First Impressions / Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu

「あっ，痛……」 (Aa, Ita……)
“Ah, Ow…”

What the hell is Sanzenin Nagi doing in Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu? Did she jump series after Hayate no Gotoku! ended? What’s with all the panty shots too? In comparison, Kampfer, SoraOto, and 11eyes can barely even be considered fan-service anymore.

The screen captures speak for themselves. I made sure to take plenty of “evidence” this time around too. There was no holding back here, as they probably had more panty shots than all the other “fan-service” shows this season combined (minus Queen’s Blade). While I’ve heard that the light novel and manga focus more on adult-related jokes, the anime’s take on it with a full crotch face plant isn’t quite what I had in mind. For some reason or another, I was under the impression that things were more subtle and not so… in your face.

In terms of ecchi comedy, I enjoyed the spilled milk, “de-stocking“, small moans from having disinfectant applied, and suggestive dialogue. They were funny simply because what looked/sounded like was happening wasn’t really happening. Sitting on someone’s face though? That’s really happening and not leaving anything to the imagination. Not to sound like a broken record, but I prefer the suggestive kind of ecchi comedy over the explicit one. While I’m not opposed to the latter when used sparingly, it’s a bit of a turn off when it’s used in just about every scene. For now, this show seems to be going that route, but it remains to be seen whether or not they plan to keep it up. I’m hoping no, but not expecting much.

In the preview last time, they had a third tsundere character who had twin pigtails and sounded like a rich snobby girl. Lo and behold it’s not Sanzenin Nagi, but her long lost older sister, Tennouji Touka of similar Kugimiya Rie descent. I tend to wince at the thought of a KugiRie tsundere coming out in full force, but it was surprisingly a breath of fresh air here given the Haruka x Yuuto lovey-dovey alternative. In fact, I was so thrilled about not seeing those two together for most of this episode that the liberal use of pantsu only came up in hindsight. (Yes, I really needed a change of gears that badly in this series.)

As for a quick rundown of the episode, it turns out Haruka is working a part-time job at a maid cafe to buy a Christmas present for Yuuto. Learning of this, Yuuto decides to do the same and applies for a high paying job as a butler for the Tennouji family. After making him spin around on all fours and screaming “Piggy”, Tennouji Touka accepts him as her personal butler and decides to call him Rodriguez. Despite having a terrible track record of every butler leaving her, Yuuto manages to endure all of Touka’s ridiculous demands since he’s used to that kind of treatment. Hilarity and stupidity ensues when Yukari and Riko come storming through the Tennouji estate in search of Yuuto to make them some food. Due to the destruction they cause, Yuuto’s paycheck is deducted to a mere five yen, but he manages to change Touka’s opinion of him in the process — enough to learn his real name anyway.

KugiRie tsundere. You either love it or you want to strangle it. It’s definitely a far cry from Alice-chan here. I tend to have a pretty high tolerance level towards this kind of stuff, so I didn’t mind that much. I actually found Touka pretty cute in her Moo-Moo nightgown too (and it wasn’t because of the service involved). Evidently, we’ll probably be seeing more of her in the near future with everything going on about her recently deceased father, her detest for him, and the family feud over the Tennouji inheritence. For now though, it’s probably safe to say there’s another girl at Hakujou High School that can be included in Yuuto’s harem. Sugisaki Ken, eat your heart out.

 

Preview

35 Comments

  3. What? No nopan? But it’s all the rage, “white” shots are so blasé. I must say that nightgown is cute, Ken would approve. However, I don’t think he’d two-time with a girl from another show though…oh wait.

    Meery
    Reply

  10. What the hell.. They don’t have anything interisting to show in the episode so they just throw all this fanservice..
    I don’t mind fanservice if it’s used in the right moments but this is just ridiculous..
    It’s like they treat the viewers like a bunch of apes or something

    Sabin
    Reply

  11. “tend to wince at the thought of a KugiRie tsundere coming out in full force,”

    SHUT UP! KugiRie is a beautiful flower that must be idolized for all to appreciate her lovely tsundere voice 😛 (I’m a gigantic KugiRie fan)

    I am disappointed that I don’t get a screencap of Touka when she was posing in her Moo-Moo outfit, but my god, the first season was not this ecchi.

    And absolute lol at the Toradora reference.

    garfield15
    Reply

  12. I gotta admit… I thought the shit she was saying was funny as hell. I really like this new character. Same voice actress as Alponse (Full Metal Alchemist), Tigar (Toradora), Shana (Shakuna No Shana), and Louise (Zero No Tsukama).

    Splash
    Reply

  15. For a while I was wondering whether Yuuto’s sister Ruko and Yukari had spent so much on booze that they’ve put poor Yuuto into a 150m yen debt, requiring him to work as a butler as well.

    Gotta love the Palmtop Tiger and Nagi spiral fingerprint reference.

    Kinny Riddle
    Reply

  17. Wow… they managed to turn this series in a complete no-brain-moe-otakuism-shit-storm, where the first anime was decent and kinda “innocent”.
    I also feel sorry for KugiRie on how she’s now only seen as a cliché tsundere chara. Not that I don’t like her as a tsun (Nagi, Louise and Shana too) but she’s doing way too much charater of that type. I prefer her as Alphonse or the awesome Kagura. 🙂

    Well, if people enjoy it, good for them… Don’t mind me. :]

    Saga
    Reply

  18. You know, I was hoping that this series would stay the way it was the first season: a simple romance. Two possible routes seemed enough, but now that we’re breaking into harem mode I’m losing interest.

    Plus isn’t the series technically about Haruka, not Yuuto? Oh well.

    Phosphatide
    Reply

  20. Bah, well its better than grade-schoolers holding hands while swinging – although that would be an improvement over Yuuto’s & Haruka’s present situation. We need more players in this even though KugiRie seems to be an awkward pick to say the least. I thought she wouldn’t be able to hold out with just smiling & nodding as Alice – but I didn’t expect the uber-force tsundere act as Touka. It kinda ruins things instead of makes it interesting. In other words you can already guess what her role is going to be.

    This ain’t gonna be some silly harem. Yuuto already been made his decision – even though it was pretty much made for him. The other 2 (or however many there’ll be) will just have to sit on the backburner – but you know KugiRie ain’t gonna take that lying down 😛

    I just wish Haruka had a brain, but if she did then Yuuto would be dense as hell to offset that – & we already have WAY TOO MANY shitty anime with dense-ass lead males. Yuuto can’t even act like he’s dense. But as long as he don’t stick his head back in his ass again like in episodes 11 & 12, it shouldn’t be a barnburner.

    Megas
    Reply

  23. It was pretty obvious after the first episode the show was going to be a lot closer to the source material. The first season was nothing like the manga although I really enjoyed the humor & innocent romance. This episode was OK but it felt completely out of character. Almost like the writers are running out of ideas. That said, the type of story told in season one could get real old. This new direction is a surprise.

    Irie
    Reply

  25. Interesting… I predicted everything in this episode except the actually funny, “Did you drink your Moo-Moo milk” part. The ending was pretty obvious. I mean… Hayate was obviously on my mind during the entire episode (because of the Nagi ripoff) so there was a hint of “butler action” even so… no combat. *sigh* a let down.

    Maximatum99
    Reply

  26. “they probably had more panty shots than all the other “fan-service” shows this season combined (minus Queen’s Blade)”

    that can’t be accurate, you know at least half the queen’s blade characters don’t even use underwear.

    Trillian
    Reply

  33. Does the first part of the episode… the part where Touka was riding the toy horse in the beginning… count as fanservice? I don’t know if it’s just me, but.. I found that a little provocative. >>” It was like that paid a little ‘too’ much attention to her motions in that scene. (Me too, actually. xD)

    Oh and yeah this show is WAAAAY more echhi than the first. I kinda prefer the first season because of it’s innocence. I could actually watch it with people around me. O_O

    Le
    Reply

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