Sosuke Yamazaki

Sosuke Yamazaki (山崎 宗介 Yamazaki Sousuke) is a main character in the anime series Free!, beginning with Free!-Eternal Summer-, and a minor character in the light novel High☆Speed！ written by Kouji Ohji. He is a nationally ranked butterfly swimmer for the Samezuka Swimming Club. Sosuke is a close childhood friend of Rin Matsuoka and the person who understands him best. He currently works at his family's restaurant while also studying at Seshika Kyoritsu University.

Appearance
Sosuke is a tall, muscular young man with teal-colored eyes and short, dark brown hair. He is usually seen wearing a serious facial expression. His fall and winter high school uniform consists of white trousers, a black t-shirt, a buttoned up white jacket and black shoes. During the spring and summer, his uniform consists of white trousers, a black polo with a pink collar, and black shoes. When swimming in competition, he wears black jammers which either have a white, grey and brown or a teal pattern.

Personality
He is reserved and stoic, even intimidating, but is actually quite kind. He takes a dry and harsh position on swimming toward himself and those around him. Despite this, he takes an active interest in Aiichiro Nitori's training when the swimmer is despondent about his progress. He's very protective of Rin, threatening Haruka Nanase not to get in Rin's way as Rin pursues his Olympic dream. Sosuke thinks of Gou Matsuoka as his own sister. He is hardworking and dedicated to his family, too, as seen by his participation in a family-run restaurant.

History
Sosuke has been best friends with Rin since their classes at Sano Elementary School and the Sano Swim Club, spending holidays together (like New Year's Eve) with Rin's family. He and Rin often hang out together, enjoying similar activities, but especially swimming. Despite both loving to compete, Sosuke eventually tells Rin he would rather swim individually, as he hates losing because of someone else's mistake and having to share victory with others. This makes Rin angry, but their friendship prevails.

When Rin transfers to Iwatobi Elementary School, Sosuke misses his friend, but still considers him a rival. Sosuke knows of Rin's competitive drive to beat Haruka, but also knows that it motivates Rin. Following a tournament, while Rin is in Australia, Sosuke hands Haruka a letter written to Sosuke from Rin. He notes that the letter was clearly meant for Haruka, as there is evidence that Rin had rubbed out "you" and replaced it with "him."

After elementary school, he attends Sano Junior High School and continues swimming hard. Even after Rin's letters stop coming, Sosuke continues to train in order to one day swim at the same level as Rin. In time, his hard work pays off as there is nobody who can beat him in butterfly. However, his shoulder begins to bother him. When he hears from Gou that Rin has returned to Japan, he works to repair his shoulder before meeting him by going to daily physical therapy, but by then, his teammates have surprassed him and Sosuke has decided to quit swimming. However, seeing Rin's response to swimming the medley relay with the Iwatobi High School Swim Club his goal is revitalized once more.

After transferring to Samezuka Academy, he eventually joins their Swim Club. Ever protective of Rin, Sosuke admonishes his friend to forget about friendship and focus only on his Olympic dream, but Rin replies that he needs his friends to succeed. Sosuke then asks to be "one of those friends" and to be on Samezuka's relay team beside Rin. Rin agrees, changing the rules of relay team selection to allow those who had the greatest desire to swim relay to be on the team versus those with the fastest times. Sosuke's shoulder injury eventually sidelines him from competitive swimming, but following successful surgery, he tells Rin that he plans to return. . Meanwhile, he continues to train while working and attending school.

Trivia

 * His motif animal is a whale shark.
 * According to Rin, Sosuke is bad with directions, and he's often seen getting lost at his own school and when travelling for races.
 * Sosuke and Gou likely both attended Sano Elementary School and Sano Junior High School since she once states that she hadn't heard from him ever since they ended up in different high schools.
 * Another popular alternate spelling of Sosuke is "Sousuke."
 * Sosuke's seiyuu, Yoshimasa Hosoya, is active in other sports anime, voicing Junpei Hyūga in Kuroko no Basuke, Kuranosuke Shiraishi in Prince of Tennis, Arata Wataya in Chihayafuru, Asahi Azumane in Haikyuu!!, and Takuya Sekizan in All Out!!.
 * At a staff talk event for Free!–the Final Stroke–, one of the character designers discussed the main characters' body types in terms of musculature. Sosuke was listed as being "type 5:" the second most well-muscled of all the types. Due to his post-surgery training, Sosuke was specified as having more "hard" muscles compared to Makoto.

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Sosuke Yamazaki