Hayate the Combat Butler!! Ep. 03
Hayate no Gotoku “Season 2” Ep. 03
ハヤテのごとく！！Episode 03
Hayate no Gotoku!! 03

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Hayate hears the announcer speak of his party and thinks he’s made a mistake. Katsura-sensei is taken out right away with a treasure trap, leaving only Hayate, Nagi, and Wataru. They encounter a strange spirit creature and run screaming. Sister Fortesia wonders about the excessive screaming and goes to investigate, only to encounter the same creature. Meanwhile, as the trio flees, Nagi trips a poison dart trap which Hayate takes. Father Rean Radiostar shows up and instructs them on where to find the flower that can heal Hayate, so Nagi and Wataru are off to find it. At the same time, Father Radiostar reveals that he is a ghost, having been killed by the same trap.

A giant robot dog attacks Nagi and Wataru but they are saved by Hina, who had joined Isumi to come down to the dungeon to expunge the evil spirits and had been lent “Wooden Sword Masamune” by Isumi. Isumi uses her ofuda to shield Father Radiostar and Hayate from an attack of more spirit creatures and heals Hayate so that he can join Nagi. Isumi asks Hayate to take Father Radiostar with him since his ghost status prevents her from using her major powers. He agrees and they are off in time stop Nagi from calling the whole thing off in order to save his life.

Sister Fortesia arrives for the final challenge, having survived her own encounter with the spirit creatures. Father Radiostar demands to know why she’s calling herself Sister Fortesia when the real one is an older lady. This Sister Fortesia (whom I will now call “Sister Sonia,” though the anime has not revealed that yet) acknowledges this and summons more robot dogs as well as another giant mecha. She wants revenge on Nagi’s family after her father failed to assassinate Nagi as a child on Mykonos and was defeated by the Sanzenin family butler (Hayate, who’d traveled back into the past). However, when Hina unplugs Sister Sonia’s robot, she ends up fighting Sister Sonya.

Katsura-sensei arrives, possessed by evil spirits for the promise of ¥1-million, and puts an end to Sister Sonya and Hina’s fight. She then takes possession of the giant mecha. Hayate, with the aide of Father Radiostar, prepares an ultimate attack to defeat the giant mecha, not realizing that Isumi has just exorcised the evil out of Katsura-sensei. Hayate destroys the mecha but unfortunately destroys the Alex San Marco Church as well. Hayate gets to keep his job as a result with Nagi proud of him. However, the events of the day soon catch up to Hayate and he collapses instead of looking cool.

Thoughts/Review:

Woo!hoo! This episode covered chapters 9, 10, and 11 of volume 6 of the manga. Three episodes into this new series and I can tell you that I am VERY happy with how things are going. This is a much better produced series as it is following the source manga so closely, thus the flow of things works much, much better. Further, in addition to Sister Sonia making it into anime form, we also have Father Radiostar. After I read the manga, I couldn’t understand why he and Sister Sonia were so totally skipped like they were. However, they are here now and that’s good.

I loved how the “Lord British” (the name of the creator of the Ultima RPG franchise in the U.S. starting in the 80’s, who was also an NPC in the games — or at least the ones I played) reference makes it here too. “Amazingly,” the Japanese could actually use the honorific “Lord” rather than change it to something like “British-sama.” Then again, the Japanese don’t have a beef against western honorifics. That’s why “Sister” is used to address the Catholic nuns and “Brother” or “Father” are used for the monks/priest.

Speaking of “Brother,” I laughed out loud when Sister Sonia acknowledged she was not a “Sister” and Hayate asked if she were a “Brother.” The official subtitles use “Brother” in the honorifics, but when I went back to the Viz manga, they decided to word things in such a way so that Hayate doesn’t use the term “Brother” but instead says “male priest.” I guess the Viz translator thought leaving “Brother” would be confusing but the translator for the anime decides otherwise, possibly because we could so easily hear “Brother” being said in the Japanese audio. Regardless, the joke is funnier with “Brother” being used, which is why I laughed out loud.

Also, the animation here is pretty good. I thought about that during the brief fight between Hina and Sister Sonia, where they make several moves as they clash. There were a lot of little moments where the excellence of the animation stood out to me. Since I don’t normally harp on animation, it means I don’t usually pay attention. For me to pay attention means that the animators went above average in their efforts and it shows. So kudos there.

As I said, I’ve very happy with how things are going for this new series. Heck, they can even show blood now (see the first image in this article). I think that next episode will start the Valentine’s Day story which will feature Ayumu. Can’t wait to see that come to life. ^_^