Hayate the Combat Butler “2nd Season” Ep. 23
ハヤテのごとく！！Episode 23
Hayate no Gotoku!! – 23

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

At the end of the school day, Hina is wrapping up her work as president of the student council and is assisted by vice president Aika. Meanwhile, Chiharu is going to her part-time job as maid for Sakuya and we learn that she took a job at a maid cafe because her father was about to lose his job and she wanted to attend school, thus when offered a job at the maid cafe, she took it. Sakuya scouted her out and the rest is history. However, because she has a certain character she maintains at school (being strict), she doesn’t want her reputation tarnished by people finding out she’s a maid.

With Sakuya’s birthday party on that evening, Chiharu (“Haru-san” as Sakuya addresses her) is relieved when she learns that Nagi and Hayate won’t be attending due to Nagi sleeping from having worked all day. Unfortunately for Chiharu, Aika shows up and immediately recognizes Chiharu despite the maid costume, lack of glasses, and minor hair style change. Chiharu begs Aika to not let anyone know and though Aika promises not to tell anyone, she writes down this even in her notebook, revealing that she’s not about to forget this event.

With Wataru being the only one of Sakuya’s friends to show up (despite her mansion being filled with people), Sakuya puts him on stage to entertain the crowd. Out of desperation, he does the thumb-removal trick which only Saki and Sakuya appreciate. Afterward, Sakuya consoles Wataru and says that if Isumi had seen it, she would have loved him for it. Wataru finds Sakuya a little too close and in an attempt to get some distance ends up knocking them both to the ground where Isumi is watching them. Isumi misunderstands everything, including the “loved” comment and gives straight forward criticism of Wataru’s performance, leaving him fleeing in tears.

Nagi and Hayate show up to Sakuya’s delight as Nagi woke up and had to make it to her friend’s birthday party. Sakuya decides to take advantage of the situation and puts Hayate on stage where he has the crowd in stitches, but Nagi and Sakuya aren’t that impressed. Afterward, Hayate is going to attempt to make mild tea for Nagi when he encounters a small girl who appears lost. When he attempts to help, she starts screaming about being molested and such causing a young boy to come in and whack her on the head with a harisen. The boy, Asato, and the girl, Hinata, assume fighting positions but when Hayate speaks, they insult him.

A man comes up and apologizes for his children’s behavior, then thanks Hayate for his earlier performance. The man cites things that Hayate never said as being funny. When Nagi and Maria arrive, the man thanks Nagi for coming to his daughter’s birthday party and presents her with a large salmon as a present. Nagi doesn’t want it, so Sakuya’s father decides to do a strip-talk show, leading him to get whacked by Sakuya with the salmon. When her father decides to strip anyway, she and her two younger siblings attack their father in a way that kids will horse around with their dad. Nagi sees this and walks away, appearing a bit depressed by it.

Back at the cafe, Ayumu is cleaning up even though Master had given her permission to go home. As Ayumu speaks of the day, she fantasizes about Hayate falling for her over the coffee she made, making Ayumu want to get better at it. Hina arrives and both are surprised to see the other. Hina is further surprised to learn that Hayate and Nagi have started working there too. She decides that she has to tell Ayumu the truth about her feelings for Hayate and with the sakura still falling, arranges for the two of them to do a hanami after Ayumu is done with work.

Thoughts/Review:

When Hayate was shown to take the stage and have the crowd in stitches, I couldn’t help but think that had the “find Hayate’s weakness” story not been cherry picked out to the first anime series, the flow of things would have been that much better. Why? Simply because I think it helps explain why Nagi and Sakuya weren’t that impressed with Hayate’s performance — Hayate has so few weaknesses and him overcoming another obstacle is almost ho-hum to Nagi now. It is a minor point though, I suppose, but I couldn’t help but think of it just the same.

As to the episode itself, it is another good one. ^_^ I have to say that after having Chiharu (aka: “Haruko” and “Haru-san”) brought forth as the perfect maid in episode 20, having her suddenly brought down to earth by Aika was unexpected and funny.

Let’s face it though — Aika stole any thunder Chiharu had. *lol* I remember seeing her before (maybe the first anime series and maybe in the OVA) but with her dead serious idea of selling school properties for cash to her promising Chiharu that she would basically “forget” she saw Chiharu as a maid (while writing the event down in her notebook so she wouldn’t forget), she makes a big comedy splash in the series and I look forward to seeing more of her even though more characters means less time for established ones.

It was certainly interesting meeting two more of Sakuya’s siblings as well as her father. I laughed at Hinata taking the Crane pose, made infamous in the move Karate Kid. I liked how they horsed around because it reminded me of me and my siblings wrestling with our dad. ^_^ Sakuya mentions more siblings and a step-mother (foster mother is what was translated, but that doesn’t seem right) but neglects to mention Gilbert. In fact, I thought that rather odd because I thought for sure there would be a Gilbert joke somewhere. Since I haven’t read the manga stories this far out, I don’t know if Gilbert is mentioned or not in the manga.

Speaking of families, Nagi’s reaction to seeing the horse play of Sakuya with her father, little brother, and little sister tells me that she misses having such a family structure. Since we recently learned about Nagi’s mother, I wonder if we’ll now learn about Nagi’s father.

Speaking of learning things, assuming the series doesn’t go the comedy route and keep Hina from telling Ayumu about her feelings for Hayate, I wonder how Ayumu will take it. Somehow, I think that based on how she was with Hina at Shimoda, she won’t take it badly and won’t see Hina as a rival like she does Nagi. I could always be wrong though.

In the end, another good episode with only minor issues to speak of.