Hayate no Gotoku!

Title:Hayate no Gotoku!
Hayate the Combat Butler
ハヤテのごとく!(Japanese)
Overall:Buy
Keywords: , , , , , , , ,
Notables: KUGIMIYA Rie
R1 License - Bandai (Defunct)
SHIRAISHI Ryoko
TANAKA Rie
WAKAMOTO Norio
Hayate had a problem. His parents (who are deep in debt) sold his body to the friendly people (aka the Yakuza) who are now trying to collect. Hayate comes up with a plan to kidnap the first girl he meets to get a ransom to pay back them back. Nagi was bored, her butler was gone and she ran away from home to escape the life that a rich girl was given. As Hayate went in to make his move, another group showed up and tried to kidnap Nagi. Hayate saves her. To reward him, she buys his debt from the Yakuza but in exchange she makes him her butler. Hayate has to deal with Maids, ↗Tsundere Lolis, Tigers, Elder butlers and all of Nagi's friends.

[52 TV episodes (4 seasons) based on the manga of the same title by HATA Kenjirou. Anime R1 Licensed by Bandai Entertainment. Manga R1 licensed by VIZ media.]
[edit] The ↗Hayate no Gotoku franchise:
Episode Details 
00, 1893, 1894
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Buy 8 7 7 7 7 7 Ggultra2764 [series:1516#1552]
This was a fun comedic romp while it lasted. Hayate the Combat Butler was all over the place with its humor featuring enough slapstick violence from the cast, nonsensical elements such as robots and a talking pet tiger, enough nods to otaku and popular culture, doing enough to rip apart standard cliches of a number of anime genres and occasional rips at the fourth wall with the characters aware they are in an anime and usually interacting with the narrator who is just as savvy in knowing and ripping at the ridiculous predicaments faced by the show's cast. Beyond the comedy, the series does feature a likeable cast of characters with their own nutty quirks and developments with Hayate playing the straight man as he becomes exposed to the eccentricities of much of the show's cast and he comes to find himself gaining admirers of his kind and straight-forward personality. While the cast pretty much have their typical archetypes and the plot is a harem romantic comedy underneath everything, the humor of the series does plenty to make Hayate the Combat Butler an enjoyable romp. I look forward to seeing more of the series in its second season!

Last updated Tuesday, May 08 2012. Created Tuesday, May 08 2012.
Buy 8 8 8 7 8 8 Dreamer [series:1516#2279]
I actually watched the 2nd installment first and thoroughly enjoyed the heck out of it. So I decided to pick up this one and see how it all started.

Art, Animation & Character Designs
Artwork and animation was good. Now looking back at the 2nd installment, I see that it didn't change really. Character designs were good as well, and with Maria as my fav.... uber charming.

Music
The OP wasn't anything really noticeable. The soundtrack wasn't either honestly.

Series and Episode Story
This series is somewhat outrageous... at least in some of the abilities of Hayate. But that's what makes this series fun and enjoyable to watch. The series is episodic, meaning each episode is pretty much a story in itself.... and they're great. Plenty of humor, lovable characters and great story telling. Even the narrator is great!

Overall, this is well worth every episode and especially with a great cast of characters.

Last updated Sunday, May 16 2010. Created Sunday, May 16 2010.
Unevaluated Stretch [series:1516#628]
(22 episodes watched):

Perhaps the most significant thing about this show is that both of the principal characters are pretty dimwitted. Another interesting thing is the use of a narrator in this comedy series (wasn't that the guy who played Amagumo in Sunabouzu?). Yet another is that the scriptwriters weren't afraid to (what was the phrase?) "break down the fourth wall", i.e, employ jokes that admitted that this is all a TV show after all. I got a good laugh almost immediately. Pretty much everything that happened in the first half of episode one was stuff I was already expecting having read the synopsis. So far, a fairly fun and amusing show which I'll be glad to see more of.

I've gotten into the habit of watching Hayate no Gotoku along with Seto no Hanayome and Nagasarete Airantou, and have become convinced that HnG is clearly far and away the best of the three.

Last updated Wednesday, October 31 2007. Created Wednesday, April 18 2007.
Rent 8 8 8 8 7 7 AstroNerdBoy [series:1516#436]

I don't remember what specifically propelled me to start watching Hayate no Gotoku, but whatever the cause, I was taken for a ride down parody lane, where almost everything was up for parody, sometimes with humorous results and sometimes not.

With four 12-episode seasons under its belt, Hayate no Gotoku starts off strong as a comedy. The parody stuff is there, but it is the wacky comedy that grabs the audience's attention. Why? For me, good comedy is in the unexpected. Even if the joke is as old as the hills, if you make the expected payoff happen in an unexpected time, it is good stuff to me. The unexpected is what the first season is full of. That seriously falls off by the thirds season, but does make a small comeback by the final season.

Slapstick humor and parody humor also play a large role throughout the entire series. Sakuya often wields a harisen and isn't afraid to use it. Other characters do other slapstick things. However, the parody moments are the biggest part of the show. The writers clearly love mecha of all kinds, Neon Genesis Evangelion, various Power Rangers shows (which are still huge in Japan), Nabeshin, Dragon Ball Z, and a rather lengthy list of additional anime titles. However, American shows or movies weren't forgotten either as references to Rocky, Back to the Future, Knight Rider (the original 80's version), Titanic, Jaws, Die Hard, Star Wars, Star Trek: Deep Space 9, and many other titles. From an American gaijin perspective, the fact that the Japanese writers would not only be so well versed in these American titles (especially something like Knight Rider) and that they expected the audience to be as well was pretty impressive.

Because parody and comedy are the names of the game as it were, the over-arching plot of Hayate working off his ¥150,000,000 debt to Nagi (and Nagi's subsequent romantic interest in Hayate, to say nothing of other girls' interest in him) are merely vehicles to take us from parody/comedy moment to parody/comedy moment. The writers do change things up a bit in season three with the introduction of the Combat Butler story arc, but frankly, having this quickly became somewhat tedious to me. Ultimately, the writers were parodying things like Yu Yu Hakusho, Yu-Gi-Oh: Duel Monsters, and the like, but because the writers had to deal with a plot (weak as it was), I felt it dragged the series down. Fortunately, season 4 gets some lift again, though it has tedious moments as well.

So why not a "buy" rating? Well to be frank, I started getting bored with the series. Too many parody references went over my head because I've never seen those anime titles. The humor began to become very predictable to me and as such, it was not only not funny, but tedious. That's not to say the series completely falls apart because it doesn't. There are still good things in the final two seasons, but I grew weary after a while. Indeed, even though I had a recording of the final two episodes, I kind of set them aside and just forgot about them until this week. That's not a good thing to say about a show.

Bottom line: a very strong start that begins to fall off slowly over time with peaks and valleys all over. The cast is good and the parodies are endless but in the end, I can only give this a high Rent rating as I don't feel a strong call to want to re-watch this series anytime soon.

Last updated Tuesday, May 20 2008. Created Tuesday, April 10 2007.

Rent Jan-Chan [series:1516#967]
Why do I like this silly romance comedy series so much? Let me share a few reasons.
  • Hayate
  • Hayate & Nagi
  • Hayate & all of Nagi’s friends
  • And that the series is beginning to stray from the manga
Hayate is a serenely competent and amazing character. He is the somber anchor around which all of the zany anarchy that Nagi and her circle of uncommon servants and friends seem to spin around.

This is a fun comedy with a strong boy put in an impossible situation of having to look after a rich, spoiled, pampered and lonely young lady.

Much Fun!!

And now some misc trivia about some of the VA's that have been signed on for this series. (Now - how many of the series listed below have you seen? And do you remember any of the voices?)

The known VAs (so far) are:

· Hayate Ayasaki - Ryoko Shiraishi (who also was the voice of Kaede Nagase in Negima, Ryuushi Shiratori in Mahoraba, Azami in Himawari!, Azuka Kazama in Tekken 5)

· Nagi Sanzenin - Rie Kugimiya (who also was the voice of Shana in Shakugan no Shana, Louise in Zero no Tsukaima, Arisa Bannings in Nanoha, Alphonse Elric in Full Metal Alchemist, Kamyu in Utawarerumono, Rizel Iwaki in Rizelmine)

· Maria - Rie Tanaka (who also was the voice of Suigintou in Rozen Maiden, Lacus Clyne & Meer Campbell in Gundam Seed/Destiny, Chii in Chobits, Ren Mikihara in Full Metal Panic Fumoffu, Kyoko Yachigusa in Rizelmine)

· Hinagiku Katsura - Shizuka Itou (who also was the voice of Wilhelmina Carmel in Shakugan no Shana, Tamaki Kosaka in To Heart 2, Akiha Tohno in Tsukihime, Misa Kakizaki in Negima)

Last updated Saturday, March 28 2009. Created Saturday, January 27 2007.
Unevaluated Forbin [series:1516#1573]
Analysis : 24 episodes watched
  • Drama : Low
  • Comedy : High
  • Action : Med
  • SciFi : Low
  • Ecchi : None
While it's very funny, since I have read the manga, it's more like a retread. The narrator commentary is golden though. Episode 10 marks the original Anime episode. While extremely funny and revealed an important fact about Maria, the bouncing boobs demon was given too much screen time. (And if you see the episode you will understand).

  • Ep12 : Now that was the funniest episode to date. Nishizawa vs Nagi!
  • Ep17 : First Part was good, but 2nd was a waste of time.
  • Ep18 : Loved it, completely filler, but loved it.
Of course we are at the point where the Manga got licensed. Now I am seeing new episodes!
  • 9/11 - 24 - Looks like we are going to end with the Isumi Arc (Which actually happens BEFORE Hayate goes to school). Very good arc, but I hope the anime ends good.
MAISM

Last updated Wednesday, September 12 2007. Created Wednesday, January 10 2007.

Other Sites
NameURL
Official Japanese Series Web Site http://hayatenogotoku.com/
Wikipedia entry for this series (English) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayate_no_Gotoku
ANB's Anime and Manga Blog http://astronerdboy.blogspot.com/search/label/Hayate%20no%20Gotoku
The link to the various episode reviews done for the series by AstroNerdBoy.

Community Anime Reviews

anime mikomi org