Harukana Receive – Episode 7 – Akari’s Beach Volleyball Idol Dreams

From last time, a mysterious girl approached Kanata about the beach volleyball club. It becomes obvious who it is.

Ooshiro Akari apparently wants to become a beach volleyball idol by winning the Valkyrie Cup. When she met with the beach volleyball club, she hits a roadblock. Claire nor Emily wants to split apart with each other and Akari finds Kanata too short and Haruka, unexperienced. In short, she stormed off without filling out the form.

Kanata and Haruka notices that Akari left her bag behind. After finding out from her classmates that Akari have no friends, Kanata decides to help her out like she did with Narumi. They eventually found Akari eating lunch alone and decides to join in. Kanata challenges her on a one on one match. If she loses, she has to join the beach volleyball club. Akari does just that. However, she couldn’t score a single point and ultimately decides to join the club.

I have to admit that the opening of this episode threw everyone off. Akari singing an idol song makes this show look more like an idol anime. However, it’s just Akari’s dream. Her previous celebrity experience involves a commercial for Exciting Shequasar, which is a drink made in Okinawa. This is the reason Claire, Emily and Kanata recognizes her quite easily. Akari definitely did this commercial in order to become popular. However, it had the opposite effect. Akari’s celebrity status intimidates her classmates, mostly since they perceive her having a higher status.

As you would expect, Akari comes off as a tsundere or rather the haughty type. It’s obvious since she won’t admit that she wants friends despite being lonely. Also, she wouldn’t accept a match with Haruka, but will with Kanata. This explains a lot about her personality, but there is more where that came from.

It’s quite obvious that Akari wants to pair up with someone skillful to participate in a beach volleyball competition. After all, whoever wins the tournament will become very popular. Just look how popular Narumi and Aya are from winning first in the Valkyrie Cup. With that in mind, Claire and Emily aren’t going to split apart so Akari can achieve her dream. Also, she looks down at Haruka for being inexperienced and Kanata for being short. Besides, they are already taken.

Despite this, it’s obvious that Kanata wants to help Akari out just like she did with Narumi. Narumi was a bookworm before she started playing beach volleyball. The funny thing is that Akari will accept a match from Kanata because she is short. Then again, she is underestimating Kanata’s skills and abilities.

As for the volleyball match, I find it funny how Akari put on obscene amount of sun block. It’s obvious she doesn’t want a tan. Either way, it seems that Kanata had no problem dealing with her. After all, Akari could only hit straight, the net or out-of-bounds.

In short, Akari couldn’t score a single point after seven tries. She keeps on going despite losing already. She has a lot of persistence, which is amazing. Eventually, she gave up and joins the club as promised, thus making the Beach Volley Ball Club official. On the blight side, at least she made new friends.

From the looks of it, it seems that Marissa, Emily’s and Claire’s mother has finally arrived. I wonder what she has in store next time. ¶