Harukana Receive (Episode 10) – The One I Wanted to Fight
Haruka and Kanata will have to beat Claire and Emily if they are to win the Okinawa Nationals Qualifying tournament. They’ve spent the last year training together, but now they must stand as rivals!
What happened?
After winning the toss, Claire elects to serve first and starts the match with some big hits. Before long, they’ve put four points on Haruka and Kanata, but there’s no way they’re going to give up that easily. Claire and Emily may have the experience, but Kanata has got some tricks and there’s no one that can read the game the way she does.
Haruka manages to get a block on one of Claire’s spikes and they take over the serve. Their game plan is to focus on Claire and get her riled up. Emily is more composed, but Claire can get a little overzealous at times. It’s something they are counting on. The game swings back and forth, the scores remaining with three points, but it’s Claire’s and Emily’s to lose.
With Claire and Emily looking to take the first set point, Kanata thinks she’s done enough to bring the game level again, but she hadn’t counted on Emily taking them on with an offensive move. Most of their playing career, Emily has sat back and allowed Claire to dominate the game, happy to just back her up, but she’s been working on her game too. The first set goes to Claire and Emily.
The second set gets underway and things are continuing to play out exactly as they did in the first set. This time, however, Kanata lures Emily into an attacking play and then casually lofts the ball back over Emily’s head. Dropping the ball into the spot she usually occupies. Maybe, she’ll think twice about doing that again!
What did you think?
Considering how quickly some of the games in this season have gone, I was delighted to see that this episode was almost entirely beach volleyball. Sure, there were a couple of minor flashbacks that helped to flesh out the motivation and thoughts of the players, but they didn’t detract from the game in the slightest.
The game, however, was dynamite. I love the music they play when the tempo is picking up. It feels almost like a mix of Cuban and Japanese music and fits the overall vibe of the series perfectly. Even with the intensity of the game, we still have to the beautiful blue skies and white sandy beaches. This series is an absolute feast for the senses.
What have you learnt?
The fact that only one of these teams can go to Nationals has made this into the epic final it deserves to be. With both going through, there would have been a chance for them to take things a little easier. Of course, there would be no penalty for losing. However, with the stakes upped, we get to see both teams giving it their all.
On top of that, they train together, play together. They’re all best friends and now we have to see how they can cope with going head to head. It makes this contest that much more interesting and will show what sort of characters these are.
Other reviews in the series
- Season One
- Episode 1 – We Don’t Need Aces
- Episode 2 – Believe in Me
- Episode 3 – I Want to Regain My Former Self
- Episode 4 – Isn’t This Perfect For Us?
- Episode 5 – Until You Break
- Episode 6 – I Won’t Break
- Episode 7 – We’re Already Friends
- Episode 8 – I’ll Keep Our Promise
- Episode 9 – This Is How I Feel
- Episode 10 – The One I Wanted to Fight
- Episode 11 – At This Point, We’re Basically Playing Head-to-Head
- Episode 12 – And That’s Why We Choose Our Irreplaceable Partners
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I love it when Claire (I think it was, it’s been a busy couple of weeks and I haven’t rewatched like I did the other eps) “welcomes” Kanata back… The line you use as a title “Those are the eyes I wanted to fight”. Nobody wants a cheap, especially against on old rival. They crave the real deal – going up against someone who is giving 110%.
That’s victory.
Yeah, it’s not revenge if they’re not trying. Now that Kanata was back to her old self, Claire could finally win back her pride, or at least was a possibility.