Hayate the Combat Butler “2nd Season” Ep. 21
ハヤテのごとく！！Episode 21
Hayate no Gotoku!! – 21

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Following a news report about a giant snake being on the loose, Maria and Nagi ponder folks keeping large, dangerous animals. However when Hayate points out that they already have a large, dangerous animal (Tama), the two of them don’t get the implication. Tama is not happy with Hayate’s remarks and corners him in the storeroom to issue a threat. Upon leaving, Tama sees Shiranui and remembers he still owes the cat some punishment. Tama gives chase to Shiranui until the kitten flees into the back of a delivery truck. However before Tama can do anything, the doors of the truck are shut and Tama eventually finds himself alone on a dock.

Meanwhile, Hayate asks Nagi what prompted her to keep Tama. Nagi tells a story of how she went abroad after the death of her mother and on a trip with a woman named “Jenny.” While in Africa, they came upon a white tiger cub but because tigers don’t live in Africa, Jenny says it can’t be a tiger. However, this “kitten” is in trouble with all of the youkai, monsters, and vicious animals who are all there. Since Jenny’s rifle is naught but a fancy cigarette lighter, Jenny and Nagi flee. Isumi secretly saves them with an ofuda and since she agrees that this white cat could not possibly be a tiger, Nagi decides to save the abandoned tiger and become its mother.

Back at the dock, Tama is trying to figure out what to do when he hears on the radio that the giant snake had been killed and should a tiger be discovered, it would be killed on sight. Tama flees to where a large stash of empty metal barrels are until a wrecking crane begins crushing them. He flees under a bridge to hide until Shiranui emerges and Tama decides to try to get them both home. While this is going on, Father Radiostar, while watching his Isumi maid-san DVD, informs Hayate about what happened with Tama.

Tama soon discovers that getting home won’t be so easy. Shiranui spots Izumi and Miki and runs to them. The kitten ends up getting inside Izumi’s shirt (to Miki’s amusement) and without Izumi realizing it, Shiranui steals her cell phone. Tama uses the phone’s GPS to locate their location but he still has no address to get directions to. He makes a post on 2CH and receives typical feedback, including flame posts. One helpful poster notes that he has a cell phone and so can make a call. Tama remembers that Izumi is a friend of Nagi and sure enough, finds Nagi’s number. So he thanks the poster on 2CH and goes his way.

Tama gets a barrel to disguise the fact that he’s a tiger but he still gets stares. He discovers that Shiranui is missing and then finds the kitten in the middle of the street. Tama knows what is going to happen — the kitten will get hit. As if on cue, a delivery truck comes as Shiranui plays. After some internal debating, Tama decides to save Shiranui at all costs. He does so but is saved by Hayate. People start to panic about Tama being a tiger until Hayate says it is a man in a costume since no tiger would look that bad. Despite having been happy Hayate saved him, he’s not happy with Hayate’s words. Returning home, Hayate doesn’t say he rescued Tama and Nagi reveals she did something helpful — she helped Tama on 2CH.

Thoughts/Review:

Another funny episode where the gags worked pretty well. Often, I have stated that the really funny stuff is the unexpected followed by the expected but with the timing changed. So when Jenny and Nagi find Tama in Africa, not only were the jokes about “it has to be a cat because there are no tigers in Africa” funny, but having that group of youkai, monsters, and other vicious creatures was unexpected and funny. Having a panda in that group was also unexpected and funny. *lol*

The whole “Jenny” aspect seems another tie-in with Hata-sensei’s depicting a young girl from Shimoda suddenly appearing as a “glamorous” adult because of the onsens there. This time instead of an onsen, supposedly Jenny knew ninjitsu and with those ninja skills appeared as an adult. That is a gag that doesn’t really work for me to give me a laugh but I don’t hate it either.

I mentioned the timing jokes; when Tama started worrying about being spotted by humans and trying to reassure himself, I knew that it was only a matter of time before something would happen to get him worried again. The radio broadcast provided that joke and I laughed even though I knew the joke was coming (I didn’t know when or in what format).

I laughed at Tama getting on 2CH (or other Japanese message board like it, assuming there is one) and posted messaged. My Japanese isn’t good enough to be able to follow conversations, but I do know enough that with the aide of some others who do read sections of that massive forum, the flame jokes (complete with the SHIFT-JIS/ASCII art) hit home with me. *lol*

I could go on and on about how the humor levels recently have really gone up for me but I think you get the point. The jokes are well crafted and mostly done in a way that appeals to both Japanese and American audiences.

I did want to mention the giant snake — I can’t remember if such a snake showed up in the first anime or not but it did show up in the manga for sure and that was a very funny joke. I like how an old joke from way back is used again but in a different way. I think that Nagi’s mentioning of how something like that could end up in their woods is a reference to that earlier incident.

The extended story of how Nagi came by Tama was also touching in addition to being funny. After learning a bit about Nagi’s mother and her death, suddenly, we know why Nagi traveled so much as a child, including her being in Africa. That’s something rather unexpected for a comedy series like Hayate no Gotoku which has lots of parodies, site gags, slapstick humor, and other forms of comedy. I think that may be why the manga and this anime series have become favorites of mine (though the manga still sits below Negima!).

I have to say that even though I knew that Hayate would come and rescue Tama and Shiranui, it still looked pretty nice visually.

I’m told that in the manga, Father Radiostar was watching some sort of magic girl show. Changing it to Isumi falling on her face from the last episode actually ended up working pretty well though because of continuity and a continuation of a joke done in episode 20.

So, another hit for Hayate no Gotoku!! and good to get a Tama story. ^_^ I’m really looking forward to getting volume 13 of the manga to see what bits may or may not have been removed. ^_^