Hayate the Combat Butler “2nd Season” Ep. 18
ハヤテのごとく！！Episode 18
Hayate no Gotoku!! – 18

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Hina gives Miki some cookies on White Day in response to Miki’s having given Hina chocolates on Valentine’s day. Miki is embarrassed by this but seems happy by it. Other girls see this and want cookies too, so Hina tells them to line up. After school, Hina wanders through the shopping district and sees a basket of White Day cookies and thinks that it would be nice to receive such a gift, but since she gave no chocolates on Valentine’s Day, she can expect no White Day present.

Meanwhile, Hayate wants to get Ayumu a White Day present even though she said she didn’t need anything. He too is in the shopping district when he meets Hina. He tells her he’s looking to get Ayumu a White Day present and somewhat reluctantly, Hina suggests the cookie basket which Hayate buys. Hina tells Hayate not to tell Ayumu that she had a part in picking the gift, which Hayate doesn’t understand.

Hayate is walking home through a park and pondering how to give the cookies to Ayumu when Ayumu happens to spot him. She wonders what he’s carrying and wants to speak to him while at the same time, Hayate decides he wants to practice giving the cookies to Ayumu. He does so and ends up accidentally giving them to Maria, who happened to just show up. Maria is happy and after she leaves, Hayate and Ayumu meet. Hayate decides that even though he has no money, he still needs to do something for her and they agree to meet again at 6pm.

Hayate again runs into Hina, who’s out running. He ends up confessing what happened and his lack of money situation, which Hina realizes is due to Hayate having purchased a great many gifts for others lately. As such, she takes him to a cafe where she knows the Master there. He agrees to allow Hayate to use his kitchen to make cookies after teasing Hina about about Hayate being her boyfriend. Unfortunately, the cafe gets unexpectedly busy and Hayate is forced to help Master out in making food.

As time is winding down, Ayumu waits for Hayate at the park while at the mansion, Nagi and Maria consume Hayate’s cookie gift. Nagi suddenly feels that Hayate is in trouble again, so Maria goes out. Meeting up with Hina, the two go to the cafe and see the situation. Maria tells Hayate that he should have explained that the cookie basket was for someone else but to thank Hayate, Maria is going to help in the cafe kitchen. Hina is going to do so as well so that Hayate can make cookies for Ayumu.

Just before 6pm, Hayate makes it to the meeting spot and gives his cookies to a happy Ayumu. After they part company, he finds Hina and gives her cookies too. This is an unexpected gift since Hina hadn’t given Hayate anything but she’s happy and tells Hayate that she’ll give him chocolates next year, but only the obligation kind and not the love kind.

Thoughts/Review:

I was only able to glance through volume 12 of the manga, but as expected, this story is from the manga.

As to the story, I have to say that I liked it a lot. Naturally, Hayate would have terrible luck when it came to giving Ayumu the cookies but in the end, I really liked that he was able to meet her on time and finally giver her the White Day present. It was a sweet moment for sure and I could see Ayumu and Hayate actually being a couple at some point.

The moment with Hina receiving cookies from Hayate wasn’t as sweet to me, but it was still nice. Hina is a pretty strong girl so she’d survive not being chosen by Hayate.

Speaking of White Day and cookies, I laughed at Hina’s “revenge” on Miki by giving her cookies after Miki gave Hina chocolate on Valentine’s Day. *lol* I like Miki a lot as a character and because she really has her act together (despite taking extra class for school work), it is fun seeing her caught flat-footed as she was when Hina gave her the cookies.

I wonder if this Master who ran the little cafe is a new recurring character or just a one-shot for this story. It isn’t that he played some big part or anything, but I could see him playing a role in advising Hina regarding Hayate.

The new OP/ED theme songs are pretty nice. They haven’t grown on me to the point that I want to buy a CD from Japan but they have potential.

So another fun episode in the series. I look forward to reading volume 12 of the manga just to see how things compare.