Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu – Episode 08

Summary

Mika is talking with some of her classmates at school.  When one of them mentions how she got asked out, they all badger Mika about what to do during a date.  She makes a detailed explanation that borderlines yuri when she uses a friend as an example.

On the way home, Mika talks with Nanami about what happened at school.  She is slightly upset because the only two guys she knows are Yuuto and her father.  Nanami then discloses that Yuuto is at their house with Haruka and the two decide the spy on them.

The the Nogizaka estate, Yuuto’s father is disconcerted by the fact that Yuuto and Haruka are alone together.  Yuuto’s mother stops him since he promised to trust Haruka.  Meanwhile, Mika and Nanami overhear Yuuto and Haruka having a conversation that sounds ecchi.  They burst into the room to stop them only to find out that they’re making pancakes.  The family enjoys the pancakes together.

Mika and Nanami watch Yuuto and Haruka to see if their relationship has progressed, but they are dissapointed to find that the two are still at the friends state.  Mika decides to take matters into her own hand and calls Yuuto out on Sunday to teach him how to make the first move on Haruka.  She disguises the outing as a date.

They first go to a cafe where Mika tries to teach Yuuto how to look at his date in the eyes.  When he does so, Mika gets incredibly flustered.  He looks like he starts to move on Mika, when in fact, he’s catching a giant oversize sundae that was toppling on her.  After learning about holding hands while walking around, the two next go to the movies.

During the movie, Mika falls asleep on Yuuto and starts sleep talking about perverted things.  Other people in the theater start to look at Yuuto funny.  After the movie, Mika explains that the two of them will go to the fireworks festival. On the way, they bump into Shiina who is also going to the festival.  Shiina and Yuuto start having a conversation which Mika is left out of.  She gets annoyed and pulls Yuuto away to buy some yukatas.

While changing, Mika is complaining about how Yuuto’s behavior when she realizes that she’s feeling jealous over nothing.  They go to the riverbank and the fireworks start.  Mika can’t see due to her height, so Yuuto offers to piggy back Mika for her to see.  When Mika starts to question her feelings for Yuuto, Haruka arrives and everything is set back to the status quo.

The next day, Yukari states that the cultural festival is coming up and that the class needs two representatives of opposite gender.  Shiina volunteers to be the girl volunteer, and Yukari volunteers Yuuto to be the male volunteer.

Thoughts

This episode was more successful in terms of humor then the previous episode, especially with the pancake scene, the phone call, and the movie theater.  As for plot advancement, Mika might’ve started to like Yuuto.  For the show’s sake I hope they leave that element at the episode, and keep this episode to emphasize why Yuuto is so likable.  

The show is fine the way it is with the love triangle involving Shiina.  On that note, seems like Shiina gets a bigger role starting next episode and we might see Haruka getting slightly jealous.  Which’d be a good thing, since then Haruka could make a move to take her relationship w/ Yuuto to the next level.

It seems like the speed at which their relationship was going was not only noticed by us, the viewers, but also the other characters.  And they too have realized that their relationship has suddenly stalled.  It almost made me feel like one of the characters =D.

8/10