30 DAY ANIME CHALLENGE | 07

I had to debate a little bit with this prompt. Tuxedo Mask was my first crush. Then Vash – but he’s my ultimate favorite character  and I didn’t want to use him twice..then there was Shinya Kogami from Psycho-pass who is just overall super cool and a badass. BUT in the end, I decided to go with Makoto Tachibana from Free! because he’s definitely my biggest crush right now. Besides Makoto being incredibly hot handome; there are many other reasons as to why I’ve grown to love his character on this show. Also this post is just a few days shy of his birthday (11/17). LOL! Happy Belated Makoto!!

Of the entire cast of Free! Makoto’s the more warm, friendly, reliable voice of reason who often worries about everyone. But I think that stems from the fact that he’s the older brother to twins. it’s clear that his family is important to him which is probably why I like him so much-I share the same sentiment in family values.

Also that leads into the next loveable trait: he’s great with kids! And his teaching experience in season 2 allows him to come to the conclusion what he wants to do with his future in life – be a swimming teacher. His gentle demeanor makes it easy for him to connect to kids and his tendencies to be a worrywort come in handy as he’s able to read moods fairly easily.  On top of being good with kids – he’s also got a soft spot for cats! As a fellow cat-lover it’s hard to overlook how cute Makoto is with the neighborhood cat.

I just had to include this because he’s way too adorable as a kid!

(Spoiler Section from the Light Novels)
There are some things about Makoto that aren’t expressed wellin the both seasons of the anime as well as the movie – which I think is a huge discrepancy in his character and his character development. Aside from what we’ve seen from Makoto in the show – the lighthearted gentle giant – Makoto actually deals with a lot of internal struggles in the light novel. Although his best friend is Haru and they grew up together as neighbors; they actually went through some pretty traumatic experiences together as kids – Haru has a near death experience and Makoto has already had a long-held fear of the ocean. It was probably Haru’s accident that caused Makoto to be the way he is in the Free! series – incredibly overprotective of him. In the light novel Makoto seems to be very insecure and dependent on Haru. So much so that Makoto struggles in differentiating his own identity without Haru by his side. In the light novel he tries out doing other sports and avoids Haru as he tries to figure himself out.

There’s one scene that really stuck on to me in the light novel. Makoto’s Mom calls Haru because Makoto hasn’t come home. Haru starts to feel panicked because it’s really unlike Makoto to be out alone to begin with especially to the point his Mother is concerned. Haru runs around trying to find Makoto and inadvertently finds himself at the coastline -he’s thinking it can’t be possible for Makoto to be here because he’s afraid of the ocean – but there he finds Makoto standing close to the edge so he calls out to him. Haru asks Makoto, “what are you doing here?” and Makoto’s response is, “I was thinking about going..someplace you weren’t around.” Haru freaks out wondering what Makoto meant -where was he trying to go, what had he been trying to do, what would’ve happened if Haru arrived later. Haru continues with, “Why?” Makoto  replies with, “I wanted to see if I’d be okay without you…would you be okay without me Haru?” Haru says, “I wouldn’t come looking for you if that were the case.”

Talk about heartbreaking scene! Although, there’s controversy on the scene itself. It alludes to self-harm on Makoto’s part; but on the other hand he could literally just wanted to put space between him and Haru – but to be at the place you’re most afraid of seems sketchy; the context alludes to that. But on Haru’s part he might be afraid of losing Makoto’s friendship due to the separation that Makoto had put between them, because Makoto could’ve made the decision to part ways with Haru if he chose to. Haru and Makoto’s friendship is a lot deeper than what we see in the anime – which makes me a bit sad to not see it.
(End spoiler section)

Last gif before I go to lighten the mood after that spoiler section:

 

That’s all for this post! Till tomorrow!