ハヤテのごとく!! OVA/OAV (anime)
Hayate the Combat Butler!! OVA
Hayate no Gotoku!! OVA
Hayate no Gotoku!!: Atsu ga Natsuize – Mizugi-hen!

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Hayate is amazed by the giant pool and beach on the Sanzenin Estate grounds. Nagi is unimpressed with what she has and she’s certainly not interested in taking a swim. So Maria contacts Katsura-sensei (in exchange for all the liquor Katsura-sensei can drink), who then invites Risa, Izumi, Miki, Sakuya, Isumi, Wataru, and Saki over for this pool event. With everyone at the resort area, Wataru is told by Saki not to look at her (or Isumi) in their bikinis, leading to teasing from Sakuya. Izumi gets filmed by Miki and Risa in her bikini for the Movie Research Club and she’s embarrassed by that. However, Nagi claims that none of this interests her, even though the manga magazine she’s supposedly reading is upside-down. Others show up such as Sister Sonia, & Shiori. Hina arrives, after receiving a drunken message from her oneechan, to remove Yukiji from the premise. She finds Ayumu outside practicing asking Hayate to go with her to a water park and the two end up going in.

Meanwhile, Nagi observes Hayate having fun with the others and considers him a traitor. Hayate comes looking for Nagi, searching the various resort cabins. The first cabin is a bust with Kasumi (Aika) and Chiharu changing there. The second cabin has Hina changing and as Hayate attempts to talk his way out of having seen her topless, he accidentally insults her. Fleeing there, its onto the third cabin where he finds Ayumu practicing a conversation with Hayate in front of the mirror. Hayate finally finds Nagi in the next cabin and she’s just about to show her swimsuit off to him when Hina and Ayumu come in, wanting to put the accidents behind them.

Nagi sees this as cheating on Hayate’s part and flees, only to be possessed by the spirit of a girl with a flat chest. Possessed Nagi then starts causing havoc. Klaus and the SP’s arrive (after waiting all this time) but are blown away by Nagi. Hina climbs to the highest diving platform over the pool to use a kendo technique on the spirit, but then sees how high she is. Isumi conveniently is lost at sea and so can’t turn the spirit. That leaves Hayate, who is able to break through the spirits barrier and get to Nagi, freeing her from the possession. The spirit looks for another body to inhabit, only to encounter Isumi who smiles and sends it packing.

Meanwhile, Hayate and Nagi are on a “deserted island” with Hayate promising to protect Nagi forever. Nagi is just about to lay her head on Hayate’s shoulders when Maria and all the other girls show up. You see, this island is still on the Sanzenin Estate grounds, which are located near Tokyo. Hayate is stunned by this.

Some other summer day, the Sanzenin Beach Resort is full of visitors, including Indian girl Sharna (Sharuna) and her friend Fumi-chan. The reason for these guests? Katura-sensei is selling admission for ¥500 a person. Hina catches on to what her sister is doing and puts an end to the operations, forcing Yukiji to give back all the money she’d collected.

Thoughts/Review:

The first thing I immediately noticed about this OVA episode is that the writing team seems to have learned what did and did not work in the TV series. I get the strong feeling that they will try to make Hayate no Gotoku!! a better series. We’ll see if that happens or not.

Regardless, I laughed out loud right at the start when Kagato the announcer stated that they would be ignoring the source manga for this episode. Indeed, the episode serves as a way to (re)introduce the vast numbers of characters in the series and give a taste of their personalities and relationships with Hayate. However, it is clear that the anime is going to rectify one wrong right from the start — the inclusion of Sister Sonia (voiced by HORIE Yui, who plays Minori in Toradora!, causing her to work with fellow Toradora! alum KUGIMIYA Rei, who plays Taiga there and Nagi here). I don’t know why Sister Sonia was excluded from the first series, but considering the joke associated with her introduction in the OVA, I hope this means that the writers will go back and pick up the Butlers Training arc where Sister Sonia was introduced.

Also new to me were the Indian girl Sharna, her friend Fumi-chan, and I don’t remember Chiharu in the first anime series and I’m pretty sure I haven’t seen her in the first ten volumes of the manga. Someone correct me if I’m wrong. If she was there, she’s coming off very differently from what I remember. I did remember (AIKA) Kasumi though. No Father Radiostar (Ragiostar/whatever) was in this episode, but I do hope he is used in the anime since he too is introduced in the Butler Training arc. I also hope to see Ayumu’s family too since they are introduced there as well.

While I’m thinking about it, I’m happy the anime did not have Ayumu stuffing her gourd this episode. That was an ongoing joke in the TV series and while funny some times, when compared to the manga, it makes Ayumu look stupid and weak when in fact she really is a pretty courageous character since she’s the only one to actually confess to Hayate (twice if you count her giving him love chocolate at Valentine’s Day). Her friendship with Hina is implied in the OVA so I hope the roots of that are explored in the anime.

I got a laugh at how the announcer basically laid out the heart of what this episode is really about — fanservice. Seriously, there were just tons of pan shots for otaku to paste together, then digitally remove the clothing from said girls for distribution all over the world. I know the production team knows this and they are going to give the fans what they want. Not all of the pan shots were just for those big images of the girls in swimsuits (as you can see from the wide pan shots I have earlier in this article) but most of them were. In fact, just because I’m that kind of guy, I put together the image at the left of Hina being walked in on by Hayate. ^_^;;;; No, I will not digitally remove her skirt, nor will I be looking for such images on Japanese blogs or image boards.

I liked how this OVA went for 27-minutes (including credit time). Too often these days, OVA’s tend to restrict themselves to whatever time is allotted to a TV series (~24-minutes) and frankly that’s dumb if you are producing an OVA. Yeah, I know — if this goes on TV later, they’ll have to cut three minutes in the case of this episode, but the production team didn’t care. They went ahead and did what they did. Kudos to them for not being slaves to a TV time schedule on a direct-to-DVD release.

As to the story, there wasn’t much to say. I did laugh at the joke about Isumi conveniently being gone when the vengeful spirit possessed Nagi. I admit, I immediately thought, “Where’s Isumi” because that’s what we’ve come to expect in these possession situations (at least in the manga). I loved the little touch the animators put on Isumi, causing her to exorcise the spirit with a smile, as she’s done in the manga. I don’t remember her doing this so much in the anime, but I could be wrong. I liked the cameos of Tama, Shiranui, and Klaus and the jokes associated with each of them.

In the end, I think that this episode inspired me to think that just maybe, the production team has learned some lessons from the first TV series and hopefully won’t make those in the forthcoming new series. Lord willing, I’ll be blogging the 2nd TV series and hopefully will be able to consult that wiki site for references.