Free! : Captive Butterfly!

Episode 4

Well then.... They made Rei decide he wants to learn to swim so now the swim group full of boys with girl names and a girl with a boy name are set.

But first Rei needs to actually LEARN how to swim...

***SPOILERS***

That terrible decision... Which of the 5 identical swimsuits to wear under his clothes today?

So today is a big day, it is warm enough to swim in their own pool. That is all that Haru needs to know. It seems that Kou is stealing Rin's old training regime for the boys to use and we get a bit of a lesson on swimming.

Rei trying to learn how to swim in his mind is really funny. He tells us he isn't going to embarrass himself again, so he then goes and belly flops into the water and embarrass himself again. Kou really hopes that bringing Rin together with his old friends will make him closer to his dream.

Meanwhile Rin is his usual cheery self.

Nagisa wants to get matching uniforms but Kou has gone all psycho because Rei needs to learn to swim in a week!

Rei seems to have the technical side of it perfectly but can't seem to move...  They have a meeting to figure out why Rei can't swim, he blames it on not having a proper coach so they ask the pizza man. Rei decided that he wants a new swimsuit so they go shopping together.

I love the fashion show, especially that Haru seems to be wearing the same design each time.

Rin and Haru end up in the booths next to each other and Rin asks to talk to Haru on his own. You can see the fact that Rin still cares about his friends whilst he is telling Haru he needs to get into shape.

Rei looks the part but does this actually help him? And thank god he didn't choose the butterfly or rainbow trunks... No it doesn't help, the submarine is still a submarine.

Suddenly Haru decides to help teach Rei and it doesn't really help either.

Finally Rei learns how to swim with the butterfly stroke...

THIS is the episode I was looking for! If it keeps up like this we have a series on our hands! It has taken a while to get to what I'd like but it is always moving in the right direction.

This episode did one thing that none of the others did. Make me like Haru! He was funny, he was deep and he was more than a one dimensional character and how I loved him. His advice to Rei was corny but you could tell his heart was in the right place, and when they both ended up sulking together it was so sweet.

The ingredients have been there the whole time it seems we needed that one catalyst to send it over from being meh to being great.

OK it still isn't my top favorite anime of all time or anything but it doesn't feel like a chore trying to watch it either.

Yes Rei is my favorite character closely followed by Nagisa and Mako, but I now don't dislike any other character. Both Rin and Haru were so much better and Ama and Kou seemed to be more important then just silly background characters. I also love the captain from Rin's team and hope in a little way that he gets together with Kou.

I also hope the stupid Gou joke stops. Pack it in already Nagisa, we get it...

I liked the humor, it was sweet. The whole "teaching Rei to swim" bit was nicely done and also informative in its own way which is always a good thing.

The story progresses and we get ever closer to our first tournament! Good times.

As with all the episodes it is a vast improvement on the one before. Good episode.