ナナハル

OOC INFORMATION
Name: Gee
Contact: sakurapetal
Other Characters: none

CHARACTER INFORMATION
Character Name: Nanase Haruka
Age: 18
Canon: Free!
Canon Point: During the epilogue, as he's training in university
Character Information: Wiki link Plot (stopped updating mid-S1)
Quick profile Some points from Season 1 Character interview (from season 1)


There are two prequel books that don't exactly line up with the anime, but are referenced a lot in said anime and don't conflict too much as far as Haruka's experience goes.

The first book starts with Haruka in the swim club, only having joined at the behest of his best friend Makoto. He loves the water and wins many prizes for the club, but seems indifferent about it until he races Rin. He becomes frustrated at how he believes Rin "feels the water" better than him and then by Rin's repeated attempts to coax him into swimming relay with him. Haruka initially refuses on the basis that he "only swims free", but his other friends chime in, he finally relents. As they train together and bond, Haruka finds himself deeply moved by these new feelings in him. There's the start of something like a competitive streak, as Haruka even starts to imitate Rin, running home after school instead of bicycling.

The second book starts with Haruka starting middle school. His loneliness and fear of others leaving him are a large focus of the book, as well as the continued development of a latent competitive streak. He's frustrated at Rin for leaving to Australia to train at the end of the first book, worried that Makoto will quit swimming in favor of something else like basketball. Two other swim club members are introduced and both are affected deeply by his swimming skill, to the point where one feels hopeless when trying to race Haruka. His reaction causes Haruka to think he only hurts others with his swimming, like his skill is a burden. An envious teammate resents Haruka almost as much as he's interested in him as a swimmer. He gets angrily confronted by Sousuke, Rin's best friend, who thinks Haruka's not pushing himself hard enough if at least for Rin's sake. Fortunately amidst all this middle school pressure, Haruka has a mentor who helps them all sort everything out. In the end, Haruka joins a relay and they all manage to become a team and even friends, despite all their differences.

A flashback set between the books and anime shows the first reunion between Haru and Rin since Rin went to Australia. Haru is happy to see Rin, but he doesn't realize that Rin has not done well in Australia. After he challenges Haruka to a race, which Haruka wins, Rin calls it quits for his Olympic dream while running away in tears. Haruka fears he hurt his friend and withdraws back into his shell, quitting competitive swimming. This leads into the dull, jaded Haruka in his second year of high school seen at the start of season 1.

(the Wiki plot link fits in around here)

The middle of season 1 is about bonding with the rest of the Iwatobi swim team. When they go to the swimming tournament prefecturals, Haru has the race with Rin as the latter had wanted, ending with Rin's victory. Rin tells Haruka that he'll never swim with him again, which devastates Haruka and leaves him in confusion since he believed Rin defeating him would relieve Haruka of his guilt. He doesn't even want to watch his friends in their individual races, but Nagisa drags him over. Haruka is moved by seeing how hard everyone is trying and decides to swim the relay with them, but he's still confused about his emotions.

When he finally sorts his feelings out, he admits to his friends that Rin cutting ties with him made his world go dark, but their relay made him just as happy as it did in elementary. It comes as a shock when the next day, he hears that Rin joined his own team relay. As the day for their regionals relay race approaches, Haruka shows more of his thanks to everyone and the support they've given him. But when the day arrives and he sees Rin completely ruin his individual race, Haruka tries to run to him, stopping in his tracks when he hears Rin declare he's quitting swimming, making him remember the time he said that before. Haruka slumps against a wall, on the edge of tears as he thinks of how he can't swim with Rin again, but Rei tells him that Rin didn't really blame Haruka, and that he wanted to swim with Haruka too. In the wildest show of emotion Haruka ever put on, he runs screaming after Rin. Though Rin is in a bad state at first and tries to rebuff him, Haruka doesn't give up on trying to get through to Rin. It results in Haruka's relationship with Rin being repaired, setting his heart at peace... for now.

Season 2 shows a lot more of Haruka's willingness to try harder for his team, even taking the lead and writing training schedules. He's more emotionally open, smiles more, and is generally more encouraging. However, he's also at a loss about his future, with only "free" written in the form to consider his future career in. Makoto acts strangely, but Haruka doesn't ask too many questions if because it would invite questions about himself. He meets with Sousuke again, who instantly shows aggression towards him again for "getting in Rin's way". Many people suggest competitive swimming to him as a future, but he's against it. He doesn't tell anyone why, but it turns out to be because he fears that he'll lose his freedom in doing it, and he just doesn't want things to change.

The pressure starts to pile up on him until he's distant and snappy with his friends. He even quits swimming in the middle of a race and just stands in the pool, leading to a huge shouting match with Rin, where Haruka declares he has no future. Then his usually steadfast best friend Makoto tells him that he's moving to Tokyo for university and Haruka finally realizes that things are changing whether he likes it or not, and he holes himself up in his house. Rin whisks him off to Australia, partly a way to help his friend relax and partly a way to show Haruka an Olympic-sized pool. Experiencing things in a foreign country and witnessing the Olympians' pool makes Haruka realize that he wants to see more of the world, to swim in that world, and pursue competitive swimming after all. In the epilogue, Haruka is shown to have moved to Tokyo to the university he's been scouted to, and later at an international race against Rin.

Personality:
At first glance, Haruka is a cool, graceful boy who turns heads when he's in the pool-- and as he's getting out. He's stoic, sharp-eyed, and utterly distant from most around him. He acts and speaks decisively. When addressing others, he never uses any honorifics/suffixes. But how aloof he acts comes from his poor communication skills. Some people confuse his difficulty in reaching out to others as shyness-- he rationalizes it as finding communication with others too troublesome. He warms up far faster to animals and little children (such as Makoto's siblings who absolutely adore him), perhaps because it feels less complicated with them. Yet sometimes he gets frustrated when he wants to talk to others, feeling out of his depth, seen in his struggles in how to talk to Rin when Rin initially returns from Australia. Despite how much of a front he puts up, he does fear being alone. We see this in how upset he gets when Makoto leaves the swimming team and when it seems Makoto is moving along in his life without him.

One term used by the director for Haruka is "waterdere". It helps him feel calm, in a place no one else can reach him. He thinks of water as a living being, something that bears its fangs and attacks those who jump in, but there's nothing to fear as long as they accept the water. When he wants answers, he'll often look to the water first. Sometimes it can be taken to ridiculous degrees, such as a pleasured face as he's shot in said face by a water gun that can only be compared to arousal. Haruka even describes a waterfall as his first love. Yes, really.

Anyone who knows him for a little while will quickly realize that he's actually quite weird, jumping into any water that he can submerge himself in and fawning over bizarre character mascots. His "logic" is inconsistent when it isn't completely nonsensical. Trying to explain to someone who thinks in facts and precise formulas won't turn out well, as he often uses vague explanations involving the heart and soul, such as "the water is alive" or "the water doesn't like him" when referring to someone who can't swim. Actively trying to persuade or sweet-talk anyone would only end in hilarity, if he ever felt the need to try-- his attempts at gathering new members for the swim club were not subtle and involved him chasing them down with hand-carved school mascots. All in all, he's quite odd, and marches to the beat of his own drum. And he likes it that way.

As a quiet guy, the anime shows a great deal of Haruka's personality in what he looks at (or avoids looking at) and the expression he wears as he does. The most obvious is how his eyes sparkle at the mention of a pool, but despite his indifferent mask, he takes notice of what's going on around him and reacts accordingly. He often quickly tries to force his face back into some neutral look, but someone perceptive can figure out that his poker face isn't as great as he thinks. When embarrassed or confused about his feelings, he tends to turn his head to the side, and he can't lie too well to someone without looking away. But sometimes there are things he gets happy about enough about that his eyes practically sparkle, and it doesn't even have to be water!

Haruka is partially self-conscious about some matters, not so much about others-- the deciding factor seems to be in how much embarrassment gets in the way of what he wants. His laugh is a rare event that has only been drawn out of him by tickling. He doesn't want to be called Haru-chan and definitely not Haruka, preferring his nickname Haru. However, at the same time, he had no problem wearing a girl's swimsuit to save a bullied friend from embarrassment and he sees no issue in jumping in store aquariums. When it comes to water, there is no embarrassment.

When it comes to things that he immediately wants, Haruka will rarely hesitate to go for it, no matter the circumstances. He'll strip down to his swimsuit that he's always wearing at the sight of water he can submerge himself in, even a fish tank with fish inside. It makes him easy for people to persuade him into doing things, such as telling him there's a big pool in Samezuka Academy with Makoto and Nagisa want to visit there. Nagisa even convinced Haruka to let him move in with an armful of canned mackerel, Haruka's favorite food. He's very transparent about those wants and can get pretty stubborn about it too, making it difficult when his friends were trying to throw a surprise birthday party but he wanted to see the island's mascot Shimashima-chan.

Another thing that Haruka's cool facade hides is just how sentimental he can be. His flashbacks and mementos show that he dwells on the past a lot, and can end up thinking about it a lot as he stews in the bath. All of the trophies he's won by himself are stuffed in a box, while his relay trophy and photo sits in plain view, clearly more cherished than the rest. He still uses a bath toy that he got when he first joined the swim club in elementary school. This has served him well when trying to get through to Rin who is just as sentimental, writing words that Rin used years ago.

When Haruka befriends someone, he doesn't take it lightly. It'll start in small gestures, building up until he's ready to do anything to help them. He shows this in his gradual befriending of Rei. He'll make heartfelt speeches about how this friend is important to him, and genuinely thank them. He'll go out of his way to make sure that they're happy, will show up for them, protect them, and give them advice. He often brings Makoto lunch when he forgets it and pretends it's no big deal or lets Nagisa stay at his house when Nagisa is having parental issues. Underclassmen who admire him like Nagisa and Rei are especially his weak point-- he tends to dote on them and go along with what they say most easily. Only with his true friends can he really let down his walls and speak how he really feels. But any friends of his should expect a lot of good-natured teasing and bringing up embarrassing stories about them, especially Rin who puts the most effort into teasing. While not a tactile person, he'll let friends get touchy-feely with him - hugging, arm around his shoulders - as long as he doesn't get too jostled. Strangers and people he doesn't like will have Haruka blatantly sidestep them or even have them pushed/slapped away, as he does to poor Kisumi. The kind of people that Haruka avoids the most are people who clearly want to involve him in some scheme, and generally pushy people, but with enough patience they can become friends too. This was pretty much what happened with him and Rin at first.

With having such talent in the water, some of his woe comes from feeling like he's too good, that he breaks the hearts of people who worked far harder than him. Such as his teammates when he was in middle school, with one instance enough to make him quit competitive swimming and retreat into a shell, where he felt that he had hurt his friend by making his dream of becoming an Olympian impossible. He would far rather be "ordinary" than hurt others. While he usually claims that something will require too much effort, Haruka does have great admiration for people who do work hard, and they often end up inspiring him to work hard too. When the swim club needs the pool cleaned and members recruited, Haruka quietly takes up the tasks, even spending lunch break cleaning the pool and making keychains of their mascot. Along with working hard also has an emerging sense of competitiveness spurred on by swimming that makes him want to train hard, despite supposedly not wanting to expend much energy. Despite how cool and impassive he can look, there's a fire in him that can really light up his eyes. He notes this himself when he notices that still, "tamed" water isn't enough... and his eyes shine after a race later that episode.

More sensitive than people take him for, Haruka has had problems dealing with his emotions. In the light novel, he comes to realize his reliance on the water to distract himself from his feelings. After just starting to get attached to Rin, then hearing that he's going to move to Australia, Haruka feels angered and wants to run away to the water. In that moment, he realizes that he's used the water to block out other thoughts. Throughout the anime there are shots of Haruka sitting in his bathtub, dwelling on thoughts usually regarding his friends. His complicated feelings towards Rin through the first season led him to break down twice, one where he had to run away from everyone else and another where he slumped against a wall to curl up in hopelessness. In the second season, building pressure to find his future eventually leads Haruka to avoid or even yell at his friends when they bring up the subject. Even when Makoto suddenly announces he's moving away, a shocked Haruka only angrily spits out the words "do whatever you want" before running off. These breakdowns usually caused by putting off the problem for too long, whether it be attempting to reconcile with his friend or thinking of his future. But with some help from caring and understanding friends, Haruka manages to overcome the problem and discuss his feelings more openly.

This canon point sets him post-season 2, where he's tried to work on more of his flaws. He may still try to brush things off as too much trouble and come off as a little blunt, but it'll be easier for him to soften up. He still sees his friends every now and then, but he has to find his own way to grow in post-high school and post-small town life. Perhaps he can meet new friends without others to help, eat more than just mackerel, and find places to go on his own. He's been prepared for this new phase of his life thanks to the support of his friends and the swim club.

5-10 Key Character Traits:
Reserved
Fears hurting others
Free-spirited
Dedicated friend
Sentimental
Difficulty dealing with his own emotions
Stubborn
Impulsive
Obsessed with water

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