Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu Purezza - 08 November 24
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「してあげる……」 (Shite Ageru……)
“I’ll Do It For You……”
Yuuto continues to establish himself as a male protagonist who’s different from your typical harem leads. Instead of finding ways to sneak into Mika’s all-girl’s middle school, he’s more concerned about looking like a criminal and getting arrested.
While Yuuto’s worrying about what to do about Mika’s invitation, he’s greeted at the gate by three of her friends (left-to-right): Hatsuse Hikari (Yuuki Aoi), Tougasaki Eri (Toyosaki Aki), and Fujinomiya Miu (Hidaka Rina). Much to Yuuto’s surprise, Mika’s told all her classmates about him so they’re quick to him like a celebrity (or pet hamster depending on how you look at it). With everyone getting a bit overzealous, Mika drags Yuuto off out of jealousy and takes him to her “Modern Theater Arts Culture Research Club” room. (Gendai Butai Geijutsu Bunka Kenkyuu bu 「現代舞台芸術文化研究部」 is quite a mouthful!) On the way, Yuuto finds it hard to picture Mika as the well-respected student council president that she is, but has more difficulty dealing with Eri, Hikari, and Miu’s questions about girlfriends and being called useless later on. Those three are then quick to try sitting on Yuuto’s legendary lap, but just to toy with Mika for a bit.
To escape embarrassment, Mika gets Yuuto to watch and critique their “Sweet Mika-chan” play. Afterward, Eri asks for some advice on how to portray the male lead’s emotions, so Yuuto hesitently helps out. However, he asks that it be anyone else but Mika or he might burst out laughing, which leads to a near kiss scene between him and Eri. Luckily for Mika, they’re interrupted by a public announcement calling her to the vice principal’s office. She later returns to find that Eri and the others left early to give her some alone time with Yuuto. Together, her and Yuuto clean up the room and end up getting locked inside after school hours. Mika quickly panics while Yuuto remains calm, making her wonder how he’s able to do so while alone with an “innocent and frail” girl. As a last resort, she tries to force some nervous response using her appeal, but
Hazuki, Nanami, and Alice arrive looking for her. On their way home, Mika gets Yuuto to carry her as compensation for her embarrassment, and uses the opportunity to tell him that she hasn’t given up on making him “Mikka-Mika” for her.
So last week was all Shiina and this week was all Mika. I’m starting to think we’re forgeting about somebody’s “himitsu” at this rate, but she did show up here and there with a little fan-service. I have nothing against Haruka, nor do I approve of Mika trying to steal her boyfriend by mounting him, but I rather enjoy these non-Haruka-centric episodes. As I’ve probably mentioned several times before (dating back to season one), things go way too smoothly when it’s just Yuuto and Haruka. All we can really expect from those two at this point are kissing situations that get interrupted. To spice things up and give us some entertaining awkward moments, the other girls have to get involved more and push Haruka off to the sidelines, much like they’ve done here.
In terms of humour, I found Yuuto and Mika cramming into a locker to hide from a teacher pretty amusing. After Yuuto suggested that it was his belt rubbing up against her and Mika wondered if it was his cellphone, his expression during the brief pause read “Hmm, that would’ve been a better lie.” The scene with Mika pouncing on Yuuto and trying to seduce him was just as good, but mostly because of the ominous tea cup cracking in the Lacrosse anime at the same time. This is the face of a sister who doesn’t have the slightest clue of what’s going on. Now if I had to poke fun at something, it would be how Yuuto’s phone didn’t have any reception when they were locked in the clubroom. You’d think standing over by the window would help, but I guess it would’ve spoiled the fun if we had a sensible out.
On a casting-related note, I still find it amusing how this series recycles seiyuus more so than others. It’s not a bad idea when most actors/actresses can do a wide range of voices, but Toyosaki Aki and Satou Rina didn’t really stray from their norms here. Aki sounded just like Mai does (i.e. her usual voice), except during the part where Eri was acting. I’ve only ever heard her use a strong/confident voice like that as Ooshima in Umi Monogatari last season, but wish she’d use it more often in future roles. I guess it’s hard though when everyone wants her for the “moe” voice. Rina on the other hand was still credited as Shiina, even though Shiina herself didn’t show up this week outside her Lacrosse counterpart.
* Any votes on whether Mika’s Moonlight Strawberry Princess (Gekka Ichigo Hime) title sounds better than Haruka’s “Nuit Étoile” (Night Star)?
* The steam was unavoidable this week, even in Tokyo MX’s broadcast.
Preview
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Syllen at 7:28 pm on November 24th, 2009
is this show even good? srsly
Maximatum99 at 7:30 pm on November 24th, 2009
meh
divine at 7:32 pm on November 24th, 2009
Syllen:
Depends on your personal tastes and expectations, so I can’t really answer that for you.
Syllen at 7:51 pm on November 24th, 2009
i thought the first one was kind of stupid
CHIBI at 7:52 pm on November 24th, 2009
NOT AS GOOD AS K-ON! WAS…..
You guys have short memories.
Megas at 7:56 pm on November 24th, 2009
Yuuto, my son, you have just inherited the Kingdom of Loli…wait a minute, does that mean I’m dead, shit! Now I’m a typing ghost. Rly, this episode had me going from start to finish. Who wants to watch a line-up full of boring shonen when you have sweet shit like this. Mikka-Mika. Muahahahahahaha
illu at 8:02 pm on November 24th, 2009
What does deeto mean?
illu at 8:04 pm on November 24th, 2009
(Continued from the previous post) I meant by the word here, of course: http://randomc.maximum7.net/image/Nogizaka%20Haruka%20no%20Himitsu/Nogizaka%20Haruka%20no%20Himitsu%20Purezza%20-%2008%20-%20Large%20Preview%2002.jpg
garfield15 at 8:16 pm on November 24th, 2009
http://randomc.maximum7.net/image/Nogizaka%20Haruka%20no%20Himitsu/Nogizaka%20Haruka%20no%20Himitsu%20Purezza%20-%2008%20-%2019.jpg
Amazing how this stuff just happens in this show.
That being said, an all-girls Catholic school with no lesbian yuri action? This is madness.
And I can’t believe you forgot to mention the awesomeness that is Nelson-kun
Mesousa at 8:22 pm on November 24th, 2009
Seriously, Divine, aren’t you annoyed about Yuuto hogging Haruka’s screentime?
I’ve been complaining this for weeks, PLEASE tell me something about this…
Megas at 8:31 pm on November 24th, 2009
@Mesousa:
The first season was basically The Yuuto Show. We really can’t see this show from anything else other than Yuuto’s perspective, but its still 3rd person omniscient as far as I know since we get a glimmer Haruka, Shiina, & Mikka-Mika. Their just trying to fill-in screen time. Haruka still has plenty of screen time left. They’re suppose to go on an actual date next so there you go.
divine at 8:36 pm on November 24th, 2009
Mesousa:
Regardless of what the title may have you think, the show is still about Yuuto primarily. I never had a problem seeing that, so it doesn’t bother me in the least.
Lauren at 8:37 pm on November 24th, 2009
Get back to Haruka! These side stories are just a waste of time.
k2000k at 8:43 pm on November 24th, 2009
I wish Yuuto had a more devilish prankster side to him, you know, while Mika is trying to make him embarrassed; Yuuto decides to reverse the tables and puts the moves on her, making her even more uncomfortable, and after the inevitable ‘no this can’t happen you belong to my sister’ he gives her a big Cheshire cat grin. Served. But sadly, Yuuto is too nice. He still is better than the majority of other harem leads though.
garfield15 at 9:10 pm on November 24th, 2009
@k2000k
That would be pretty funny but they’ve already established that Yuuto’s way too nice of a guy to do anything like that.
Kozue at 9:12 pm on November 24th, 2009
Harem series make me very disinterested. Variety for both sides, please. lol
megalith at 9:28 pm on November 24th, 2009
Lol… Really no hope for me to even watch this. Season 1 > Season 2….
The over blown fanservice crap is killing it.
Spaxey at 9:47 pm on November 24th, 2009
I could feel my brain cells frying just reading this summary. I suppose that’s the appeal.
Island esper at 9:49 pm on November 24th, 2009
I want a girlfriend like Haruka, Yuuto has been missing in action from her side and not even one phone call? Or this is to show her otaku side. Just watch Lacrosse anime and let the boy friend run wild. Well I want a girl like that muhaha
I think the problem here is that after the new year episode all other girls have no chance. they should have aired the other girls episodes first then the new year one and close the season.
BROOKLYN otaku at 10:41 pm on November 24th, 2009
as boring as his ass is, I for one am glad yuto’s getting all the screen time, HARUKA IS FU@KING ANNOOOOYING!!!!!
p.s-sometimes you just gotta step back from a situation and really see whats going down…what i mean is, dude is in what? a junior high! and has some random loli doing a Gorilla Squat Panty SHot…i mean,WTF!!!?!?!?!