Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu - Episode 1

We've all been there, haven't we - Trying to keep up our reputation as an intellectual, charming and beautiful person, while all the while hiding from the world the fact that we'd actually much rather be sat around watching and discussing copious amounts of anime. Well, okay, let's scratch the 'beautiful' part in my case.

Anyhow, so that thought brings us to the opening episode of Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu, which gives us exactly this scenario - An attractive and intelligent high school girl who, beneath it all, is just a big ol' otaku. It's a secret she's managed to hide almost perfectly until she happens to quite literally bump into Yuuno, the series' male lead and a pretty unspectacular young man with little real interest in either anime or women. Of course, Haruka is mortified that her secret is out and aoids Yuuno like the plague, but eventually a friendship begins to blossom once everything is ironed out...


I would imagine that if you're playing the demographics game when commissioning anime series, the phrase 'beautiful female otaku' must see yen signs flashing in your eyes, as let's be honest it's the kind of thing we all want to see and dream of - Who wouldn't want a girlfriend as addicted to anime as you? From that angle, this first episode of Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu does a pretty respectible job of hooking in its likely viewers, making Haruka the kind of cute and clumsy girl that everyone will find themselves wanting to look after. I have to confess, she's even charmed me a little, although I have to question why this supposedly intelligent and physically fit girl is so absolutely hopelessly clumsy and forgetful most of the time; to be quite frank, it doesn't really make a lot of sense, and in many ways it would have been nice to see Haruka portrayed as a rather stronger character than the seemingly shy, weak and wishy-washy one we get here.

If you can put that seeming incongruity to one side however, this opener for the series seemed reasonable enough in introducing the main characters and story-line. I'm not sure that there's a massive amount of room for any kind of ground-breaking comedy here, but then again other shows have proved that if you do something well enough, it doesn't necessarily have to be all that innovative. While I am leaning towards the 'like' side of the fence on this series so far, I think only time will really tell whether it's going to sink or swim now its premise has been established.