Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu

Haruka Nogizaka's Secret tells the story of Haruka, a popular and admired girl, and Yuuto, a boy who uncovers her secret passion for otaku culture. Their friendship blossoms as Yuuto discovers Haruka's shy and hesitant side, contrasting her public persona. The anime blends humor, heartfelt moments, and romantic tension, with tastefully included ecchi elements.

While the characters initially appear as typical high school archetypes, their backgrounds are explored in depth, enhancing their relatability. Though the animation and music are standard, the incorporation of otaku culture adds a unique dimension to the plot.

In summary, Haruka Nogizaka's Secret offers an enjoyable experience with endearing characters and an engaging ... storyline. Its exploration of otaku culture provides a fresh perspective within the high school romance genre.

I watched part of this series when it was first coming out several years ago, but did not finish it. I got around to it again recently as I wanted to see how it finally ended.

I enjoyed the first season and most of the second season-- but by the end of the second season I could not stand the main character yuuto or the same joke over and over again.

The biggest problem I had with this shows is that yuuto the MC is completely useless and doesn't have the slightest courage to do anything serious to help the girl ... he cares about until he gets a pep talk from all of his friends. By the end of the second season he alone ruined it for me.

It had the cliche of a guy and a girl falling over and landing in a perverted position too many times.

I also had the same joke that any time the two main characters go somewhere everyone goes with them.

It also took an unbearably long time to get a real development for the two main characters, since they are always interrupted by something or someone even though they have a chance probably every other episode.

I started off liking the anime decently but by the end I was fighting to finish it just to see how it ends. I think most of the "problems" that these two face could be fixed very easily if yuuto had a backbone.

The story of this show focuses on a young student named Nogizaka Haruka who happens to be a closet otaku and at the same time your generic anime prestigious female student. Very few people know about it except for her little sister Mika and her two maids who completely support her until one day by accident the MC of the show, Yuuto Ayase discovers her little secret. The story is as generic and inconsistent as it gets. It contains some allusions to other animes like Shakugan no Shana and Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan. The main issue that is presented on episode one gets resolved more or ... less rather quickly. Like at first Haruka is being very secretive of her hobby in school but around episode 3, some fuckboy tries to hit on her and bullies Yuuto wrongly accusing him of being a dirty Otaku. Much to Haruka's anger who ends up picking up and slamming the fuckboy against an electric post knocking over a trash can. She then proceeds to reveal to everyone that being an Otaku is actually her hobby, and not Yuuto's. We never hear from him again nor do we ever find out what the repercussions for Haruka doing that in front of half of the students in her school were. The next episodes focus on them hanging out, nothing in particular happens, there's this girl that appears out of nowhere she becomes Yuuto's classmate, they're learning how to swim or something she sprains her ankle and after some emotional talk becomes infatuated with Yuuto but that never goes anywhere. Next episode Yuuto and Haruka are hanging out at some event called the summer comiket where Haruka tries to buy some manga but some fat guy gets in the way and buys the last unit after her and Yuuto wait in line for hours but one of Haruka's maids kicks his ass and gives the comic to Haruka instead. So you get the point, the story is random, the continuity of it is there but it is shaky, and the episodes are nothing that, if you're a usual anime fan, you haven't seen before.

For an anime in 2008 I'd say the art quality is standard to subpar, the characters look very generic especially the MC as always, nonetheless it is not bad. Haruka and her little sister Mika are very cute despite looking generic.

I don't remember any soundtracks at all because nothing particularly caught my attention.

You got your average normie wimpy anime MC who does absolutely nothing but normie wimpy anime MC stuff. Haruka's your average cute moe anime girl who's into air headed and is into things way below her age range. Mika's a cute, fun but also generic genki loli who flirts with MC-kun and it is hinted she also develops a crush on the MC. Shiina's this weird tomboyish girl that comes out of nowhere and gets transferred to MC's school where the story tries portray her as the rival to MC's main love interest which is obviously Haruka. You got two maids in the Nogizaka household, one is what is looks to me almost like a Nagato Yuki clone from Haruhi Suzumiya, the quiet but very caring and disciplined Hazuki-san and the other is like, this crazy genki maid who drives really fast. MC lives with his older sister and for some unexplained reason his crazy 23 year old teacher whom he lets get wasted in his house and crash the place for who knows why. Then there's Haruka's dad. An unrealistically strict father who thinks that because her daughter actively engages in watching anime and collecting figurines she will fail school, and goes very over the top about it. Then there's Haruka's mother who's like the flexible ara ara type and voice of reason of the Nogizaka household. That's all the characters I can think of, the rest are over the top unrealistic normies, who are disgusted by the idea that there are people who are into anime, or as they call it, Akibahara culture. None of these characters really stood out for me, but the way this series plays with romance, which by the way, on the last episode of the first season it ALMOST gets somewhere is a little refreshing as elements like the constant slapstick abuse of MC aren't present whenever the awkward "lewd" situation gag occurs, and Haruka isn't a bitchy main girl who treats MC like shit so I gave it some props for that. Also, while I do know it's generic, I do like Mika's character.

It's a generic show but overall it's not unwatchable either. It has some nice things I liked like the art and some aspects of the characters, their interactions were fun, albeit one dimensional because all the characters are more or less that, but overall everything else is nothing you haven't seen over 100 times in different animes before. Therefore for someone who's seen a considerable amount of anime, a good portion of it would just make you feel boring or indifferent unless you have some kind of connection with shows that are like this.

The overall score I'd give this series is a 4.6, but because I rate on enjoyment alone, I have it as a 6 scored on my MAL.