Well, I honestly wanted to wait to even watch this, but the first episode left me feeling good, so I think I’ll be marathoning this tonight, seeing as I have really nothing better to do. Plus it’ll keep me off the Warcrack.
Also, I didn’t realize this aired so recently. I thought this was a rather old (as in a year+) anime, but it turns out it aired this Summer. Anyway, the picture above is when we finally hear Nogizaka Haruka’s first words. And that was the exact moment I literally /facepalmed. I didn’t really do any research into the anime, didn’t look at voice actors or plot (trying to avoid spoilers, of course). From CCY’s 11th moment of the twelve moments of anime, I got the impression that there was a rather sad end, and that’s all the more I wanted to hear about it. But when Haruka first spoke in this first episode, my brain transposed Kotomi’s face on top of Haruka’s. Ugh. Not that I really mind Kotomi, in fact, I liked her arc in Clannad, but hearing her exact same voice all over again, as a main character, was not something I was looking forward to. Especially not after her role as Hecate in Shakugan no Shana, where she sounded exactly the same.
On top of that, the main character’s voice I recognized instantly. At first, I wasn’t sure why I recognized it, but all the same I knew I had heard it before. I had to really stop myself from going straight to ANN and just looking it up. Luckily, after the next scene involving him, I figured out who it was. Who was it? None other than Akane Iro’s Nagase Junichi. Geh. Ok, well, I don’t mind his voice really, but I did find Junichi annoying.
So, after this, you may wonder why I said the first episode left me feeling good. Well, I can’t really explain it myself. The story isn’t really original, the characters are pretty typical, but all the same it kept me interested. I’ve been trying to think of reasons why I found this first episode interesting for close to an hour now and I’ve really come up empty, so I’m just going to post this now and then I’ll see what my after thoughts are once I’ve finished marathoning it.
CCY said
Glad to see I’ve encouraged someone to check out Haruka’s Secret. :D
Not sure whether this works more to your interest or not, but the ending to the show isn’t a Bad End, it’s just a bad end… i.e. it wasn’t one I liked all that much. Honestly, the good part of the show is the first half, so if you’re not into it by then, it’s not going to change.
Your reasoning is probably right though; there’s not much that -should- make it better than the average shonen romance, but I still believe it is. I think it’s the fact that Yuuto is much more a gentleman (i.e. not thinking with his crotch), and, well … I like Haruka’s character.
I’ll look forward to your final thoughts then. ^^
nazarielle said
Episode 4 and counting! Oh my god I nearly lost it when I heard Shakugan no Shana’s theme playing and Haruka in Shana cosplay clothes. They couldn’t have pushed my buttons better if they tried.