ハヤテのごとく！/Hayate no Gotoku manga volume 19 review
Hayate the Combat Butler Volume 19

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SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Miki, who barely passed her exams, thus avoided extra lessons, convinces Hayate to go out on a club function to try to record a heartache video, where they target two different teachers on campus.

Nagi wakes up early, and discovers early morning life, including the fact that Hayate gets up early for his daily chores. However, despite her best efforts, she can’t stay awake and ends up going back to bed.

Nagi works on her latest manga installment at Isumi’s house, prompting Father Radiostar to give some advice to Isumi.  Meanwhile, Hayate and Maria are alone in the mansion, causing Maria to worry about this, though Hayate doesn’t seem phased. Maria ends up helping Hayate study, even though it means they’ll be in close proximity, when she notices the pendent he is wearing from Nagi’s grandfather. She identifies it as “Ougyoku” — the King’s Jewel. Supposedly, it is the key to a hidden treasure.  Hayate and Maria talk further, where Maria reveals that she became Nagi’s maid by first being her tutor and besting Nagi at chess. From there, Maria worked with Nagi more and more until she became Nagi’s official maid until Nagi calls to have Hayate pick her up from Isumi’s house.

With Golden Week starting, Wataru, Saki, and Sakuya head for their trip to Las Vegas, where Sakuya reveals she owns a home. Yuukiji meets with Kaoru for their trip to Italy.  Ayumu, Hina, Miki, Izumi, and Risa meet for their trip to Greece, and on the flight, Fumi and Sharna are also there, though for a trip to India by camel from Turkey.

At the Sanzenin estate, Nagi delays their trip to Greece, and is concerned about her relationship with Hayate, especially when she sees him with a local girl. During the process of trying to light some excitement, Aika accidentally gets soaked while passing by. While Aika soaks in the large, indoor onsen-styled bath, she manipulates Hayate into buying her some new underwear, causing Nagi to now address Aika as “Love Master,” and even pay for a subscription for text advice to her phone. Hayate and Nagi end up buying new underwear, unaware that Aika has left and now Maria is in the bath.

In America, Saki and Wataru go to the Grand Canyon for a side trip, where they happen to encounter his mother, Mikoto, and her butler, Ichijo. She thinks Wataru is foolish trying to run the video shop since the men of her family, including her husband, have not been good at business. She wants Wataru to move to America and live with her, but that means ditching Saki. So, Mikoto decides to challenge Wataru to a poker game in Las Vegas since he wants to stay in Japan, and Saki has to play for him since he’s not legal. To make things more interesting, Mikoto puts Sakuya into a Playboy Bunny costume, which will tear every time Saki loses.

Thoughts/Review:

*sigh*

I really do like Hayate the Combat Butler because it is such a whacky, comedy manga.  Further to that, Hata-sensei often tells interesting stories, he has a large cast of likable and memorable characters, and the humor often comes from the most unexpected places.  That’s why it is sad to me that more of you guys aren’t into this manga and buying it, causing Viz to put it on a 2-manga a year schedule, making us fall WAY, WAY behind Japan. *_*

*sigh*

That aside, I really did enjoy this volume of the manga. After having put out two Golden Week special chapters sometime back, the main story is finally getting to that point, with Hina, Ayumu, Risa, Miki, and Izumi headed for Greece. I’m rather looking forward to seeing their adventures there, in addition to whatever other adventures Hayate and Nagi have when they finally travel over with Maria.

So, now we get to meet Wataru’s mother, as well as establish her ties with Nagi’s mother. Well, that does help explain why Wataru’s family were close enough to the Sanzenin for them to betroth Wataru with Nagi.  Like many of the characters in this manga, Mikoto is certainly eccentric, but that adds to the humor of some moments, such as her buying him McDonald’s in the middle of the Grand Canyon.  While I doubt that Wataru will end up in the U.S., it will be interesting to see how things go in his “battle” with his mother.

I was kind of surprised that Miki has a girl-crush on Hinagiku. After reading what Miki said to Hayate about her not confessing, I immediately thought about Tomoya from Cardcaptor Sakura, because it just felt very similar. Before this volume, the things Miki did for Hinagiku, like giving her chocolate at Valentine’s Day, just seemed like nothing more than a close friendship. I guess not.

Fumi does what Fumi does best — be the whackiest character in the manga and produce the biggest laughs.  I just love her straight forward, no holds bar approach to things and how she just speaks her mind. “You smell, Camel-san, but I guess I’ll ride you.”  *lol*

Finally, while I’m not current with the Japanese manga (only the Viz releases), I am aware of the character design changes by Hata-sensei. I noticed the cover art for this volume is starting to show signs of those updated character designs, which frankly, I’m not that thrilled with.  Oh well.

On the Viz side, I still say this manga would be better with a section dedicated to translator notes.  Seriously Viz, you’ve got everything else down mostly right, so why not this last bit?

That aside, all of the honorifics are here, including “ojousama” and “waka.”  Of course, that meets with my stamp of approval. ^_^

In the end, another fun volume with several good laughs, some plot advancement with the King’s Jewel, and we are closer to connecting with the special, Golden Week chapters from before.  Unfortunately, the next volume of this series won’t come out until September.  I’m seriously considering reading ahead and adding this to my weekly, chapter reviews.