Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu 02 ~My First Time~

Haruka invited Yuuto to come with her to Akihabara on Sunday to get her a Portable Dreams Station (PDS). It was her first time going there and she thought it would be fun if he came with her since he was the only one who knew about her secret. Yuuto wasn’t that thrilled going because of his bad experience in Akihabara with his childhood friend Nobunaga, who made him carrying all of his spoils from battle. She planned the day with a badly drawn map to pass by many of the many landmarks an Akiba-kei would go to on a regular day out in Akihabara. When Yuuto asked her if she didn’t want to get the PDS first, she told him that if they did, the mission would have been completed.

So they went to a bookstore filled with manga with doujinishis on the 4F, a store filled with anime goods, then figurines. After making Haruka hide out when Nobunaga saw Yuuto, he lost her, bumped into a girl who teased him about losing his girlfriend who was later found surrounded by a bunch of lost Russian tourists. When he asked her how she started getting into anime, she told him about a time when she was twelve when she was scolded by her father and she was crying the park and a boy asked her to stop crying and gave her a copy of Innocent Smile and her enjoyment of the magazine started her hobby. After that, they continued their trip to a gachapon hall and a maid café where her the waitresses asked her if she wanted to try on a maid outfit and she and Yuuto ended up with lots of pictures together.

But when they got to their ultimate destination, they find out that the PDS was already sold out that morning and Haruka got so distraught that she couldn’t stand. Yuuto just picked her up from the ground and carried her out of the store to a nearby park. She started crying and apologized him about dragging him around, but Yuuto said that she had a lot of fun and just asked her to stop crying. Then he remembered a time when he was younger where he was on his way back home and saw a crying girl and gave her a magazine. But it was all interrupted when his sister texted her ordering him to come home so someone can cook the crab. They stood up to leave and Haruka banged against a post and Yuuto laughed at her.

When they were walking back, they passed by another gachapon machine and Yuuto told her that he’ll treat her to one as an apology for laughing at her. With her many unsuccessful attempts to get the toy she wanted from the gachapon hall, she was elated when she got a charm of Aki-chan in her signature pose, which Yuuto thought looked a lot like how Haruka would greet people.

Well… this episode made me want to go to Greenhills – the ultimate otaku hub in the Philippines where I hang out in a lot since I was in high school. I just realized that I haven’t been there in a month. I wanted to go here this weekend, but there was a cosplay/J-Pop event sponsored by The Japan Foundation and the Japanese embassy in another mall (Actually my friends and I went there for the free viewing of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time which I've seen in raw, but couldn't find any subbed version.) I'll probably go there next week ^^

So anyway, I just thought it was terribly stupid for Haruka not to go head for PDS first. But I kinda get her point that when she got what she came for, the mission was complete. But then again, I’ve always been considered by a lot of friends to be a male shopper – go in the store, buy what I need, go to Starbucks for a cup of coffee then go home ~this is what I get for being raised by a family with two older brothers and having more guy friends than girl friends. I don’t know. I can’t relate. I’m not a gamer, but I have had lots of things pre-ordered and reserved from bookstores and music stores so I don’t have to get in line when something comes out already.

It was a pretty cute episode, though I’m starting to become kinda annoyed with Haruka’s breathe-y voice – I mean, she can be soft-spoken and gentle without sounding like that, right? But I guess it’s OK. Also, I’ve also noticed that they are bringing out a lot of the usual elements I’ve seen and watched in a lot of anime – the introduction of a possible third-party, the I-met-him-once-as-a-child-but-can’t remember-his-face-because-it-was-sunset, and the double-meaning jokes… But the thing I appreciate is that they don’t take the typical stereotype road. I don’t think they will delve that much into that childhood thing much. Or that possible third party, who was in the OP, would be much of a hindrance… Although, since I don’t know anything about the story beyond the stuff written in Wikipedia, I wouldn’t know.
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