Harukana episode 7 started by throwing me off! Yeah, the entire intro made me question what I was watching. I was at my friend’s house and we looked at each other, back at the screen, he paused the episode, exited, and clicked it again to make sure we were watching the correct show.
But, what an interesting way to introduce another character!!!
While this completely threw me off, it was sort of enjoyable with the pretty colors and the song and whatnot, but then the episode truly got its start. Let’s get into that!!
Kanata meets this new character, whose name is Ooshiro, or Shii-chan. We get some conversation and end up ending on beach volleyball. Wonderful! However, Shii-chan wants to be a beach volleyball idol–like Narumi and Ayasa!
Poor Claire and Emily, being overshadowed by Narumi and Ayasa because of a magazine…
Fan service time…because what would this show be without fan service?
I like this. They’re cute. Anyway, we get our fan service, which was plot driven to an extent, and then go into Shii-chan’s character, what she wants, and the volleyball club. It’s an odd mix to be honest, but I think for this show it works. It’s a light, not-so-serious show, so the awkward characters and their silly nature doesn’t do anything to make me wonder what’s changing. It seems to fit in pretty well.
We get Ooshiro wanting to pair up and be a beach volleyball players, but Claire and Emily are wondering why she wants to pair up with them since Ooshiro seems to have little to no experience as a players–and really the Thomas Twins wouldn’t split anyway.
Club application time! But…
Ooshiro runs off when her request is denied.
The next portion delves into Kanata and Haruka at school searching for Ooshiro, and Kanata goes on about how Narumi was when she first started school, which prompts Haruka to want to make sure Ooshiro has friends at school despite being a former idol.
So we get that, and then we get Ooshiro playing against Kanata… Kanata’s thought process is completely correct, and she doesn’t even need to try in the slightest to show Shii-chan that she’s not ready to partner with any of the other members (or join the club in my opinion, but story for story’s sake I guess).
Kanata seems a bit arrogant here, and I wonder why they’re showing us a side of her that isn’t really in line with what we know. Sure she’s played volleyball before, but the entire time it seemed like Kanata wasn’t expecting any sort of challenge and simply brushed Shii-chan off like she was some pesky fly. While it made sense, the shift in Kanata’s tone was a bit drastic and unnecessary.
After this we get the club feeling like a real club, and end on something that was a bit odd. Ms. Thomas showed up! I like how this happens and that we’re introduced to her in a more personal setting, but some of the reactions were odd to say the least.
We have two girls with blond hair, on Okinawa, and now a grown woman with blond hair at a beach volleyball court is also on Okinawa. And they’re surprised when it turns out to be Claire and Emily’s mom? Uh…what? What seems like a stretch and a poor execution on introducing the character more readily than the previous phone calls we’ve gotten.
That’s about it for Harukana episode 7!! It added a new character, in some odd way, and gave us what could be more of a coach at the end in introducing Claire and Emily’s mom!
The fan service had its moment, which I enjoyed, and we got to see some volleyball being played. Overall the episode was well done and gave us a look at how the club is going to go moving forward, but I’m not sure what we should expect. It left us on a cliffhanger, but didn’t give much of an indication as to what may happen as a result of said cliffhanger. Either way, Harukana Receive was enjoyable.
Thanks for reading!
Alexie 🙂
Alex's Arena 