Harukana Receive Episode 12 with Matt & Irina – Chance Ball

It’s been a wild and crazy summer! We’ve laughed, we cried, we oogled girls in bikinis. We didn’t actually cry at all. Also we didn’t laugh all that much either…. Matt and I are back one last time to bring you our take of Harukana Receive. Although our takes on individual episodes may vary, generally we were left with the same impression. Hope you join us for this last discussion of the season and let us know if you watched Harukana, what did you think of it?

OK – is this show going to pull a Pretty Derby on me and be 13 episodes long? It seems like a conclusion but so did the ep12 of Pretty Derby (to me at least).

I can assure you this is the finale, no false finishes here!

I noticed that color shift in the shadows that you mentioned last week, at the beginning and end of this episode. That was pretty cool.

They did it better in the previous episode, but glad you noticed!

I wanted more Grandma x Akari though. I feel like they cheaped out on that ship. I guess that age difference was a little problematic. And Grandma is married woman…But all that taboo is what made it exciting!

Not even a parting glance, such a shame! Though we did get to see Grandpa finally! Well part of him, guess he’s part-man part-turtle (it was a funny joke to keep the whole ‘female-only aesthetic alive).

Seeing the hot one again makes me hope there’s another episode. They kept making a big deal about those two throughout the series but they were completely superfluous to the plot. Even as an incentive element, they fall completely short. I did really like the airport episode. However, these are dead weight characters.

I think it’s got more to do with the fact that they’ll play a big role in the non-existent second season. (Okay I don’t know that it won’t get a second season, I’m just assuming…) It probably makes more sense in the manga? That said, I do like it that they didn’t just have them miraculously show up for to watch them play and that they had their own shit to do, felt more realistic that way!

I’m not sure it will get a second season either. I’m notoriously uninformed about the anime world but I really haven’t gotten the impression that this was a runaway hit show.

I admire a show that has the husspaw to do a clip montage in it’s 12th episode! That  bit and the CG water were giving me a Grancrest flashback. I was surprise to note that I’m thinking back on Grancrest considerably more positively than I would have thought. Did you ever watch Grancrest Matt?

You really seem to hone in on that CG, I didn’t even notice, then again I was probably just distracted by other… things… ahem… What’s a Grancrest? Is that something I combine chocolate and marshmallow with?

I was watching the BBQ and thinking we finally get a beach episode….I’m not that smurt.

I mean doing things other than sport at the beach technically counts as ‘beach fun’ rather than ‘beach business’ so you could be forgiven for thinking that… maybe…

Did you notice that Haruka was shorter than everyone expect Kana.. This really freaked me out. I realize it’s just a little artistic inconsistency (it happens in almost every show), but considering the first episodes, it was awesomely ironic! I’m not sure that’s what ironic means…

Again, can’t say I noticed, man, it’s almost like there’s something about this show that’s inherently distracting…

But you made a big deal about her height in the first episode….Isn’t it ironic that I’m the one noticing it now! Did I get it right this time?

I only made a big deal about it because the show did, literally the second she touches down in Okinawa random people are pointing at her and wondering if she’s a model. If it weren’t for the dialogue I wouldn’t really have noticed either to be honest!

The little fun in the sun bit was cute but for some reason I didn’t like it as much as previous random fun times episodes. I’m not sure why but they seem to have a bit less chemistry than usual. Maybe it’s the awkwardness of losing the match.

I thought it was fine personally, maybe it was because of all that food made them feel lethargic, although apparently not enough for Haruka and Claire to do a bit of practice afterward.

I gotta say, if this is the final episode, it’s a bit of a let down for me. Part of it is most likely that the team I was kinda rooting for lost and this show went for the opposite message than what I like about sports anime. However, I also don’t think it showcased how fun and amusing the series can be at its best. Mind you it doesn’t invalidate the season as a whole. I just didn’t like this episode as much as last episode.

Gotta disagree with you on this one, easily my favourite episode of the whole season (yes, even better than bikini try-on episode) I never doubted that Haruka and Kanata would win–even if it was against all logic. It may not have been outright ‘amusing’ but I found it more cohesive and balanced than previous episodes. Like half sports/half socialising fun–that’s the ratio it should have been all season!

I’m pretty sure everyone knew the title characters would win. But predictable endings aren’t always the best. To me it was tonally at odds with most of the series and had no character defining moments. If I wanted to sell this show to someone I wouldn’t use this episode. It did have the best animation though. In my opinion.

Yeah, seems like they saved the majority of the animation budget for the final episode, it was pretty sports-y! (Is that a word? If it is it’s a terrible word…)

The hyphen makes it look fanc-y!

I will write more about the entire series once Matt confirms that this was indeed the finale… Matt confirmed it – here I go with my brief overall thoughts. Objectively speaking it’s probably an average CGDCT show (Ed – Matt just sad it’s not a CGDCT show and I believe him – I’m gonna call it a show with cute girls instead…). There’s both worse and better on both technical and narrative merits. Subjectively, I thought it was mostly fun but a little uneven. And I personally would have prefered it without the sport and with more comedy instead. I would say, if you like the stills from the show, you should go ahead and watch it, you’ll probably enjoy it.

I’ll save my more detailed thoughts for a seperate post but my general opinion of this series is strikingly similar to Irina’s, sport is what held this show back, but unlike Irina that’s just because I generally don’t care for sports anime–I thought this show would be enough to change my mind but apparently it doesn’t matter how many and how much cute girls in skimpy bikinis you throw at me I’m still going to caught at that hurdle. Much like Uma Musume last season, I didn’t really connect with any of the girls on this show but still found them pleasant and endearing enough to be around. I’d stop short of calling this a CGDCT show though as it never really felt like one, even when they were just out doing shopping. If anything it’s more akin to those shows about school clubs with a bit of actual tournament action thrown in. I liked the show, I liked the characters, I liked the setting, I liked the vibe–but I didn’t love it.

Do you guys want any more pictures? I’ll give you a few, for old time sakes!

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