Hayate no Gotoku! Can’t Take My Eyes Off You episode 04
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 – 04

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Ruri communes with an unknown entity, after which, she gets onto the Sanzenin estate. She wants to get closer to Nagi, but is somewhat disheartened to hear from Hayate that Nagi wants nothing to do with her due to Nagi’s general dislike of people. Ruri visits Chiharu in Akiba as she works, so Chiharu advises her to get a brand new RPG game that Nagi would like. Although the game is an unexpected expense, Ruri feels it is worth it, but then she runs into Kayura, who lets Ruri know she’ll need the right game console to play the game. After an even greater expense buying the console, Kayura advises Ruri to buy a war game that she thinks Nagi will like. It is another expense, but Ruri is fine with it as long as it leads her to be closer to her “oneechan.”

She encounters Hayate on the streets of Akiba, and is floored to hear that Nagi owns both games and hated them. Chiharu, Kayura, Hayate, and Ruri are at a family restaurant discussing things, leading Chiharu and Kayura to decide that this whole thing is Nagi’s fault. Nagi goes down to Akiba to meet them, where Chiharu and Kayura confront Nagi over her dismissal of games they thought were good. Nagi informs them that she’s not just some normal otaku, as she does not judge an anime, manga, or game until she has completed it. Thus, to complete the games in question, she skipped school and played non-stop. Chiharu and Kayura realize Nagi is in a league above them on this, so the discussion ends, but Ruri is still determined to find some means of getting closer to Nagi.

Since they are in Akihabara, Nagi decides to go shopping, so the group heads to a used game/anime/manga store. There, Nagi tells Ruri that she’s considering getting into the classic video games so as to gain a greater understanding of things. That leads to toys and models, where Nagi is expressing her love for Gordam, leading to objections from Chiharu and Kayura due to the anime. The two of them want other classic anime titles released on DVD/BD, but Nagi isn’t interested in them, which leads to a fight. Hayate shows Ruri his favorite anime titles, all of which have the lead character killed. Ruri is going to buy them all, but she’s spent all her money and is forced to charge them. Nagi stops her, reminding Ruri that she likes manga too. Ruri likes this idea since manga is cheaper.

The group heads to Wataru’s doujinshi, manga, and game store, where Nagi proceeds to speak of a 100+ volumes of works by her favorite manga-ka, Shimamoto-sensei. Wataru says that don’t have any of that, leading to Nagi going off on him. Chiharu and Kayura both offer their suggestions, only to also hear that Wataru doesn’t carry those works either.  This leads to a massive fight between the three, so Ruri decides that maybe she’ll pick something on her own. She heads to the doujinshi section, causing Saki to report this to the others. Ruri finds one doujinshi she likes, since she’d seen read it in Nagi’s room, and continues to browse. Nagi races in to prevent Ruri from finding the porn doujinshi, but it is too late. Ruri is disgusted by what she sees, but decides to buy the one non-porn doujinshi anyway, not realizing that it is authored by Nagi.

Thoughts/Review:

Well, this episode did very little to advance the plot, other than to suggest Ruri may be communicating with someone via supernatural means.

As to the episode itself, I was surprised at how none of the referenced titles were censored, as similar titles were in earlier animes and manga. Much of it I was unaware of, like the game Silver Ghost, but as far as I can tell, everything mentioned was a real game, anime, manga, etc.

One thing that really stuck out to me was Nagi’s remarks about not being critical of an anime, manga, or game until she’d completed it. While the nature of this blog is such that I critique things as they happen, I too reserve final judgement until I’ve completed a title. It is because of this that I was able plow through all 196 episodes of Urusei Yatsura. I’m glad I did because I would have missed some really good things had I given up like I was tempted too by episode 20.

Assuming that Hata-sensei makes this anime canon after a fashion, I guess that doujinshi at the end of the episode is what Nagi finally came up with. I seriously hope that is the case, because in the manga storyline, Nagi’s falling back to the dopey “Britany” stuff just doesn’t cut it with me, even if done for gag purposes.

The OP/ED gag about curry turned hamburger (steak) was “meh.” It was a combination of similar food gags from the manga, such as when Hina cooked curry for Miki, Risa, and Izumi as they were being tutored by Yukiji, and the time when Hina and Hayate cooked for each other when Hayate spent a couple of nights at her house.

Beyond that, not much I can think of to chat about. The episode was mostly filler and I’m ready to push the plot, such as it is, forward.