Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu Review

Overall Rating 6.7 out of 10 - Mediocre romantic comedy, entirely carried by its female protagonist.

I recommend watching.

Yet another romantic comedy, most of them are bad. Here however I saw that cute poster girl with her large warm trusting eyes and immediately wanted to watch it.

I will be being with Haruka is she is the only reason to watch it. Haruka combines many of the qualities I like with some that I do not. On one hand she is well mannered, polite, gentle, friendly, warm, calming, soft, passive, caring and supportive - the things I like in women. Haruka is almost perfect.

However, there is one problem, she is far too dependent on Yuuto and other people around. Something upsets her and she just stops functioning. Yuuto then has to figure out how to fix her. The delicate flower far too delicate. She cannot find her own ass without Yuuto or her maids. Sometimes she feels even more helpless than blind and crippled Nunnally. 

In contrast for example Chise from Saikano, despite being slow and weak, handles all her shit herself and does not burden Shuji too much. Also, in contrast to Haruka who has little to now extra responsibilities, Chise has a huge war to fight, and she does not complain.

There is one other character like Haruka, who is almost perfect but there is one problem: Chintanda Eru from Hyouka. I also liked Chintanda initially but grew wary of how she drags male protagonist around for her curiosity bouts. Both Haruka and Chintanda are likable in themselves, but dynamics of relationship she has with male protagonist are not likable. 

Aside from Haruka that for the most part makes it worthwhile; the rest of the cast are not likable. Maids and Haruka's little sister are part stalkers part trolls. Maids do have redeeming qualities, but Mika does not. Then there is Yuuto's alcoholic sister and teacher who only serve as an example of unlikable women to make Haruka look good. Then Haruka's parents with hotheaded psycho dad and unlikable dominant mom. Finally, there is that redheaded girl that was somewhat of Haruka's rival for Yuuto affection, but they just made her a friend in the end. Then there is posse of snobbish rich kids who harasses Yuuto for being poor. I think authors were out of ideas and were just adding stuff to fill episode count.

Yuuto himself is not relatable at all. He clearly crosses the somewhat fine line that divides politeness and fancy manners from submissiveness and self-deprecation. He is more concerned with following rules for rules sake rather than because he finds purpose in then. He seems wants to help Haruka with her problems more than interested in her for her feminine qualities. To reference Saikano again, wise and cynical Shuji much more like me and Yuuto is nothing like.

Overall, however Haruka is nice, and the show is enjoyable around half of the time.