This isn't a sports anime, it's a rescue mission. Hironoshin Furuhashi broke records that should have made him a legend, then history forgot him entirely, and this special exists to drag him back into the light where he belonged. The real swimmers who came after him testify to what he cost them to become great, what it meant that one man had to die for their careers to live.

Hironoshin Furuhashi, the Japanese swimmer nicknamed the flying fish of Fujiyama, is the subject of the first episode of this NHK special, which blends anime with documentary. That episode draws on Eikou Naki Tensai-tachi (Geniuses Without Glory), a biographical manga by Tomoyoshi Itou and Shingo Morita that ran in Weekly Young Jump. Olympic swimmer Kousuke Kitajima and other Japanese swimmers are interviewed about how Furuhashi reshaped competitive swimming in Japan and about the training an Olympic swimmer needs. The special runs two episodes in all.