First Impressions / Hayate no Gotoku!

Summary:

Hayate and the gang are off to Hakuou’s seaside school, but Hinagiku won’t be joining them because of her fear of airplanes. This being Hayate’s first airplane trip, he finds himself airsick during the flight and throws up as he tries to thank Nagi for paying for the expenses. When they arrive on the island, they are greeted by a butler and manager named Schmidt who promises to help them create fun summer memories. However, it’s not until they start swimming practice at the pool that Schmidt’s methods come to light. He appears in a mecha that he calls a synchronized swimming manipulation machine and proceeds to capture all the students to force them to do a synchronized swimming routine. Of course, this didn’t create any fun memories for them, and Yukiji almost punches Schmidt, but she gets interrupted by the sound of the lunch bell. Schmidt says that they’re having a barbecue, however before they eat, he makes them change out of their school swimsuits into more suitable ones. Then, while they’re eating, Schmidt brings along the thing he has planned to make lunch a fun memory for them: a live alligator.

This alligator eventually returns to the wild after going on a rampage, and the students are given some free time. Though the others enjoy parasailing, diving, and jet skiing, Nagi stays on the beach for a walk with Hayate. It is because of this that the two don’t get eaten along with everyone else by a sea creature for what Schmidt calls a deep-sea outing. Later, during dinner, Izumi, Risa, and Miki declare that they don’t like this kind of seaside school and say that they want to go home, and when the others agree, Yukiji decides that it’s time to go. However, Schmidt doesn’t let them leave because he’s prepared a test of courage for them with tons of costumed helpers from around the world. When these costumed people attack, the butlers spring into action to defeat them all, though it’s Yukiji who ends up knocking Schmidt himself out. On the way home, Hayate get airsick again, and the girls realize that they’re not flying back to Hakuou because they’re passing over mountains. When Yukiji visits the cockpit to see what’s going on, she finds Schmidt in the pilot’s seat, and he says that if they hate the seaside school, then he’ll create a camping school for them.

Preview:

This episode doesn’t offer much in terms of substance, but plenty in terms of anime references and fanservice. In particular, they make up for Hinagiku’s absence by randomly showings swimsuit shots of her whenever they get a chance, and Nagi even points out that there are some images unrelated to the story that they used. As for parody stuff, I noticed that the airplane at the beginning of the episode looked like it was a reference to one of the numerous Pokémon airplanes, there was the Lancelot/CODE GEASS/Orange reference in both Schmidt’s mecha and his eye-catch, Inukami! all over Hinagiku’s gaming scene, and way too many anime to mention in the fight scene at the end. Overall though, this was a fairly forgettable episode that didn’t have any big laughs.

39 Comments

  17. The episode was okay.

    In the end of the episode, a funny Card Captor Sakura reference is made in the preview. The last line is used as a preview for their own show. It made me laugh pretty hard since I own the boxsets of CCS.

    Kyouya
    Reply

  18. They’ve done the unthinkable, the bastard offspring of a gundam and Optimus prime on ScreenShot 28. There’s even a Hybrid Votoms/Gundam at the back. OI! Funny as always.

    Shinn Agami
    Reply

  21. It’s kinda funny… it’s the Lancelot in Nirvash colors. Which is REALLY funny since the 1st time I saw Geass, I thought the Lancelot looked like something out of E7.

    Jin8
    Reply

  22. I’d say if it was in competition of looks and sex appeal, then it is definitely a battle between Hinagiku and Maria, now that is want to see. Nagi is funny and all but she is just a kid not of really a loli, just normal lol. I would want to see some Maria development and then competition between those two hinagiku and maria now that would be good to see.

    AnimeCritic
    Reply

  26. Robot references that i have seen:
    1:Zambot 3
    2:Inside Zambot 3, the 2 Orbs he was holding look like those from Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure
    3: The button he Pressed in Zambot looked like Sign from Great GUrren Dan
    4: Lancelot
    5: Inside Lancelot’s cockpit looks like Evangelion Cockpit

    DarklynerZ
    Reply

  28. “As for parody stuff, I noticed that the airplane at the beginning of the episode looked like it was a reference to one of the numerous Pokémon airplanes”

    It may have been. Did you notice they never showed all of the tail of the plane? It was always blocked by the angle, or the edge of the screen, or a cloud, or a building… I did catch some yellow on the tail of the plane…

    A couple of references I caught: Negima, in the title (“The Rare Card is Swimsuit”) as well as the fairly SHAFT-esque fanservice throughout. Also, when Yukiji takes out Schmidt in the big battle, she hits him with Lavi’s giant hammer from D.Gray-man.

    Also, did anyone else pick up on the fact that Tama ate the alligator? Hilarious.

    quigonkenny
    Reply

  29. I like the staffs of this studio, they adore Hinagiku and they love Nishizawa – my two favourites. They put them everywhere, even without the slightest relation to the story 😀

    pomps
    Reply

  30. 1:Zambot 3
    2:Inside Zambot 3, the 2 Orbs he was holding look like those from Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure
    3: The button he Pressed in Zambot looked like Sign from Great GUrren Dan
    4: Lancelot
    5: Inside Lancelot’s cockpit looks like Evangelion Cockpit
    And the Nirvash’s head-section/color scheme. :-/

    Bio
    Reply

  32. The Code Geass parody was obviously planned sicne they already knew the final two episodes release. That make me wonder, it was true what hayate said at the beginning of this episode abotu swtiching episodes 18 and 20 of place… beats me.

    Syaoran Li
    Reply

  33. i notice something about the ending. in the ending, the bus which they take is similar to the scooby-doo bus known as “The Mystery Machine.” The colors they used and the flower is really similar.

    negima1228
    Reply

  36. Even if it has nothing to do with the chapter, a Hinagiku is always fine too… Now i demand maid neko-mimi megane Hina… (geez, i have been reading too many blogs lately)

    Totally unrelated:
    Was watching a movie last night called “The Innocent Seven” and, for some weird reason, i kept thinking that Hayate had to go to that camp…
    … i wonder if the whole “selling kids organs to Very Kind People(tm)” had anything to do with that XD

    Fighterdoken
    Reply

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