Chisaki Kimura -- Waku Waku Shequasar（ワクワクシークヮーサー）

Amidst all of the wacky comedies that came out during the Summer 2018 season of anime, there was one show that kept things fairly grounded into a mellow slice-of-life feature. This was "HaruKana Receive"（はるかなレシーブ）, an anime that revolves around the sport of beach volleyball and is set in Okinawa. My anime buddy and I saw the whole thing, and it was about as relaxing as one could get with its themes of friendship and competition.

Now, the opening and ending themes are fine and I will cover them in the coming weeks, but I have to say that the one song that caught my ear was actually this catchy jazzed-up in-universe commercial jingle for a shequasar drink. And what is shequasar, you ask? I will be honest...until watching "HaruKana Receive", I didn't even know how it was translated into English or romanized into letters, although I knew about this citrus fruit when I was living in Japan. I did visit a few Okinawan restaurants here and in my home away from home, but for the life of me, I can't remember whether I even drank shequasar juice. Mind you, I did have my share of Orion Beer.

Still, the side character of Akari Oshiro（大城あかり）, as played by Chisaki Kimura（木村千咲）, who becomes the final addition to the group of high school buddies in the show, is the aidoru who got her start in show business by doing this jumpy little jingle called "Waku Waku Shequasar" (Exciting Shequasar). Yup, that song really drilled itself into my head very quickly.

Written by hotaru and composed by Tokiya Sugishita（杉下トキヤ）, I'm quite happy that they decided to put out a full version of "Waku Waku Shequasar". Maybe it will come out in the official soundtrack for "HaruKana Receive". In any case, there is a real drink for shequasar so I'm wondering if Kimura's efforts may have paid off in a boost of sales for it.

Shequasar may read like something a veteran Scrabble player might throw onto the board, but it actually sounds more exotic and interesting than its more sombre scientific name, Citrus depressa.