ハヤテのごとく！/Hayate no Gotoku Chapter 354
Hayate the Combat Butler Manga Chapter 354

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Once the exams are over, Nagi demands to be given some kind of heart-racing reward for being forced to attend school every day without being late during the exam period. This prompts Hayate to ask what kind of reward would cause the heart to race, leading Maria to recall how as a child, Nagi’s grandfather gave her sea monkeys, which she imagined would be something awesome, but in the end, turned out to be nothing like she expected. Nagi is furious with the notion of being given a reward that would bring her disappointment and cause her to never want to leave the apartment.

Hina arrives with a tale of disappointment, telling of a time when she was eight, her Papa (her adoptive father) told her about nagashi soumen, in which soumen is sent down a long, bamboo shoot and you grab it with chopsticks as it shoots past. Hina pleaded with her parents to make it, so they installed a nagashi soumen set in the back yard. The experience was very disappointing to Hina, though she lied to her parents about liking the soumen.

Chiharu enters, stating that the one reward that never fails to get the heart racing is yakiniku.  This is because you go to a yakiniku restaurant, cook the meat on the grill at the table, put it on rice, and eat and eat. Thus, it is the king of rewards.

Nagi is sold, so Hayate figures that since she’s never been to one, he can take her to a cheap restaurant. However, Chiharu and Hina hear this as Hayate treating them as well as Nagi. Ah-chan and Kayura also hear this as an invite. Hayate tries to put down everyone’s expectations, but Nagi has already sent hers through the roof.

Hayate knows he’s going to have to take them to an expensive yakiniku place, but when Nagi asks if this will be too expensive for him, Hayate assures her that he will treat her to the best yakiniku. Maria wonders if Hayate will be OK, and though he tells her he will be, Maria sees that the opposite is true.

Thoughts/Review:

Yikes. OK, there’s clearly more happened here than I even suspected.  It seems like everyone is now living in an apartment? Hina and Chiharu are there too?  And Ah-chan is there as a kid?  (I had to cheat a bit just to find the name.)  And this character I’ve never seen, Kayura (again, I had to cheat to get the name).  *lol*  Well, this will be fun to catch up and find out what the heck has happened over time.

I loved Maria’s story about the sea monkeys. I never had any as a child because my parent’s already knew how disappointing it would be and thus weren’t going to waste money.  However, I would look at comic book ads about sea monkeys and think, “Really, these things HAVE to be cool.”  One of my friends convinced his parents to buy him sea monkeys, so I came by to look.  I was stunned that reality didn’t match what was on paper, but it did teach me that (1) my parents were right about things, even when I didn’t want them to be, and (2) don’t believe everything you see or read. Always do more research.

I find it interesting that Maria has been tied to the Sanzenin family since she was a child.  I hadn’t remembered that coming up in the Viz releases, only that she was an orphan. However, it makes sense and if she were raised by the Sanzenin, then when Nagi came along, she was drafted somehow into being Nagi’s maid.  Maybe during my catch up, maybe more will be revealed there.

I can understand why Hina would consider nagashi soumen exciting. I never saw this when I was in Japan. My first experience with it was xxxHOLiC, believe it or not. It does seem like a lot of work for little reward though. *lol*

Ah, childhood, eh? ^_^

Anyway, there’s a lot of fun in this chapter.  I’m kind of excited to see what all I’ve missed.  Let’s hope I’m not disappointed. ^_~