First Impressions / Hayate no Gotoku!

Summary:

After Nagi leaves in a car, Hayate learns from Maria that she was headed to school – the prestigious Hakuou Academy. However, Nagi forgot her lunch, so Hayate offers to bring it to her. He arrives at the huge gates of the school and is immediately confronted by a teacher. Not believing that he’s Nagi’s butler, this teacher assaults Hayate and explains that it’s her mission to protect the school from suspicious individuals. However, since Hayate also has a mission to deliver the lunch, the two face off. Fortunately for Hayate, the two of them circle around each other in a fashion that allows him to gets past her and into the school. After his escape, Hayate sneaks around the school in a cardboard box, but somehow ends up in the woods behind the school. From this vantage point, he is able to admire the school’s clock tower, and he comments to himself that he would like to go up to the top. Suddenly, a female voice speaks up to inform him that only student council members can go there. This voice belongs to a pink-haired girl standing on one of the branches of a nearby tree. After an exchange between them about how it’s dangerous for her to be up there, she asks him to catch her and then jumps down. She manages to land safely onto the ground, but only after using Hayate’s face as a step. He yells at her for jumping, so she apologizes and reveals that she wanted to get down fast because she’s afraid of heights. Hayate thinks that she should have instead just told him to rescue her.

As for why this girl was in the tree in the first place, it seems that she was helping a young bird that fell from its nest. Hayate feels that the bird is safe now, but just as he says that, a large crow arrives and eyes the young bird hungrily. The girl wants to throw a rock at it, but Hayate stops her because she might hit the young bird. Instead, he saves it by personally throwing a rock between the two birds, thus scaring the crow away. Hayate explains afterwards that he threw it instead of her because he has control over his throw (implying that she doesn’t). He then introduces himself and learns that the girl’s name is Katsura Hinagiku. To thank him for what he did, she offers to take him to the top of the clock tower since she’s the student council president. Hayate doesn’t want to force her to take him since she doesn’t like high places, but she insists and says that he’ll never be happy if he doesn’t act a little selfish. All this causes Hayate to think to himself that Hinagiku is similar to Nagi. At the top of the tower, Hayate is amazed by the view of the school and the surrounding city. He thanks her for allowing him to see something that he’ll never forget, and she tells him to call her by her given name Hinagiku instead of by her family name. The reason for this is because there’s another Katsura at this school, and that person shows up right then.

This person is the same teacher who tried to stop Hayate at the school gate earlier: Hinagiku’s older sister Yukiji. Ready to destroy Hayate, she grabs a sword and takes on the famous Gatotsu stance before charging at him. However, Hinagiku grabs another sword and the two sisters start fighting. They get so involved in the fight that they seem to forget Hayate is there until he speaks up and says that he still has to deliver the lunch to Nagi. Yukiji reacts by stealing the boxed lunch and heading out to the balcony with it where Hinagiku won’t go because of her fear of heights. Taking a stand, Hinagiku declares that she won’t permit guests being treated as someone suspicious. However, the situation rapidly changes when a strong wind blows Yukiji off the railing that she’s standing on and thus off the clock tower. Hayate thinks fast and jumps down after her, catching his feet on the edge of the balcony to prevent himself from falling. Since he saved her, Yukiji finally believes that he’s Nagi’s butler, but the problem now is that the boxed lunch spilled all over the place when all that happened. Both Hinagiku and Yukiji promise to apologize to Nagi, however when they run into her, Nagi is somehow able to correctly guess exactly what happened. Fortunately, Nagi is happy that Hayate came all the way out just for her.

Preview:

So let’s see, this week there was Tama mentioning Pikachu and Pokémon, Snake and the cardboard box from Metal Gear Solid, Saint Seiya (or at least art similar to Kurumada Masami‘s style), a Vana’diel Final Fantasy XI reference, Saitou Hajime from Rurouni Kenshin, various Gundam references including Yukiji having a Newtype reaction (with that special noise and all)…and I’m sure I missed a lot of stuff too.
As I mentioned last week, I’m generally pretty happy that Hinagiku and Yukiji have been introduced already, and their voice actresses Nabatame Hitomi and Itou Shizuka did good jobs. For whatever reason though, whenever Hinagiku spoke, I kept thinking that Kawasumi Ayako could have played that part just as well – but that’s probably just me. Anyway, next week will introduce more of the extended cast, including Isumi and Sakuya.

34 Comments

  3. Oh, thank God, Isumi shows up… although she looks a little weird. Nice to see they’re keeping the Cashmere Coat joke going, or at least that’s how it appears. And yes, that’s a Solid Snake reference, per the preview in Ep 3. Don’t forget the Revolutionary Girl Utena joke which existed in the manga, but I’m not sure if it survived here…

    Haesslich
    Reply

  5. Awesome Hinagiku entry ^_^

    That was my last (very small, but still existing) worry about this show. But they handled her character exceptionally well, with a great seiyuu performance, so even the more ‘serious’ later parts of the show will be in good hands.

    I’m very very pleased.

    Mentar
    Reply

  10. the comment section is changed! It’s kinna hard to read the comments now.

    anyway, I’m so happy i didn’t give up on this show. it’s getting better and better each episode. Metal Gear thing was the Best one 🙂

    Myst
    Reply

  14. lol eehh Yukiji knows Gatotsu i wonder if Saitoh personaly trained her ^0^ i read from a forum that the most popular character to date in the manga is Hinagiku could someone confirm this

    Orphen
    Reply

  19. Omni: I’d readily agree that Kawasumi Ayako is an awesome seiyuu and would certainly have been a good pick for Hinagiku too, BUT: To be honest, I prefer the actual cast Itou Shizuka. Why? Because Hinagiku isn’t the “Mahoro” type character which is Kawasumi Ayako’s specialty. Even though we already saw a dozen different emotions of Hinagiku, at her core she’s the sober, confident, reasonable down-to-earth no-nonsense type. I think that Kawasumi Ayako in her _normal_ roles is a trace too “cute” for that. Itou Shizuka is just that trace rougher and harsher which I believe fits Hinagiku a bit better. Yes, she’s quick to show tears, and when she shows her vulnerable side she’s dripping moe, but basically, she’s the sultry take-decisive-action-now girl, and certainly the most grown-up and reasonable character in the show besides Maria. Give her that type of seiyuu 😉

    (And I was very pleased to recognize her Starship Operator Shinon Kouzuki voice 😉

    Mentar
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  20. Mentar: I take it Maria’s tearful statement that she was less popular than all the other characters (including Hayate in drag) in the afterword for Volume 2 had a good effect after all. 😉

    And it looks like the Sakuya AND Isumi intro stories are showing up next ep – which means the “ruins cashmere coats” joke will come back. Thankfully.

    Haesslich
    Reply

  25. Rie Kugimiya plays a loli who gets mad a lot and has a whinny voice, Hitomi Nabatame plays a wild drunk with a penchant for destruction, and Itou Shizuka plays … a character with mad fighting skills (closest thing I can find). Bring in Satoshi Hino for good measure. They might as well throw in a talking pendant and laughing book. Flame Hazes, UNITE!!!

    Koll
    Reply

  26. SNAKE!@@@@@@@@@@!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YES!!!!!!!!!

    And WOW at the popularity contest. Is she really as good as she will get to be?, because she’s looks like the cookie-cutter hopeless love type (not that there is anything wrong with the role).

    pakxenon
    Reply

  28. Haha. Aku Soku Zan!

    This has been arguably the best show this season so far. I’m waiting to see Nagi’s jealous reaction when she finds out Hinagiku has the hots for Hayate.

    claudius
    Reply

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