Hahafunnymeme,womeninswimsuitsplayingbeachvolleyballxd

Ok, we got the stupid out of the way, now I'm going to proceed to try to convince you that this show is more than just boobs, butts, and pointless fanservice.

• My point being

Harukana Receive is an anime about relationships, and how to build and grow them while overcoming hardships together with your partner. To do this, the show uses it's whole beach volleyball theme perfectly as it takes advantage of the fact that the sport is played in pairs to create a pretty obvious metaphor for human conections, even going as far as treating them as importantly as romantic or familial bonds. While this might seem a little comedic at first, the fact that they abstract that meaning helps the show to convey the hardships that one might go through while trying to connect with somebody else while still maintaining a pretty calm vibe that would otherwise have to be put on hold while the whole drama is being worked through.

• Relationship conveyed through beach volleyball

As I said, this show likes to use sport pairs as a metaphor for human bonds, that is mostly seen in Kana's whole arc with Narumi, where the two were pretty great together, but eventually separated because they were simply incompatible, as Kanna needed someone that encouraged her to see past her flaws and be more confident, thing that Narumi couldn't be as she just was a reminder for how little talent Kanna had. That person she needed ended up being her cousin Haruka, who with a combination of being upbeat as heck and overall just caring deeply about Kanna's well being managed to bring out the better of her and show her true potential.

Notice how I explained all of that without using any term involving volleyball at all, this show uses it as a mean to tell a story with certain themes, it's not the center of attention, but it doesn't detract from the main point.
And now that I have made that clear, let's talk about the elephant in the room.

• This is not Haikyuu goddammit

Of course, if we're talking about volleyball themed anime, you eventually get to the comparison with the absolute powerhouse that is Production IG's little golden goose, and not to try to deminish Haikyuu I myself really like the series and it's even one of my favorites of all time, but while all that is said, I would be really inclined to say that Harukana Receive is close, if not in the same level of quality than Haikyuu... Hey, bring down those pitchforks and let me explain myself...

I know, I know... it isn't as hype as Haikyuu, it doesn't have the massive cast of polished characters that Haikyuu has, and the animation is abysmal if we compare it to what IG is capable of doing. But, as I said earlier, in this show volleyball is just a means to tell a story and all the fanfare and hype that comes with a sports anime is tossed aside for a more chill and relaxed vibe that is reinforced by the show's art style and sound direction (More on that later) which deviate themselves from the usual sharp characters and bombastic soundtrack for a cuter character design and more calm soundtrack, all that to ultimately separate itself from being the usual hypetrain that sports anime tend to be, and set it's tone more closely to a character drama like Hibike Euphonium, or Anohana.

That's basically why I think that it can get away with not having as good animation as anime like Haikyuu or Hanebado, since it's scope is more centered in it's slice of life elements, I think it's allowed to lack that. Not that this show never gets hype or anything, it's just that it gets you invested through it's characters and what they're trying to accomplish and prays that you're invested enough to care about what's happening on screen, and for me, it managed to achieve that.

• It's really freaking pretty and the soundtrack is one of my favorites

Yeah... basically that... not much else to say, the art direction is really good in my opinion, if we take into account everything that I have said so far, it delivers on what one would want with this type of shows, and it's OST has this tropical vibe that goes perfectly with it's setting. Gotta be honest, between Rasmus Faber (This show's composer) and Kevin Penkin (Made in Abyss's composer) western composers are prooving they can put up some pretty memorable pieces.

Before ending up the review I'm going to quickly adress the fact that, even after all the good things I said, this is still an Ecchi show, so if you don't like Fanservice in any way, shape or form, I get why you wouldn't like this. I personally think it's done in a way that doesn't detract from the experience, but hey that (And really everything that I have said up until now) is just my opinion.

To finally end this, I want to say I really think that this anime should get more attention, and I hope that my review pushed you to think more about it's good points than it's flaws. And if you read this without watching the show, I hope it pushed you to watch it.