Rin’s role in Haru's development [the catalyst]
I’ve seen a lot of people saying that Rin is bad for Haru or that Haru has moved on and is now “over” Rin. Nevermind all this:
Episode 9:
Episode 10:
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Episode 11:
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Since the show is fairly straightforward in that regard (and if anybody has any doubts left, taking a look at the opening or the ending should suffice. They’re hardly what I’d call subtle), I’ll just focus on the whole “Rin is bad for Haru!” because I couldn’t possibly disagree more.
A lot of great posts have been made in regard to that subject, citing how Rin motivates Haru and pushes him to exploit his own talent and other wonderful bits. So, I thought of addressing it from a different angle.
Has Rin caused Haru pain? Sure he has. But that is not a reflection of the nature of their bond, and as such, neither does it indicate that their bond is unhealthy. Rather, it’s a consequence of something else altogether: Rin has a profound effect on Haru. It is this that allows him to play the role he does in Haru’s development.
And (personally) I would argue that Rin’s effect on Haru - even during those times when Haru has suffered due to it - has ultimately taken Haru to good places.
Since the post is long (!!), I will just save you guys the trouble and state right here what is the point I will be trying to make:
Rin’s presence and his effect on Haru are what caused the chain of events that made the Haru we’re seeing now possible. Both the good and the pain were necessary for Haru to grow, come to important self-realizations, and become the character we’re currently seeing: someone who is more open, more in touch with his emotions, and not only willing to but eager to acknowledge his friend’s presence and importance in his life.
In other words: Rin is more at the core of Haru’s development than some people realize. While the Iwatobi guys are agents of Haru’s change, Rin has been his catalyst since the novel.
So if the topic interests you, by all means!
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(Just keep in mind that this is only my opinion and things as I perceive them to be. As such, it might not be free of bias).
I think there are two things that some people either fail to realize or do not give enough importance to. The first is that we would not have seen this Haru:
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Had Rin not wormed his way into Haru’s life. So it wasn’t that ^that Haru “became” like this because of Rin:
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Haru was just essentially going back to how he used to be before Rin, minus swimming competitively.
By the time Rin transfers and becomes more than just a kid, they saw a swim meet, Makoto, Aki (a character in the novel, for those who do not know her) and Nagisa already interact with Haru often; Makoto has been there since kindergarten, Aki has been studying with him for a while and Nagisa was already a member of the same swim club.
Yet, how was the Haru we meet at High Speed?
- Deliberately sought to keep himself apathetic.
- Avoided relying on others like the plague (except when it came to actually socialize, which he left to Makoto). His vision of “strength” - of how he should be - was to “stand tall”, to “stand on his own”.
- Asocial (goes without saying).
- Swam competitively, yes. But he did not do it out of enjoyment or out of any desire to win; he had just “gone along” with Makoto’s suggestion because he would get to be in the water.
- Most importantly: he had an unhealthy dependence on the water as an escapism outlet that basically numbed his feelings and “released him from [these] unnecessary obligations” [x], aka his bonds with others.
Haru was nothing like this:
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He was, in fact, much more like this:
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Plus swimming competitively, of course.
So, what was it that brought the Haru from Episode 10 out in the first place? If you ask me, that would be mainly two things: swimming in that relay and realizing that he had been “running away to the water” “in order to find peace, to turn his eyes away from the real world, to hide his real feelings” (Chapter 6).
And Rin was the catalyst for both of those things.
a) The Relay: It was Rin who barged into Haru’s life and swept everyone around him into his single-minded drive to swim in a relay.
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So, it was Rin who caused the ripples that gave others the opportunity to reach Haru. Rin was the one who talked Makoto and Aki into asking Haru to join the relay; Aki already wanted Haru to do so, while Makoto didn’t particularly care one way or another; if Haru didn’t want to do it, that was fine by him. But Rin’s pushy nature ended up leading them both to finally voicing out their feelings to Haru: Makoto tells him that he wants to swim in the relay but that most importantly, he wants to swim with Haru (Chapter 4) and Aki that she would like to see Haru having friends that he could rely on, cry with and laugh with (Chapter 6). Samwise, while Nagisa also wanted to swim with Haru, if it weren’t for Rin Nagisa would have had no team to want to join in the first place.
And it is also Rin who realized what Nagisa joining the Team could lead Haru to do: “When he saw how happy Nagisa was at becoming a member of the team, while he himself was refusing to swim, how long would Haruka be able to stick to his opinion?” (Chapter 4). Which did end up working.
In other words: while Haru joining the relay was already a show of Team effort by the guys and Aki (the agents) Rin was the catalyst that made it all possible.
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b) Haru’s realization about his relationship with water: It is Rin announcing that he is leaving to Australia and the strong feelings that this evokes within Haruka that triggered Haru’s realization.
I want to hurry up and run to the water. Haruka’s pulse was beating hard. His blood was flowing fast through his whole body. His temples were growing hot, and sweat was gathering in the palms of his hands. …Am I running away?
[…] Was he swimming for a reason like that? (Chapter 6)“
So, Episode 08 actually wasn’t the first time we’ve seen Haru wondering about his reason for swimming. He did so as early as Chapter 6 of the novel, and Rin was once again the catalyst that brought about Haru’s self-introspection.
And - once again - while emotionally taxing for Haru, both moments had big positive consequences for Haru in the long run.
This first realization was big. I believe it is consciously realizing what he had been using water for that helps Haru begin to look at swimming differently. Yet, it not only makes him regard water differently: it pushes him to change his outlook in general.
But Haruka wasn’t going to run anymore. That was what he had decided. Nor from the relay, not from Rin, and not from himself. That was why he had no intention of turning back at this point. (Chapter 6)
Considering both things, it’s easy to see just why the relay was such a big thing for Haru’s growth. For the first time, Haru wasn’t in the water to escape; he was in the water for others, with others. It wasn’t that others were depending on his swimming to achieve first place, either; a relay is done as a team and everyone’s effort and performances affect the overall outcome. And Haru agreed to do this; he agreed to rely on others.
And - again - there would have been no relay without Rin.
So as you can see, Rin - as the catalyst - was right there at the core of the two events that, to me, ultimately lead Haru to ever so slowly begin to open up and become more expressive, more in touch with his emotions.
Without Rin being there, who knows when Haru would have realized that he had been depending on the water all along. Without Rin there, no one would have pushed Haru into swimming in the relay, and Haru would not have gotten to "see that sight”.
That he ‘swims best free for the team’. That relying on others is okay. And most importantly: that swimming can be fun, especially if it’s with your friends.
Sound familiar, doesn’t it?
That’s because from Episode 08 to Episode 10, Haru goes through a variation of the same road of self-discovery. And who was the catalyst, again?
That’s right: Rin telling Haru that he wouldn’t swim with him anymore.
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But I’ll get to that in a bit.
There’s no denying that what happened between him and Rin that fateful winter - the guilt coupled with the hurt and the confusion - made Haru clamp his doors shut once more. He packed his bags and basically went back to a version of whom he used to be before Rin shook his world for the best.
Yet, apathetic, lethargic, unmotivated Haru has fired up once more the moment Rin steps into the room. Rin’s effect on Haru is still unchanged and as powerful as it has always been.
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^ this is the guy who just a day before couldn’t wait to become ordinary.
And it’s this - how profound his effect on Haru is - that allows him to continue to be the catalyst for Haru’s changes. It’s why Rin is such a tangible presence wherever Haru is concerned, even when they’ve spent pretty much 90% of the show apart.
Let’s look at the Swimming Club, for example. Nagisa is the one who sets it up, yes. But what is the reasoning behind it?
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And while in Episode 1 Haruka clearly voiced his disinterest in re-taking swimming competitively (“We aren’t little kids anymore. Things aren’t the way they used to be.”) and wouldn’t have wanted to join the club:
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Now, Haru does so easily:
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So, while Haru did stop swimming competitively for Rin - Rin is the catalyst for the opposite, too.
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(Not to mention that Rin is a big part of why swimming competitively became something enjoyable in the first place).
a) The New Iwatobi Team: Since the Team was formed and Haru joined it because of Rin’s return, consequently it’s ultimately due to Rin being back that Haru becomes part of a Team again - and doing so becomes vital for Haru’s development.
Three or four years went by since that time when Haru quit competitively swimming and went back to being the lethargic, closed-up boy he once was. And he was still that way by the time the anime started; so it’s obvious that despite their best intentions, those who were around were not able to make a difference.
Once Rin comes back though:
In other words, much like in High Speed!, t's again due to Rin, as the catalyst, that the other agents of Haru’s development (namely Makoto, Nagisa, and now Rei) get the chance to reach Haru and exert their influence on him.
Makoto once again gets the chance to remind Haru that he wants to swim with him and that it’s meaningless for him otherwise (Episode 06); Nagisa continues to push Haru when Haru needs it most (Episode 08). And there’s even someone new who comes into his life and forms a bond with him: Rei.
And the aggregate effect of Rin as the catalyst and MakoNagiRei as the agents reaches its momentum during Episodes 08 & 09 (with Episode 07 being the lead-up-to and Episode 11 is the outcome).
b) Haru’s reasons for swimming: Just as Haru said in Episode 09, the moment he thought that he “would never get to swim with Rin again”, “everything went dark“. ”I didn’t care about anything at that point. Not the tournament or anything else.“
Rin’s blow – much like Rin revealing that he is leaving for Australia – lead Haru down a road of self-searching that, with the help from the Iwatobi guys, eventually lead Haru down one of self-realization.
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If you ask me, it is precisely this question coupled with his friends’ influences on him - the bond they have formed, how important they are to him, and how important he is to them in turn - that leads Haru to once again come to the realization that swimming with his friends is fun. It makes him happy.
It is something he wants to do.
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And it parallels the novel: both were necessary steps for Haru to reach the level of self-awareness that he now has. The difference is that this time around, Rin is standing on the opposite end from the people waiting to pull Haru up from the poll after he is done swimming the relay; because just as Haru had once forgotten about all this, Rin did, too.
But his role as the catalyst? He has been fulfilling it without fail, at least in my eyes.
That said, remember how at the start of this super long post I mentioned that there were ”two things that some people fail to realize or do not give enough importance to"? The second is the following:
Rin and Haru only interacted regularly for about two months.
[Graduation scene, H☆S! Chapter 6] Haruka couldn’t understand at all why some guy [Rin] who’d only been here two months was crying, or why he seemed so shaken.
Rin transferred to Iwatobi Elementary in January of their sixth year and left the day after they have swum in the relay, which was after graduation. The first time they actually talked to each other happened a year before Rin left; however until Rin transferred they were no more than acquaintances - if anything.
[H☆S! Chapter 1] They had met Rin several times before at town swim meets. That was their only connection. They weren’t what you’d call especially close; they’d barely even had a normal conversation.
When the show started, I saw a lot of people assuming that Rin and Haru were the best of friends when they were children and that is the reason why Haru is so affected by everything and anything Rin does or does not do.
But that couldn’t have been further from the truth.
Two months and a couple of days. That’s an awfully short period of time.
Yet, that does nothing but highlight how profound and innate Rin’s effect on Haru is, because the fact that one can (IMO) clearly draw a line between Haru Pre Rin and Haru Post Rin - both in the novel and in anime verse - when the kid was in his life for less than three months is incredible.
Another thing that allows Rin to play the role of the catalyst is that when he is involved, Haru can’t be indifferent nor apathetic. No matter how much he might try. And try he did!
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Haruka would pass on getting wrapped up in it. That was why he had called Rin out here, intending to warn him away, but he felt like pursuing the matter any further would just be a bother. The more he obsessed about it, the further he’d get drawn in, anyway.
(sorry, Haru. No way you could have avoided getting drawn in!)
… so basically I think this post has become a why-I-OTP-RinHaru from Haru’s side, rather than an outright rebuttal to the whole “Rin is bad for Haru!” thing; though I hope the answer to that did get across through all this rambling.
If you read this far: thanks a lot!
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