anonymous291Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLgWfuEWAyV
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I can see the appeal of Haru->Rin but not as much for Rin->Haru? It feels like Rin's more attracted to Haru's swimming ability than who Haru is as a person. Even when he says he admired Haru, he flashbacks to staring in awe after being beaten in a race, and tried to get Haru on his relay team. S1 was Rin seeing beating Haru as the thing he needs to move on from his failure in Australia. Not trying to be antagonistic, just curious about your opinion since your essays make a lot of sense :3
Hello, anon, sorry for the delay! No worries, you didn’t come off as antagonistic at all and the question was actually pretty fun to answer. Though to be honest, it kind of got out of hand and became lengthier than intended lol
Before getting to the core of your question, I have to start by saying that I feel people greatly underestimate just how important swimming truly is for Rin (and Haru). To quote Mamo-chan: “Rin is, at his core, all about swimming.“ To sum it up, I tend to see it this way: you know the saying ‘the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach’? Well in Rin’s case (and in Haru’s too) the way through his heart is through - you guessed it - swimming.
Rin’s glaring attraction to Haru’s swimming and the paramount importance that each of them gives to swimming together does not, in any way, undermine their bond or their feelings towards one another at a personal level.
On the contrary: it heightens them.
291Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiG4xMDh4HU
There is a reason why both Makoto and Sousuke, Haru, and Rin’s closest friends, felt jealous. Rin is the one who can fire Haru up, match him and keep swimming with him in the world he has chosen for himself; and likewise, Haru is the one who can inspire Rin, fire him up and keep swimming with him in the world that he has also chosen for himself. And more than that: they see each other that way and want to be that way. “We are both the best rivals for each other” // “Because it’s this place because it’s you, these feelings are sincere” // “Like reaching out for a dream, I yearned to swim with you in the best relay ever”.
Swimming is pivotal for them. And when they swim together, they create their ‘Real Wave’: something that feels like ‘absolute conviction’ and conveys the ‘the pull of hope’. Just that alone gives a glimpse at the fact that the feelings they arise within each other through swimming go way past their time together in the water.
Haru is someone whose existence alone makes Rin feel more driven. The person whose swimming he considers as his benchmark. The person he chased and changed schools for. The person whose existence basically eclipsed those around him and took up most of his thoughts (“Rin had the same problem: how would I get him to notice other people besides Haruka?” - Utsumi). The person that - I’m sure we can all agree - he wants to swim with the most (“I’m the type who goes straight for what I want the moment I’ve made up my mind.” / “that just goes to show how much I wanted to swim with you.”); to the point he wrote a school essay on him, babbling about how bright their future together would be if only they could ‘fly together’. Rin envisioned a future where he and Haru would keep swimming together ever since middle school (“Rin probably felt he wanted to walk ahead together.” - Mamo-chan).
I repeat: swimming is the thing Rin loves most. It is the most important thing in his life, the thing he bases all his actions around, the passion that can make him leave home and all his precious people behind for extended periods of time in the blink of an eye. So the fact that Haru is his Number 1 in the Number 1 governing principle of Rin’s life says it all.
But while he may have become it through swimming (which is nothing to undermine Rin’s feelings for Haru for either, because all of Rin’s most important bonds - outside of Gou and his family - have started through swimming), once they bond and become friends in High Speed!, Haru becomes all this beyond swimming, too. And this is the reason why while another ‘swimming freak’ like Sousuke can and does feel Haru’s energy in the water, he is not pulled to Haru like a magnet - unlike Rin. Why while Sousuke can admittedly understand why Rin is ‘so taken by Haru’, Sousuke isn’t under the same spell himself.
Rin notices things about him and becomes used to and even fond of his personality and Rin wants to be his friend and becomes just that. You can see him getting happy over the little things unrelated to swimming, like Haru supporting his ideas. They connect enough that even Haru swimming off-kilter ends up affecting Rin’s own groove.
But going back to non-swimming related stuff: how much Rin values Haru as a person is blatant through how much he wants to make Haru laugh (the OVA, the second Drama CD, that Samezuka/Iwatobi Joint track), how he hangs all over him (and while Rin is touchy-feely, he becomes it to a whole new level when it’s with Haru), the fact that it is Haru whom he calls to talk to under that Cherry Tree ("After this, I’m gonna be in Australia—and you’re gonna be in Tokyo, right? So I figured before that…" [x]), etc.
And of course: the fact that he apparently goes on and on about him to anyone who is willing to listen. Telling Russel and Lori that Haru loves mackerel and that he has eyes ‘as clear as water’? That has nothing to do with swimming. Nothing at all. That is all Nanase Haruka, from his antics to his physique; aka the weirdo, that means the world to him and the little things that Rin treasures about him.
Haru is so much more than just a swimming benchmark to Rin. Even saying that he is a precious existence to him falls short. He is an inspiration. He is a drive. It is Nakama. He is supported. He is salvation (the way Rin focused on Haru by himself under that shower of cherry petals before picturing the rest of Iwatobi comes to mind).
And another important aspect that I can’t help but point out is Rin taking Haru to Australia. Just like Utsumi said: Rin was prepared for Haru saying no. He wanted Haru to feel with his own skin just how wide the world was and if after that Haru felt nothing, “then that would’ve been fine too.” [x] In other words: Rin was willing to let his ideal ‘swimming-with-Haru-forever-and-ever’ future go as long as Haru was okay. He went that far - taking him to Australia, showing him around - just to make sure that Haru was okay, and that Haru would get the chance to make a decision he could be happy with in the future.
So to be honest, I feel that if that doesn’t draw home just how much Rin adores Haru as a person and as someone very dear to him, I don’t know what will.
(Thank you for asking for my opinion, anon! Sorry I unleashed all this rambling on you, I thought I had already gotten all my RinHaru feels out of my system but apparently not lol)
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