First Impressions / Hayate no Gotoku!

Summary:

Hayate is in the middle of sweeping the mansion grounds when he hears Nagi scream. He rushes to her room to find her furious with how her manga wasn’t selected for a magazine and with how the judge had commented that she didn’t have enough life experiences. Because of this, Nagi asks Hayate about what he did at age 13 so that she can figure out how their experiences differ, and when she realizes how much more he’s done, she decides to raise her experience by doing stuff she wouldn’t usually do. In this case, she wants to help Maria as a maid. Maria isn’t too keen on the idea and directs her anger at Hayate, particularly when Nagi starts breaking things as she attempts to clean. Once Nagi thinks she’s mastered cleaning, she moves on to mastering shopping, which she accomplishes by buying the store. Nagi then heads back to the mansion to clean a storehouse, but after she finds a bunch of Klaus portraits inside and Klaus himself pretending to be Rodin‘s The Thinker, she boards up the entrance and locks him in.

She then asks Hayate what she should do next, and Hayate mentions serving guests. By chance, Nagi finds Isumi on the mansion grounds because Isumi somehow had wandered all the way here after losing her eraser while doing homework. Nagi decides to use the chance to serve Isumi her original brand tea, but Hayate quickly realizes that this isn’t a good thing, so he pretends that the teacup is dirty and runs off with the teapot so that he can replace the tea with something actually palatable. Isumi finds the tea delicious, which makes Nagi really happy and prompts her to invite many more guests so that she can increase her experience further. When Hayate finds out that she’s going to be cooking, he has to step in again and replace all of the food she cooked. This leads to everyone saying that the food is delicious and applauding Nagi, and the only person who immediately figures out the truth is Hinagiku. Unfortunately, Yukiji later stumbles upon the actual pot of Nagi-cooked food that Hayate had hidden away, and her stomach explodes as a result of tasting it. When Nagi figures out what Hayate had done, she’s heartbroken that she was of no use, and she starts thinking that she has no talent.

After Hayate chases a crying Nagi outside and catches her when she trips on a rock, he tells her that she has talent for passion because of how hard she works until the end for what she loves. Hayate also suggests that her manga’s level is too high and that she actually has too much experience, so Nagi decides that she has to drop the level a bit. However, when Nagi shows Hayate her next manga, he sees that the level is still quite high.

Preview:

Let’s see, there were tons of references this episode, and the notables I caught were Nagi mentioning both the SOS-dan from Suzumiya Haruhi and Mobile Suit Gundam in her pre-OP talk with Hayate (she quotes Char Aznable later in the episode too), the Akagi scene during the mahjong part, and the badly-animated cabbage from Yoake Mae yori Ruri Iro na. However, the episode’s humor was more miss than hit for me, and I didn’t find Nagi striving to get life experiences by being a maid all that interesting. I had been hoping that they’d continue the storyline of Hayate trying to acquire a special technique, but maybe they will later. Next week seems to be another anime original episode, this time the requisite beach episode.

25 Comments

  3. is..that a gurren reference?
    the last one of the preview..that mecha looks eerily similar to the Gurren Lagann
    Not quite..but its doesn’t quite have a full head ring thing…

    Kenn
    Reply

  9. …

    This isn’t QUITE what I was expecting. Must say though, pictures of Hinagiku in a swimsuit in the series are a definite plus for me.

    Also, was that manga-Nishizawa supposed to be a Fist of the North Star parody?

    Haesslich
    Reply

  12. That last pre-preview pic may be the single funniest screencap I’ve ever seen. Something about a Mario Bros starman in a “cool pose” wearing blue jeans is just hilarious, IMHO. This needs to be subbed. Now.

    quigonkenny
    Reply

  24. Klaus Scream, Edvard Munch parody!

    Also, Ayumu and her omelette are awesome. She’s the best character in this show. Here’s to hoping the hamster beats the dragon in the next episode.

    claudius
    Reply

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