ハヤテのごとく！/Hayate no Gotoku Chapter 375
Hayate the Combat Butler Manga Chapter 375

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Hina recalls when her sister, Yukiji, gave the guitar she’d owned to one of her students, even though it had been precious to Yukiji. Hina finds a video tape of Yukiji as a young woman, playing at a concert. Hayate is surprised at how well Yukiji plays, leading Hina to remark on how cool her sister had been back then. However, Hina blames herself for Yukiji giving up on her musician dreams since Hina was young and depended on Yukiji, leading Yukiji to become a teacher with a stable job rather than a musician with an uncertain future.

Hayate admires Hina for her love for Yukiji, embarrassing Hina. She does recall how Yukiji would comfort her during the tough times, so Yukiji giving up on a career as a musician saddens Hina. Yukiji returns, embarrassed that they are playing her old concert video and she stops it. Hina wants to know the truth of why Yukiji gave up her dream.  The truth, which Yukiji doesn’t tell Hina, is that Yukiji never gave up, but never bought the new guitar she wants due to the costs. Yukiji also knows that Hina’s thoughts on why Yukiji became a teacher are correct, but she dares not tell Hina that with a stable job, Yukiji became lazy.

Yukiji says something stupid instead, insulting Hina and causing her to leave in anger. Hayate stays and helps Yukiji clean up in order to keep her out of Nagi’s apartment house.  He tells Yukiji to shape up since Hina really admires her.

Later, Kirika stops by the night duty teacher’s room, which is now clean, and says she’ll consider forgetting about the rent, but wonders if Yukiji will simply trash it again with alcohol.  Yukiji says she won’t now, since she has to save up for a new guitar.

Thoughts/Review:

I had hoped that this would be a longer story arc, but as revealed to me, Hata-sensei apparently let Japanese fans know this would be a 2-chapter story.  Oh well.

Still, for what it was worth, I liked it. Yukiji, who’s mostly shown as a lazy, worthless human, is shown in a positive light based on her past and how she took care of Hina, who was a child, even after they were adopted by the Katsura family.  I was disappointed to not see why Yukiji cut her hair, though I suspect that it was because of her decision to be a teacher. Further, we didn’t get a confirmation that Ayumu was the student she gave the guitar to, but we did learn she did give the guitar to a student.

I hope that sometime down the road, Hata-sensei shows Yukiji actually purchasing that guitar. Actually, it would be rather nifty if Yukiji shaped up quite a bit and became more responsible instead of the worthless mostly drunk she is now.

Kirika returns for the third time.  I wonder if she’ll be showing up more often now during school stories.

One thing this story made me laugh at is the Japanese custom of taking off one’s shoes before entering a residence. It is a good policy, and one I have for my own place, since it helps keep down trafficking in filth from outside. However, considering the nasty state of Yukiji’s residence, I would NOT want to be walking around the place in socked feet, as Hina and Hayate did, nor in bare feet, as Yukiji did. I’d be thinking, “I’m keeping my shoes on on this instance since the place can’t get much filthier.”  *lol*  Seriously, what kind of nasty funk must they have gotten on their socks, which then went into their shoes, which then were tracked back into their residence when their nasty, socked feet walked on the clean floors there. ^_^;

For me, the best part of this chapter was the fact that for most of it, the older, better character designs are in use, starting with the splash page. Last chapter, Nagi was on the splash page and almost unrecognizable. For this chapter, Hina is her normal cute, attractive self on the splash page and for almost all of the chapter.

Another break for the manga, but hopefully the next chapter starts something good and fun.