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「約束です♪」 (Yakusoku Desu ♪)
“It’s a Promise ♪”
Two seasons and 24 episodes later, we find ourselves at the end of the second run of Nogizaka Haruka. Things are left pretty open-ended for a possible third season, but whether or not we’ll get one is anyone’s guess. Here, the story concludes with a Nogizaka-funded trip to the hot springs, where Yuuto finds himself stranded out in a snowstorm with Haruka.
It’s kind of odd for them to finish with a hot spring episode after they started with one, but I guess they wanted to deliver some more in the service department. At least the producers didn’t play dumb about trying to milk it, as Nobunaga even had a line about doing so. Surprisingly, more of the cleavage and underwear shots came from Mika’s ping pong tournament than the hot spring. What was also surprising was getting more development from Shiina. After seeing her help Yuuto last time, the last thing I expected her to do was try to confess to him. However, all that came from it was more screentime for her and some build-up for a potential third season, since her confession ended on a comedic note. The real focus here was Haruka dropping the Moonlight ring Yuuto gave her for Christmas and looking for it during a snowstorm. In reality, that was just a well-executed excuse to get her naked with Yuuto as she tries to warm her body with his.
I’ll admit I wasn’t expecting them to skip kissing and get right down to business. They had me going for a bit too seeing as this is the finale, but in the back of my mind I was anticipating the interruption that’s bound to come. (It didn’t help when they were still in their underwear either.) Lo and behold, the Nogizaka Maid Team comes crashing through the windows a few moments later. If they keep this teasing up any longer, we’ll have another Ah! My Goddess on our hands — a series that has been pulling this routine for the past TWENTY years. Having seen the Ah! My Goddess OVA back in 1994, it was pretty nostalgic watching the two TV series and OVA that aired between 2005 and 2007. However, when Keiichi and Belldandy never get too far in their relationship, it’s not exactly something I look forward to seeing a lot more of. The same goes for Yuuto and Haruka.
To be quite honest, I wasn’t looking forward to a second season of Nogizaka Haruka for this very reason, and the first couple of episodes had me contemplating dropping it. It’s not a bad series by any means, but it recycles the same plot devices over and over again. If you enjoy them, then this was a perfectly entertaining sequel. If you’ve seen your fair share of them like I have, you’ll probably want to find something refreshing to watch instead. The main reason I decided to continued watching (and blogging) Purezza was because I had covered the first season here. Call it the completist within in if you will.
But hey, if I was going to cover something, I figured I’d do it with an open mind. I focused on approaching the show with a fresh take on the story, rather than allowing my reluctance to show through. This actually made things more enjoyable over the course of the season and my impressions easier to write about. It also helped having some new characters introduced, such as Touka and the rest of the maid team, who were a breath of fresh air in the overall scope of things. Objectively speaking, this second season had everything that you enjoyed from the first season, plus a lot of extra fan-service. Production quality under Diomedea (formerly known as Studio Barcelona) improved as well, so there isn’t much fans of the original shouldn’t be happy about. For all those reasons, I completely understand if there are viewers out there wanting a third season.
Personally though, if a third season does end up being produced, I’ll probably still end up watching it for completion sake, but I don’t see myself writing about it due to waning interest. It’s been fun, but not that fun.
* Noto Mamiko’s impersonations during the “preview” gave me a good chuckle, especially her Gentou one. This was available on ytv’s broadcast. Tokyo MX’s had a skit hinting at some potential extras on the DVD/Blu-ray releases.
* See below for the finale version of the ending sequence.
ED Sequence
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ED: 「秘密推奨！うるとLOVE」 (Himitsu Suishou! Uru to LOVE) by N’s (能登麻美子, 後藤麻衣, 清水香里, 植田佳奈, 佐藤利奈) (Noto Mamiko, Gotou Mai, Shimizu Kaori, Ueda Kana, Satou Rina)
Watch the ED!: Download, Streaming ▼
“Preview”
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never enjoyed the series from the start
dropped it since ep 3 in season 1
Well, this was the dumbest episode I’ve actually watched all season (that means I really didn’t fully watch any of Kampfer, Otoshimono, or Nyan Koi). This episode started off just how I thought it would & it only stayed in-line with my expectations from there (100% fan-service).
p.s: WTF was with that Haruka-mecha @ the end, man Gentou is messed up O.o
I have to agree Divine. I really enjoyed the first season, and the second was good as well. I’m not sure if I care for all the extra fanservice they added, but it didn’t detract from the show too bad. If they producers decide to have a third season, they better move things along in Yuuto and Haruka’s relationship or I believe they will start losing their fanbase, but I could easily be wrong about that. 🙂 All i know for sure is that I’m tired of it not going anywhere and rapidly becoming bored with how things are going. Here’s to hoping they do better on the next one!
So much drunk-ness…
Um, wait, there’s one more episode?
annoying end to the series
https://randomc.net/image/Nogizaka%20Haruka%20no%20Himitsu/Nogizaka%20Haruka%20no%20Himitsu%20Purezza%20-%2012%20-%20Large%2040.jpg
Tweetbiz, hosting by Mika Nogizaka and her Maid team on her l8est scoops
Starts with fanservice.. Ends with fanservice….. Degradation….
Kinda like how Zero no Tsukaima started…… Season 1 was very well done. Season 2 added fanservice and trolling the ending(Honestly, the ending was so magnificent I nearly cried, only if there was no dumb forced comedy). Season 3…. Last time I checked I was forcing myself to finish the damn thing for the sake of completing that season…. Season 4…. NOT A CHANCE… I won’t be sitting down with a wishful thinking that they will change how they made the series…
Looks like this is a bit lesser compared to ZnT degradation… Although time will tell how things will go… Glad I stopped watching this….
/rant
Indeed tis boring (but once again i find myself with an opinion i dont even believe in because its tainted by my expectations for a new code geass!!!
this season… kind of disappointng….
A let down compared to the first series, as most here have remarked. At least the fan service department did their job just enough to get me watching till the end. lol
Seeing how Yuuto and Haruka are still dilly-dallying with their relationship, it’s amazing Shiina waited till now to attempt to get to Yuuto at all.
Anyway, like Kampfer, this has been a leisurely diversion from my more “serious” anime watching, namely FMA at the moment.
Every freaking episode has been a tease. 3rd season is not gonna be worth it. Trying to milk the thing like Shana and Zero no Tsukaima.
Damn. I would have preferred it more if they had just finally kissed and ended the entire series here, instead of adding a third season full of the same plot devices all over again.
I am gay for Yuuto.
I understand how Haruka feels about the moonlight ring, especially since Yuuto gave it to her, but going out into the mountains during a snow storm at night time just to find it was just plain stupid and foolish.
Eh, I like it because it know what it is: a fanservice-laden romantic comedy. It’s much better than all the recent ones I can think of, and it’s a work of art compared to Kampfer. I’ll watch the 3rd season just because that’s the furthest it will run, this show isn’t popular enough to go through more than that.
seeing as how they still didnt introduce maid #2 and how shiina’s fortune talks about next week,there should be a season 3
this better not be the last ending i was really hopeful there would be a love triangle scene where theres a huge conflict between yuuto x shiina x haruka. but i guess i just wasted my time on it.
I loved the wedding part, I don’t know why, but you just wouldn’t expect this anime to try to go as far as it did, even though they kept teasing us as Divine said “Another Ah My Goddess”, which I love too, btw. I would’ve loved to see an end in this season with a kiss, but I won’t complain if they make a third season.
ciao!
https://randomc.net/image/Nogizaka%20Haruka%20no%20Himitsu/Nogizaka%20Haruka%20no%20Himitsu%20Purezza%20-%2012%20-%20Large%2010.jpg
Nice view, Yuuto! Good thing he didn’t turn the other way… (Considering the person who was holding him underwater in the first place.)
“p.s: WTF was with that Haruka-mecha @ the end, man Gentou is messed up O.o”
More actor allusion, buddy… *cough*GendoIkari*cough*
That aside, now that Purezza is done, I can’t wait for the new anime coming up next year. I hope to see a comprehensive preview here soon.
This last chapter fail when compared to the same (lost in snow) concept used in sora no mani mani. I like Yuuto gentleman approach but the producesr are over doing it. I mean that was the second time he gets Haruka down to her underwear and not a kiss. Yikes not even a confession from either of them. Right now I’ll think twice to watch a third run from this series… unless they blatantly kiss in the very first chapter or become official couple. But after this season I can bet that by last episode of that season they will tell us that was dream.
Don’t compare Haruka to that shit called 11 eyes. This show is pretty much what we expected from it when it started… light romantic comedy with 2 “innocent” main characters surrounded by a bunch of memorable and cute side characters (the new blond maid in particular was cute as hell this year). I will look forward to a 3rd season. I can’t believe 11 eyes pulled a “Bobby Ewing” on us this week. UGH!
Seems to me snow/cabin episodes have become more obligatory like beach and onsen in a harem show, as another excuse to easily develop relationships, and often making the female for some reason stupid and lost in a snowstorm.
God, with the way things are going, Yuuto and Haruka will end up getting married, doing it, having 10+ kids, and be on their deathbeds before ever kissing out in the open and saying they love the other XP.
It’s ok to tease with OTHER characters, namely Shiina primarily, but with the one who’s supposed to be the MAIN heroine? Doing it THIS much is TOO much.
It was ok to do so a bit at the beginning since no one would expect them to be seeing eachother like that given Yuuto is the average (and mistakingly otaku) guy while Haruka is the “perfect” girl in school, but after this long and being seen together so often by their groups of friends and everything while making it SO blatantly obvious that they have the hots for eachother? (Come on, you’d have to be an idiot not to notice the way they soooo affectionately say eachother’s names, are constantly blushing around eachother, and so on.) =\
The story pretty much died long ago and replaced with all the constant teasing. Hell, the MAID TEAM (at least Hazuki, Nanami, and Alice) and even MIKA got further along with him than Haruka did. Heck, one could even say MIRAN got a bit further overall. x_x; lol
You know people, they did kiss at the end of this episode. But when I’m reading the comments above, I’m getting the impression that most are pissed off with “they didn’t kiss” as one of the reasons. Hopefully, I’m getting the wrong impression since otherwise it’ll mean that the lot of you are blind or at least need your eyes checked.
I noticed that this season lacked meat. What I’m seeing here as far as I’m concerned is the development of the Yuuto-Haruka main flag and not much about Haruka’s secret (in which a lot of people who worship Haruka like some maiden doesn’t know yet). I doubt that it’s not about the secret anymore so they should’ve changed the title instead of adding Purezza. Otherwise, the series should have ended in episode 11 since the auditioning arc was the more climactic portion of the series compared to the hugs and kisses we’ve seen occurring between Haruka and Yuuto in nearly all the episodes.
Not being a critic though, I’d give this one a 7 out of 10.
Hmmm I don’t see a third season coming. The ending sequence pretty much sums it all, Yuuto and Haruka are already going out, even has the same ring on her ring finger when she got the flower, even kissed each other with poor Shiina looking all depressed.
Why anyone would bother watching a third season after the junky second is beyond me. Plenty of other options out there folks. YOU ALL DESERVE BETTER, YO.
this particular series is really overloaded with fanservice, wish there was more story plot to it in the next season :3
YO ALL OF U THAT SAID THIS SUKED STFU MAN THIS ANIME IS DA BEST but the ending was disapointing BUT ITS STILL GOOD!
ADN GENTOU IS MESSED UP TO MAKE HIM FUNNY -__- IF UR A DAD AND SEEING UR DAUGHTER WITH A MAN BEING ALMOST NAKED WHAT WOULD U DO HUH JUST WALK AWAY?
Honestly, this is a great series, but wtf. They don’t move anything along and it’s always the same thing every ep. This is my favorite series, but ehh…It’s selling itself out to the fanservice crowd that just eats this shit up. I PSYCHIC. Bet you third season ends with their relationship the same.
I liked this serie’s, but the second season was boring… I liked those episode where Haruka almost wasn’t involved in the plot. I’ve grown a little tired of Haruka. So I hope if it come’s a third season that they try to make more competition between the girls about Yuuko.