Goro Sasabe

"#bf9932"

- It's not easy to watch as your memories are destroyed.

Goro Sasabe (笹部 吾朗 Sasabe Gorō) is one of the main supporting characters of anime series Free!. He is the coach who worked in the former swimming club where Haruka, Rin, Makoto and Nagisa used to practice. Since the Club was closed and demolished, he is now working as a pizza deliveryman.

Appearance
Goro has short, golden hair, but despite that, his right bang is way longer than the rest of his hair. In the present he has a brown star shaded on the left side of his head, which he didn't have at the time when Rin came back from Australia to have a race with Haruka. Goro has a brown "anchor" beard and two earring pierced in his left ear.

When he's coaching or swimming, he wears a black, one-piece swimsuit. As a pizza deliveryman, he wears a red and white jacket, red and white shirt underneath it, both with a yellow star on the right side of his chest, red pants and a red helmet. When not at work, Goro often wears Hawaiian shirts and shorts in various colors. Most of the time, Goro is seen driving his pizza deliveryman vehicle, even when he's not working.

Personality
Goro seems to be a kind and friendly coach. He gets well with his students and knows them very well. Although he seemed to have enjoyed coaching, he seems fine with his job as a part-time pizza deliveryman. It is later revealed that he still likes to coach swimming and is a very hard coach, earning the nickname of "Goro the Demon".

Despite already having a part-time job and not getting wage, Goro decides to continue coaching the Iwatobi High School swim team for their relay competition. He continuously urges them to practice more and takes note of their faults like swimming form, kicks and time. He sometimes gets exasperated soon and tells them that they 'don't know what they're doing'. Goro also uses to set up recording equipment at the pool, letting the swimmers check out their form from multiple angles, which proves effective.

History
In the past, Goro was the coach of the elementary school swimming team at the Iwatobi Swimming Club, which consisted of Haruka Nanase, Rin Matsuoka, Makoto Tachibana, Nagisa Hazuki and Aki Yazaki among others. However, the swimming club was soon disbanded and he found himself a part-time job as a pizza delivery man.

Relationships
Iwatobi High School=

Goro used to be Haruka's coach while he was still a coach at Iwatobi Swimming Club. When Rin came back from Australia during his Middle School years, Goro was the one to let him and Haruka race back at the Iwatobi Swimming Club pool. He was the only one to know about Rin's and Haruka's race and Rin's breakdown up until he talks with Makoto one night after running into him. He cares for Haruka and others very much and is willing to give his all to help them improve their swimming.

Goro used to be Makoto's coach while he was still a coach at Iwatobi Swimming Club. One night, wanting to visit the abandoned swim club building, Makoto ran into Goro, but didn't recognize him. After having a talk with him (not knowing it was actually Goro), he recognized him as Coach Sasabe and told him that he was one of his students. Goro then, realising it was Makoto, noted that he grew big.

Like all other characters somehow connected with Iwatobi Swimming Club, Nagisa calls Goro "Goro-chan", adding girlish suffix "-chan" to his name.

The two seem to know each other from the time when Miho worked as an office lady, but when Goro asked her if he knew her from somewhere, she denied claiming that she met him for the first time.

Later it is found out that Miho used to be a swimsuit model, and the reason Goro felt like he had met her before was because he had seen her in several magazines and was a big fan of hers. However, he was forced to keep quiet about this and never bring the topic up again. Samezuka Academy=

Trivia

 * Goro was one of the last members of the Iwatobi Swimming Club before it was shut down.
 * Goro knows Miho's secret of once being the swimsuit model Marin, whom he was a big fan of.
 * The flag on Goro's squid fishing boat says "Big Catch Sasa" (大漁 笹 Tairyō Sasa).

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Goro Sasabe