Butterfly Tomokazu Harimoto Innerforce ALC

The blade is a very good choice for players, who are playing table tennis at an average level. If you are playing a normal Offensive Game close to the table, it will fit most of the time for you. The blade has pretty much no big weakness close to the table. It is also very decent at blocking, due to its bigger head size. The only real problem is that you dont have enough power behind the table and the blade can easily get to heavy with thik/hard rubbers.

Blade: Tomokazu Harimoto Innerforce ALC
Weight: 90g
Thickness: 6mm
Type: Carbon
Composition: 5W+2C (Limba, Limba, ALC, Core, ALC, Limba, Limba)
Rubbers used with the blade: Tenergy 05

I have previously used the Timo Boll Spirit, this Blade is a Little Bit different. Since I already used an alc blade I got used to this one quite quickly. The carbon is one layer closer to the center of the blade than in other alc blades. It gives a better control in pushes and, service/ service return. You still get the amazing Carbon feel when looping, hitting, driving, flipping etc. the only change necessary in my opinion is the handle. Other BTY blades like the Timo Boll spirit has a round and very comfortable handle. Don’t get me wrong the harimoto handle is comfortable however, this is just a minor tweak. I have been playing with this since it’s release.

Playing this blade against Amicus Prime switching "live" between Viscaria and Innerlayer.S with Tenergy 05s you can clearly feel they are in the same family. My two Innerforce blades are both 183g with rubbers and the Viscaria is quite a bit lighter at 171g which makes a big difference. I preferred the lightness of the Viscaria but the way the ball reacted on FH/BH topspins just felt more "correct/expected" to me using the Harimoto blade. A little slower than Viscaria maybe, but noticeably faster than the Innerforce Layer.S which also feels too "muffled" by comparison. Viscaria seems the crispest, Harimoto a fairly close second in terms of sound and response. I prefer the Harimoto handle which is a bit slimmer than Viscaria and very similar to Layer.S.

I always felt the design of the Viscaria betrays its age - the Harimoto blade is just way nicer to look at and feels more precious.

In a game situation I can pretty much rock any of the three blades without much adjustment, but I prefer the feel/control of the Harimoto while I wish it had the weight of my Viscaria. I would also say I prefer the sound of the latter. However, I now use the Harimoto blade and hoping to get more familiar with it (I've used it for a week now).

Previous blades of mine behind these three in the pecking order include Carbonado 45 (w/ Mantra M) and Koki Niwa (w/ V15e - which was just too wild for me).

Compared to the hype of the launch of Dignics 05, it seems pretty quiet over here, though understandable. This blade is pretty much a rebranded Innerforce Layer ALC, minor changes here and there, so if you think you like the idea of getting a inner ALC layered blade, but don't want to spend that much on it, check out Innerforce Layer ALC. But I'd like to point out that you get a noticeable larger sweet spot as a result of having a larger head size. Also, the weight isn't changed much, at least mine was even a few grams lighter than my Innerforce Layer ALC at 86g, and with both sides Dignics 05 it weighs 183g. And the handle designs looks pretty cool, with the darker blue and black combined with the Harimoto tag, it looks much nicer than the handle of Innerforce Layer ALC (totally subjective). Downside of this blade is of course, like all other Butterfly equipments these days, the high price tag. So it is up to you to decide whether the larger sweet spot and cool graphics design are worth it or not.