Makoto Tachibana

"#9ac86b"

- If you're not there... It's meaningless without you!

Makoto Tachibana (橘 真琴 Tachibana Makoto) is one of the main characters of the anime series Free! and the light novel High☆Speed!. He is the backstroke swimmer and a captain on the Iwatobi High School swimming team and a 2nd year high school student at Iwatobi High School.

Appearance
Makoto is a tall young man with short, olive green hair and droopy green eyes. His usual school uniform consists of light brown trousers, a white shirt with a green necktie, dark gray unbuttoned blazer and orange sneakers. During the spring and summer, he also wears his summer uniform that consists of gray trousers, a white shirt with a dark gray collar, the green dotted necktie and the orange sneakers.

While swimming, he wears black long leg swim pants that have green patterns on them. He's seen wearing black framed glasses once, but it's not said whether he really needs them or not.

Personality
Makoto is a nice and considerate guy, who is always concerned about his friends' welfare. Due to his caring personality, he is often seen with a gentle smile on his face. However, he is rather weak-hearted and can get scared easily, as shown when he appeared terrified of the possibility that their old Swimming Club may be haunted. When he gets scared he tends to hide behind Haruka or cling to him in some way.

Makoto also seems to be one of the more sensible people in the group and can get a bit worn out from his friends' peculiar antics and mannerisms. He is the one usually restraining Haruka from randomly stripping or diving into fish tanks.

Makoto and Haruka have been together for so long that Makoto is able to read Haru's mind. He is also shown to be slightly manipulative, often using Haruka's love of water to his advantage to convince Haruka to do what he wants. It was also shown that Haruka dislikes it when people use his first name, but Makoto always somehow manages to win the argument and calls him 'Haru'.

History
Makoto and Haruka have been friends since at least kindergarten. It was in kindergarten that Haruka started calling Makoto by his first name and Makoto calling Haruka "Haru-chan". It was Makoto who wanted to join the Iwatobi Swimming Club when they were children and Haru tagged along with him. Due to the length of time Makoto and Haruka have been friends, Makoto can usually guess what Haruka is thinking and vice-versa, resulting in the both of them being able to hold wordless conversations.

When Makoto was young, he would visit a small fishing harbor. At the fishing harbor, there was a nice old fisherman that would sometimes play with Makato. During the summer, at the festival near the harbor, Makoto wanted to scoop for fish but already used up all his allowance. The fisherman gave him two goldfish to make him feel better. Later that summer, there was a big typhoon and the fisherman's boat sank. Many people drowned including the old fisherman. Later when the two goldfish died, he made a grave, which is now a precious memory to him, for them, in which he changes the flowers everyday. Because of this experience he is afraid of the ocean.

As a child, Makoto used to swim the breaststroke and usually won the 100m breaststroke events again Rin but would lose the 50m breaststroke against Rin. It was when he teamed-up with Rin, Nagisa Hazuki and Haruka for the relay in elementary school that Makoto switched to backstroke and found that he was more comfortable with the stroke and has since specialized in the backstroke.

Relationships
Iwatobi High School=

Makoto has known Haruka for over 13 years, having been friends since kindergarten, and is his best friend. As a consequence of being together for so long, Makoto is able to read Haruka's mind, understands Haruka's good points, and is often forced to speak as his spokesman. When Haruka doesn’t want to speak anymore, he just "leaves it up" to Makoto to speak for him. It allows Haruka to act aloof and stoic, but still get his thoughts across - though they aren’t stated to be his, necessarily.

Haruka, in particular in his 12-year-old portrayal in High☆Speed!, is rather spoiled by his best friend. He is extremely used to having Makoto always there to help him with making decisions and even speaking up his mind, and when he feels like Makoto oversteps his boundaries, he dismisses him in his mind as a meddlesome guy. But as soon as Makoto isn’t there to help him, or does something else instead, Haruka pouts and wishes he was there.

Both have had near-drowning experiences; In the sixth grade, Haruka fell into a river and was saved by Makoto. During the training camp on the deserted island, Haruka saves Makoto after he fails to save Rei. When Haruka brings Makoto to shore he is terrified when he realizes Makoto is unconscious, and is about to preform CPR, but then Makoto coughs up water and regains conciousness. He tries to sit up and look for Rei, but Haruka tells him that he should be resting and holds him down. Shortly afterwards, Makoto tells Haruka that he is the biggest reason he still swims and gets close to the ocean because Haruka does, and he cares that much for Haruka and what Haruka loves, enough to put his fear aside so he can enjoy it with him, wanting to share the experience, to understand what makes Haruka the happiest, and so he overcomes fear for it. Makoto wants to understand and feel the same emotion as someone else to the point of conquering a deeprooted fear — something that gave him a panic attack, made him stop moving in the ocean during a storm, while trying to save someone, despite himself. Haruka then gasps, showing that he himself didn’t even realize what he was to Makoto until Makoto told him so.

Haruka greatly dislikes it when people use his girlish first name, but Makoto always somehow manages to win the argument and calls him 'Haru'. Makoto is also the major person to restrain Haruka from randomly stripping around or diving into fish tanks. When he gets scared, he tends to hide behind Haruka or cling to him in some way.

Makoto and Haruka are often seen doing things together, such as sharing rooms, going to school, and having lunch. Also, being best friends, they are often seen wearing same or similar clothes and accessories and sharing things. They live very close to each other with Makoto's house being visible from Haruka's. Specifically, Makoto's house is at the bottom of the stone stairs leading to the shrine near their house, with Haruka's house being up the stone stairs, just past the first torii gates. It is not uncommon for Haruka and Makoto to wait for each other on the stone stairs.

They are very close and care for each other greatly. In the beginning of the series, Haruka didn't express himself as much, although Makoto always knew what he was thinking. Throughout the show, Haruka begins to speak his mind more often, especially to Makoto. He's very gentle towards his best friend, treasures him greatly and is very afraid to loose him. In the hotel, he tells Makoto "I appreciate you being here for me," which embarrasses him to the point where he gets up and "goes for a run".

It is shown that Haruka bought Makoto four aquarium fish. Nagisa told Makoto to name them Nagisa, Rei, Haruka and Makoto, however Haruka told him that it's better to name them Mackerel, Bonito, Tuna and Jackfish.

Nagisa and Makoto are close fiends, despite having not been in contact for a few years. While both are generally outgoing and positive, Nagisa is bouncy and Makoto is kind and sensitive. They care for each other. Makoto also knows when something is up, for example at the squid festival when Nagisa was acting paranoid and gave Makoto a wink, he knew to wait for a moment without Haruka to ask Nagisa what was going on.

Makoto and Rei have a good senpai-kohai relationship. Makoto tends to act towards Rei as an older brother and often draws him away from Nagisa's constant hyperactive activities. Makoto was ready to risk his life in order to save Rei from the storm.

Makoto and Gou have a good, friendly relationship. Makoto was the first one to notice Gou and the first one to actually realize that Gou is Rin's younger sister. Since the day Makoto and Nagisa ran into Gou in front of Haruka's house, all three of them started hanging out a lot and spending time together at school. After having a talk with Makoto at the school pool, Gou decided to join Iwatobi High School's Swim Club.

Unlike in Gou and Nagisa's relationship, Gou never gets angry with Makoto, despite him calling her "Gou-chan".

It is unknown if Chigusa and Makoto knew each other before the squid festival, but the two of them give a good vibrations when they're around each other.

During the squid festival, Makoto complimented Chigusa and Gou for their looks, but Chigusa misunderstood him, thinking that he complimented their yukatas instead of their looks, making Makoto feel a bit uneasy.

Miho is Makoto's Classic Literature teacher as well as his homeroom teacher. He met her at the opening ceremony and could tell a lot about her to Haruka the next day. She had helped him and Nagisa when they were scolded by another teacher and later, she became a supervisor of the swimming club at Iwatobi High. Miho got angry with Makoto and Nagisa several times, usually when Nagisa wanted to make her wear a swimsuit in order to get more students to join the swim club. However, she would not be angry with him for too long, usually forgiving him right away.

Samezuka Academy=

When Rin first transferred to Iwatobi elementary, Makoto was much more open and kind to Rin than Haruka; who (at first) didn't want to get involved. Makoto wanted to swim in the relay with Rin, and was able to convince Haru to swim with them as well. During their time in elementary school, Makoto and Rin were close friends; Both being friendly and outgoing. When Rin returned to Japan, he barely paid attention to Makoto or Nagisa, asking "You're still hanging out with these guys Haru?". When Rin beat Haru at regonials, the boys went looking for Haruka after he failed to return. They bumped into Rin, who thought that Haruka was upset due to loosing to Rin. Makoto responded sternly by saying that swimming meant something more to Haru, and he's pretty sure that Rin was the one who taught him was it was. In the last episode Rin appears to have rekindled his friendship with his old friends.

Others=

Goro and Makoto have a good relationship. Goro used to be Makoto's coach while he was still a coach at Iwatobi Swim Club. One night, wanting to visit the abandoned swim club building, Makoto ran into Goro, but didn't recognize him. After having a talk with him (not knowing it was actually Goro), he recognized him as Coach Sasabe and told him that he was one of his students. Goro then noted that Makoto grew big.

Makoto and his mom and dad have a great relationship every parents and son should have. They talk a lot and it seems that they really love each other.

Ren, Ran and Makoto have a good sibling relationship with one another as Makoto looks out for them like a big brother should.

Makoto and Mrs Tamura are neighbours and they seem to have good relationship. Mrs Tamura often gives Makoto food to bring with him when he passes by her house in order to get to Haruka's.

Creation and Conception
Hiroko Utsumi, the director of the Free! anime, described Makoto in one phrase as "sweet boy". "He’s your everyday common high school boy. Strong, sweet, and a very helpful older brother. He was childhood friends with Haruka, so there’s not anything he hates about him. Conversely, he knows quite well the things he likes about Haruka. And because of that, he knows how to handle Haruka very well. Since Haruka isn’t the type to talk much, Makoto will follow up for Haruka and speak in his place. If Haruka wasn’t like that to begin with, Makoto wouldn’t become close to him. Since he is flawed, Makoto’s there by his side. I wonder if Haruka would also notice if Makoto’s big existence wasn’t always taking care of him." he says. "Actually, one point of Makoto’s character is that he’s scared easily. He’s big, yet scary things get to him. It was a bit sad when we decided to make him scared easily yet have that body style. My impression is that as he grew bigger, he didn’t know how to use his size to his advantage. Really, a smaller body seems to fit that side of him.", the director says.

Trivia

 * Like all members of the Iwatobi High School Swimming Club, Makoto has a female name.
 * Despite being on the swim team, Makoto is afraid of the ocean. However, in the High☆Speed!, Makoto is not only afraid of the ocean, but the water in general.
 * Makoto has been described as the wishy-washy type by Haruka, because he is too nice and was unable to decide which club member would be his boyfriend if he were a girl.
 * Makoto and Haruka appear to have a game that consists of Makoto guessing what Haruka is thinking.
 * Makoto likes eating green curry and chocolate.
 * Makoto's best subject is Literature, while he's bad at English and Art.
 * Makoto likes physical activity and manual labor.
 * According to Rin, Makoto has a rough but dynamic stroke that leaves everyone behind.
 * Makoto was voted Sexiest Anime Man of 2013 by winning over Haru Yoshida from Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun with 24861 votes.
 * Makoto's voice actor, Tatsuhisa Suzuki i, is the vocalist for OLDCODEX, the band which performed the opening theme for Free!, "Rage on".

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