Best Free! side characters

Seijuro Mikoshiba wins 63% of his duels and tops the Free! side character ranking ahead of Aiichiro Nitori.

A gap of just 38 ELO points separates Seijuro Mikoshiba from Aiichiro Nitori, suggesting that fans remain divided over which supporting character resonates most. Aiichiro Nitori actually wins a higher percentage of his duels at 68%, yet the overall ELO calculation places him second. Sousuke Yamazaki holds third place but commands a firmer lead, with 71 ELO points putting distance between him and Momotaro Mikoshiba in fourth. Despite sharing a surname with the top-ranked contender, Momotaro sits notably lower on the list with a 37% win rate. Miho Amakata occupies fifth position, also winning 37% of her duels, while Goro Sasabe trails at the bottom with a 33% win rate and 1093 ELO points. The lower ranks reveal that some side characters fail to capture the community's attention as strongly as the frontrunners, though each has participated in multiple head-to-head contests.

This ranking draws on 642 duels submitted by 66 players across 6 contenders. Updated on 11 October 2026, the list reflects current preferences among Free! fans but remains open to shifts as more votes arrive. Head to VAINKEURZ to cast your own duels and help shape the final order of favorite side characters in the series.

Updated on October 11, 2026

How this ranking is computed

Every duel won lifts a contender and every loss drops them, by an amount that depends on the opponent's strength: beating the leader is worth more than beating the last. It is an ELO, the same principle as in chess. Duels are not drawn at random — an adaptive entropy sort puts the least predictable match-ups first, which settles the ranking far faster than a full round robin. A worldwide ranking is only published past 30 completed plays. Known limit: a contender who has faced few opponents keeps an approximate score, and the bottom of the table moves more than the podium.

How our rankings are made →