Sosuke Yamazaki

Sosuke Yamazaki (山崎 宗介 Yamazaki Sōsuke) is the character that appears for the first time in season two of anime Free!, Free! Eternal Summer. He is a close elementary school friend of Rin Matsuoka, and the person who understands him the most.

Appearance
Sosuke is a tall, well-built young man with short hair, droopy eyes and a serious face expression. While swimming, he wears black jammers which have markings trailing along the length of his outer legs and thighs.

Personality
Sosuke is said to be a good person who understands Rin a lot. He has a strong personality and never gets irritated by anything. He takes a dry and harsh position on swimming toward himself and those around him.

History
Yamazaki is a former friend of Rin's from Sano Elementary School.

Relationships
Iwatobi High School=

Samezuka Academy=

During the time he was at Sano SC, Sosuke and Rin's relation was having competed for being the representative, formerly they certainly had a relationship that could be called friends. When Rin said that he wanted to go Australia and when he said that he wanted to swim at Iwatobi SC, just saying ‘I understand’ while he was half shocked, he didn’t try anything like half-heartedly keeping him back or pressing questions. Sosuke kept being someone who understood Rin well until the end.

In High☆Speed!, Rin stated that it’s better if he's not on the same team as Sosuke because they "understand each other too well". He says that Sosuke’s even more theoretical than he is and that they often quarreled. They settled on it that the faster way is always correct, but their competitive spirit wasn’t half-baked anymore.He said that he doesn't hate him. Rather, he still thinks of him as the person who understands him the most, but sometimes it becomes difficult to be together. When he ends up understanding Sosuke's feelings, he ends up not being able to say the things that he wants to. He can no longer seriously go up against Sosuke. He said that that was not a friend, but like an alter-ego (you don’t like or hate your alter-ego).

Others=

Trivia

 * Yamazaki's voice actor, Yoshimasa Hosoya, is also active in other sports animes, voicing Junpei Hyūga in Kuroko no Basuke  and Kuranosuke Shiraishi in Prince of Tennis.