Sosuke Yamazaki

"#0dbb8f"

- 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 is the butterfly and freestyle swimmer on Samezuka Academy's swim team and a 3rd year high school student at Samezuka Academy. Sosuke is a close elementary school friend of Rin Matsuoka, and the person who understands him the most.

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 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. 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 Kou 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 Kou. 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 Kou 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

 * Sosuke's 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, and Asahi Azumane in Haikyuu!! .
 * It's possible that Sosuke and Kou 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.

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Sosuke Yamazaki