Umihara Norika

Umihara Norika ( のりか) is the goalkeeper of Inakuni Raimon. She previously played for Inakuni Soccer Club before it got disbanded.

Appearance
Norika has dark green hair and bluish-purple eyes.

Plot
Norika was one of the members and the only goalkeeper of Inakuni Soccer Club, her school soccer team, before it got disbanded. The decision was made by principal Fuyukai Suguru due the incapacity to keep up with the new reforms of Japan Soccer Association that interested the ones of the mainland.

In episode 1, she was seen playing joyfully as usual with her teammates in the field in front of their school, managing to block easily Goujin Tetsunosuke's shot. During the break, after complimenting Goujin for his improvements, she expressed her love for soccer, for her a mean to drive away worries and bad thoughts, surprising Hiyori Masakatsu due to his idea of her as an happy-go-lucky girl. At the same time, she agreed, as for the others, with Inamori Asuto's proposal to have a match against a soccer club of the mainland and is dismissed with the others when he and Michinari Tatsumi went to the principal's office to ask for the realization of that possibility. She is only seen later, with Mansaku Yuuichirou, medicating Asuto's injures he got in his attempt to stop the demolition of the school field, expressing her displeasure for her friend's reckless action. However, she only made Asuto angrier, asking her if she was fine with what was happening, with her obvious refusal.

She is not seen again until the next day, when she and her comrades were called by Fuyukai to discuss about the possibility to save the soccer team only at the condition of partecipating in the Football Frontier, due to the unexpected appearance of a sponsor, being interested in them. Despite she was one of the firsts to express her worries about that conditions, particularly the one to leave the island, she was rapidly persuaded by Asuto and Kozoumaru Sasuke's words. However, they weren't sufficiently able to reassure her completely, because during the sunset she confided her apprehension to Hiyori and Okuiri Hiro on a cliff. Particularly, she expressed her anger to not have the possibility to play her sport freely and the fear to leave alone her mom on the island. However, in the same moment, she is called by her mother, who was eavesdropping their conversations, assuring her support to her decision to go to Tokyo. This managed to give her the strenght to not abandon her desire the play soccer; embarking with the others the next day in a ferry directed to Tokyo and becoming officially a student of Raimon Jr High and member of the school soccer club.

Later, in the same episode, during a flash forward of Inakuni Raimon's one week next match against Seishou Gakuen, Norika wasn't able to stop Haizaki Ryouhei's Death Zone, who started to play seriosly after Kozoumaru's Fire Tornado scored the first (and only) goal of the match for her team.

Hissatsu

 * Uzumaki The Hand

Trivia

 * Norika's birthday is on June 1.
 * She is the first female goalkeeper of a Raimon team.