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 teal eyes. He is usually wearing a serious facial expression. His fall and winter 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
Sosuke 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 Nitori's training when Aiichio is despondent about his progress. He's very protective of Rin, threatening Haruka not to get in Rin's way as Rin pursues his Olympic dream. Sosuke thinks of Gou as his own sister. He is hard working and dedicated to his family, 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, spending holidays together, like New Year's Eve, with Rin's family. Rin and he often hung out together, enjoying similar activities, but especially swimming. Despite both loving to compete, Sosuke eventually 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, but their friendship continued. Sosuke was also a part of the Sano Swimming Club with Rin, where his path crossed with the Iwatobi Swimming Club and again, during middle school.

When Rin transferred schools and went to Iwatobi, Sosuke missed his friend, but still thought of him as a rival. Sosuke knew of Rin's competitive drive to beat Haruka, but also knew it motivated Rin. Following a meet, he once handed Haruka a letter written to him from Rin, who was then in Australia. He later noted that the letter was clearly meant for Haruka, as there was evidence that Rin had rubbed out "you" and replaced it with "him."

After finishing elementary school, he attended junior high and continued swimming hard. Even after Rin's letters stopped coming, Sosuke continued training in order to, one day, swim at the same level as Rin. In time, his hard work paid off as there was nobody who could beat him in butterfly. However, he began sensing something was wrong with his shoulder. When he heard from Gou that Rin had returned to Japan, he worked to repair his shoulder before meeting him by going to physical therapy every day. By then, his teammates had surprassed him and Sosuke had decided to quit swimming, as he realized his dream would never come true. However, seeing Rin's response to swimming relay with Haruka, Makoto and Nagisa revitalized his desire to swim again with Rin.

After transferring to Samezuka Academy, he joined their Swimming Club. Ever protective of Rin, Sosuke admonished Rin to forget about friendship and to focus only on his dream, but Rin said he needed his friends to succeed. In reply, Sosuke then asked to be "one of those friends" and to be on Samezuka's relay team beside Rin. Rin agreed, 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.

Sousuke's shoulder injury eventually sidelined him from competive swimming but following successful surgery, he told Rin he planned to return. Meanwhile, he continued to train while working and attending school.

Trivia

 * 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'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 both attended Sano Elementary School and the same middle school since she stated that she hadn't heard from him ever since they ended up in different high schools.
 * Another popular alternate spelling of Sosuke is "Sousuke." 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 is successful, making it possible for him to return to competitive swimming.

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Sosuke Yamazaki