Sosuke Yamazaki

"#00BFA3"

- Don't ever get in Rin's way again.

Sosuke Yamazaki (山崎 宗介 Yamazaki Sōsuke) is one of the main supporting characters in the second season of anime Free!, ''Free! Eternal Summer''. He was the butterfly and freestyle swimmer on Samezuka Academy's swim team. Sosuke is a close elementary school friend of Rin Matsuoka, and the person who understands him the most. He currently works at his family's restaurant with his cousin.

Appearance
Sosuke is a tall, muscular young man with short, dark brown hair and droopy teal eyes. He is usually wearing a serious facial expression.

While swimming, he wears black jammers which either have white, grey and brown, or teal markings trailing along the length of his outer legs and thighs.

Personality
Sosuke seems more reserved and stoic, even intimidating, but is shown to actually be quite kind. He is very close to Rin, and is said to be Rin's childhood best friend. They reunite in Eternal Summer, and are still close friends. Sosuke has shown that he cares about his swim team, and has helped Nitori train. He's very overprotective of Rin, as he threatens Haruka not to get in Rin's way ever again, after what he did at the regionals. Sosuke thinks of Gou as his sister.

History
Sosuke is a former friend of Rin's from Sano Elementary School. There, they were best friends and used to hang out a lot, evidenced by how Sosuke used to spend even holidays such as New Years at Rin's house, together with Rin and Gou. After a certain relay they swam together, Sosuke told Rin he would rather swim individually, as he hated losing because of someone else's mistake and having to share victory with others. This made Rin angry, however they quickly made up when Rin told Sosuke he would race him in the 800m freestyle. He was a part of the Sano Swimming Club with Rin. Sosuke crosses paths with Haruka and Makoto in middle school, during a race at Sano.

When Rin transferred schools and went to Iwatobi, Sosuke didn't say anything and just watched him go since he had always thought of him as a rival. He hands Haruka a letter written to him from Rin, who is currently in Australia. He later notes that the letter was clearly meant for Haruka, as there was evidence that Rin had rubbed out "you" and replaced it with "him".

After he finished elementary school, he went to Sano Elementary School and there continued swimming hard. Even after Rin's letters stopped coming, Sosuke continued working hard in order to one day stand on the same stage as Rin. As he started attending high school, he intensified his training even further, and after a while, there was nobody who could beat him in swimming. However, soon enough he started sensing something was wrong with his shoulder. Despite that, he continued swimming and winning competitions up until his shoulder finally broke down completely the summer after 10th grade. When he heard from Gou that Rin came back from Australia, he worked hard to repair his shoulder before meeting him by going to physical therapy every day. As his teammates had already surprassed him, Sosuke decided to quit swimming, as he realized his dream would never come true. However, seeing Rin swim in the relay with Haruka, Makoto and Nagisa made Sosuke make a new dream of his - which is to swim with Rin again.

Trivia

 * According to Rin, Sousuke's bad with directions. He's often seen getting lost at his own school and when travelling for races.


 * Sosuke's Japanese voice actor, Yoshimasa Hosoya, is also 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!!.
 * It's possible that Sosuke and Gou went to the same elementary school, (Sano Elementary School) and the same middle school since she stated that she hadn't heard from him ever since they had ended up in different high schools.
 * Another popular alternate spelling of Sosuke is Sousuke with a "u". This spelling is used in multiple main fandom sites, like Fanfiction, Wattpad and Archive of our Own.
 * His motif animal is a whale shark.
 * His shoulder surgery was a success, possibly making him able to return to competitive swimming.

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Sosuke Yamazaki