Harukana Receive (Episode 8) – I’ll Keep Our Promise

Emily and Claire’s mother has returned to Okinawa and is keen to start training Haruka and Kanata. As she’s known Kanata for years, she’s delighted to see that Haruka has rekindled her love of the sport.

What happened?

The beach volleyball season was over, but with the addition of Akari, they were able to make the beach volleyball club official. Also, with Marissa in town, they can start to prepare for next season… There’s still a lot of Haruka to learn and Kanata has been out of the game long enough that she needs some help too. Marissa runs some drills which involve returning one of her spikes. Her spikes are terrifyingly strong!

After all that training, the girls get some time off over New Year and decide to head to the shrine to start the year off right. They make a wish, leave a prayer and find out their fortunes. Haruka and Claire seem to be the big winners in all of this. Their celebrations are short-lived, however, as Haruka gets a phone call from Ayasa who tells her that she and Narumi are in Okinawa airport for a little while if they want to come and see them.

Of course, they do, and luckily, Claire phoned for Marissa to come and give them a ride. It turns out that Marissa is not just a demon on the volleyball court. Even with her driving skills, they get stuck in traffic. With time ticking down, the girls jump out and run the rest of the way. They make it just as Ayasa and Narumi were going through security. Kanata calls to Narumi and tells her she will keep their promise, but with Haruka. Narumi walks off without looking back but holds up her pinky finger to show she understands.

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What did you think?

This series is like one long, gloriously warm hug from Marissa, and who wouldn’t want one of those? There was some volleyball at the beginning of the episode as Marissa gave Haruka and Kanata a quick lesson, but after that, it followed the girls as they enjoyed New Year and tried to meet up with Ayasa and Narumi. Not a great deal happened, but it was just a lot of fun hanging out and enjoying the blue skies and shimmering sea.

I mentioned in an earlier review about how Haruka really is the catalyst to make things happen, and while she doesn’t necessarily change, she makes those around her change for the better. So, I was delighted to see that Marissa picked up on that and thanked Haruka for what she had done to change Kanata’s life. That’s got to be worth one of those hugs… right?

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What have you learnt?

It never really occurred to me at the time, but this was probably the first cute girls doing cute things show that I really got into. Now, if they were just wandering around doing random things, I don’t think I would have bought into it. However, we had the volleyball which has been a lot of fun and through that, we met the characters and experienced their joy of playing. That did a lot to make me care for them, and that’s why I would sit through them doing just about anything now. I know I mention characters and making connections with the audience a lot, but I don’t think I can ever overstate the importance of it.

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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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