Hayate no Gotoku! Can’t Take My Eyes Off You episode 01
ハヤテのごとく！ CAN’T TAKE MY EYES OFF YOU
Hayate the Combat Butler: Can’t Take My Eyes Off You – 01

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Nagi is behind the wheel of a crashed car in the Nevada desert and gets frustrated when she loses her handkerchief. She’s also distressed because Hayate isn’t her butler any more. She thinks back to an earlier time at the end of September when she’s lazing at the mansion with Hayate and Maria when a TV program about UFOs and Area 51 gets her excited. Maria takes a call in English from the Nevada Police, stating that they have artifacts belonging to Nagi’s father, whom had been in a car crash there years earlier and had died. They want Nagi to ID these things. She’s more than happy to since it will get her closer to Area 51, but Hayate and Maria want her to wait until Silver Week in Japan so that Nagi doesn’t miss school.

Nagi goes off in a huff and heads to Animate to see Chiharu at work. After they chat about loss, Nagi heads to the park and accidentally purchases a spicy hot beverage. Since it is getting dark, she starts getting afraid, but Hayate arrives to save the day. Nagi says she’ll go home if Hayate drinks the beverage when a young girl arrives with an apparent agenda for the Sanzenin treasure. Since Nagi has just been kidnapped, Hayate takes the girl’s bike and the girl to pursue the kidnapper’s car, eventually catching them and taking care of the kidnappers. The girl, who’d been stunned by the trip, recovers and promises Hayate will pay. Hayate gets Nagi home when Maria notes the young girl in the courtyard. She addresses herself as TSUGUMI Ruri, Nagi’s sister.

Thoughts/Review:

When the first anime series came out, Hata-sensei stated in the manga that he was changing his character designs to be more closely aligned with how the anime character designs were.  From what Hata-sensei says, the anime production team thought he was joking, but he swore he wasn’t, and indeed, there is a mild shift in character designs.  For this new series, I’d say he did it again, after having changed them for the movie.  That’s because I’d been noticing a shift in manga character designs of late, and seeing the first episode, I see where he was going.

Anyway, I was under the impression that this anime series would be its own thing, despite the fact that Hata-sensei wrote the entire outline for it. However, considering that the manga made a big point of citing that it was mid-July in a recent chapter, this anime is taking place a little over 2-months after the events in the manga. Further, there’s a cryptic, visual reference to the apartment house they are all currently residing in for the manga, indicating that something happened there to force them all out. So I wonder if Hata-sensei is going to make this canon. I guess we’ll find out.

Where to start – style or substance?  Let’s go style.

As this episode played out, at times I felt a distinct SHAFT vibe come from the episode. This was partially due to the whacky stuff happening in the background at the beginning and end of the episode (Izumi, Rika, and Risa having a snowball fight with Yukiji). Also, there was a filler break to have Isumi and her mother chat, with Hatsuho getting the best of her daughter by apparently tweeting and complaining about Isumi. *lol*  Then there were other aspects, like the dejected Nagi or the various paintings on the wall, that just reminded me of SHAFT stuff.

When it came to Nagi’s house, this isn’t the home she lived in during the manga time.  If it is, it has been remade. Seriously, there are enough waterfalls in this to make me think that the anime production team were also behind one of the big house mods for the Skyrim game on the PC, which also had falling water everywhere (but it looked nifty).

Now for the story.  My ears perked up immediately upon hearing that Nagi’s father died near Las Vegas.  We’ve only seen him once in the manga during a flashback sequence with Nagi’s mom, but that’s it. The circumstances of his death have never been discussed.  Plus, Las Vegas is where Wataru’s mom is currently living, so if Hata-sensei makes this all canon, it might explain why she’s out there beyond the gambling.

This whole business of new character, Ruri, being Nagi’s sister is almost a laugher. Not sure where that’s going, but I look forward to finding out.

The kidnapping joke was a nice touch. It establishes what Hayate can do, plus it was funny having the young Ruri carried along for the ride.  Nagi’s attitude, while not as funny as when she told her kidnappers in the first manga chapter (and first anime series first episode) to stop exhaling since they were polluting the air, was still amusing to me since she made sure to have her seat belt on and encouraged her kidnappers to do the same.

Finally, no matter what it gets force-translated to, the proper term will always be “Ojousama” or “Nagi-ojousama.” ^_~

So, the first episode was different than what I expected, but it is too early to say if it is a good or bad thing.  I hope more of the other characters show up sooner rather than later.