Rising Impact follows Gawain Nanaumi, a third grader discovered to have a prodigious talent for golfing. The series is streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary:
Professional golfer Kiria Nishino travels to the mountains of Fukushima for a holiday when she runs into young Gawain Nanaumi.
Gawain’s only goal in life is to become a baseball player and hit the ball farther than anyone else in the world.
He has immense power when striking the ball and his lower body strength and balance are perfect from traversing the mountains regularly.
When Kiria shows him the distance a golf ball can be hit, Gawain is entranced and asks her if she can teach him how to hit a golf ball.
She realizes that Gawain has endless potential and tells him that he can visit her in Tokyo when he’s older so that she can teach him to play golf.
Gawain’s grandfather sees how focused he is on becoming a golfer so he sends him to Tokyo just a month later to stay with Kiria.
He meets Kiria’s younger sister Kurumi and begins his lessons in golfing. During his first tournament, he encounters Lancelot Norman and Yumiko Koizumi.
Lancelot is considered the best young golfer of his age and has a special ability called the shining path that makes him an expert putter.
He shares that ability with his sister Kajury, who is currently in the hospital awaiting surgery to regain her eyesight.
Gawain finishes third in the tournament after a spirited performance and he and Lancelot are approached by well-known coach Merlin Albright to join his Camelot Academy.
Lancelot refuses because he doesn’t want to move away from his sister but Gawain is excited to test his talents against other top golfers.
He meets his teacher, Arya Sayfort, and his classmates who are of different years. Yumiko is one of the students in his class.
The others are Riser, Liebel, Platalissa, and Wanglian. Riser thinks it’s a joke and Platalissa eggs them on to challenge each other.
Riser sees how well Gawain can drive the ball and accepts that he deserves to be there. He spends months working on his game and becoming friends with the others.
Liebel is the best among the lower classmen, but he has a terrible record in tournaments. He reveals that he once cheated to win a tournament and the guilt weighed down on him.
After a stern talking to from Gawain during a one-on-one match, Liebel was able to let go of the past and play to his full potential.
As the school year reaches its end, the focus shifts to the Camelot Cup, a tournament between the academies in Japan, the USA, and the UK.
Seven members will the chosen and the Japanese team has never fared well in the tournament.
Gawain gets to meet the upperclassmen for the first time, but the seniors show no compassion toward Gawain and his classmates.
They include Todoin, Kuromine, Arai, Hershey, and Kanazono. They are all taught by Mr. Bentley who is also incredibly competitive.
They underestimate Gawain but when they see him drive the ball, they understand why he was scouted to join the school.
Mr. Bentley watches him strike the ball and claims that Gawain has the rising impact ability, a legendary ability on par with ‘shining path’.
It allows the strike the hit the ball at exactly the core of the sweet spot and achieve maximum distance.
The tryouts for the seven spots get underway and Gawain finishes tied for seventh with Riser and Kanazono.
Kanazono is only in the school because his father is a big donor and he uses underhanded techniques to sabotage Arai and Hershey’s game.
He tries the same in his play-off with Riser and Gawain but fails miserably. Gawain wins the playoff and becomes the seventh member of the Camelot Cup team.
He joins Liebel, Todoin, Kuromine, Yumiko, Wanglian, and Platalissa. Kajury’s surgery is a success and Lancelot has nothing holding him back.
He visits Camelot with Kiria and Kurumi on visiting day and is challenged to a putting completion by Kuromine who is the best putter in the academy.
He beats her handily and pushes her to perfect her technique for the next time they meet.
Merlin calls in an expert to coach his team before the Camelot Cup and the students meet Hitomi Karatese, a legendary golfer who helps them with their weaknesses.
Ending explained:
Ruffling feathers
Lancelot realizes that there is no competition for him outside anymore so he transfers to Camelot a day before they leave for the cup.
He asks to join the team and challenges the members for a spot so that he can earn it fair and square.
Kuromine accepts his challenge and takes Lancelot on in another putting contest on the toughest green in the academy.
The better player
They go against each other in shoot-out style competition to see who can sink more putts in a single try and it goes on for hours.
Finally, after 500 shots, the tiredness hits Kuromine and she misses, allowing Lancelot to sink his.
She attributes his success to inherent talent but he says that he’s been training relentlessly since he was six years old so he deserves just as much credit.
She graciously accepts defeat and hands him her spot on the team.
A new challenge
The team is headed to the UK for the tournament and Kiria, Kurumi, and Gawain’s grandfather show up to see him away.
Gawain’s grandfather wants to share something with Gawain about what he might encounter over there but holds back at the last moment and just wishes him good luck.
They arrive in the UK and travel to the country side where their dorm is situated. Ms. Aria gives them the schedule for the next few days and asks them not to get in trouble.
Gawain takes a walk through the open fields and sees another group of players near a driving range.
He asks them if he can join and introduces himself but they laugh him off. They say that they are from the US team and they are not to be trifled with.
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