Hayate the Combat Butler “2nd Season” Ep. 12
ハヤテのごとく！！Episode 12

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Izumi arrives just in time to see Kotetsu confess to Hayate. She’s excited by this as she didn’t know Hayate’s bread was buttered on that side. Kotetsu is confused, so Izumi explains that Hayate is a boy and provides his student ID as proof. She explains to Hayate that Kotetsu is her butler. Realizing the truth, Kotetsu is angry at having been betrayed. Hayate flees out a nearby window with Kotetsu in pursuit.

Down on the school grounds where the festival is in full swing, Nagi, Maria, and the SP’s come upon Hina. Nagi gives Hina the watch birthday present, which makes Hina happy. Nagi reveals that there is some sort of planned party for Hina’s birthday which Hina was unaware of. As Nagi and company take off, Kotetsu kidnaps Nagi right from under the SP’s nose as he wants Hayate. Maria has some stern words with the bodyguards before calling Nagi’s cell phone. Nagi says she’s not in danger but the guy she’s with is dangerous. As such, Nagi doesn’t want Hayate sent over. Maria contacts Hayate just the same, who takes off through the festival grounds despite now being in a new maid costume with a bell and bunny ears.

Hina arrives where the party is being thrown for her. To her dismay, Risa, Miki, and Izumi have set her up to sing “Cruel Angel’s Thesis” on the main stage. This Hina does as Hayate races through the festival grounds. Once Hina is through singing, she turns the tables on the trio by announcing that they will be singing the theme from The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. Hina’s mother is pleased with this wonderful party and inquires where Hayate is. Hina remembers the letter Isumi delivered and tells her mother to go home without her as she has something to do. With that, Hina makes her way to the clock tower.

Meanwhile, Nagi abuses Kotetsu verbally for being a terrible butler. When she learns that Kotetsu stopped being interested in Hayate because Kotetsu found out that Hayate is a man, she abuses him for being shallow and states that this is why he’s unpopular with women. Kotetsu realizes this is true so when Hayate arrives, he quietly hands over Nagi but then attempts to make a new love confession. This results in Nagi beating Kotetsu as Nagi is her’s 100%. Nagi tells Hayate that they are going home until Hayate reminds Nagi about his cursed condition. Nagi goes off on the Hina doll (Zepette) so fiercely that it dispels in order to flee.

That night, Hayate remembers his appointment with Hina and rushes back to the school. In the clock tower, he finds Hina in the student council room asleep on a couch. She wakes up to see him there.

Thoughts/Review:

What a great episode! This episode ended up surpassing the manga for one reason — “Cruel Angel’s Thesis,” the OP theme from Neon Genesis Evangelion. While the manga indicated that this was the song that Hina sang on stage, the actual lyrics apparently could not be recreated for the manga and so were modified somewhat. As such, I wondered if we would see Hina sing this song or some parody of it. When she actually began singing the lyrics and the music began playing, I got a thrill that I didn’t expect and a desire to watch Neon Genesis Evangelion again. Further, I was reminded of what a good song “Cruel Angel’s Thesis” is.

On YouTube, the user “serffix” created a clip of Hina singing the song that runs parallel the the OP sequence from Neon Genesis Evangelion.

UPDATE: Shogakukan says, “this LQ comparison clip is stealing the food out of our children’s mouths and therefor must be removed. Die you pig-scum gaijin pirates!”

I’m really glad that the anime production team managed to get the rights to the song to have it sung. It really works well and is a great moment.

I’ve not watched The Girl Who Leapt Through Time but since that was the song that Risa, Izumi, and Miki had to sing, maybe I’ll check that out at some point. So much anime, so little time.

The stuff between Kotetsu and Hayate was a funny here as it was in the manga complete with Izumi’s excited arrival at the moment of confession. I just love how the anime writers are sticking to the manga and bringing all of those great moments to life in the anime (well, almost all). ^_^

Nagi at her funniest when she’s kidnapped and abusive to her captors. I just love how despite the danger, she still looks down her nose and is dismissive and insulting to those who kidnap her. Further, the scene where Nagi’s rage against the cursed Hina doll basically exorcises it is downright funny to me here as it was in the manga.

One thing that slightly suffered was Sakuya and Wataru going around the festival and Wataru’s guilt over Sakuya not being able to attend this school since she gave up her slot so Wataru could attend. In the manga, this story arc had been preceded by Wataru and Hayate needing to be tutored as both aren’t doing well in school. So in the manga when Wataru feels guilty, there’s a bit more impact because this comes so soon after his squeaking through his tests.

The episode ended great, exactly as volume 9 of the manga did. I really hoped that’s how things would end and I’m glad the writers and the good sense to see how this was the right choice based on volume 9. ^_^

So a really good episode here with lots of laughs and fun. ^_^

Note: To correct some image display problems due to the new size of the blog, I’ve had to remove some images from their original position within the post and place them below.

Update #2 (12-JAN-2014): And I had to fix images again for Blog 3.0 on WordPress, but this time, the job was MUCH easier. ^_^