Hayate the Combat Butler Episode 36
ハヤテのごとく！Ep. 36

SPOILER Summary: Klaus has a dream of being retired on a plantation in Brazil. He debates with Tama about if Hayate can handle things or not but then awakens to find Tama asleep on top of him…or so he believes since Tama isn’t asleep. Klaus does his morning routine which involves ironing the newspaper for Nagi and attending her. When he mentions his dream of retiring to her, she tells him he can retire. When he tries to say it is just a dream, she tells him that Freud stated that dreams are our hidden desires. He’s depressed by this and when Maria and Hayate come to see him, Hayate cannot reach him because of an AT Field he’s erected around himself.

They tell Nagi that Klaus is depressed and taking her retirement statements for real. Of course that’s not what Nagi meant but as usual, this flusters her a bit. Maria goes to see Klaus about this and he decides that he will challenge Hayate to see who can be the best butler over a 24-hour period. If Hayate wins, Klaus will leave. This isn’t what Tama expected. So as the challenge starts, Klaus tries to show he’s on top of things with a tray of tea and crumpets but Hayate is already one up on him with tea made with tea bags that are used in the English Royal Palace. When Hayate offers her a choice of lemon or milk for her tea, Klaus thinks he has an advantage since they use milk in Great Britain and not lemon, but Nagi goes for the lemon.

Nagi and Hayate walk to school and pass a KFC where Klaus is outside disguised as Colonel Sanders (and from whence Nishizawa emerges with a bucket of chicken). Klaus follows them to school unbeknownst to Nagi and Hayate. When Katsura-sensei throws some chalk at them to get them to shut up, Hayate moves to protect Nagi, but Klaus (with some sort of fanged mask on) tosses a highly polished silver fork that intercepts the chalk. Katsura-sensei recognizes him as a Sanzenin butler, and since the word butler is derived from the French word for one who is in charge of the wines and other spirits, she attacks and chases him, wanting some adult beverages.

The Student Council Trio (SCT) are cutting class at a gazebo in the middle of a pond on the campus grounds and wishing they had a butler. They see Katsura-sensei launch some kind of attack (Sunlight **** Overdrive — an anti-vampire attack I’d guess based on the fanged mask he wore) which ends up only hitting a log with the mask on it as now Klaus is in ninja gear and clinging to a tree. However, his back gives out and he falls to the ground. He ends up serving SCT tea and cake inside some large office, which they thank him for as it is very good. Katsura-sensei arrives very annoyed, demanding to be given some as well as well as some vintage wine. However, when Hina arrives to get on to her sister for abusing the elderly, Klaus is off again.

Hayate and Nagi are searching for Klaus and spot him. Before they can reach him, he comes upon Himuro, being showered with flower petals by his supposed young master Taiga. Himuro has some remarks about Klaus’s age, but Klaus has a counter about Himuro’s being in the spotlight rather than in his master’s shadow. In the end, Himuro takes Klaus’s necktie, but that doesn’t concern Klaus as he says that being in the shadows means that when his master no longer needs him, he will simply disappear. Hayate wonders if Klaus will now really retire because of what just happened.

Back at the mansion as Klaus broods on a bench overlooking the mansion, Maria has a plan to bring Klaus around, and it involves Hayate cross dressing. This time, Maria has him dressed as Belldandy and he tells Klaus his name is Hermione, a goddess living in the Sanzenin Lake. He tries to convince Klaus that he’s still needed and then proceeds to give the infatuated butler a massage. Tama happens on the scene and seeing Hayate as Belldandy, he decides to get him some of that. As a result, Klaus thinks he was hallucinating. Hayate knocks Tama out and discovers a paper with a female tiger on a Brazilian plantation. Realizing Tama is behind everything, Hayate gives Tama another beating and tells him there are no tigers that live in Brazil.

That night, Klaus has his things packed and he goes to depart. He remembers his time with Nagi-ojousama as she grew up. Hayate arrives and as Klaus tells him there’s nothing Klaus can’t do that Hayate can, Nagi arrives to complain to Hayate about her paper being damp and un-ironed. As such, she rules Klaus the winner. The following day, Klaus is back to work as normal and an embarrassed Nagi tries to blow off what she did to keep Klaus on the staff.

Thoughts: Well, there were a lot of references I got this episode. There were the Neon Genesis Evangelion references with Klaus creating the AT Field as well as the two times the Longinus Spear were in his back. Oh, and I guess Klaus constantly saying, “I mustn’t run away” was what Shinji used to say, right? Optimus Prime from Transformers was one of the statues, though partially blocked from view. Then Hayate gets dressed up as Belldandy from Ah! My Goddess, but names himself as Hermione from Harry Potter fame. And lest I forget, the good old KFC reference with Nishizawa’s weekly cameo and Klaus dressed up as Colonel Sanders (most KFC’s in Japan have a plastic statue to the colonel outside their doors). There were other references of course, none of which I could easily identify.

As to the episode itself, it was another fun one. That whole thing of trying to have some sort of story arc with the combat butler stuff never really worked for me. For me, Hayate no Gotoku is about characters and the situations that they get themselves into, with a liberal dosage of parody references. The last couple of episodes have been more along this line.

I did like how the writers took aim at Himuro’s relationship with his supposed master Taiga. Himuro has always seemed like the one in charge, not the butler and that little jab-joke went over well with me.