[Blonto]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

Perhaps "Romance as a core motivation" isn't the best way to convey it. So rather, romance tends to surround the typical anime male lead whether he wants it or not.

I don't think you can compare Haruka to harem leads, since Free isn't a harem. Free is slice of life and sports and those genres tend to put little emphasis on romance, often not having any all.

Originally Posted by Triple_R

Haruka isn't passive. He's very proactive when it comes to his swimming passion. It's not something he has to be dragged into, initially against his will and/or considerable reservations (as is the case with most KyoAni male leads).

He is passive from a storytelling point of view. Pretty much the only drive you would expect from him, the competitive drive, is dead (in the water, harharhar). His only motivation is to not compete, to keep the status quo. That's passive. He is dragged around and told what to do and he has little initiative to do anything on his own that could be relevant to the story. This is typical of male Kyoani protagonists.

Originally Posted by Pocari_Sweat

Little focus on the actual swimming element, much focus on male characters stripping and flexing their musclely bodies. See Chihayafuru or Ginga no Kickoff for recent examples on how to do sports anime.

While you are undeniably right with your other criticisms, you seem to contradict yourself here. The show is pretty pressured to focus on swimming, since that's the only way to get maaanservice and it features swimming once or twice per episode. The rest is typical highschool antics, since that's like air to Kyoani.

I don't see how fanservice during swimming negates the fact that there's swimming going on. You might not register it as swimming relevant to your interests, but the swimming itself actually isn't fanservicey, considering you can't see much from all the bubbles and water. It's the preparations and the aftermath that produce the most fanservice.