ハヤテのごとく！Manga Volume 11
Hayate no Gotoku Manga Volume 11

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SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Hayate, Nagi, Tama, Klaus, Maria, and Ayumu where they have to find Santa Conan (from Detective Conan) in a strange dream world. Ayumu decides to take a chance in the dream to have a heart-to-heart with Hayate.

Isumi takes care of some youkai with Sakuya but finds her powers have now died. When Hayate is sent over to Isumi’s house on an errand, he finds that Isumi is the most level-headed member of her family when compared to her mother and grandmother. Hayate discovers that the cure for Isumi is very specific, so specific that only Hayate could qualify. As Hayate walks back home, he finds a box of kittens, a puppy, and a baby monkey. It is bait for an attack by a girl in a large mask, but she misses and moves on. A little later, Hayate meets Maria and again the girl attacks but misses, so she decides to cop feels on Maria.

Back at Isumi’s house, she and her mother note that Great Grandmother Ginka is missing, which may mean she’s out to get Hayate.

Back with Hayate, the girl continues to attack Hayate, so he kicks her in the face, removing her mask. He’s surprised it is a girl and justifies his actions as defense against someone trying to kill him. She’s angry and starts to go all out but then stops and Hayate witnesses the girl turn into a little old lady who wants Hayate’s blood. Isumi arrives to retrieve her great grandmother and understanding the situation, Hayate gives up some of his blood to help Ginka.

At Shimoda on the Izu Peninsula, a meteor has fallen and now the onsen there is reported have a whole host of therapeutic effects to entice young girls. As such, Nagi is going on a trip on the Super View Odoriko-Go luxury train, having been advised to do so by Izumi’s butler Kotetsu. She’s not the only one going on a trip to Shimoda as Ayumu decides to bike the 100KM distance in one day. She soon discovers that the distance may have been more than she was prepared for.

On the train, Nagi somehow gets off to sample one of the ekiben‘s at the station and gets left and lost. Hayate doesn’t know what to do since he doesn’t want to leave Maria until he finds her on the train and gets her to sit with Maria while he bails out to look for Nagi. Meanwhile Nagi finds a ramen store that only sells shio ramen. The large cook is scary and Nagi has no money but she eats anyway and has a cry, which scores her a free meal. Ayumu happens upon the place, so Nagi attempts to bail. However, Ayumu soon learns what happened and gives Nagi a lift on her bicycle. She also lends Nagi her cell phone so that Nagi can call Maria.

A car full of assassins drives up looking for Nagi, so Ayumu panics and Nagi drops the cell phone. As they attempt to elude the assassins, Hayate finds the cell phone but Great Grandmother Ginka is back to get his blood for Isumi. He promises to help Isumi after he saves Nagi. Hearing this, Ginka assists him and even takes out the assassins herself. Because of Ayumu’s efforts, Nagi requests Ayumu address her as “Nagi” though Nagi still calls Ayumu “Hamster.” They reach the Atami Station safely but since Ayumu doesn’t want to part with her special bike, she turns down an offer to get on the train. Nagi orders Hayate to “drive” Ayumu to Shimoda and Hina backs Nagi up on this, so Hayate does as they wish and Ayumu gets a dream come true.

Since Hayate can pedal as fast as a train or car, they are making rapid progress. However, a snooty couple in a convertible insult the two of them, so Ayumu and Hayate quietly are in agreement and smoke the convertible on speed. Hayate remembers the Detective Conan dream and asks what Ayumu wants for a White Day gift. Considering everything, Ayumu says she already has everything she wants as she feels the breeze in her face on the bike with the boy she loves.

At Shimoda, Hina and her family are off and Ayumu goes to her aunt’s house while at one of the resorts, Isumi and her mother soak. Maria and Hayate take off for an onsen dip on their own and return for a massage chair session when a frustrated Kotetsu arrives complaining about a lack of an onsen scene in the manga. He wants to hook up with Hayate in the worst way and so Maria decides to challenge them both to a ping pong match. Hayate and Kotetsu are first but Hayate loses when Maria distracts him. Maria takes on Kotetsu and she hasn’t forgotten that he kidnapped Nagi. Having defeated him, Maria wants them both to wear a maid uniform.

The following day, Nagi wakes up after dreaming about her mother. She meets up with Sakuya and they head to the actual site where the meteor reportedly struck, paying the ¥4000 a person entry fee. The onsen makes Nagi start to hallucinate but when Hayate rescues her, she’s not too happy about being seen naked again.

Thoughts/Review: I wanted to try to limit my summary, but frankly this manga was so compelling, funny, and good that I couldn’t stop myself. ^_^; Add to this the richness of the adaptation from Viz and it is pure win. The one thing that would make this better would have been translator notes, but Viz doesn’t seem interested in that.

I laughed at the Detective Conan “dream” chapter, not because I’m a fan of either the manga or anime, but because I know how extremely popular the franchise is in Japan. Indeed, parody tributes to Detective Conan were scattered throughout the first Hayate the Combat Butler anime series (though I don’t think there’ve been any in the 2nd series). Plus, Ayumu got a chance to get close to Hayate in that chapter which was nice.

The Ayumu love continued with her “rescue” of Nagi and their subsequent attempt to flee from assassins. Not only was that funny, but again Nagi and Ayumu gain a greater understanding of each other and I like that. Then when Nagi and Hina both insisted that Hayate pedal Ayumu to Shimoda, for Nagi it was a means of thanking Ayumu for her efforts in saving Nagi’s life. So again, we gain a humorous ordeal with Hayate and Ayumu, but also a bit more movement on Ayumu’s romantic feelings for Hayate and that is nice.

Hina’s talk with Maria wasn’t long, but there too we have some movement on Hina’s feelings for Hayate. Her joining Nagi in insisting Hayate go with Ayumu might seem like her ultimate choice on what to do and maybe it is. However, I figure that Hata-sensei can still keep Hina with feelings for Hayate.

The really unexpected moment was Nagi’s dream about her mother. To date, nothing really has been said about Nagi’s parents and I get the feeling that we may get more about Nagi’s mother in the next volume. I hope so.

Next is Isumi’s family. *lol* I never expected Isumi to look so normal and in control as she does around her sweet mother and grandmother. Of course, the real gem in that family is Great Grandmother Ginka, who’s determined to get Hayate’s blood to restore Isumi’s powers. Having some spry old lady who can kick bottom isn’t a new concept — Cologne from Ranma 1/2 springs to mind. However, while Cologne mostly annoyed me (except when she fought Happosai), Ginka grabbed me from the start. Why? Well, she wears that big mask and often looks like a young girl before “running out of gas” and looking like an old woman. Since I don’t know too much about her, its hard to say more, but there’s just something about the way she came in that not only didn’t annoy me, but made her a compelling character. I hope we see more of her in future.

Basically, Hata-sensei continues to make this manga funny, interesting, and compelling and for me, manages to hit all the right buttons to really enjoy rereading this manga over and over again. I think that this manga has moved into 2nd place behind Negima! in my favorite manga list.

A quick word on Viz — still good work on their part with the Japanese perspective to the translation/adaptation. I still say this series should get translator notes, but I don’t think Viz is ever going to do that. At least they aren’t going cheap on the printing like TokyoPop either. ^_^;

So if you are already a fan of the manga, this won’t put you off the series. If you haven’t given the manga a whirl yet, I really do encourage you to take a chance. There are good characters, fun stories, and wacky comedy moments. Its just really a good bit of light entertainment that I tend to enjoy just before going to sleep.