ハヤテのごとく！/Hayate no Gotoku Manga Volume 27
Hayate the Combat Butler Tankoubon Volume 27

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*SPOILERS!*

Some highlights of this volume include Hayate having to get rid of Hina in order to get Tama to the new residence. Tama and Hayate are attacked by person(s) unknown and meet a mysterious young lady and her dog. Isumi gives Tama a special collar to make it so people don’t see him as a tiger, but as a cat. Returning to the apartment house, Chiharu manages to buy the idea of Tama as a cat when the mysterious young lady (HOUSEN Yozora) shows up to rent a room. However, with her actions toward Hayate, Nagi quickly kicks her out, refusing to rent a room to her.

Nagi decides her Plan C for getting money is to become a manga-ka, which Ayumu finds amazing. With the famous manga-ka Ashibashi-sensei often stopping by the cafe, Ayumu arranges for them to stop by his studio to show Nagi’s manga. They discover that Azumamiya is working there as an assistant. Ayumu, Hayate, and Nagi help Sensei make his deadline, but Nagi discovers her own manga efforts are crap in comparison. Nagi is very depressed that her dream has been crushed, so Chiharu helps her by getting Nagi to assist her sell Ruka’s latest doujinshi at an event, where Nagi gets challenged by a famous doujinshi artist to make her own doujinshi by the next major event. Finally, because Chiharu has discovered a picture of an old man with the corner torn out, Yozora targets Hayate at the doujinshi event to retrieve said picture.

Isumi, for all of her supposed naivety in some manners, is much more clever than she lets on.  I think it is clear from this volume that even though Maria and Nagi have bought the notion that Tama is a large cat, Isumi knows the truth, thus the reason for her gift. I just love how she shows up out of no where like that. ^_^  So now I know how Tama is able to hang around the apartment house.

I find it ironic that I’d just read chapter 370 of the manga, and it has a torn corner of a picture of a young Himegami.  For volume 27, the other part of that picture shows up.  I don’t know whom the old man is in the photo, nor do I know the significance of the 28th, but it is obviously something important that Hata-sensei is taking his time to expound upon.

Speaking of which, Yozora is certainly interesting. So, she’s apparently some sort of mage like Athena is, considering she was able to conjure/summon those things that looked like Japanese robots. Other than a name and knowing she has powers, I haven’t learned much else.

As to Nagi and her doujinshi, considering the supposed lesson she learned when she saw a real manga-ka’s work, one would think that she’d have abandoned her dopey manga stuff and gotten serious, but as seen in some recent chapters, she’s still obsessed with doing a crappy Brittany manga. I guess Hata-sensei thinks that’s funny, but as I see it, that kills any meaning to Nagi’s being depressed as well as her drive to do a doujinshi manga.

Other than that, the doujinshi story reminded me of Genshiken and their doujinshi efforts to sell copies at a doujinshi event.

On the humor front, I’ve always said that the unexpected stuff is the funniest. Thus, when Hayate opens up a door to show off a room and discovers Father Radiostar having hung himself (despite being a ghost), I was glad that I didn’t have food or drink in my mouth, because I would have spewed or choked.  Then, there was all the stuff with his collection. That was the funniest moment to be sure, though there were other standard funny moments to be had.

So, another good volume here.