As is entirely normal, OGT beat me to a post about Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu. This is not unusual, and indeed should comfort those of you who place your faith in an orderly universe. Not surprisingly, OGT speculated on the root cause of the “shame” associated with being an anime fan, or オタク (you read anime blogs and don’t have Japanese characters on your computer? For shame). It’s a very interesting topic, but not quite where I want to go with this. I’m more interested in the effects the show could have — which, to be fair, OGT also talked about.
Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu, or The Secret of Haruka Nogizaka, is about a guy, Ayase Yuuto, and a girl, Nogizaka Haruka. The basic set-up is that Ayase has grown up with an overbearing sister who invites his teacher, also overbearing, over to party a lot. They’re both typically either drunk or hungover, demanding food. As a result, Ayase doesn’t care for women too much — indeed, within three sentences one of his friends says everyone thought Ayase was gay for a while.
Nogizaka, on the other hand, is the typical sweet-oujo of the high school. As far as I know, she doesn’t fit exactly the mold of The Oujo, but she does fit the role. She’s rich, beloved by everyone in the school — she plays piano, somehow loudly enough (while retaining dynamics) for everyone anywhere in the school to pause and listen. She has, predictably, a reputation for being unapproachable for dates — which, running with the anime norm, is sort-of unfounded, as apparently no one’s ever tried.
This sounds like the set-up for a lot of romantic comedies of the Japanese persuasion. Hell, it matches a fuck-ton (a technical term, don’t try this at home kids) of comedies set in high school, and nearly all the cookie-cutter high school dramas/comedies that we usually forget about after a while. God help me, I watched nearly all of Tokimeki Memorial: Only Love, so I should know this pattern when I see it.
Yes, I’ve been putting off what you’re waiting for. The selling point of the show is that, secretly, Nogizaka is an otaku, or “akibe-ken,” as I think the show put it. Gasp, I know.
Nogizaka reacts poorly when Ayase finds out. Eventually they come to share the secret together, and they’re friends. Fine, good. This show could go in a few different directions. It could culminate in Haruka’s secret getting out somehow — in which case, I think no one would care in the school, because they’re all in love with her anyway. Indeed, the consumption of anime in the school would probably go up, as she even has one of those awful “defense force” fanclubs who are so obsessed they keep other people away from her (more on this later, as it’s a trope I absolutely loathe). This option is, I think, fairly shallow, as it says the nerdy hobby doesn’t matter — when you’re totally hot. It’s like that American movie, She’s All That, where the jock falls in love with the nerd when she’s all dressed up like a cheerleader. He doesn’t really accept her, he just notices her. There’s a difference.
The show could go in a different direction — Nogizaka could become comfortable with her identity, and the “secret” would no longer be a “secret,” merely a facet of her personality. This is, of course, what most of us persecuted nerds would most like to see, I’m guessing.
The show could also just continue on into the sunset, keeping the status quo. That is, it’s still a secret, Nogizaka is still awkward about other people knowing her hobby, and Ayase, uh, you know, stands there.
Finally, the show could do something entirely crazy, I don’t know.
The show has the potential to give us a rallying cry, a kind of backbone or support system for our passions that happen to stray from the norm. It probably won’t, though. The show itself is a little too white bread typical for that to happen. Ayase isn’t all that interesting — he’s not as boring as a lot of protagonists are in these situations. The aforementioned Tokimeki had one of hte worst, but think of most harem comedies. I suppose what’s-his-face from Kanon is an exception. Ayase isn’t quite that boring, but he’s still pretty faceless. What does he do for fun? I’m forced to wonder. Apparently he doesn’t actually like anime, but he doesn’t hate it either. He doesn’t like cooking, apparently. Does he have a hobby? Nogizaka, in the first episode at least, hasn’t actually revealed her nerd-fu. I’m guessing she’s not a Gundam-freak, as her apparently super-otaku-ears pick up conversation about the clumsy girl show that’s just started the night before, but what is she in to? Is she like Konata, fascinated by moe and girls in the same way the guys are? Does she fangirl over shoujo manga and bishounen? She’s an oujo who happens to like anime a lot — we’re told. But as anyone who’s been through even one workshop class can tell you, they’ll need to show, not tell.
That’s my main point there. But, as promised, my take on “pretty girl defense forces.” I hate them. I’m not sure where I first saw them, but one really good example was Shuffle! Yes, I watched all of it, and enjoyed it. The three main girls, angel, demon, and human — I can’t remember their names, so I didn’t enjoy it that much, apparently — all manage to become so popular in the school that they have oodles of boys swearing to defend their honor. This is, of course, incredibly selfish. I recall one show, I don’t know which one, that openly stated that some of this stuff was due to the members not wanting anyone to get an advantage over them. Wait, right, it was Fruits Basket, so it was the manga more than the anime. In it, the Yuki fanclub all swear never to talk to Yuki without another member present, so no one can ask him out, basically. Then they proceed to try to keep all the other girls in the school away from him, just like the guys in Shuffle! and Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu. Basically these people are dillweeds. They usually show up to keep the protagonist from talking to the object of obsessive, stalkery-love — even though we know the protagonist and the object are actually friends, if not more, and they have no business interfering. If it’s a comedy like this, the protagonist also ends up being unfairly assaulted, which I never find funny at all, actually. Hell, I was uncomfortable with Tom and Jerry cartoons growing up, a bit, as they never seem to have a reason for what they’re doing.
