Common Name: Harukana Receive
Score: 5/10, 3/5
Length: 12 Episodes
Genre: Sports, Slice of Life, Comedy, Yuri, Ecchi
Summary: While her parents move overseas for work, Oozora Haruka has taken this chance to move in with her cousin in Okinawa. When she arrives, though, Haruka quickly comes to realize that her cousin, Higa Kanata, isn't the same perky, driven girl she was in her youth. The girl has grown sullen and quiet and has all but given up on her onetime passion, beach volleyball. Hoping to bring back the girl she knew, Haruka pushes Kanata to teach her the game but ends up taking this means of connecting with Kanata a little too far as they end up getting scouted for their school's beach volleyball club. Now this retired pro and the newbie must figure out how they're going to work together if they're going to stand any chance against Kanata's old partner, Tooi Narumi, and rivals, Claire and Emily Thomas. Win or lose, though, Haruka just aims to have the time of her life with her beloved cousin.
Review: Sports anime is a point of contention for me. While I know I've said this to the point of sounding like a broken record, Harukana Receive is a perfect example of why that is the case. At least for me, a sports anime needs to do one of two things "succeed." Of these two things, the first is pretty obvious. If a sports anime can make its sport look fun or engaging or exciting, then it succeeds by bringing me, a person who doesn't normally like sports, into the hype other people get while cheering for their favorite sports teams. Eyeshield 21, Kuroko no Basket, Haikyuu!!, and even Keijo!!!!!!!! are perfect examples of how this method of success can win anyone over to sports specifically because they are able to express the excitement and kinetic thrill sports have to offer via the anime medium. If a show can't really capture that, then there is at least one other option. If a sports anime can't key into that excitement and thrill, then it can succeed by offering a story that's worth telling. Whether it's a character story or one that is meant to express or subvert a particular idea, having a story or message to tell can make any show worth the watch. Yuri!! on Ice, Megalo Box, and even Prince of Stride are good examples of how characters or a story can succeed by carrying a show beyond being just about their sport and make it a something accessible to anyone. Of course, if a show fails or stumbles in its attempts to offer either of these two things, you're left with something dull and uninteresting. Now, I won't go far as to call Harukana Receive "dull" or "uninteresting"--there is a baseline level of enjoyment to this show that holds everything up--but it gets close enough to failing that it's hard to not at least consider those words.
As for what that baseline might be, let's just say you'd have to be blind not to notice it.
Put plainly, Harukana Receive is a bit of a mess. While I might not be inclined to call it an "abject failure," I'm also not particularly willing to entertain the idea that it is "good." Rather, it manages to walk the line of mediocrity just well enough to be called "tolerable," but it had to fight to get even that amount of praise out of me. To elaborate, the reason I claim Harukana Receive is a perfect example of why I'm so contentious toward sports anime is because it showcases just how easy it is for a show to struggle with the two methods of success I recognize for this genre. While it manages to tap into those two methods of success, it never did enough with either to be considered "good" in regards to its presentation of the sport or in its characters and overall story. I'll admit that it gets close at times--close enough that it's fairly easy to see what the show could have done to reach that level of quality I expect--yet it still falls short, leaving us with a show that is mediocre in almost every respect.
You could almost say it "drops the ball." Yeah, there was just no way to avoid that pun.
To give you an idea of what I mean, let's get into the show's attempts at the latter form of garnering success in sports anime--the quality of its story or characters. For starters, let's be clear that there aren't really any subversive twists or underlying themes present in Harukana Receive. The closest thing we get to anything like that is the simple fact that the show's various teams/pairs serve as a less than subtle allegory for girl-on-girl relationships. From the ceaseless flirting to the girls claiming of ownership of their partners and the humorous application of ship names riddled throughout the show (i.e. the team name "Harukana" being the melding of Haruka and Kanata), it's generally hard to miss this aspect to the show. Granted, the ever-present "male gaze," made known through lingering shots on the girls' anatomy or zooms on some of the show's more questionable positions, doesn't make it any easier to ignore. Beyond this little bit of subtext, though, what you see is what you get.
Y'know, just so we're on the same page here.
On the whole, neither the show's plot or its characters are all that noteworthy. From start to finish, Harukana Receive is concerned with its titular pairing, Oozora Haruka and Higa Kanata, as they work their way up to the high school beach volleyball nationals. Along this road, they run into a number of friends and competitors alike as well as a few personal hangups and complications that need to be resolved on either side. Most notably among these, there is the simple fact that Haruka is new to the sport while Kanata has had years of experience. Of course, what with this being an anime and all, this complication is pretty much instantly resolved as it is turns out that Haruka is a fast and dedicated learner, catching up to the pros with years of experience and practice under their belt within a couple months. While the show plays this nonsense off with a single throwaway line that "Haruka's always been really good at sports," it becomes blatantly apparent that this kind of quick and easy contrivance will be a staple of the show. So, regardless of who they face or how hard they struggle, there is never any doubt that Haruka and Kanata will stand victorious--particularly when you consider that the anime opens with the two of them competing at Nationals. In spite of their victory being a foregone conclusion with every match, though, the show makes this problem even worse as it spends an ungodly amount of time and attention trying to raise stakes and tension, making it look like Haruka and Kanata always end up ripping their victory from the jaws of defeat every time. To make this problem all the more galling though, the show's pacing and ability to hold one's interest are functionally ruined as it spends entire episodes dedicated to single sets of a match just to build this tension and anticipation that was never there in the first place.
In all fairness, though, the show looks great as it force feeds us this nonsense.
As if half-assing on the plot wasn't bad enough, though, the characters that drive it aren't all that inspired either. Funny and beautiful as they might be, there just really isn't a lot to any of them. With only a few exceptions to consider, the vast majority of the cast are relatively one-note and undergo little to no development. Haruka, for instance, is this bubbly ditz of a girl whose entire role in the show is built on her unwavering faith and dedication to her cousin, Kanata. The primary instructors and rivals of these two, Claire and Emily Thomas, are similarly weakly defined. What little development and growth they get comes from an obsessive desire to win paired with a simple inversion of who is depending on/supporting who when things take a turn for the worse. Among the show's few notable exceptions to this rule of simple characterization, though, Kanata's development is probably the best this show has to offer. Essentially starting the show off at the lowest point in her life, Kanata has entirely removed herself from the world, abandoning all her old friends and giving up on the sport she loved. As Haruka enters the scene and decides she will cure Kanata's sullen melancholy, we are told from multiple perspectives the damage this withdrawal has done to both Kanata and those who had come to depend on her. While some characters like, the Thomas sisters, faced a certain amount of disappointment after losing such a great rival so suddenly, others, like Tachibana Ayasa, resent Kanata's weakness because of the harm she inflicted on her old partner, Tooi Narumi. Yet, as it is subtly revealed, Kanata's decision to abandon everyone and everything she loved was not necessarily unreasonable, since it is assumed that it was her means of coping with the death of her parents. Regardless of whether or not her actions were reasonable though, Kanata's slow, progressive growth throughout the series ultimately speak to a narrative in which she battles with her own weaknesses so that she might make amends with her old partner and have the most fun she can with the person who drove her to get better in the first place, Haruka.
Of course, given the Sapphic nature of the show, a lot of Kanata's story is told from
the perspective of it being romantic baggage since Narumi is essentially her ex.
Having exhausted the first means of attaining "success" as a sports anime and ending with the understanding that things are just as bad as they are good, evening out to be "tolerable" in my book, we are left with the first means of success: making the sport in question fun and/or engaging for it's audience. Considering my comments regarding the pace and execution of the story, though, the show is already starting off on its back foot during this evaluation. As good as the show might look while it bogs its audience down with matches that take up entire episodes, quality of art means nothing if the audience is falling asleep or dying of boredom. Quite frankly, the only thing that could save this show at this moment is me claiming that the action of the sport, while prolonged, is at least dynamic and a blast to watch. Luckily, that's exactly what Harukana Receive manages to do; kinda. Though I am happy to say that the general execution of the sport looks and feels kinetic--offering satisfying audio and visuals that make each pass, serve, and block feel as powerful as their real-world equivalent--there are a few hiccups to note. Particularly toward the show's end, several issues start to arise regarding the framing of various scenes start to crop up that effectively took me out of the action every time it happened, an aspect of development I rarely ever take note of or feel the need to mention, meaning it's especially bad in this case.
While I'm at it, it is worth noting that there are also a few issues with the
timing of some transitions and cuts at this point too.
To elaborate, there are several moments during the show's final match that feature the ball flying toward the sand only to have one of the players save it at the last possible second. Normally, this is pretty standard hype fuel that makes the action and engagement with the sport all the more physical and tense. Yet, with the way these scenes are framed, these saving plays make no sense. In one such instance, the ball is shown shooting towards the sand with no characters anywhere nearby. Then, as if by magic, that scene of the ball falling cuts to another with a character bumping it up for their partner to shoot, a feat only possible if said character could instantly teleport under the ball. In another, we see the ball mere inches from hitting the sand only to have a character call out that they got it and then dive for it, returning the ball long after it should have hit the ground. Though this kind of issue of timing and framing mainly comes up toward the end of the show, likely when the budget started to run dry, these little inconsistencies continued to take me out of the scene simply because my eyes couldn't make sense of what the show was trying to do. Little gaps in consistency like this kill the experience, regardless of how hype, good-looking, or kinetic the action of the sport might be. So, in the end, we're once again left with the show not quite reaching the level of quality I expect from a "good," successful sports anime.
Granted, I'm not entirely sure certain people were watching this show for its sport.
Still, in spite of all my criticism and this show's inability to reach my standards of what defines a good sports anime, I won't say I particularly disliked it. I could have done with a little less flirtation/sexual harassment but I'd be lying if I said some part of me didn't enjoy these moments too. Questionable and concerning as some of these blatantly sexual interactions might have been, they did a fairly good job of injecting some good old slapstick comedy into more action-packed and tense scenes, effectively keeping everything light and fun. Normally, I'd equate that kind of comedic deescalation to narrative cowardice but I'm honestly starting to think "light and fun" was the mood this show was going for overall. So, in a weird, roundabout kind of way, this show's inability to become a "good" sports anime ended up making it a fairly decent slice of life comedy, albeit one that focused more on sports than it did its physical comedy. More to the point, though, I can't say I really recommend this show in any critical capacity. In its best light, it's a mess of a show that doesn't know what it wanted to be. In its worst light, it's just an underwhelming sports anime that just barely manages to hold its audience's attention. So, give it a shot if you want to have some dumb, pointless fun. If you want an actually good sports anime, though, check out one of the titles I mentioned at the top of the review.