Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu - Purezza - Episode 2

The opening episode of Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu - Purezza seemed to take everything that was good about the first series, throw it out of the nearest window and then replace it with breasts. With that disaster still fresh in my mind, I can't say I was exactly thrilled at the prospect of a second episode named "Please put it in"...


Certainly, the early minutes of this episode didn't do much to dispel my prejudices, with a shower scene with more steam than... well, anything, really - Yet another example of the terrible and OTT censorship employed by this series (and ironically it's aactually one of the less blatant examples this time around too). After that, we're given a long scene with Haruka's maids (and her father) misunderstanding what is going on in room with Yuuto, complete with an illustration (with censorship aplenty, naturally) that wouldn't have looked out of place in your average dating sim.

Thankfully after it's got all this out of its system, we actually return to the Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu we know and love for most of the remainder of the episode (a couple of cringeworthy moments with Shiina aside), as Yuuto is invited to look after a table for a manga circle at a local comic festival, and Haruka gets to join in, complete with her own doujinshi on-hand to sell at the event. Needless to say, her artistic skills are "compromised" (to put it somewhat kindly), leaving her struggling to sell any copies of her work before Yuuto steps in as the knight in shining arm to both sell some product and teach Haruka the true importance of what she's achieved. Ahhhhhh....

This kind of gentle, light and fluffy nature is far closer to what I expect from this particular series, and ignoring the fact that this episode seemed to enjoy taking ideas on-board from Genshiken it was at least a somewhat sweet episode in its own right that had far more going for it than that sub-par opener. Still not classic anime of course, but a more watchable effort in general terms.