Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu
October 2nd, 2008 12:05 amThe new season has finally begun, and if you’re anything like me, you would be trying to play catch up with what is left of last season. Sure spending hours daily watching every single series released that day is not really healthy, but nor is squeezing a season’s worth of releases in to a month. I can spend hours going on about health and the proper way to watch and enjoy anime, but i digress.
I thought I’d start with a lighthearted anime before I begin my hours of mindless marathon in an attempt to catch up to the new season. And sure enough, Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu fitted the bill nicely.
Unlike many of the harems following established eroge and other dating sims, the girls surrounding Ayase Yuuto, the male protagonist, are seemingly useless. We get hints of attempted love triangles here and there, but they rarely last more than an episode. Simply put, the writers either 1) don’t know how to write a real triangle drama, or 2) didn’t want the story to steer in that direction, but needed to fill twelve (12) episodes, so anything goes. I vouch for the latter.
I’m a sucker for these kinds of stories. Not particularly fancying harem wannabes, I simply enjoy a heartwarming story of two people in love. One of my still all time favorites of all times in this category is Lamune (Ramune). A fairly loose harlem built in to that story, but whatever, we’re not talking about that series.
Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu follows Ayase Yuuto who discovers Nogizaka Haruka’s secret of being a closet otaku. And the story progresses from there with imoutos, maids, overwhelming dads, madusa like moms, the whole bit.
The story was pretty linear (which I like) and the fan service was done fairly tastefully. Art over all was pretty normal, some drop in qualities here and there, but picks back up where it counts. Opening and closings were enjoyable, but nothing earth shattering. Haruka’s voice took a bit to get use to, as the attempt to portray her as shy, sweet, and innocent though her voice was not doing it for me.
The series is certainly worth watching, especially as a prelude to the summer (yea, I know summer ended). Worthy of a 7.3, it fits nicely between all the monster killing, robot beating, girl chasing, man hunting (in more ways than one), world destroying, magic chanting, backstabbing lineup of every single season of every single year. Well worth the first time, but seconds? Well let’s just say Haruka should be thankful Lamune is only 12 episodes long, it leaves plenty of time left in the day to rotate between all the “fairly good” light hearted summer picks.
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