Hayate no Gotoku! Can’t Take My Eyes Off You episode 06
ハヤテのごとく！ CAN’T TAKE MY EYES OFF YOU

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Nagi has a memory dream about chatting with her mother about her father. Nagi gets up to weather news about an approaching typhoon, and as she consumes an iced coffee, she lets Hayate know that she’s no longer interested in claiming her father’s things in Las Vegas. Hayate speaks of some of the bad things that have happened around Nagi’s father’s artifacts, leading her to be even more sure in her decision not to head to Vegas. Since Hayate is going shopping, Nagi decides to tag along as well. At the market street, she gets Hayate to buy her some fish sausage, though he doesn’t buy the prepackaged stuff with a prize in it.

At Nagi’s insistence, Hayate escorts her to Yuraki-chan House to visit Chiharu and Kayura before he continues shopping. There, Nagi discovers that she’d forgotten that Chiharu and Kayura went to Ruka’s concert in Las Vegas, but it is too late to catch Hayate. Ruri is there, so Nagi decides to get the truth out of her on why Ruri wants to get so close to her. Nagi makes Ruri think that her fish sausage is in fact foie gras, so Ruri caves and says she’s looking for the kuro-tsubaki – the black camellia, part of the Sanzenin treasure. Nagi has never heard of it, so she calls her grandfather, who says it was lost 13-years ago. Ruri is devastated by this news, then frustrated. Nagi tries to learn more, but destroys her phone when Mikado insults her.

A crash of lightning outside from the typhoon, followed by a leaking roof, has Nagi regretting the loss of her phone. Ruri decides to spring into action by sliding the amado “storm doors” into place around the engawa (veranda) surrounding the apartment-house. Nagi goes to check on the leaks when a giant piece of a tree comes flying in. Ruri saves Nagi from being hurt, then the two go to help protect everyone’s doujinshi. When the storm passes, Hayate rushes in as Nagi wonders why Ruri would save her, especially since Nagi doesn’t have the kuro-tsubaki. Mikado calls Hayate to speak to Nagi, where he reveals that Nagi’s father, Shin, is the one who stole the kuro-tsubaki thirteen years ago.

Thoughts/Review:

Until now, the Ruri character hasn’t done a thing for me. While she wasn’t much here, at least this episode had her be more than a waste of space, showing her to care for Nagi at some level and is generally a good kid. I suppose that’s to provide a level of credibility in case she turns out to be Nagi’s sister.  Plus, Ruri took charge of the situation when the house was in danger from the storm.

So, what was that crow about? The manga has shown a false dog used as a spy device.  For some reason, I want to think that I’ve seen the crow used as a spy device, but I don’t remember if it was in Hayate the Combat Butler or some other series (that’s the trouble with watching and reading so much stuff).

There were two really funny parts to this episode. The first was Hayate’s modified URASHIMA Taro tale at the intro and end of the episode, which made me laugh out loud due to the fact that the turtle in the tale joins the kids tormenting it to attack Urashima, leading him to kick the turtle’s arse. *lol* Then, you had three other turtles come in to attack Urashima at the end, which made me laugh, though bringing in Nagi’s Brittany character as Otohime wasn’t funny to me.

The other great moment came from Nagi’s mother, Yukariko, telling the tale of how she met Shin. She’s always come off as a bit frail in the manga, and that certainly came through here. That’s what made her suddenly brandishing a .44 Magnum on Shin twice so very funny, especially since the second time was to force him to be her butler and ultimately marry her. I can understand why Mikado hated Shin, but based on what the manga has shown of Yukariko, I can understand why she decided to just choose the would be thief.

I get the feeling that Shin will ultimately be proven to be innocent, and that he went to Las Vegas not to flee with the kuro-tsubaki, but rather to try to protect it and save Yukariko.  I have ZERO to base this feeling on, but there ya go. I’d love it if that were proven correct.

Ultimately, this episode is what I’d like the production company to stick to — original materials, not manga extracts that are mangled to try to make a square peg fit in a round hole.  It had very humorous moments; it helped push the plot forward a bit; and it helped make Ruri become a bit more fleshed out.  As such, I really liked this episode.