Nao Serizawa

Nao Serizawa (芹沢 尚 Serizawa Nao) is a supporting character in the anime series Free!, beginning with the light novel High☆Speed！ written by Kouji Ohji. He was co-captain and manager of the Iwatobi Junior High School Swim Club, playing an instrumental role in the development of the team comprised of Haruka Nanase, Makoto Tachibana, Ikuya Kirishima and Asahi Shiina. He now lives in Tokyo, where he studies Sports Medicine at Oudoukan University.

Appearance
Nao is tall with an average, but toned build. He has long gray hair with bangs, yellowish-green eyes of a droopy nature and is usually seen wearing a kind expression. Since graduating junior high school, he wears eyeglasses and his hair is shorter.

Personality
Nao is a gentle, patient, and soft-spoken individual with keen insight into the motives of others and a logical approach to life. His empathetic nature helps him motivate the students he coaches, as seen when he works with Haruka and his teammates, identifying their individual obstacles to improvement, then helping each one develop for themselves a strategy to overcome them. He is a loyal friend to Natsuya Kirishima.

Story
Nao is a third-year at Iwatobi Junior High School when Makoto and Haruka enter as first-years. He is the co-captain of the school's swimming club and president of the library committee, as revealed in the light novel. In High☆Speed！－Free! Starting Days－ it is revealed that he goes through an eye surgery. Temporarily unable to swim due to his health issues, his tolerant nature allows him to channel his frustration into coaching and solidifies his career choice of sports medicine.

In Free! The Movie -Take Your Marks-, Natsuya tells the junior high team that he doesn't swim due to said injury, adding that he wishes they could swim swim together again, someday, but must wait until Nao is medically permitted to do so. Nao goes on to attend Soufukan High School, graduating and moving to Tokyo, where he studies at Oudoukan University. In an ironic twist, he is the previous owner of the Tokyo apartment in which Haruka currently lives and becomes the catalyst in Makoto's own career path of professional coaching.

Trivia

 * His motif animal is a northern gannett.undefined
 * Nao keeps tropical fish in an aquarium at home and one of his hobbies is looking after them. The other one is watching movies/documentaries with Natsuya.
 * Before getting into swimming, he was into Aikido (a form of martial arts).
 * He is the former coach of Misaki Kuramoto in Free! The Movie -Take Your Marks-.
 * His motif animal is a northern gannett.undefined
 * 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. Nao was listed as being "type 1:" which is the most basic/lean muscle type amongst the swimmers.