Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu: Finale

After finishing this finale, I thought “phew it's finally over” and thank God for that. These four episodes that debuted wraps up the franchise that began it all back in 2008.

To refresh some memories, the series details a beautiful young girl named Haruka "Nuit Étoilée, Lumière du Clavier" Nogizaka or simply known as Haruka who attends a school and is idolized by her peers. She is smart, beautiful, intelligent, popular, and pretty much everything that a girl strives to be.

At least, that's what she's like on the outside..

From the inside, she is an insecure girl who has a secret she wants noboy to know. *She is a
major otaku and loves anime and manga!* It's hard to imagine but it's true. To make matters worse, Haruka accidentally lets her secret gets exposed to Yuuto, the main male protagonist. From there, the two forms a strange bond that began from awkwardness, to respect, to friendship, and to couple.

Now that trip down memory lane is over, let's take a look at these OVA episodes, shall we?

The title of the OVA is Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu. That translates to Haruka Nogizaka's Secret. And like I mentioned before, Haruka's secret is still hidden from most of her peers and even her parents. She wants to keep her hobby because it's what she enjoys. However, not everything goes smoothly especially when other third parties are involved. It's a funny thing too since these OVA episodes were supposed to involve around Haruka and Yuuto mostly yet half the time involves other characters.

The first episode is literally fan-service in your face. From the nakedness, drools, and delusions, these OVA episodes are your typical cliched and generic topping on toppings like a pizza. However, there is some drama involved later on especially involving Haruka's family, friends, and her hobby. It's painful to watch though as every time “something” is about to them, the series trolls you and the duo gets interrupted especially from other characters and circumstances.

It is nice to see the duo's relationship and development but it quickly gets old. For example, the typical compromising like settings and the brief love triangle in these episodes were rushed. It's no surprise though considering the amount of time these episodes tries to cover up. Furthermore, it's very predictable. Hell, even the OP song is cliched with the moe features and foreshadowing of the upcoming events.

Let's not also forget some of those delusions and the classic “oops I accidentally tripped and it's not like that!” scenes. It's so commonly used in these type of OVAs now that it's just a slap in the face once again. It's not realistic and there's nothing unique about it.

Interesting to say the least though, I did get a few laughters in and there were a few moments between the duo. There was hardly any development from the sequel but this finale here did wrap things up and gave the viewers one of those happily ever after endings. Still, it's rushed and cliched. Sometimes, it should be more about than just development but these episodes didn't do it right from my estimation. These OVA episodes are a classic on how series like this has become recently by employing the overused fan-service and moe sequences.

The artwork and soundtrack already reflect in this but these ova episodes were just meh in my estimation. It does spawn a few “lol's' and emotional moments but it's nothing special at all. I'm glad this is the finale and it's finally over. I'm also glad that Haruka and Yuuta made it all the way. Ultimately, it was a journey and not the most insightful one to say the least. Well, that's just from my perspective.

To conclude:

Story: 5/10 - There was none really and if there was, predictable and cliched
Artwork: 5/10 - Generic to the T. Oh let's not forget about those damn censors and white mists. (wait for the BDs)
Sound: 5/10 Hardly noticeable
Character: 7/10 - Nice to see the development going through all the way but still predictable
Enjoyment: 5/10 - Average. Don't take this score the wrong way as this was an average set of episodes from my perspective. I almost forgot at one point that this was a romantic comedy
Overall: 5/10 - It could of been better but that's just the way it decided to conclude these episodes.

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First off, I'm writing this review more as a review for the entire series, rather than just this OVA itself, as the OVA itself does not contain the entire essence of this series. In addition, I have neither read the light novels, nor it's manga adaptation, so my memory of the anime itself is my only gauge for this.

As you would know, the basic premise of this story lies in the development of the relationship between the series two main protagonists, Nogizaka Haruka, and Ayase Yuuto.

Story: 6
Essentially, this story is best described by the evil "C" word - Cliche. You can roughly expect to know what comes next throughout this entire series, for both TV seasons, and this OVA. Twists and Turns are not to be expected, and if you enjoy that kind of story, this is certainly not for you. However, you can expect that the essential points of a series focused on a pure teenage love would be shown, and it eventually does end well (as seen in the OVA). One other big issue about the story is how when there is a case of conflict... it somehow gets resolved WAYYYYY too easily. It fails to demonstrate the problems and issues of a teenage couple being in a relationship of such nature, and often these issues are either not brought out, or are easily resolved. If you are hoping for some real good drama, this story may disappoint you (hence, lower your expectations).

Art: 8
The art improves with each season of the series. Not to say that I believed that Season 1 had bad art, but i certainly would've given it a 6. At least with the passing of time and improvement of technology, the art for this series has gotten better. Basic character designs stay the same throughout (a good thing, because they generally appealed to me, save for a few characters), but the backgrounds and color quality improve, and in a pretty obvious way by the time it reaches this OVA.

Sound: 8
The OPs and EDs for the entire series do not always fit, particularly the OP for the 2nd season, but they don't entirely disappoint (they do encourage me to unleash my ultimate skill of fastforward though). I'm mainly giving points here to the overall soundtrack. The inclusion of many classical themes (as fitting of a story involving a rich ojou-sama, yes?) suits the story of each episode, and the music fits well with the series in general.

Character: 6
The characters are generally not unexpected. As this is not a harem romcom, we get a decent individual for a main character, and a really shy ojou-sama as the other. However, sadly, while they are given lots of screen time, they do not come across as strong main characters. The best characters in this story are in fact the side/supporting characters. I'm not even speaking of "almost-main," but definitely recurring characters that don't always need to make an appearance (Nobunaga!) However, even with the issue of the main characters, it is not a complete failure, and the strength of the protagonists sometimes does show, normally more with Ayase Yuuto (i'll attribute this to the story component).

Enjoyment: 7
Since the story is cliche, the most important thing that will make this series a success is the execution. However, the execution does some massive acrobatic yoyoing tricks at times. For example, the first two episodes of the 1st season were thoroughly enjoyed, but it slumped really badly for the next few, to rise again, and then fall, and then balance. However, it has it's moments, as when it does do well, it really can match with the top animes in terms of enjoyment. Consistency is the greatest issue here. When I got to laugh, i really did, but when it fell, it really plunged a massive hole of disappointment in me. If there's one thing this OVA does do that the rest of the series doesn't (oh, producer, why you dragging on the story?), it gives closure to the series.

Overall: 7
Overall, this series is not a waste of your time. It is certainly not a must-watch, and you must be prepared to not have high expectations for it. However, the important points of the story are covered, and throughout, it is best if you don't compare it to better series in the genre of a pure romantic comedy. It is slightly unique in it's own way with how it treats the problems of a rather... draggy relationship, but it will not spoil your day, and at it's best, it may actually be quite a fun ride.

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Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu: Finale is a perfect way to end this series and basically any anime series, but why? Well not only does it include them becoming a couple, but also closes basically all of the plot points introduced within prior seasons and returns to some old locations we never thought would be returned to. Another great idea they did was the transition from Miran singing the OP to the N's, basically the whole cast, to sing it. If you are a fan of romance animes then this is a must-watch! Please don't miss this opportunity!


I did a whole 12 minute review on my YouTube channel!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCeKOdhVudA

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So, at last the long story of one of the most gullible female MC in the world, Nogizaka Haruka, has meet its end. It wasn't indeed a smooth journey and as a romcom fan i rather like this anime, but of course there are still flaws.

The anime overall (Season 1 up to the end) was what i can say a downfall. Season 1 started very promising. The male MC was not as dense as i thought and Haruka was, despite her denseness, indeed very lovable as a character. There were lots of cute moments between the 2 and even with the absence of love confession from either of them i find their relationship already satisfying enough. Well of course to keep the relationship moves on either one of them has to confess their feeling, which i thought would happen in season 2. But no, season 2 got even more dragged along with lovey dovey moments from the 2 and with an addition of dramas and cliches at the end of it i wasn't sure that this anime is as good as it was in the first season anymore. Season 3 got us finally a conclusion, but again the cliches added to it was even worse than season 2 and i could almost feel cringe just like when i watched rubbish shoujo animes. And in at the last episode i was just like "Thats it? I watched all those seasons only for this one f*cking scene?", it was rather unsatisfying because i thought there would be at least a bit more after story development.

Overall this anime's recipe was pretty outdated for a romcom, but i still pretty much enjoyed it. The comedic and cute moments were all there. If it wasn't get dragged along too much with all those cliches it would've been a very good romcom anime series. 6/10

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