Hayate the Combat Butler 22

SPOILER Summary: Hayate trains for his ultimate attack, leaving Nagi bored and a tad lonely, though she’d never admit it. She’s also annoyed that Hina-chan was one of the reasons that Hayate wanted to learn an ultimate attack. She decides to amuse herself by reading some manga as Hayate returns and learns the situation from Maria-san. Nagi finds a fishing manga and decides a trip to Lake Sanzenin on the estate is in order.

Hayate, Nagi, and Maria-san head to the lake where Maria-san is completely into this with outfit and all. She and Hayate have no trouble catching any fish but Nagi continues to lose her rod and reel in the lake. She decides to take Hayate out on the boat and gets all flushed as Hayate holds her. He’s doing it to make sure she doesn’t fall into the water, but she thinks romantic thoughts. When she gets a bite from the “king of the lake” fish, they end up getting tossed out anyway. Arriving on shore, they find Maria-san enjoying a canned coffee, having landed the monster fish.

Nagi goes to a tub where Maria-san washes her hair while Hayate heads for the indoor onsen. Maria-san learns of yet another misunderstanding from Nagi regarding Hayate while Hayate reflects on the joys of the bath. When someone enters, he wonders if it might be Maria-san. However, it is only Tama. Tama decides the bath isn’t hot enough, but when he tries to press the button to activate the heat, he breaks it instead. This brings Maria-san running, who gets a good look at Hayate’s manhood, leading to great embarrassment on his part.

Hayate is depressed and when Nagi sees this, she thinks it is because of how cold she was to him during the day. She goes off to do something to cheer him up while Tama joins up with Hayate and they decide to repair the bath. However, Tama again breaks things as he only has paws instead of fingers and with Maria-san caught up in the explosion of water, Hayate has to rescue her. After crashing through a wall and onto the yard of the mansion, Maria ends up comforting the depressed butler as Nagi approaches. The two accidentally trip with Hayate landing on top of Maria-san. This makes Nagi very jealous, as she turns a firework she’d purchased into a bazooka and fires it at Hayate.

Thoughts: Another fun, funny episode. I enjoyed the fishing story, but it was the 2nd-half dealing with baths, boiler, Tama and Hayate that was the funniest to me.

References: As always, let me know what I missed.

1. The shirt Hayate wears as the episode starts says “Namidabashi.” I’m looking for some more information here. Considering this was a fishing episode, there is a Namidabashi who appeared in a Pocket Monster Battle Frontier in the episode “The Lake of Hakuryuu!”, which was also a fishing episode. Whether the two are linked, I can’t say.
2. This is pretty obvious, but the bleeped names Hayate mentions when she watches Hayate train are Rocky and Adrian from Rocky! The reference to him being a 60-year old boxer no doubt is a reference to Sylvester Stalone’s being nearly 60 when Rocky Balboa was filmed.
3. When Klaus arrives, the bleeped reference he makes after Hayate mentions being bored is the SOS-dan (SOS Brigade), which is the group Haruhi formed after being bored in the anime (and light novel) Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu. Later in the episode, Maria-san uses the phrase “Kinsoku jiko desu” (“It’s classified.”), which is the catch-phrase of ASAHINA Mikuru from that same series. She also uses Mikuru’s pose as well.
4. Very obvious, but I’ll mention it just the same. When Hayate goes to the manga bookcase, it is naturally filled with the first 12 tankoubon volumes of Hayate no Gotoku.
5. The next manga Nagi sees on her shelf is titled Tsuridaisuki Sanpei (Fishing Lover Sanpei), which is a play on the real manga/anime title Tsurikichi Sanpei (Fisherman Sanpei). Indeed, Sanpei is shown on the cover of the manga Nagi read, only with a couple of modifications to his wardrobe.
6. When Nagi gets stabbed by the spear, it is actually a “Beam Javelin” used by the RX-78-2 Gundam mecha unit from Mobile Suit Gundam. (thanks to the anonymous person who told me this)
7. The “Gerogi Nax” beverage Maria-san drinks after landing the king fish of the lake is a play on Georgia Max Coffee, which is made by Coca-Cola in Japan.
8. In the eye-catch, Maria-san appears to have caught Nemo from Disney’s Finding Nemo.
9. In the bath (indoor onsen), Hayate mentions Lilim, which is a reference to the daughters of Lilith from Neon Genesis Evangelion. To further the point, Hayate is humming “Ode to Joy” (Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, final movement) which is the tune the angel NAGISA Kaworu was humming when Shinji found him in the anime, and in a similar pose. To complete the EVA references, Tama and Hayate bathe together with Tama saying similar things as Kaworu AND touching Hayate’s hand in a similar way as Kaworu did to Shinji (thanks to Anon, who reminded me of the bath scene in the comments below). The scene ends with a look at the bath stools, which have a logo very much like the NERV logo.
10. One of the statues in the yard looks a lot like a super-deformed Nabeshin (WATANABE Shinichi), who directed titles such as Excel Saga, Poni Poni Poemi, and Tenchi Muyo! GXP.
11. When Hayate and Tama enter the boiler room, “Akira” is the bleeped name when Hayate asks about the boilers main power. That’s from the manga/anime Akira.