ハヤテのごとく！Manga Volume 10
Hayate no Gotoku Manga Volume 10
Hayate the Combat Butler Volume 10

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SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Hayate finally meets with Hina in the clock tower and she’s not happy at having to have been made to wait. With the sword “Masamune,” Hina attacks Hayate while somewhere else, Isumi talks to Father Radiostar (Regiostar, or however the smeg it is supposed to be spelled) about Hayate’s challenge with Hina. In the end, Hina (still upset over her birthday and Hayate’s promise) stops and is given home made cookies by Hayate. They talk and she reveals to him that their life stories are similar in that she and her sister Yukiji were abandoned by their parents and saddled with a ¥80 million debt. Part of Hina’s conflict is that she loves her adoptive mother (whom she lives with currently) and still loves her real mother. Hayate takes her to the balcony to show her the night-time view and despite her fear of hights, she looks and realizes she’s in love with Hayate.

Saki gets an omiai invitation thanks to her parents which she’s not keen on attending. However, when Wataru doesn’t seem concerned that Saki might be meeting a future husband, Saki changes her mind. Her marriage meeting ends up being with Kaoru-sensei. Meanwhile, Wataru suddenly gets worried that Saki might actually marry someone right away so he, Hayate, and Nagi spy on the event. Hayate’s poor lipreading skills give Wataru the wrong impression and he’s going to make sure Saki stays with him.

Nagi’s strange manga manages to interest Hayate and Maria despite themselves. Nagi weaves a tale that ends up incorporating people she knows into the story.

Maria reflects on how much of a natural gigolo Hayate is and encounters Ayumi, who’s being hassled by two large thugs. Maria is able to handle them, but she has the backing of Nagi’s SP just the same. Maria inquires as to the nature of the relationship between Ayumi and Hayate and is surprised that Hayate rejected Ayumi’s confession. That makes Maria wonder if Hayate is interested in girls or not.

Nagi gives Hayate time off to study for the school’s exams and is given a robot butler that looks similar to Hayate. As Hayate and Sakuya study, the robot tries to take over. It fails in the end because no matter what, Nagi would rather have the real Hayate.

Miki, Risa, and Izumi are done with the tests with Risa deciding to answer all questions with the multiple-choice answer of 3. They invite Hayate over to their Movie Study Club and since Nagi shows an interest, Hayate is all for it. However, he’s dismayed to discover some of the movies the club have are of Hayate in embarassing situations with Miki, Risa, and Izumi providing new voices for the movies. To keep Nagi’s interest, Hayate promises to perform a Jackie Chan stunt for filming. However, Hina interupts the filming and Nagi loses interest. Meanwhile, Maria finds old embarrassing movie footage of herself from school.

Yukiji finds herself low on cash again and fails to borrow money from Hina. Yukiji’s bluff to possibly borrow money from loan sharks provokes a violent reaction from Hina, who still has vivid memories of having to sleep in the elements thanks to their parents. Yukiji encounters Hayate, who’s not happy to see his money-starved teacher. They go to a restaurant where she scarfs down the food. Since Hayate has no money and Katsura-sensei has no money, Hayate is determined not to let her flee. Unfortunately, they are joined by Sister Sonia and Himuro, who are doing the “dine-and-dash” routine. When an armed robber comes into the place, Sister Sonya, Himuro, and Katsura-sensei try to get the robber to pay their lunch tab, which is quite high. Himuro and Sister Sonya end up leaving and when Hina begins having second thoughts about lending her sister money, she sees Yukiji holding a gun on a masked man. Hina arrives at the restaurant to attack Yukiji, but to her embarrassment, learns that Yukiji had simply stopped an armed robber.

Finally, Nagi is left alone in her mansion and not only manages to make a giant mess of the place (including having a live cow in the kitchen), but after entering Hayate’s room to retrieve the kitten Shiranui, she discovers a perverted sumo magazine behind Hayate’s chest of drawers (which was actually Tama’s magazine) and learns a valuable lesson on why one shouldn’t snoop.

Thoughts/Review:

This was an incredibly fun volume.

First, I’m curious as to why Isumi calls the wooden sword “Masamune” when the sword itself has the name Fu Rin Kazan written on the blade. Weird.

The serious aspect came from the early chapters in which we learn more about Hina’s past and her realization that she loves Hayate. I really liked that moment when she trusted Hayate enough to overcome her fear of heights and look down at the city at night. It was a really nice moment and Hata-sensei gets kudos for pulling it off so well.

The rest of the manga I found to be pure fun, and often funny fun. I remembered the omiai story from the anime but as it has been some time since I watched that, I was able to get fresh laughs at Hayate’s mistranslation of the lipreading. Nagi’s manga story was also in the anime and while I didn’t life, I did smile a lot over it.

Also pulled for the manga was the mecha butler story. I don’t remember everything happening in the anime as it did in the manga, but that’s OK. I really enjoyed reading the manga version.

The Movie Study Club story also made it to the manga (and strange that after skipping so much, the anime writers suddenly started pulling things down), though I can see how the anime really stretched that story out.

The restaurant hold up story was new to me and very funny with Hayate trying to prevent the others from escaping so he’s not tagged with a huge lunch tab. When the armed robber came in and had to deal with Sister Sonia’s & Himuro’s nuttiness, I laughed out loud, as I did at the story’s ultimate resolution.

The final story I remembered from the anime, though instead of chasing the kitten into Hayate’s room, I want to say that Nagi chased a pencil in there. The magazine Nagi found in the manga was different, but I think funnier in that the magazine and cover were about sweaty sumos. ^_^;;;

Sister Sonia and Kaoru-sensei get the character profiles for this volume and my standard complaint over a lack of translator notes continues. Since this volume marked the announcement of the anime series in Japan, I liked Hata-sensei’s note at the end, where he talks about the value of hard work and never giving up in order to achieve your dreams (first of being a successful manga-ka and then of having your work turned into an anime). Inspiring stuff there.

Oh, before I forget it, I did rather enjoy the little Haruhi joke in this volume where Nagi frets over whether she should have had someone watch the anime in broadcast order or in chronological order (as it was released in Japan on DVD).

So for me, another really enjoyable manga volume. Can’t wait to score the next volume.