This episode of Harukana Receive is brought to you by Happy, Happy, Happy, Happy Shequasar! It’s super sour! Super delicious!
For real though, that jingle is going to be stuck in my head. Man, even fictional Japan gets all the good commercials.
Anyway, Harukana Receive has been teasing the introduction of its fifth and final main character, Akari Oshiro (Chisa Kimura) for a while now and finally, she has officially entered the picture! Suffice to say, this episode played out a little bit differently than I anticipated. I mean, I wouldn’t have immediately associated idols with Harukana Receive but evidently, I stand corrected. And oddly enough, I think I got thrown on a bigger loop with what constitutes as an idol in Akari’s eyes. I’m just saying, there is a clear difference between a pop idol and a gravure one. Even Claire points out that in one scene so the logic behind this strange hybrid Akari envisions eludes me.
For that matter, if this girl really wants to be an idol that bad…why not just work towards becoming one? Looks like someone didn’t watch Love Live!.
The whole idol stuff aside, I quite enjoyed watching Akari become friends with everyone and join the club out of actual interest for the sport. The one-on-one match between her and Kanata is particularly a highlight in this episode. Not only is it a refreshing reprieve from the team play we’ve seen so far, it also shows how surprisingly savage Kanata can be. Don’t me wrong, it’s a friendly match overall but come on, someone was having fun reading her opponent’s moves like a book. She clearly didn’t want Akari calling her short and getting away with it. And while Akari suffers the humiliating defeat she had coming, she does display some impressive stamina and she comes to learn what makes volleyball fun.
More importantly, Akari learns a valuable lesson about how to make friends with people. Being a local celebrity (again, that jingle will never leave!), you can understand why she struggles in that area and that does explain her crazy idol plan. For the longest time, she thought she needed to something elaborate to gain a circle but, in the end, all she had to do was just hang out and have a fun time like anyone else.
And so we finally have an official beach volleyball club. It happened pretty quickly too since Claire had an application on hand (I’m with Emily, where did she hide that form?). I would like to see Akari keep up with her training and one day get her own partner but her becoming a sort of manager has potential. Frankly, this club might look even more legitimate as you find out that Emily and Claire’s mother, Marissa, has returned to Japan. Methinks this club just got a new demon coach.
OP:
I still can’t believe there was an idol element in Harukana Receive. The song’s decent enough but I won’t lie, that CGI is hard to unsee. Also, off-topic but I dig how the ED added Akari.
Thanks for reading!
Harukana Receive is officially available on Crunchyroll & Funimation.
For all of my Harukana Receive Episode Reviews, check out the show’s archive page!
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