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| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
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| Buy | 8 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 7 |
 Ggultra2764
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[series:2066#1552] |
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Considering I had enough fun with Hayate the Combat Butler!, seeing this second season was pretty much inevitable for me. This season was noticeably less manic as the quite often bizarre elements and jabs at the fourth wall from the first season are mellowed down a bit here. While they still pop up occasionally such as Hayate taking part in a real-life RPG and a later encounter Nagi has with an alien, this season is more focused this time around on fleshing out some of its major characters and even introducing some new ones with their bizarre quirks. Of particular note, Nagi and Hinagiku get some major fleshing out in this season which make for some touching moments when they are seen. Otherwise, this season of Hayate the Combat Butler still retains much of the comedic elements found from the first season with Hayate playing "straight man" to the eccentric quirks of a number of the title's major cast members and cluelessly finding himself developing an unwanted harem of girls becoming attracted to him. It looked like this season was left open-ended for a possible third season as things are left unresolved with the ongoing romantic entanglements that Hayate and the other prominent characters deal with, as well as hints alluding to a new character making an appearance that Hayate seems to have past ties with. Getting past the difference in comical delivery delivered by this second season of Hayate, it still made for a fun romp of a romantic comedy retaining the major comedic elements from the first season while also delivering some new developments with some of the show's major characters. If you enjoyed the first season of Hayate, this will be a definite watch.
Last updated Friday, June 08 2012. Created Friday, June 08 2012. | ||||||||
| Buy | 8 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 9 | 9 |
 Dreamer
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[series:2066#2279] |
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I had my reservations when I picked this one up. But then, after the first couple of episodes, I began to thoroughly enjoy it. In fact, I got plenty of laughs out of it and kept me watching to late nights. Art, Animation & Character Designs The artwork and animation was pretty good. The artwork itself was sorta on the cutsie to uber cute side. Animation was smooth. Character designs were good. Most of the characters were lovable, especially Nishizawa.... uber cute! Music The first OP sequence wasn't that great. It was the typical pop style with a cute "squeeky" voice found on many japanese pop pieces. The second OP (starting at episode 18) was actually catchy. It was a more mixture of a electronic with pop. The animated sequence went well with it. As for the rest of the audio track, nothing really noticeable. Series and Episode Story I really liked this series. It had some great moments of gut wrenching laughter and just plain stupid, silly moments. What made this one really memorable was all the lovable characters. Each had their own personalities that really grew on you. Each episode was really enjoyable to watch and kept me smiling most of the way through and the episode stories were far from boring or uneventful. Each had their own contained story, some extending into multiple episodes, but these stories were just plain enjoyable. I mean, they weren't anything "amazing" or "complex", but rather, plain and simply good stories that would keep you smiling to the end. I especially liked the narrator. Hahaha! He had a great voice and at times was silly. I think my fav character is "maria", both uber cute and charming in her own ways. Tama, the house tiger was a riot when he made such stupid stunned faces..... hehehehe! Last updated Wednesday, October 28 2009. Created Wednesday, October 28 2009. | ||||||||
| Buy |
 Forbin
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[series:2066#1573] | ||||||
Analysis All episodes watched.
All I can say is , WOW The Hina arc was INCREDIBLE! JC Staff outdid themselves! Unfortunately they didn't handle the Isumi arc as good and I went away disappointed. What I liked about this:
* Nagi
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 Stretch
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[series:2066#628] | ||||||
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(All episodes watched): This was a continuation of an earlier series which I had watched but been somewhat disappointed by. Consequently I was unenthusiastic about this new version early on, but came to be pleasantly surprised by it since then. I had assumed that for all intents and purposes HnG2 would be identical to and indistinguishable from the original series but some subtle differences in episode one caught my attention. BGM seemed different somehow; it was hard to put my finger on, but it seemed to almost overpower the dialogue itself at times. Or maybe I should say the music seemed to be telling me things like "that was a joke" when it wasn't completely clear (this problem soon disappeared). The cast was reintroduced; although the VAs were clearly the same as ever, something had changed regarding the quality of the lines which they had been given to deliver. I couldn't help feeling that I wasn't getting all that many laughs out of this episode--that is, the good jokes were thinly stretched across the 23 minutes, and this might not be the best investment of my time if I am in the mood for humor. All-in-all, I was uncomfortable with these portents and hoped HnG2 as a whole wouldn't be like this opening episode was. No need to worry--episode two was much better. Hayate is given a second chance to save his job after losing a bet with Klaus, and things get steadily weirder from that point onwards, until the link to common sense is tenuous at best. But it's also seriously funny. I still detected a significant difference from the original series--difficult to put into words--regarding the ways in which jokes are timed, background music influences things, in short, the way countless subtle factors combine to make the show as a whole what it is. It's not necessarily bad, just different. I especially liked episode four, which dealt with Valentine's Day. Episodes of the original HnG tended to be modestly amusing but quickly forgotten by me, yet this one seemed to have a long-term message to it, about the anxiety which girls feel at confessing their love to guys. I tend to root for underdogs, and was glad that things went well for the ordinary girl Nishizawa. And the episode was unusually funny, too--especially when Hayate lamented how empty his love life had been to Maria, who noticed a number of uncomfortable parallels between his story and her own. But seriously, she's only seventeen? She seems more like thirty to me. It seems that this version of HnG employs two-parter or multi-parter episodes and ongoing plot threads to a significantly greater extent than the first one did. I think I like this approach better; the stories seem more memorable and interesting. Whereas I'm usually well aware of how much time remains in the average anime comedy (and often eager to be finished with it), episode six came to an end unexpectedly because it was only the first part of a story and I was deeply entranced by it. Once I was well into HnG2, my impressions crystallized: I definitely like this version better than the first. The original had such a fun, zany premise that I felt I absolutely had to watch it--yet somehow the episodes were often tiresome and I almost reached the point of dreading each one more than looking forward to it. I don't know exactly what has been done, but that is no longer a problem with HnG2. I felt that I could be confident now that each episode would be an amusing and enjoyable watch--because they are. My guess is that there has been better scriptwriting, perhaps being more faithful to the manga. The result is that watching this new version was definitely a pleasure rather than a chore. For all the fun I had, I have a hard time thinking of much more to say about this show. Perhaps that's because it's part of an ongoing manga and still shows no sign of a conclusion after 18 months worth of episodes. But for such a lengthy show to continue, the improved quality of these latest 25 episodes is imperative. If it stays this good, I wouldn't mind if it went on forever. P.S: "Jenny", Nagi's safari guide in episode 21, cracked me up. Catch Katsura Hinagiku's montage at the Kendo Girl Scrapbook page! My favorite line: "Hayate is saying a really lame thing with a really cool look!" --Nagi Last updated Saturday, December 11 2010. Created Tuesday, April 07 2009. | ||||||||
| Unevaluated |
 AstroNerdBoy
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[series:2066#436] | ||||||
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Through 25 episodes...final review coming soon. First, kudos to Crunchyroll for officially bringing this to the U.S. AND giving us fairly otaku-friendly subtitles (all of the core honorifics are used and even "ojousama" but not "waka" nor "bocchan"). Episode 1 picks up an early manga story skipped in the first series with Nagi needing to win a school race. Ep. 2 starts the Butler's Tiger Den story, though the Ayumu sub-story is being skipped. Ep. 3 concludes the Tiger Den story. Ep. 4 is the Valentine's Day story. Ep. 5 is Nagi and Kazuki's "date." Ep. 6 has Hayate temporarily kicked out of Nagi's house and spending the night at Hina's. Ep. 7 as Ayumu discover Hayate is staying at Hina's place. Ep. 8 has Tama dealing with the new kitten Shiranui and Isumi attempting to befriend said kitten.Last updated Saturday, September 26 2009. Created Saturday, April 04 2009. | ||||||||
