Oct 4, 2008 6:20 AM
Haruka's moe secret!
Anime Relations:
Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu
Many series wrapped up the past weeks, I also finished watching “Nogizaka Haruka No Himitsu”, a romantic comedy based on a series of light novels with the same title.
The series focuses on the relationship of its two main characters, Haruka and Yuuto, how they meet, form a bond of friendship that eventually develops into love, all in a mix of comedy, romance and some fanservice type ecchi situations.
As the title suggest, the main plot centres around Haruka's secret, she's an otaku. While this would not be so shocking by itself, Haruka is the eldest daughter of an extremely wealthy and renowned family, she possesses great beauty, has excellent academic skills and is a talented piano player, which makes her a star and the object of admiration at the prestigious private school she attends. If such a person were to be exposed as an otaku, they would be ridiculed and ostracised, something that already befell Haruka at her previous school. Hence she carefully hides her hobby from the outside world.
This is soon undone when Yuuto bumps into Haruka at the library and discovers she's secretly borrowing anime magazines. Fearing her secret is exposed, Haruka is distraught but eventually relieved when Yuuto tells her that he does not mind her being an otaku and will keep her secret safe.
With Yuuto now sharing Haruka's secret, hence forms the main plot device to allow them to interact daily and become friends. Along the rest of the series both Haruka and Yuuto are faced with challenges that threaten their individual happiness or their relationship, from Haruka's strict father, to a potential love interest for Yuuto, to the difference in status that comes with Haruka's wealth. Seeing this is a comedy, most of is done with plenty of funny scenes and off course it all ends well with Haruka and Yuuto happily together.
One of the series' strong points is also its weakness, namely its characters. While most of the supporting characters are rather two dimensional and not much fleshed out, both Haruka and Yuuto are a paradoxical combination of some interesting traits as well as more generic character traits.
Haruka being of wealthy descent, blessed with great beauty and academic skills and having several character traits such as shyness and clumsiness that are solely aimed to cater to the audience is nothing new in terms of character design. That such an unrealistically perfect persona has a passion for which one is ostracised in Japan, yet stands up for her beliefs and isn't free of normal human emotions such as doubt and jealousy makes her a more three dimensional character. A welcome surprise.
No chance is missed to display Haruka's moe character traits and truth must be said, she is quite moe.
Yuuto too is such a mixed case, he has many traits of the classical romantic comedy or harem male protagonist, such as being shy around women yet desiring them, he is indecisive and well, he's rather plain. Nonetheless, Yuuto is also shown to be a very level-headed and open minded person, who accepts people's different interests and who will not ostracise anyone, even if he does not understand the things they are passionate about. Having such an adult, open minded character that does not succumb to blindly following the group mentality is interesting, especially if you see the majority of his peers will ostracise and judge someone like Nobunaga -Yuuto's otaku friend- or Haruka without any second thoughts.
While being rebellious is surely not an unknown phase to many of Japan's youth, being open minded, willing to form one's own opinion that may not align with the public one in a positive fashion is more rare.
I also found Shiina to be a quite refreshing character. Transferring into Haruka and Yuuto's class, she develops a liking to Yuuto, but once she discovers that Yuuto and Haruka care deeply for each other, she takes a very adult stance and decides to let go, intent on merely being friends with him.
Throughout the series some dramatic moments or events are generated but rarely does one have the impression anything really bad will occur, due to the colourful and comedic atmosphere the series carries. Everything is usually very upbeat and positive, emanating an “I can do it!” message.
Even though the theme of otaku being ostracised and publicly shunned is often mentioned, it's used more as a plot device and never really deeply delved into. Haruka and Nobunaga are shown to be normal people who just happen to be passionate about anime, manga, figurines,... but that does not make them any less human or valuable people than you and me. It's nicely brought on screen but lacks the depth, subtlety or realistic tone a series like “Genshiken” carries with it. Nonetheless, it's a good message they deliver since there's nothing wrong with otaku, there may be something wrong with some otaku but that's due to the people themselves, not the hobby.
Animation in “Nogizaka Haruka No Himitsu” is good, with most of the focus being on the girls like Haruka, with fanservice scenes and shots getting the best treatment. I did notice that some full body shot scenes where characters are in their regular appearance do look more simple and less elaborate, but this is never bothersome.
The soundtrack is quite nice, it supports most scenes well and the opening and ending theme songs are upbeat tracks, though the opening animation sequence leaves little to no doubts about the series' general direction.
On a personal side note, having seiyuu Noto Mamiko play a girlish, moe character like Haruka was good to wash away any bad memories from her voice work as Kouta in “Kanokon”. While there is nothing to remark about her performance in “Kanokon”, I was sorely disappointed in that series.
So for those looking for a cute romantic comedy that has a positive overtone and a moe female lead character, then you may certainly enjoy “Nogizaka Haruka No Himitsu”.
The series focuses on the relationship of its two main characters, Haruka and Yuuto, how they meet, form a bond of friendship that eventually develops into love, all in a mix of comedy, romance and some fanservice type ecchi situations.
As the title suggest, the main plot centres around Haruka's secret, she's an otaku. While this would not be so shocking by itself, Haruka is the eldest daughter of an extremely wealthy and renowned family, she possesses great beauty, has excellent academic skills and is a talented piano player, which makes her a star and the object of admiration at the prestigious private school she attends. If such a person were to be exposed as an otaku, they would be ridiculed and ostracised, something that already befell Haruka at her previous school. Hence she carefully hides her hobby from the outside world.
This is soon undone when Yuuto bumps into Haruka at the library and discovers she's secretly borrowing anime magazines. Fearing her secret is exposed, Haruka is distraught but eventually relieved when Yuuto tells her that he does not mind her being an otaku and will keep her secret safe.
With Yuuto now sharing Haruka's secret, hence forms the main plot device to allow them to interact daily and become friends. Along the rest of the series both Haruka and Yuuto are faced with challenges that threaten their individual happiness or their relationship, from Haruka's strict father, to a potential love interest for Yuuto, to the difference in status that comes with Haruka's wealth. Seeing this is a comedy, most of is done with plenty of funny scenes and off course it all ends well with Haruka and Yuuto happily together.
One of the series' strong points is also its weakness, namely its characters. While most of the supporting characters are rather two dimensional and not much fleshed out, both Haruka and Yuuto are a paradoxical combination of some interesting traits as well as more generic character traits.
Haruka being of wealthy descent, blessed with great beauty and academic skills and having several character traits such as shyness and clumsiness that are solely aimed to cater to the audience is nothing new in terms of character design. That such an unrealistically perfect persona has a passion for which one is ostracised in Japan, yet stands up for her beliefs and isn't free of normal human emotions such as doubt and jealousy makes her a more three dimensional character. A welcome surprise.
No chance is missed to display Haruka's moe character traits and truth must be said, she is quite moe.
Yuuto too is such a mixed case, he has many traits of the classical romantic comedy or harem male protagonist, such as being shy around women yet desiring them, he is indecisive and well, he's rather plain. Nonetheless, Yuuto is also shown to be a very level-headed and open minded person, who accepts people's different interests and who will not ostracise anyone, even if he does not understand the things they are passionate about. Having such an adult, open minded character that does not succumb to blindly following the group mentality is interesting, especially if you see the majority of his peers will ostracise and judge someone like Nobunaga -Yuuto's otaku friend- or Haruka without any second thoughts.
While being rebellious is surely not an unknown phase to many of Japan's youth, being open minded, willing to form one's own opinion that may not align with the public one in a positive fashion is more rare.
I also found Shiina to be a quite refreshing character. Transferring into Haruka and Yuuto's class, she develops a liking to Yuuto, but once she discovers that Yuuto and Haruka care deeply for each other, she takes a very adult stance and decides to let go, intent on merely being friends with him.
Throughout the series some dramatic moments or events are generated but rarely does one have the impression anything really bad will occur, due to the colourful and comedic atmosphere the series carries. Everything is usually very upbeat and positive, emanating an “I can do it!” message.
Even though the theme of otaku being ostracised and publicly shunned is often mentioned, it's used more as a plot device and never really deeply delved into. Haruka and Nobunaga are shown to be normal people who just happen to be passionate about anime, manga, figurines,... but that does not make them any less human or valuable people than you and me. It's nicely brought on screen but lacks the depth, subtlety or realistic tone a series like “Genshiken” carries with it. Nonetheless, it's a good message they deliver since there's nothing wrong with otaku, there may be something wrong with some otaku but that's due to the people themselves, not the hobby.
Animation in “Nogizaka Haruka No Himitsu” is good, with most of the focus being on the girls like Haruka, with fanservice scenes and shots getting the best treatment. I did notice that some full body shot scenes where characters are in their regular appearance do look more simple and less elaborate, but this is never bothersome.
The soundtrack is quite nice, it supports most scenes well and the opening and ending theme songs are upbeat tracks, though the opening animation sequence leaves little to no doubts about the series' general direction.
On a personal side note, having seiyuu Noto Mamiko play a girlish, moe character like Haruka was good to wash away any bad memories from her voice work as Kouta in “Kanokon”. While there is nothing to remark about her performance in “Kanokon”, I was sorely disappointed in that series.
So for those looking for a cute romantic comedy that has a positive overtone and a moe female lead character, then you may certainly enjoy “Nogizaka Haruka No Himitsu”.
Posted by
Smithy
| Oct 4, 2008 6:20 AM |
Add a comment