First Impressions: The Secret of Nogizaka Haruka – Purity
Josh: There wasn’t very much “pure” about the first episode of this second season, since the first episode attempted to be a fan service fest. Unfortunately, the main star of the first episode was the steam used to censor all the fan service which was apparently going on behind the, er, steam. Now, I’m not one for huge fan service shows, but if you’re gonna show fan service, then you just as well show fan service. What’s the point in having loads of it but not showing any of it. I can understand if it is an otherwise clean show with a few risque shots that you don’t want going overboard, but the first episode was nearly unwatchable.
Luckily the 2nd episode was mostly steamless and started going back towards what made the first season good in the first place: Haruka being a hot and popular, yet secret, otaku nerd. However, I do have to laugh somewhat at the lacrosse anime, being an alumnus of Syracuse University. I didn’t even know that the Japanese knew what lacrosse was, given that it is one of the few sports truly rooted in North America, having originated with Native Americans (though apparently Japan does indeed have it’s own lacrosse association).
Hopefully the rest of the series will go more of the way of the 2nd episode than the 1st…
Polaryzed: I don’t have much more to add that Josh didn’t already say. I also enjoyed the first season and hope it continues that way. Steam sucks. The end.