SPOILER Summary: On a garbage pile in Japan, lightning strikes and brings the robot Eight back to life.

Nagi remarks on Hayate’s inappropriate costume for what she has planned has Maria fantasizing about him cosplaying as a girl character, but Nagi wants him out of butler’s clothing and into normal, fashionable clothing to come with her to an amusement park. Its her own park, which Hayate thinks is a lot like a certain has-been pop king from the 80’s.

As they go through park, which has had no visitors in three years. The mascots are desperate to do something good and to keep their jobs at all costs. In the end, they convince Hayate to come to the haunted house to give it a test run. One of the mascots reveals himself to be Eight, the robot from earlier in the series and form the beginning of the episode. Hayate doesn’t remember him. The other people at working as mascots at the park prevent Eight from doing anything major, desperate to ensure they keep their jobs.

Later, robot scientist Makimura tests the new robot named Nine. Nine passes all its tests with flying colors, but when Eight arrives, he easily defeats Nine, takes his special chip, and upgrades himself to Eight-Point-One (8.1). Makumura doesn’t remember Eight, which depresses him and he vows to rectify that.

That evening, Hayate is all excited about her day with Hayate as she talks with Maria. He’s pooped and Tama decides to take him out. However, Eight arrives instead and Tama’s the only one who remember’s Eight because he actually watches the anime’s opening credits. Eight remembers his past with Makumura and the pain at losing her because he lost to Hayate. So Eight aims to rectify that. However, he states he needs to beat Nagi as well, which brings out the wrath of Tama as well as a lengthy lecture. Before he can finish off Eight, Hayate protects the robot, reminding Tama how lucky they are that Nagi rescued them. Eight repays Hayate’s kindness by attacking him, which Nagi and Maria learn about upstairs in bed. However, Nagi isn’t concerned, believing what Hayate defeated before, he’ll defeat again.

Eight won’t go down easy though, but when Makumura arrives and says she remembers him, he’s happy…until she summons the proper trash disposal people to comply with Japanese law regarding the disposal of electronic items. Hayate still feels bad for Eight, so Tama emulates Nagi’s voice and causes Eight to be spared from the scrape heap. Eight asks Makumura out and she agrees.

Thoughts: Another fun episode with some funny moments and lots of references/parodies. I loved Tama’s remarks on how unlike Hayate, he watches the opening credit sequence every episode because that’s the only place he’s sure to show up in. *lol* Nagi’s remarks about the ratings was also funny. The anime is just a hoot to watch.

Poor Nishizawa-san — only getting a cameo again.

References: As always, I try to find them all and sadly fail. As always, helps is always welcome in catching the references. That’s what took so long getting this review up — researching as many of the references as I could.

1. As Eight revives in the trash pile, a Diclonius face from the anime Elfen Lied is seen.
2. Maria-san fantasizes about Hayate in drag cosplay as Cure Dream from Yes! Precure 5. The narrator even uses the henshin (transformation) sequence phrase from the show.
3. Nagi’s private amusement park makes Hayate ask if this is Michael Jackson’s house (that was the one reference, even though bleeped out, that I’m sure we all got).
4. One of the signs in Nagi Nagi Land proclaiming the need to be 140cm tall has a female character on it that looks a lot like KOIWAI Yotsuba from the series Yotsuba&! (only with three pigtails instead of four and with different colored hair).
5. The pink chicken mascot at Nagi Nagi Land appears to be Ganmo from the 80’s anime series Gu-Gu Ganmo.
6. The ultimate move Hayate was about to be shown using in the haunted house was “Rozan Sho Ryu Ha,” used by Dragon Shiryu of Saint Seiya.
7. Nine (the dog robot) is raised from underground like an EVA mecha unit from Neon Genesis Evangelion. The howl Nine makes at the end of the test trials is much like the roar let out by the EVA-01 mecha unit as it went out of control.
8. The hammer weapon Nine wielded (Kaigo Rudion) sounds and looks a lot like Kai Goldion, the hammer used by the mecha unit GaoGaiGar in the anime/manga series GaoGaiGar.
9. During Eight’s memory of robot scientist Makimura, he fantasizes her dressed as Poala from Beet the Vandel Buster anime/manga.
10. I’ve been told that when Hayate says that he’s burned out and looks like white ash, the phrase he uses in similar to the one used by Joe in the boxing series Ashita no Joe.
11. Nagi asks Hayate if he used the Kamehameha attack used by Muten Roshi in Dragonball and Dragonball Z. Update: I’m told this is Son Goku’s main attack in the series (having learned it from Muten Roshi).