Wakaranai

Rating:    

I can’t say I was a big fan of the first season of Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu. I was probably just having Lucky Star withdrawals at the time, but what I really wanted from the series was a strong dose of moe, a bit of humour, some good otaku in-jokes and perhaps a spark of romance. Sometimes the series hit that mark but often it got bogged down in this self-pitying tone that really grated on my mind. By that I mean, I really got the sense that there were a bunch of otaku watching it tearfully empathising with Haruka having to keep her anime and akiba hobbies a secret or risk being shunned by society. The show felt like it was patting those insecure viewers on the back, but simply annoyed the hell out of me in this respect. Fortunately, the second season has moved on to a much lighter tone befitting of its actual content. Melodrama just doesn’t suit a show filled with maids, imouto-characters and super-moe girls!

So this season has been really quite enjoyable so far! The characters are still as adorable as ever, in fact I think they’re cuter than they were before, somehow. Haruka herself is utterly dazzling as the shy, soft-spoken, pure-hearted maiden. Her interests in anime and otaku culture are completely unbelievable, but the series has never tried to mask the fact that it’s forsaken reality for the sake of satisfying otaku fantasies! Haruka is the ultimate otaku dream girl, dere-dere, beautiful, innocent, gives off an aura of dependence, and, most importantly, shares our obsessions! Truly the perfect girl - 100% waifu material! I usually hate it when anime try to tick all the boxes like that when making a character, but there’s just something about Haruka that makes it impossible to resist. Other characters contribute to the moe levels of the show too: the mischievous younger-sister, Mika, adds some much needed loliness; the maid characters don’t stand out individually much but hey, they’re fucking maids!; Shiina is cute despite her reduced role this series. In short, you won’t be disappointed in this show if you dig moe girls.

This episode introduced a new character actually, an obligatory tsundere-loli voiced by the queen of tsundere, Kugimiya Rie. Her name is Hazuki, and she’s a rich, snobby girl with an arrogant attitude but a well-hidden dere core. Personally, she got on my nerves very quickly and never really got off them. I usually end up falling for most tsunderes but Hazuki’s bitchiness crossed my shit-line (much like Louise’s did). This is no fault of Kugimiya Rie’s though; as usual, her stuttering was as brilliant as ever. I swear Kugimiya Rie can blush with her voice. Her prominence this episode cut back on my precious Haruka time! Unforgivable. On the up side, they didn’t skimp on the fanservice - a trend that can be said of this 2nd season in general. The almost endless flow of panty shots and innuendo meant I could pretty much zone out, ignore what Hazuki was complaining about and just enjoy the eye-candy. There were many lovely sights to be had, shown below.

But overall it felt like a bit of a wasted, tangential episode. And it was kind of annoying at times. I’m looking forward to seeing the love-triangle start to heat up again. I want to see what Shiina pulls out to try and seduce Yuuto to the dark side! Either that, or I think a few more yuri rape scenes would be in order!

● What was the deal with that massive horse? It scared the fuck out of me just because it was so bizarre and out of place. Definitely the strangest this anime has got.

✘ The two permanently drunk bitches (sorry there’s no other way to describe those two) still get on my nerves every time they appear. They seem to serve no purpose but to repeat the same dead joke over and over again and to annoy the hell out of me. Their loud-mouthed and crass personalities remind me of the teacher character from Mahoromatic. Fortunately, even with their powers combined they cannot matches the annoyingness of that woman.

✔ I’m totally impressed by the OP. It follows a similar concept as season 1 but totally one-ups it in terms of the visuals. There’s so much detail and motion packed in there I keep scanning it to pick up new things each time I see it. Great stuff!