Hayate the Combat Butler Episode 35
ハヤテのごとく！Ep. 35

SPOILER Summary: Nagi addresses Hayate as “Senpai” and is dressed in a traditional sailor seifuku for school. Hayate freaks, but Maria-san lets her know that Nagi is working on her manga and is trying out a scenario for an amazing school love story. However, she’s having great difficulty so she kicks Hayate out of the mansion to do some research for her by having him investigate teen dating places and to take pictures to boot. He’s never dated so is a bit at a loss but is soon joined by Maria-san in civilian clothing acting like she wants to go on a date with Hayate. However, he realizes that she means accompany him on his hunt for references.

Their first stop is Harujuku where there are so many couples to be found, including Nabeshin and his wife. Maria-san sees clothing in the window of a store and gets excited, so she and Hayate enter the store. Hayate tells her to try on clothing and she does. The sales clerk gets Hayate into the act and gets all excited about dressing them as a couple. In the end, Maria-san buys both herself and Hayate new outfits. Meanwhile, the Student Council Trio (SCT) and Katsura-sensei are also in Harujuku and not happy with the trip thus far. However, when they see Hayate and Maria walking down the street, they decide that they’ll support their date. As Hayate and Maria move through the street, the SCT and Katsura-sensei don afro wigs. Katsura-sensei states she’s a photographer and the SCT are the assistants. Katsura-sensei grabs Hayate’s camera and begins snapping photos, so Hayate decides to flee with Maria in tow.

Back at the mansion, Nagi is still having trouble with her manga. Since she’s dismissed even Klaus, she decides to wander around a bit. She comes on Hayate’s room, where the door is opened. She is tempted to enter, but decides not to until she drops her pen, which naturally rolls right into his room. Now having a justification to enter Hayate’s room, she does so and gets dreamy-excited when she sees his desk where he studies. She sits there a moment before moving on to his bed, where she proceeds to lay down and even hug his pillow for a bit. Finally, she decides to get it together, get her pen, and get out. She gets her pen but notices a magazine under the bed. Immediately suspecting Hayate has a porn stash of naked women, she pulls the magazine out to discover the cover has a mostly nude man on it with the magazine’s name being “Suteki na Aniki” (~”Dreamy Older Brother”). She is shocked and refuses to accept this while Tama is at the door, shocked that Nagi found his secret stash.

Hayate and Maria-san arrive at Asakusa where they get caught up in the moment and get embarrassed. SCT and Katsura-sensei arrive in a new disguise with a rickshaw and offer to give the couple a ride. They take them around to a lot of unique romantic places including a certain anime studio that makes Hayate no Gotoku. Katsura-sensei grabs his camera and they shed the rickshaw and are back in the afro wigs trying to take pictures. Hayate and Maria flee again to a tour boat to take a river ride. However, with the SCT pedaling a swan boat, they along with Katsura-sensei manage to catch up to the tour boat and board it. They find Maria-san on the bow acting as if she’s going to jump, saying that she has another she loves. Hayate acts as if he’s heartbroken, so the SCT and Katsura-sensei decide to leave the broken couple and forget the entire event, even leaving the camera behind.

Having lost the fake photographers, Maria gets Hayate to agree to ride the Ferris Wheel with her. As they ride, she tells him that she hopes that he’ll be able to take such a ride in the future with the one he loves. He doesn’t know how to answer that, but when she suggests that they return with Nagi for a 3-way date, he agrees. They arrive back at the mansion with the digital camera. Nagi is furious because while they were out having fun, she was struggling to work on her manga.

Thoughts: More Nabeshin and Detective Conan references here as well as a Titanic one. I didn’t bother trying to ID any of the other references. Pretty fun for the most part with Tama’s secret stash in Hayate’s room being the funniest moment. Actually, I giggle just remembering it. I was glad to see that the Combat Butler stuff was forgotten for this episode.