Harukana Receive

Quick summary:

"There are two kinds of sports in this world. Individual sports and team sports. And among team sports, there's a sport that you can only play with two team members. And that's beach volleyball."
Haruka Oozora comes to live with her grandpa and cousin Kanata Higa to Okinawa and falls in love with beach volleyball. Helping her cousin get over her past, making new friends and training hard, Haruka finds a path that leads all the way to the nationals. But will she be able to get in and win?

Cute girls doing sports
We all love cute girls doing cute things. Statistics show that it's one of the most popular genres/tags there is. We love to watch it as much as we love watching cute boys do sports. It's gay, it's fun, it's emotional and we get this feeling that we could definitely rule if we signed up for our local team.
But have you ever thought about girls doing sports? Think no more! Sure, there are different animes to start this journey with... but let me tell you, Harukana receive is the best choice to make!
You get that feel of yuri/GL/lesbian feel that we all know sports anime bring. You get to enjoy over 10 girls in swimsuit (all sizes of chests included!), funny jokes and emotional moments.
Matches included - so you can get back that mixed feeling when one of the teams you're rooting for wins and the other looses.

It's so gay, it doesn't even need exclamation marks !!!
As mentioned, this anime is extremely gay. To the point that it becomes slightly incestous. But don't worry! It's not so bad after all.
Whether you're a man or a woman, I am sure you will enjoy some close-ups, hugs, confessions and looks they exchange between each other. The jealous "ex", the new relationships, the love that forms between all of them...
The emotional aspect is just as strong as in any other sports anime. It doesn't have to be boys for you to enjoy it! And just because it's girls it doesn't mean it's heavily sexualized and doesn't carry any meaning or weight to it.
It's really so well made.

It's funny even in dub!
I used to hate watching dubbed anime. I felt like it didn't count and I was missing on something by watching it like that. However, Harukana is extremely funny in dub and some of those jokes weren't half as good as in subbed version.
Which dub does all the time - they translate things the way they want to, usually giving the anime a parody-like feel. This time (and in Chainsaw Man too) the dub did a great thing and all the jokes hit their mark.
Wether it was MILF jokes, memorable lines or typical over-expressing of the girls' feelings, I was laughing like crazy. Tia Ballard (Haruka's VA) did an amazing job and I had to add her to my favorite VAs, because her voice became very memorable to me.

It's not Haikyuu!! But it is.
People keep comparing this anime to Haikyuu and then hating on it. Which... come tf on! Harukana is not even about the same sport! And how can you compare the powerhouse of animation (that being Production I. G.) to C2C with only 24 anime on their list! (From which, all of them look extremely good.)
Comparison of any kind is simply silly and it doesn't do justice to any of the stories.
But.
If you want to compare it, think about what you're comparing.

The excited newbie meets the old pro with bothersome past.
We love it, check.
The first enemy they meet is the old pro's ex partner that loves to watch them grow.
We love it, check.
We get to know more teams and all of their members and they grow on us, like our friends and family.
We love it, check.
Our favorite people are 3rd years, which breaks our heart in many ways.
We love it, check.
Nationals come and we have to see our babies fight each other.
We love it, check.

Should I continue or do you see what I'm trying to say? If you're going to compare the incomparable, think about what you're really saying. If you think one is worse than the other, think again. If you don't want to watch one because you've seen the other, just go for it! It's a different experience with some of your most favorite tropes!

No second season??
The anime does have an ending, but we all know more is to come. However... despite the manga being finished, and 4 years passing... we have yet to get any sequel to this gem. The only relation is Harukana Receive: Yokoku of which 11 episodes are each 1 minute long.
Which is... not enough, honestly.
[UPDATE] I just watched the so called sequel and let me tell you, it is not 1 minute long. It's 20 seconds long and NOTHING happens. I WAS ROBBED.

Conclusion: it's a must watch!