Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu 05 ~If You Look at Me Like That…~

Uh… yuh, bumping into me and seeing my panties for the third time means we’re meant to be together.

Yuuto was walking to school with Nobunaga to school, trying to dodge pedestrians when he hit into a girl, who turned out to be the same girl he’s been bumping into since episode 2. She turned out to be Shiina, a transfer student into his school, in the same class and ended up being Yuuto’s seatmate, to which Haruka made specific notice of when they shook hands.

During a break, Shina was surrounded by classmates while Haruka was hanging out with Yuuto. Haruka asked him if he knew her, but Yuuto just said sort-of. With fascination with a new student, classmates asked Shiina questions about herself like her hobbies, three sizes and if she ever had a fateful encounter. She answered the first question, kept the second question as a secret and looked meaningfully at Yuuto on the third question.

 

Anyway, Shiina turned out to have great admiration for Haruka when she found out that she is some kind of piano champion or something. Shiina is proficient with a lot of things and gained popularity quickly. Then Yukari-sensei announced that there will be a swimming tournament between classes and Shiina is assigned to be in the relay. She approached Yuuto and Haruka for help and they obliged her.

Then there is another parade of recurring characters (Mika, the maids, Ruuko and Yukari) hanging out in the pool with them. Shiina learned swimming quickly with Yuuto and Haruka’s assistance. When Yuuto walked Ahiina home, Mika and the maids commented that it’s wrong that Yuuto was walking Shiina home. When Haruka asked why, she said that a guy should walk the girl home. But being dense, Haruka pointed out that Yuuto was walking Shiina (a girl) home.

 

Five characters who would have made this episode much more interesting if they weren’t around.

 

On the day of the competition, Shiina was nervous, but Yuuto gave her encouraging words. When she finally went to the competition, she got a cramp and almost drowned. Yuuto jumped in to save her. After Yukari-sensei tended to her and asked her to change clothes before she gets cold, Yuuto came in and saw her naked top half, but she quickly covered herself with the curtains and told him it was alright then proceeded to apologize for let letting him down. But he assured her that there was nothing to apologize for and that everyone will understand. Then the whole class burst in the infirmary to check if she was alright and told her that Haruka told everyone that she didn’t know how to swim and that she practiced real hard.

 

 

DEFINIATELY. Now, Haruka, go drown yourself so you and Yuuto can finally have a legitimate moment.

 

Haruka offered the Nanami to drive her home. When Yuuto and Haruka were walking home, she admitted that she thought that Yuuto was pretty cool when he jumped in the pool to save Shiina, then she suddenly blanked out seeing Yuuto’s concerned face when he pulled Shiina out of the pool, and fell silent. But Yuuto told her that if she were the one drowning, he would definitely jump in the pool to save her as well. This was enough to make Haruka happy and they continued on home.

   

Is it just me or is this anime going down the uninteresting path??? The first three episodes really had me liking it because of the progress of the relationship between Yuuto and Haruka, but it really started slowing down. REALLY slowing down – reducing their relationship to nothing more than friends who hang out a lot. Last episode was disappointing. This episode can be excused because it mainly introduced Shina, but hell… I wish there were more relationship progress between Haruka and Yuuto. It was a really poor introduction of Shiina as a third party threat to Yuuto and Haruka’s happy relationship.

Also, there are no otaku references in this episode except for the fact that Nobunaga was browsing through the Natsucon catalog, which actually wasn’t much. Not that I particularly care about it since I’m pretty bad at detecting those anyway.

I’m really annoyed with the fact that the drunk bitches, the loli sister and the maids took a considerable chunk of the episode. Yeah, I get it, they’re service. I’m not annoyed by the fanservice itself. I still think that the fanservice of this show is on the tolerable level where there are no exaggerated reaction where the guy is automatically reduced to being a pervert. I’m just annoyed that they spent all that time showing fanservice rather than focusing on character and story development, like they did on the last four episodes where the fanservice are either accidental or are only several seconds long.

Anyway, I hope that the development between Yuuto and Haruka will pick up once again by next episode.