My coverage of this series obviously dropped a couple of weeks ago. Due to a combination of the plot sucking, a new job, and me being slightly burnt out from doing Geass (this show gets released the day of or the next day after geass it seems) made me not cover a couple of episodes. However, I’d at least like to give my final thoughts on the show after some quick comments on the last couple of episodes.

Now this scene from episode 9 was awesome, but the rest were not. I really thought the Shiina drama was lame and forced, as well as cliche. It just kind of made me roll my eyes and shake my head in disappointment. I would have preferred more comedy to this sack of drama they decided to make up here.

I found these dumbasses really annoying too. I think Hinano put it best when she called them “a bunch of Otome Game rejects.” This plot line of him being all intimidated was equally lame, as was the ridiculously extravagant birthday party. I kind of glazed over while watching the parts involving that.

SUPER TOTAL SURPRISE, it was Yuuto all along!

This was starting to get really hot. Now one assumes they actually sealed the deal, I have no idea why they found it necessary to cover it up with the stupid snake things. Of course though, the entire household was eavesdropping and they get chased out by an enraged daddy.

Final Impressions

Overall, I found the series enjoyable. However, it was a better show for the first 8 episodes or so when the progress seemed much faster and there wasn’t any drama. Early on it was great, I had figured they’d be making out by episode 6, but it was not to be. Despite that it was a good light hearted comedy that, while cheesy at times, was something relaxing to watch.

I liked that they spent most of the time focusing on the relationship between Yuuto and Haruka. Too often in these types of shows they try and do everything in 12 episodes and there is a lack of development between the leads. This was definitely not the case here. However, they did leave some room for some of the best side characters, namely Mika. Mika nearly turned me into a lolicon, no joke. The quintessential kyaa’ing fangirl shipper was just a pleasure to watch in action, whether it was teasing Yuuto or egging Haruka on.

And then there were the maids. The two of them were generally entertaining each in their own right, but I’m a big meido fan so it made it even better. Speaking of meido, what an amazing ED with all of those dancing meido. We need more meido ED.

Overall Rating 7.5: It managed to be both uncliche and cliche at different times. It had enough unique flavor, especially in the male lead and Mika, to put it a step or two above all of the other generic lovecoms out there.

This week is a lolicon’s dream Mika centered episode, the only one we’ve had so far. Mika decides to get some references on dating for herself and try to push Yuuto and Haruka’s relationship along by taking him along on a date and “instructing” him on what to do.

Mika has become somewhat less cool in my eyes because she spends her afternoons drinking tea with her friends. At least they talk about boys, like any middle school girls should be doing. But afternoon tea? I guess that’s to be expected from a rich all-girls school. However, whenever there’s a rich all-girls school in anime there is bound to be yuri content. This intrigues me.

Yes, your spatula is really big Yuuto. Why Haruka, would you like to be spanked with it? Er, anyways this was a bit silly but I’ll forgive them this time.

Yes! Please listen to this girl Yuuto. While you both moved fast in the beginning the relationship development is stalling significantly. Ask her out, kiss her, do something already to kick it up a notch. Don’t slide into the inept male lead stereotype, we’ve had enough of them.

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Iyyyaaaa, onii-chan no ecchi! The things that girl moans in her sleep.

Family end confirmed!~ The date was kind of funny and cute, although the whole Mika getting rabu rabu over Yuuto seemed a bit forced. I prefer her to be the kyaaaa’ing shipper rather than another member of his harem, she’s much better at the former. They do all make a cute family don’t they?

No no no, don’t do this to me writers! Love triangle bad, bad I say! Well if it wasn’t largely obvious before, there is going to be a love triangle setup with Shiina. Now, it would be nice if he just flatly rejected her, but no I’m sure he has to be Mr. Nice Guy to her. And I hope they don’t turn Haruka into the jealous type, she’s been so blissfully awesome and oblivious until now. Cross your fingers everyone.

Continuing directly from last week, the scary looking guy from last week was following Haruka on behalf of her dad, and he found all of her Comiket goods as well. So Haruka runs away from home and stays with Yuuto for a day, until the house gets raided by daddy and his SPs. Yuuto proceeds to grab his sack and man-up, rawr.

Initially, I couldn’t decide whether this guy is yakuza or zaibatsu business king. I mean he’s wearing a nice suit, but he wears sunglasses and has that rough looking face that are common in stereotypical yakuza depictions in anime. Though, after seeing his wife later on in the episode, I tend to come down on the yakuza side.

Go on…

Damn that whore teacher, stop blocking!

Mika is like every shipping fangirls best friend, complete with a dirty mind and copious “kyyyaaaaa~!”ing. I also enjoyed how she got so excited about the prospects of having him as a brother or…dad? Oooooookkkkkk!

“No matter what happens, I’ll always be your friend.” While the sentiments are nice, I hope you are aiming for more than friends man. But hey, holding hands sleeping together in the same room is a step in the right direction bud. Have patience and keep plugging at it, she’s definitely worth it in the end.

This scene was awesome, because both of them stood up to the old codger. Haruka got the courage to not just stay obedient like she had in the past and Yuuto raged in support of his woman. The cry of many an otaku: “it’s just a hobby, stop looking at us funny!”

And enter the yakuza wife wearing all the right clothing, with the perfect voice of Aya Hisakawa as the seiyuu of Haruka’s mother. Yuuto, my man, if that’s what Haruka is going to look like in 20 years you best not let go of her, mmmmmm delicious. Was kind of pathetic to see the tough old man get told off and dominated by his wife though. But then they hug in front of everyone, “aaaawwwwwww” as usual~!

It’s the Comiket episode! It comes complete with porn, yaoi porn, cosplay, rabid otakus, and massive lines. But because it’s this show, we also get the maids and imoutou of the year tagging along, with a healthy serving of hugging and blushing for dessert.

Porn, and lots and lots of music apparently. I mean TT has been flooded with piles of this crap, half of it Touhou it seems, and I find it mildly irritating.

See if this were any other show he’d have been all embarrassed about it, or tried to do both and got them both mad/jealous. No, Yuuto is a one woman man and turns her down straight, maybe next time girl. I like the fact that they had to have her wearing only a towel to make this phone call, nice touch.

Haha, Inkuami man porn. I always found that show amusing for the sheer fact that it had more manservice then fanservice. I mean when you try to compare the amount of girl bath scenes/swimsuit scenes to the sheer number of times Keita has his elephant hanging out, or guys in S&M gear, or any of the multitude of manservice scenes there’s just no competition. Poor Haruka can’t handle the porn, guess she has awhile to go before becoming a fujyoshi.

That’s right, defend your woman, rawr!

Hazuki in Dokuro-chan cosplay with an actual chainsaw is epic win. I give complete authority for her to slice and dice any and all irritating cosplay fanboys.

This show likes its Shana references

Is it time for kissu yet? Come on, keep up with your current pace guys!

I guess that scary looking dude in black was one of daddy’s SPs and he has been informed that she went to the ultra super otaku event and now some drama is about to ensue. Alright Yuuto, time to go face down her dad and declare your undying love. Be a man Yuuto, dooooo eeeeeeeet!

Another awesome episode of breaking cliches while staying in the genre. They even waited until the fifth episode to do a swimsuit episode, and it wasn’t even at the beach! And of course, Mika had on a sexier swimsuit than Haruka and Shiina, this show is trying to turn me lolicon. There was some stupid plot here about teaching Shiina how to swim, but it was pretty forgettable, focus on the funny instead.

They let high schoolers go to doujin conventions filled largely with porn? Maybe all the parents don’t know that’s what actually goes on at Comiket. Now that I think of it, they girls in Lucky Star went too. I wonder if Yuuto’s experience will be as traumatic as Tsukasa’s.

Totally surprised right?! Transfer student!

You’re a whore, go away. I love how Yuuto just sighs in annoyance rather than get all embarrassed, and only drools over Haruka’s swimsuit (not Shiina’s), you’re awesome dude. Future harem protagonists should be taking notes.

Fufufu, just as planned

Weekly 2j35uwfuq03fjq3Q@$EQFm moment from Mika

I wish my imouto would have tried to hook me up with hot otaku rich girls. That frustration aside it’s good to see an imouto character promoting the main character’s relationship rather than getting jealous or serving as a spoiler.

I’m very confused here. First, he saw her boobs and she didn’t throw anything at him but instead got all dere dere when he told her how good she did. Then, a huge squad of people come in and don’t mention that she’s naked and alone with Yuuto? What is going on in my school harem bishoujo show?! The lack of cliche moments that I’ve seen a thousand times has left me in despair! OH WAIT, that’s not despair that’s complete elation.

Initiate love triange, full speed ahead! Sorry Shiina, but Yuuto is already sworn forever to Haruka, you’ll have to check my previous posts. I don’t think she has much of a chance of unseating the title character, but I suppose it will suffice for some minor plot as long as they don’t try to push it too much. Let’s continue to not follow the norm writers, don’t make it hamfisted and lame.

Next Episode: Comiket!

Of course it was a misunderstanding that created the above image, but still these guys continue to move lightning fast in their relationship. This episode’s premise is that Hazuki has been looking down and they all decide to follow her to see what’s up. Also in this episode I try not to be aroused by the loli in lingerie but fail in the attempt.

She even has the right school uniform, that’s pretty awesome. Her voice is the complete opposite of Rie Kugumiya’s though, heh. That reminds me I have the first two Shana novels sitting on my desk waiting to be read. I wish Viz would get around to releasing more of them.

The truth is, she really is hot IRL, I don’t blame the guy for chasing after her in such a way. Not only is she hot, but she plays Halo 3. Put all that together with that sexy accent and oh lordy, I’m in love.

From the OP images this girl wears the same uniform as Haruka, so one assumes she’s either already enrolled or going to be a transfer student. I don’t think it’s really necessary to create a love triangle or any sort of relationship drama for this show to be entertaining, but these types of shows often rely on them to create silly drama. I think the fun and adventures of Harkua and Yuuto along with the side characters would be enough, but I’m not writing for this show~

Now let me demonstrate it for you…Uh, anyways, the frames per second of the scene where the blonde teacher showed up took a nosedive, the movements looked really really rough. Other than that the animation quality of the show has been fairly decent for its budget.

Doujins where?

She’s only in middle school, she’s only in middle school, she’s only in middle school…

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First off, what the hell is that thing hanging from her hair? Earlier in the episode I thought she had a mallet strapped to her back, but she also has smaller versions attached to the end of her hair in the front. Anyways, I found it hilarious how she was being a miser while dressed in lingerie. It was also hot.

She is SO FREAKING MOE. And they make such the adorable couple, every episode of this show makes me go “awwwww.” Overall, another fun one with some ecchi thrown in there, and ending with dancing meido as always. Next episode, a transfer student, wahoo.

↩ [LWC 54]

Preface: Go Read Chuchlann’s Blog

Thanks to Chuchlann’s recent writings on Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu I decided to watch the first three episodes – and what a good decision that was. Skipping to the second and third episodes, the “depth” (buzzword) of what was being said was strikingly profound – but more importantly, to whom it was being said. Having spammed the living hell out of IKnight’s condensed theory of moe (as you’ve probably read it anyway), there was one largely relevant part where he brings up the imagined community of otakudom.

Section 1: Imagined Communities

In Imagined Communities (how fitting), Benedict Anderson writes that the nation is “an imagined political community – and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign.”[1] In the case of the reader who hasn’t been familiarized with Anderson’s text, by “limited” he means to say that the nation “has finite, if elastic, boundaries, beyond which lie other nations.”[2] And by “sovereign” he means to say that “nations dream of being free [from the dynastic reigns of self-proclaimed monarch-as-proxy to God], and, if under God, directly so.”[3] Finally, by community he means to say that “regardless of the actual inequality and exploitation that may prevail in each, the nation is always conceived as a deep, horizontal comradeship.”[4]

Remaining in the swing of this comparison, the otakusphere is an imagined community for one important, broad reason: members within the otakusphere are connected through the activities of digital solidarity such as (1) watching fansubbed anime (fansubbed is important), (2) writing blog posts, (3) reading and commenting upon blog posts and (4) conversing via instant messaging programs. Reading, as Anderson had said, insinuates a simultaneity of time:

“The idea of a sociological organism moving calendrically through homogeneous, empty time is a precise analogue of the idea of the nation, which also is conceived as a solid community moving steadily down (or up) history. An American will never meet, or even know the names of more than a handful of his 240,000-odd fellow Americans. He has no idea of what they are up to at any one time. But he has complete confidence in their steady, anonymous, simultaneous activity.”[5]

The social performance of the foremost mentioned rituals links one member of the otakusphere to the imagined whole. When we write, we write not for a specific person (maybe some of us do) but for an abstract concept represented by numbers as blog statistics. We read as a member of the otakusphere, not as if a public blog post were a private letter from one friend to another. Watching fansubbed anime links us to the imagined community since we knowingly acquire the data from it through torrents (or what have you). The act of P2Ping concretizes this imagined linking because we view not a private datum, but the toils of a translation group, the communal, weekly anticipation that exudes from the letters of the entire aniblogosphere. The weekly aspect of airing series establishes a sense of turn and rotation, the feeling that by receiving that weekly dose you will be able to insert your being and acknowledgement into the discussion (externalized or internalized) that constitutes the imagined community in motion.

While I use swiftly and without remorse the coinage “otakusphere” – and we all do with great currency – I am aware that there is a Japanese sphere comprised of otakus unlike our own. “Our”, here is the keyword – and in depicting “the” otakusphere as truly “ours” I inevitably homogenize the otaku as the English speaking otaku. But there is the genesis; the original, Japanese otaku, or, perhaps おたく would indeed suffice infinitely more than the cultural meaning derived from the Anglicization of a loan word.

Section 2: Otaku Nation?

We may be able to describe the English language otakusphere (henceforth Elos) as a nation because it does fulfill the requirements of being limited, sovereign and imagined. It has no defined polity nor government, yet it has a politics, mostly a politics revolving around its “legal” counterparts (and the politics of legality and ethics is a prominent one). I would not call “the industry” as antithetical to the otakusphere (since we do have many similarities and work towards the same goals, roughly), but does serve as our political opposition (I guess that makes it bipartisan?). Thus, due to an opposing polity, Elos is limited because it cannot be infinitely large – there are limits to its political and ideological territory. Elos is, by that very extension, sovereign because it wishes not to be politico-economically controlled by The Industry. As Lawrence Lessig put it: “extremism on one side begets extremism on the other [and neither side is right (or something like that)].” Again, the recent string of ideas of how to fix the anime industry indicates that there is a desire to be sovereign.

There will be a few people that say “Elos is not a nation, it is merely a sub or counter culture.” Perhaps they are correct – Elos is a type of culture, but that does not restrict it from the semantics of the nation. Likewise, yet, however, the nation cannot always be so homogeneous a culture, but then is to say that the entity of a culture is aligns itself with the perimeter of its nationalism? The nation cannot be so homogeneous a culture, nor can the culture be so homogeneous a nation – the two aren’t mutually exclusive nor mutually coextensive. Basically, this mindless circuitry can be summed by saying that culture isn’t inherently political as the humanities don’t consider themselves to be political.

Similarly, other subcultures have traits with which we could classify them as nations. National anthems are one characteristic that lend a sense of social cohesiveness to the entity as one. While, in America and around the globe, there is considerable “evidence” and sustained mindset for the existence of a Black nation, it has no defined polity, no government – does not function as an internationally recognized country because it is such a decentralized thing. There is the black national anthem, however, which would serve to adhere a racial ideology to each of its constituencies (people). Similarly, for the otaku nation, perhaps anime OP’s can perform the function of national anthems. But with the massive amount of titles released each year, can there only be “one” yearly, definitive national anthem? In the case of my own nexistence, Bouken Desho Desho would take the role of definitive J-pop song of the past few years. Gurren Lagann’s OP would also serve as a relatively heightened rock song. Perhaps these are interesting songs or anthems because, for instance, in the case of The Star-Spangled Banner, whose lyrics we all know come from F.S. Key, the music is a British tune. Perhaps anime OP’s are composed completely by Japanese composers and lyricists.

Section 3: The Politics of Language and Authenticity

But, as all nations or social movements are, Elos is not without internal strife. Indicative of this is the plight of the weeaboo. Given Elos, it’s “language of state” is English. Any attempts to remove Japanese words out of their cultural, semiotic context will then “de-nipponify” them (The word/symbol “Japan” itself is contingent upon a Western construction of日本) thereby resulting in our own idiosyncratic usages of “kawaii“, “sugoi“, and “KEIKAKU DOORI” (because that one doesn’t even merit italics). The paradox of the weeaboo (and thus why they’re ostracized) is because in their blissful xenophilia they actually “corrupt” the meaning of the symbol-as-word by inserting it into the West and assigning it a historically Western signified while keeping an Anglicized signifier; sugoi may or may not translate roughly into “amazing”, but “amazing” is not the日本人 definition which, in itself, would require a definition utilizing the Japanese language.

Not all otaku are weeaboo, and not all fans of anime are otaku. More importantly, none of the above, by causality, are necessarily xenophilic. I don’t like referring to a body of people deemed weeaboo as “them”, although there’s hardly an easier way to phrase it. My meta-point is that while I use illiterately a sparse amount of Japanese and Chinese characters, it isn’t necessarily because I’m an alleged, xenophilic weeaboo (oh accuse all you want) but that in using these characters (despite their Westernized meaninglessness) the elitist politics of disgraceful xenophilia will perhaps be reconstituted, forgotten, erased, dismantled with the meaningless deployment itself.

This is exactly the case with “narutardity” (refer to picture #2). Be ashamed of our hobby because we see an enthusiastic (nevertheless, overly so in this picture?) fan[atic], but “anime culture” seems like an exception simply because it’s the scapegoat of “incomprehensible” social oddities and outcasts. If a young, normal [white] boy is truly fanatic about baseball, carpentry, reading (to an extent, otherwise a nerd), learning, crafting, engineering, and so forth, he is commemorated and praised. The fan of anime is shunned, and the closet otaku will therefore shun his more open brethren for being “heretical” in that the blasphemy of his existence contradicts the elitist canon of anime viewing and cultural propagation. The perpetuator of narutardity is not the narutard himself but the politically conservative hater that (1) bastardizes the Other; (2) bastardizes the cultural source of the Other; (3) coins a demeaning word and assigns a negative connotation to it (excuse the hypocrisy, for he is simply a fan of Naruto) because essentially, “narutard” has a similar yet non-racial function to that of the nigger, gook, gringo, chink or gaijin in that it establishes a discursive “normalcy” and bifurcates a group of people into categories of “regular” and “irregular”. The narutard is the scapegoat of the scapegoat.[6]

Section 4: 乃木坂春香の秘密とらき☆すた

Considering the recent murder in Akihabara, is Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu “leftist” propaganda as Code Geass may or may not be a kind of propaganda itself? A social commentary of sorts, glorifying the hub of all “the world’s weird shit?” Maybe Akihabara is glorified in this anime, but more importantly, the otaku herself is glorified – Haruka. In fact, insofar as we are to even view her as an otaku with any degree of “realistic” “normalcy”….but even that doesn’t make any sense. Haruka is a caricature. The precipitate of many an otaku-fantasy, she is one ideological manifestation of the ideals of the otaku.

Because she is but a caricature, the role she plays within the microcosmic anime is minimal compared to the “meta-role” she plays; that is to say the content and/or plot of this anime has not as much to do with the viewer as does what the anime-as-form has to say. This is not fan-service, this is second order fan-service. As Pontifus put it, the “meta-nerd”. This while Haruka is quite the closet otaku, Konata [Izumi], is the blatantly extroverted articulation. Both are, in themselves, products meant to fan-pander. Haruka functions so in a “見ないで！恥ずかしい…” vein Konata is the opposite – a “come lavish in the idealistic ota-chan” function.

This is actually what I’ve been building up for when I titled this as a “meta-critique”. Insofar as Haruka is but a representative caricature, is she pandering or criticizing? Are the authors unintentionally catering to the Japanese otaku or are they intentionally laughing at them (us?) behind the façade of the sparkly bubbles and “moe moe smiles“? Additionally, what can a 2008 iteration (anime adaptation, that is) of a lesser-Kyon tell us about how the average male otaku invests his identity into the protagonists he views. By our own devices we are invariably sucked into the imagined community; there’s no way getting around it as we inextricably pass the event horizon every time we perform the social rituals. Our will to imagine a community is partly based upon a fear of solitude, of being alone. Anyone can attest to this; being alone, whether it be digital companions or not, generally sucks and is depressing. If nexistence is one easy way out of this dark pit, then so be it: we insert ourselves into the imagined community because we then desire to be sovereign, free from ridicule, relieved of the social position of scapegoat, to enter the realm of “normalcy”, to form actual solidarity – but in the recycling of the social system, one class’s ascension must usurp another’s, and so in a Marxist sense of a cyclical hegemony:

“[A class's] victory, therefore, benefits also many individuals of the other classes which are not winning a dominant position, but only insofar as it now puts these individuals in a position to raise themselves into the ruling class. …Every new class, therefore, achieves its hegemony only on a broader basis of than that of the class ruling previously….”[7]

Of course that’s stretching the limits of juxtaposition. Cultures are not “classes” in the strictest economic sense of the word but there is some comparative relevance there. Finally, to restate, is Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu then laughing at the otaku saying “you wish to glorify yourselves through your perverted medium! – alas we shall grant you this futile microcosm wherein you suffer the same fate perpetually through the hypnotism of an idealistic caricature”? I don’t think the creators of the anime or manga had exactly the same thing as I did in mind, but perhaps (I really do emphasize that) there is some resonance between my “over thinking” and their politics of representation and “social change”.[8]

Watching this show makes me want to squeal like a fangirl over Yuuto and Haruka. Just goes to show you how odd my tastes in anime are because I love a show like this and Code Geass. Both shows do have medio though, perhaps that’s the reason. Although Geass doesn’t have the most awesomest medio ED ever like this show.

Enter the imoutou, which actually calls him onii-san rather than onii-chan. This is an rather rare departure from standard cliche imoutou and I for one applaud it. She’s one of those cool imoutou’s though who has her head on straight and is often more mature then her older sibling. You’re awesome Mika.

Her large rack my friend, don’t be ashamed.

I want Kana Ueda is my maid, if I could listen to that accent all day. I’d be one happy man for sure.

Breaking cliche’s left and right holy smokes! I can’t remember the last time a situation arose where another girl was glomping or accidentally fell on the guy and the girl didn’t rage or beat the crap out of him. My head is spinning, I don’t know how to handle this! Well anyways, this is a good thing, it’s nice to have things go differently once in awhile.

These two move fast, she’s already claiming possession of him in the third episode.

Wow, and they are now promising to stay by each other’s side forever. There are show’s where you don’t get this kind of relationship development after 50 episodes, let alone the third one. But once again they manage to do it in such a cheesy yet adorable way that you can’t help but smile and say “awwwwww.” This show has such awesome LOVE POWER.

Yeowch, that irritating guy just got tossed like a rag doll. And uh, her secret didn’t last particularly long for it being the title of the show. There’s that guy plus those bystanders who hear her admit that the magazine is hers. Odd direction to take this early but who knows how it’s going to play out. I do like her self-confidence though, now she feels that she can be truthful to herself since at least she’ll have Yuuto with her.

This week Yuuto and Haruka go on a rabu rabu dayto to Akiba. There’s lots of blushing, cheesy romantic lines, big burly Russian men, and of course, gay porn. Her reaction wasn’t quite as amusing as Kagami reading about Gauron and Souske, but it was good enough for now.

Good dating practice, learn about her hobbies to feign interest later

It’s amazing how going somewhere with a hot girl will make you get over unpleasant memories. They started early with the cheesy “Sorry, did you wait long? No, I just got here” lines and I almost rolled my eyes all the way back into my forehead.

That’s not obvious at all…

Get yer yaoi here, get yer yaoi. Apparently, no show involving female otaku can be without a hot helping of gay porn. Help me out here people, is the percentage of female otaku who are into yaoi really that high? I really don’t get it because there seems to be a much smaller percentage of male otaku into yuri in comparison. I also really don’t get the appeal of mano-a-mano buttsechs, but that’s a hole separate discussion. Get it? Hur hur.

20 bucks says the guy who gave her the book is Yuuto. That’s just how it works in these shows~ Kind of reminded me of the scenes in Ninomiya-kun, as if showing people with blurred faces in a yellow-orangish color palette means it’s a fuzzy memory.

Big, burly Russian otaku? That’s some scary stuff right there. I wonder if Mamiko Noto’s accent when she speaks Russian sounds as bad to Russians as her English accent does to English speakers. Regardless, I still found myself laughing at the whole situation.

Yes, that will do nicely

Layin that cheese on reeeeeal thick, this show is just too adorable sometimes. Another fun episode this week, and you can always look forward to the most awesome ED this season at the end of each episode. It’s impossible to go wrong with dancing meido and implied yuri, it really is. I’m really looking forward to next week when Yuuto visits Haruka’s house, because the house is filled with meido. And one of said meido is voiced by Kana Ueda, yum.

At least Kimi ga Aruji de Shitsuji ga Ore de had an abbreviated title that fans used (Kimiaru), this one has nothing that I’m aware of. Anyways, the basic story for Nogizaka Haruka is something like as follows: normal guy accidentlly finds out school idol is an otaku and keeps her secret, so they become friends and probably eventually more. Not a revolutionary lovecom setup, but something that isn’t done that often. If this was another naked airhead/alien falling into a perennial loser and creating trouble then that would be another story. In fact, the heroine was clothed the entire time, and there was only one brief pantyshot of her.

I’m guilty as charged =(

Meet Yuuto, a “normal” guy who lives with two whores who have caused him to lose all interest in women. Frankly, I don’t blame the guy because while I enjoy sexy women, there’s a big different between easygoing women and whores. I mean, look at the screenshot above, these women are sleeping off a drunken night with all of that garbage. I’d puke if I had to live in conditions like that. However, as Hinano pointed out, at least the guy treats them like useless, dirty whores and doesn’t blush or get nosebleeds around them. He’s seemingly desensitized to it all.

I think I’d kill myself…

Mmmmm, well here we have the totally never before seen “hot girl falls onto male lead when meeting for the first time” scene! It might have been predictable, but hey, at least she had clothes on, that makes it much rarer. Speaking of clothes, I really like the colors of the uniforms in this show. It’s no Key serafuku, but pretty good nonetheless. What was also amusing in this scene was the fact that the girl falls into his lap and he acts like nothing is going on and just picks up the magazine. Definitely desensitized to women falling all over him…

She’s no Solid Snake

Oh god, not any more of these. The only one of these types of groups I ever liked was the KKK because of the horribly chosen abbreviation. I wonder if they kept that in the English dub, because if they did that would be hilarious.

I’m sure we can all relate to that to some degree, considering ThirteenSugars’ recent entry. The scene got pretty corny but it was kind of necessary to setup the plot. And they even blushed at each other and decided to call each other by first name. Awwwwwwww. Guaranteed that’s not going to go unnoticed next episode, because that’s how these shows work.

Overall, the first episode was a bit cliche at times but I thought it was fun. Like I’ve said before, not everything needs to be revolutionary, as long as its got its own unique charm I’ll watch it. So far I’m liking the little charm this show has, and there’s some potential here for a fun lovecom. Browsing Wikipedia a bit has gotten me interested in the side characters who haven’t been introduced yet as well. I think I’ll pick this one up for now and blog it regularly, hopefully with a much better quality version of it then the first episode. The sub group rushed this one out as a pre-release, so hopefully in the future it gets cleaned up a bit and is based on a better raw.