First Impressions / Hayate no Gotoku!

Summary:

Hayate has another dream, and this time Santa questions if he was content with his life, speaking as if Hayate were already dead. Hayate actually doesn’t mind if he’s dead since he doesn’t have a family to grieve over him or a home to return to. Santa, however, reminds him of his crimes, and Hayate wakes up apologizing. Finding himself in a large, richly decorated room, he thinks that he’s in heaven. He goes to the large bath, but to his surprise, he finds Maria already in there. After a few awkward moments, Maria notes that he’s got a strong body because normally a wound like the one he has would open up in the bath. As if on cue, Hayate faints and starts bleeding. Fortunately, Hayate survives and wakes up again back in bed. This time, Maria is watching over him, and she insists that he’s been sleeping ever since he arrived at the mansion, so he logically concludes that the entire bath scene was just a dream. She then introduces herself and explains that he’s in Nagi’s mansion. Maria has the sheet with his debt written on it, and when she wants to talk with Hayate about what happened at the park, he panics and starts apologizing for the kidnapping. Since she doesn’t know what he’s talking about, he goes on to tell her the truth about what happened. Nagi then interrupts them and is happy to see that Hayate is awake. When Nagi offers him the butler job, he immediately accepts, despite Maria’s reservations about the idea.

The next day is December 25th, and Maria goes to see the head butler Klaus about Hayate. Klaus wants her to get rid of him, but Maria finds it hard to do since Hayate has gotten dressed as a butler and is gung-ho about doing work. When she inspects his cleaning later, she finds that it’s almost perfect, so she has no reason to get rid of him. Excited about cleaning, Hayate then finds a room labeled “Study” with an open door and heads inside. He finds many bookshelves, and on top of a desk is a notebook that he assumes is Nagi’s. This notebook has the manga that Nagi’s drawing, but Hayate thinks that it’s a picture diary. Nagi then catches Hayate in the room with her precious notebook and gets really mad when Hayate call her manga a picture diary. She throws Hayate out of the room and tells him to get out, but Hayate takes it literally to mean that he should leave the mansion. Outside the walls of the estate, he runs into the shady characters who he owes a debt to, and they take him away by car. By chance, Maria sees what happened and tells Nagi about it. Nagi had only intended to kick Hayate out of her study, and since she really does want him around, she claims that she can’t abandon her savior. With a cheap disguise on, Nagi arrives at the docks where Hayate is being held. She comes up with the name Mask the Money for herself and claims not to be Nagi even though Hayate clearly recognizes her. After pretending to make up with Hayate for Nagi, she pays off the gangsters with cash for the full amount of his debt, and they leave with their money.

Hayate intends on paying the money back to Nagi, but, still pretending to be Mask the Money, Nagi claims that it was a present. However, Hayate then makes the mistake of continuing to insist, citing that she came to save him with such a strange mask on. This gets Nagi so pissed off that she changes her mind and now wants him to pay her back. Watching from further down the docks, Klaus comments on how a fight seems to have started. Still, Maria thinks that it’s okay since the two look like they’re siblings. Nagi’s yelling is eventually interrupted by snowflakes falling from the sky, and this is how their Christmas ended.

Preview:

So they censor out the word “Gundam” during the first Klaus scene, but they do show blatant Black Lagoon references. Actually, the censoring made that scene all the funnier. I also found it amusing that they tried to end the series twice during this episode. For Shana/Louise/Kugimiya Rie fans, Nagi gets characteristically angry several times this episode and uses the now-classic urusai line. But she also shows off her deredere side, especially when she’s imagining Hayate kissing her. Truthfully though, Tanaka Rie‘s performance overall stood out more for me since Maria had many more lines this week compared to last week.
Next week should be interesting too, with the introduction of the robot and the tiger.

41 Comments

  15. Thank God, they kept the BATH scene intact (no violence, as per the PV)…. and Maria… Dayaaamn.

    It’s nice to see they’re following the manga pretty closely, although the new references (Black Lagoon) are a welcome change… and I’m wondering when they’ll steal something from Chobits, given that Geneon owns the license to that…

    Haesslich
    Reply

  19. Very glad this was noted in the spring preview list, thanx a ton for turning me onto this!
    ( Claymore too actually which was surprising.. but Heroic age..well it was “pretty” )

    Lithonite
    Reply

  21. sunrise prolly has problems with people referencing gundams…haruhi gundamreference was censored as well. maybe it a reference to the censored gundam instead of gundam itself? o.o

    boo
    Reply

  22. I’m re-reading the manga now. If they’re going to follow the manga, then I’m pretty sure we’ll be getting lots of reference to other manga/anime series. Gundam is one such example and the whole idea is just so hilarious.

    dward
    Reply

  25. “海賊王の夢を果たせないまま終わるのか？！”

    I love how they managed to put together Black Lagoon AND One Piece reference together all in one line. XD

    Rasmiel
    Reply

  30. i love this show, never boring from start to finish.
    totally love Rie Kugimiya’s voice, she sounds so funny + cute! she’s doing a fantastic job voicing Kagura in Gintama, and shes the main reason why im watching Hayate… hahaha, more fun to come!

    psychohare
    Reply

  31. I wonder how those false endings are going to look in this episode — I saw them in the manga, and there they were quite amusing, but I disliked the false-ending execution in the preview animation. The rest, however, looks quite amusing. I can’t wait.

    Show Spoiler ▼

    cbhl
    Reply

  33. This show really has been hilarious so far. Kugimiya Rie really is great in this role. Just a really funny episode with two main characters that aren’t exactly the sharpest people you’d ever meet 🙂

    FlareKnight
    Reply

  34. Sometimes I actually wonder, though — if you think about it, these two are very happy (for now, anyways). Do you know of any “sharp” people who are as happy as these two? I don’t, although that might simply be a sign of how few people I know. (Heh.)

    Anyways, the silly mask comment was great… she got upset because she thought it was a cool mask. She likes him for liking her, even though he keeps stepping all over her feelings (“picture diary”, lol). It’s amusing, in a way.

    The snow falling seemed kind of arbitrary, although I suppose it would have been bad etiquette to end a daytime TV show with the two of them arguing… *shrugs*

    The one thing that I didn’t get (which is bothering me) is the story where he says he’s going to end up “crusing” on a boat (with a picture of him rowing on some dragon-boat-thing), and then pirates, and then some monkey captain will capture him, and then his dream will die (with him wearing a straw hat). Is that supposed to be a reference to One Piece, or some other anime, or some mythology, or what?

    cbhl
    Reply

  35. Haha true enough. Guess ignorance is bliss, for those two. If it takes being a bit empty headed for them to be happy who am I to get in their way.

    Loved the mask part. She thought it was so cool, then he just without even thinking about it manages to insult it. She likes him, but he does a good job of trying her nerves.

    Pretty sure the boat part was about One Piece. With the straw hat part, and him saying he wouldn’t be able to become the pirate king. Think there was another anime referenced but not sure which.

    FlareKnight
    Reply

  36. @Flareknight: “Pretty sure the boat part was about One Piece. With the straw hat part, and him saying he wouldn’t be able to become the pirate king. Think there was another anime referenced but not sure which.”

    yes, thats about one piece’s Luffy XD

    Craziplaya21
    Reply

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