ikuya is able to tell Haru what he wished for on a shooting star nearly a decade ago. Ikuya dreamed of becoming a “hero” like Haru, and this episode showed us that being somebody's hero is simply a matter of perspective—and it turns out that Ikuya is already Hiyori's hero. Aww. There's more than a dollop of convenience here, and the whole thing comes off like “fix-it fic,” a term some fanfiction writers use when they're quickly correcting cruel canon in a fluffy way by giving characters what amounts to a spa day. In other words, it's a little too favorable to ring true. Usually when things happen this easily, I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop and take it all away. But in Free! -Dive to the Future-, we don't have time for that. Since there's such a gargantuan cast to deal with, this is almost certainly the end of Ikuya and Hiyori's troubles while we move into a more sports-focused arc about a global swim meet that our entire cast will be there for.

Aside from the miraculous recoveries of Ikuya and Hiyori, this episode swelled to bursting with cast members watching from the sidelines. Everyone had to offer their own two cents, which seemed to add up to at least two dollars given the size of this cast. We've got so many people in the peanut gallery that we're still forging connections between them in episode eight—like when Hiyori and Kisumi meet for the first time—which has the effect of slowing everything down. Between all the feels and the commentators, it hardly matters who wins which race provided that they all qualify for the next meet, and is there any doubt that everyone will? The deus ex machina of Haru's magic swimming ties everything up too neatly, but Free! -Dive to the Future- is hoping you won't care about why your favorite characters are happy now, only that they are. (And don't miss the rare after-credits scene!)

Rating: B

Free! -Dive to the Future- is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Lauren writes about geek careers at Otaku Journalist.