Hayate no Gotoku! – 15

Summary:

Hayate wakes up the morning after the party and has to check his new student ID to make sure that him being able to go to school again wasn’t a dream. Since it was Maria who recommended him, Hayate vows to live up to her expectations and become a first-class butler. As he happily leaves his room, he runs into a pissed off Hinagiku who had stayed the night after being worried about what happened to him. She forgives him after he apologizes and reveals that he passed, and she tells him to call out to her if they see each other at school. Once Hinagiku leaves, Hayate expresses how happy he is – to the point where he understands the feelings of people who suddenly break out into song in a musical – to Maria and Nagi. Hayate then asks Nagi about school uniforms, but she tells him that he doesn’t need one since its easier to recognize him without one. To her, the bigger problem is that she doesn’t know if they’ll be in the same class together. Hayate thinks that she’s mistaken since he’s in high school and she should be in middle school, but as he finds out, Nagi’s skipped grades, and she shows him her student ID to prove it. Maria then explains that Hakuou Academy has students who skip grades, butlers, and various other kinds of students, and Nagi gets pissed off at how Hayate accepts Maria’s explanation more easily than he accepted what she said.

The Monday that Hayate starts school soon comes around, and he’s much more excited than Nagi is to go. As the two of them stand on the path leading to school, Hayate re-raises the topic of Nagi having skipped grades, and she tells him that it’s not so amazing because others have done the same. In fact, the title holder for skipping grades at this school joined at the age of ten and graduated at thirteen, was the student council president for two straight semesters, had the top grades for three years, and was awarded the Silver Watch three times for being the most outstanding student. When Hayate comments on how there is such a monstrous person in the world, Nagi reveals that this person is very close to him. The two are eventually interrupted by a butler named Himuro who quotes Char Aznable and who is getting the sakura petal visual effect thanks to his master Taiga tossing them into the air around him. Upon learning who Hayate is, Himuro recalls Nagi’s grandfather’s condition for getting of getting the Sanzenin inheritance by making her to cry. This causes Hayate to spring forward to protect Nagi, but Himuro isn’t actually interested because he has Taiga’s money.

When Hayate isn’t paying attention, Himuro steals his necktie and then declares that it’s because he’s a first-class butler. As Himuro and Taiga leave, Hayate is impressed at the level of such a butler, but he has to go back home so that he can get another necktie from Maria. Once Hayate returns, he’s introduced to his new class by Yukiji, but she completely exaggerates his attributes to make him into someone much more impressive than he really is. Fortunately, Hayate manages to save face by turning on his charm and wowing the entire class with it. At lunchtime, Hayate mentions how fun school is, but Nagi is less than happy because she’d prefer to be reading manga and playing games. Hayate then reiterates how happy he is to be coming to school with her, which he feels is thanks to her and Maria, and Nagi gets embarrassed when he gets up close to her. Hinagiku interrupts them when she passes by on her way to her club, which gets Hayate curious about if Nagi is in a club. As it turns out, Nagi is in the same club as Hinagiku – the kendo club – and she had originally joined after seeing how cool Hinagiku was. She claims that she stopped going because she didn’t like trying to move with the heavy equipment, but she privately thinks to herself that she knew immediately that she couldn’t become like Hinagiku even if she did the same sport.

Worried about Nagi’s future with her not participating in a club or sport, Hayate suggests that they go together to the kendo club after school. At the clubhouse later, he compliments Hinagiku on her kendo garment, but that gets all the other members angry because he called her by her given name and she called him by his given name too. One of the members named Azumamiya Koutarou declares that Hayate can’t do kendo here, and he proceeds to challenge Hayate to a match. If Hayate loses, he can’t come here anymore, but Hayate isn’t about to be defeated because he wants Nagi to keep coming to the club with him. Before the battle can begin, Himuro shows up again and points out how strong Hayate is, so Koutarou summons his combat butler Nonohara Kaede to fight in his place.

Preview:

Aside from the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu from Rurouni Kenshin and the Char Aznable quote, Yujiki also made a ton of references to pop culture in her introduction speech for Hayate, saying that he’s a combination of Takuya Kimura, Takizawa Hideaki, Odagiri Joe, Orlando Bloom, and Brad Pitt. For me, that speech was probably the funniest part this episode because of the way Yukiji delivers it. This episode also introduces us to a lot of new characters, including some butler rivals for Hayate (one of whom of Ichimaru Gin), but perhaps the most interesting part was hearing Nagi list off all the achievements that Maria made while she was attending Hakuou (it’s not directly stated that she’s the one, but it’s highly implied). With such an impressive person recommending him, no wonder Hayate got into the school, though it also raises the question of what she’s doing as Nagi’s maid if she was so great in all respects.
Anyway, I look forward to seeing more of Nonohara Kaede next week since he’s voiced by Konishi Katsuyuki, who has also voiced, among other roles, Kamina of Gurren Lagann.