First Impressions / Hayate no Gotoku!

Summary:

While wiping some glasses, Hayate starts thinking about everything that happened with Ayumu and wonders what she’s doing right now. At the moment, Ayumu is looking through place to eat at before finally settling on a place that’s completely empty. After ordering a lot of food, she wonders back what Hayate is doing. Hayate is actually at that time getting an envelope addressed to Nagi, though his mind still dwells on having done something bad to Ayumu with the way he turned down her confession. He also wonders why he thought of Nagi at that time, and when he goes to Nagi’s room to give her the package he notices how improperly she’s sitting on the couch in a skirt and rights her. This makes him realize that he feels like a brother worried about Nagi as a little sister, and since he’s got his hands full with her, he can’t get a lover right now. As for the envelope, Nagi explains that it has admission documents for Hayate to Hakuou Academy, which shocks Hayate since this is the first time he’s heard of it. Nagi knows about Hayate dropping out his previous school and is paying the tuition for this one, which makes Hayate so happy that he starts crying.

Unfortunately, Maria points out that Hayate has to take an entrance examination first, and Klaus notes that if Hayate doesn’t pass, then he’ll be fired. Hayate doesn’t let that weigh him down, though learning that the test is difficult and will take place tomorrow does. He manages to do some studying that night, but when he tries to go to bed, he finds Klaus already sleeping there. Although Hayate wakes Klaus up and attempts to get him to leave, Klaus resists and claims to want Hayate to pass the exam. Klaus then proceeds to tell a story of himself barely passing a kindergarten test, and Hayate wakes up from the tale to find Klaus in his bed again. He really kicks Klaus out this time and goes to bed, but later that night, he gets awakened by Tama who supposedly wants to help him. In the end, Hayate has to kick Tama out of his room twice and is thus quite tired the next day when he heads to Hakuou with Nagi. While on the campus streetcar, he brushes up on his English and wonders what kind of exam this will be. Nagi thinks that it’ll be English or something, but Yukiji suddenly appears to announce that it’ll actually be a Redmond style interview which uses logic problems to test true intelligence (Microsoft gives these types of interviews, so it’s named for their headquarters in Redmond, Washington). Sample questions include why manholes are round, which Nagi explains is because square manholes can more easily fall down because the diagonal is longer than the sides.

Yukiji then leads them to a room for the exam, but all that’s in the room are a banana hanging from the ceiling, a crate, and a pole. Nagi thinks that Yukiji is making fun of Hayate and beats her up for it, but Hayate is still up for the challenge. He reasons that the banana is actually hanging low enough that you don’t need the box or pole to help get it, but after he retrieves the banana, he notices a troop of hungry monkeys staring at him from the corner. He realizes that he’ll have to fight them to pass, and Yukiji and Nagi watch as Hayate takes them all on. Yukiji finally reveals that this was all a joke to release the tension as thanks for before, which gets Hayate quite mad. He ends up taking the real exam in a bad physical and mental state, and afterwards, he worries about what will happen if he doesn’t pass. Nagi wants to go to school together with him and reassures him that he’ll pass, but unbeknownst to them, Yukiji soon learns that Hayate failed. In fact, the director of the school says that Hayate needed to calm down to get only one more point to pass, and she wants Yukiji to pass along the bad news. Nagi and Hayate meanwhile have already started to celebrate.

Preview:

Well the biggest laugh for me this week was seeing Hayate studying English…through Moetan. Other references I caught were MAR, Star Wars, and Super Robot Wars (I believe all the different swords in Hayate’s back came from there), but the Moetan one was by far the funniest because I had just researched the book a short while ago to write the summer preview.
However, I wasn’t too keen on all the flashbacks at the beginning of the episode to what happened last week. I think Hayate could have reached the same conclusions about Ayumu and why he had thought of Nagi without needing us to relive those moments with him. The parts with Klaus and Tama disturbing Hayate’s sleep were also additions not in the manga, though I was actually amused by these, particularly young Klaus who had the same face as old Klaus (I saw it coming yet I still laughed anyway).
Oh, and I almost forgot: Hayate’s last line in the preview is Zettai Unmei Mokushiroku (Absolute Destiny Apocalypse), which is a reference of Revolutionary Girl Utena.

23 Comments

  7. Indeed, all those swords did come from SRW. I just have no idea what the middle one is. It’s either Grungust Type 0’s Zankantou or KoRyuOh’s Sonic Javelin.

    RandomDendohfanboy
    Reply

  15. He fails, yes, but doesn’t he get in anyway? Super-genius Maria writes him a reference letter for extra points or something.

    If he doesn’t get in, there’ll have to be a major diversion from the manga storyline… ^^” Especially considering how much occurs at that school.

    cbhl
    Reply

  22. Oho, Klaus finally gets a bit of airtime. The head butler as a man-child was an absolute treat.

    Loved that Moetan reference too. ^_^

    I’m feeling a bit apprehensive about next week’s ep. Dropping the news while everyone’s in party mode is bad enough; the fact that it’s partly madwoman Yukiji’s fault can only make things worse.

    Diego
    Reply

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