ハヤテのごとく！/Hayate no Gotoku manga volume 16 review
Hayate the Combat Butler Manga Volume 16 

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SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Miki, Risa, and Katsura-sensei are with Nagi at a high priced “family restaurant” while Hayate takes Hina out to “clear a minefield” for Miki and Risa. There’s an air of pretenses and discomfort between Hina and Hayate as they go to the movie theater, which turns out to be a dump. The movie a disaster, Hayate takes Hina to a theme park where Hina actually has a good time. After the park closes, Hina and Hayate are on the way home where Hayate states that he took Hina out because Miki and Risa asked him to, not the thing Hina wanted to hear. However, Hayate does confess to wanting to do something nice for Hina because he’s caused her trouble and he likes her. She does return the sentiment, but a passing train causes Hayate not to hear.

Elsewhere, Kaoru-sensei contemplates his otaku lifestyle and why he fell for Katsura-sensei when they were in high school together. He’s looking at a picture of the two of them from those days when Fumi and Sharna find him. After Fumi’s direct comments at Kaoru-sensei’s predicament causes him to flee, he encounters Hayate just before his date with Hina and has some advice. Later, Katsura-sensei finds him and drags him off for more drinking on his yen.

Hayate returns home from his date to find Sakuya in his bedroom, having run away from home to avoid going to the dentist for a toothache. With Isumi’s help and the cooperation of Father Radiostar, the ghost priest is able to possess Sakuya’s body so that Sakuya won’t have to experience the traumas of the dentist chair. However, Father Radiostar is now determined to peep on Maria, forcing Hayate and Isumi to act. As a result of kicking the priest out of Sakuya’s body, he now has her toothache.

That issue resolved, Isumi has a request for Hayate and he accompanies her to the school where an evil spirit has been sensed by her. It is Klaus’s living spirit, lamenting his approaching birthday with apparently no one remembering it. Also, Klaus states his desire to see the cute, mystery girl he fell for (Hayate in drag). Isumi convinces Hayate to wear her kimono but Klaus recognizes him as Hayate, not the girl. Humiliated, Hayate returns home and asks Maria about Klaus’s birthday, something she has already prepared for as she does every year.

The next morning, a tired Hayate is ordered to take a day off by Nagi, who has decided she will work in the cafe by herself. She warns Maria and Hayate not to follow her as she goes to work. There are no customers at the cafe for she and Ayumu to take care of, so one of the SP’s goes in to pretend to be a customer. Nagi recognizes him, apparently knowing all of her security people, and threatens to fire the lot of them. Meanwhile, Hayate and Maria sneak into the cafe where they overhear Ayumu and Nagi talking about love. Nagi’s remarks about “fooling around” with Hayate forces him to reveal himself, annoying Nagi.

Sometime later, Risa and Miki rush to Nagi’s mansion to state that there’s something wrong with Izumi. In addition to being forgotten on the mountain school trip, Izumi had her phone stolen and her father was not happy by that. When Shiranui turns up with the phone, Nagi orders Hayate to return it. He does so, accompanied by Risa and Miki where they find Izumi at her mansion, dressed as a maid. She tries to flee but Hayate catches her. However, before she can talk, her butler Kotetsu shows up. So, she takes Hayate and retreats to her bedroom where she changes and reveals that she’s being punished by her father for losing the phone.

Meanwhile, Risa and Miki run into Izumi’s father, who dotes on Izumi and isn’t ready for her to date a guy. As Izumi is telling Hayate that Kotetsu is her twin brother in addition to being her butler, Miki and Risa let it out that Segawa-san’s child (Kotetsu) is in love with Hayate. He assumes that by “child,” Miki and Risa mean “Izumi” and he’s furious. The misunderstandings rise, eventually leading Kotetsu to battle Hayate with the others watching. Risa and Miki are laughing but stop when they realize that Izumi really does have feelings for Hayate. In the fight, Hayate gets the upperhand but when Izumi is in trouble and Kotetsu saves her, Hayate relents and gives Kotetsu a break, though Kotetsu’s further attempt to hit on Hayate results in Hayate knocking him out.

Having won, Hayate and Segawa-san sort out the misunderstandings and he agrees to forgive Izumi, who now has her old phone back. Izumi and Hayate say goodbye but when Hayate returns to Nagi’s mansion, he finds Maria with a lot of maid costumes out for he and Kotetsu to wear since they both lost to her at ping-pong during the recent onsen trip.

Thoughts/Review:

While this volume may not have had me laughing as hard as volume 15, that in no way means that this volume was any less good. ^_^

Hata-sensei is actually a pretty good writer, not only of comedy bits, but also of stories in general. He is good about keeping track of little things that might otherwise be forgotten. For example, when Ayumu and Hayate go to her school to get a notebook in the previous volume, Isumi is with Father Radiostar and taking about sensing a wicked spirit. The joke is that Father Radiostar is a spirit and at that moment was looking under the skirts of six-inch doll figures, a wicked thing to do. However, Isumi was actually talking about ended up being Klaus’s living spirit. *lol*

Another thing Hata-sensei remembered was Shiranui having stolen Izumi’s cell phone for Tama to use so they could find their way back home in an earlier volume. That event then becomes the catalyst for his story arc taking a greater look at Izumi’s family and giving her some character development.

Speaking of Izumi, I did enjoy that story arc quite a bit even if Kotetsu freaks me out with his constant pursuit of Hayate. I hadn’t expected Kotetsu and Izumi to be twins, but the out there was that Hata-sensei had mentioned in an earlier volume that butlers used to be a job performed by the eldest son. I’m not sure where Hata-sensei got that idea from. While I haven’t done any extensive research into the topic of butlers, the brief research I performed gave no indication that a member of family was to be a butler. Well, I don’t suppose it matters but it is darned weird to me that Izumi’s older twin brother would also be her servant.

Returning to the beginning of the manga, the date between Hayate and Hina went pretty much as I expected with mishaps and good times as well as confessions that they liked each other but not of love. They are rather cute together though, aren’t they? ^_^

The funny thing is that Miki and Risa were the driving force behind the two main stories of this volume. I did get a chuckle at how they removed Nagi as an obstacle to allow Hayate and Hina to have their date but not only eating at the expensive restaurant but having those portable game units to allow the three of them to play.

We got to learn a bit more about Kaoru-sensei, which I liked. Having Fumi return here was awesome stuff. ^_^ Fumi is such a fun and funny character and I hope we continue to see more of her (though she’s liable to steal whatever scenes she’s in).

Hata-sensei includes several character profiles this time, one of which is for Nagi’s mom. Hata-sensei states that she did not die from illness, something implied from earlier volumes. I found that to be pretty interesting and hope Hata-sensei explores this further at some point.

On the Viz side of things, the high marks are still there for honorific retention, which is the best of any manga volume I’m currently collecting from a U.S. publisher. Sadly, as usual, there are no translator notes, which is unfortunate.

So, another great volume in the Hayate no Gotoku series. Not as many laughs this time, but no less enjoyable. ^_^