Hayate no Gotoku! Cuties
ハヤテのごとく！Cuties Episode 03 review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

After Athene (aka: Ah-tan, aka: Alice) introduces herself, Athena struggles to get up in the morning and stay awake on the engawa in the sun. Hayate teases her about this and offers her a chocolate coronet bread for breakfast as the shape is identical to the ringlets in her hair. She’s not amused and sends him off to make her pancakes. A large stray dog shows up, taking a liking to Ah-tan by jumping on her and such. Hayate, Ah-tan, and the dog head into the city to look for the owner, when they encounter Fumi-chan, who IDs the dog as her dog, named Armageddon. Fumi is happy to have her dog back and says Armageddon must love At-tan because her ringlets remind the dog of his favorite, chocolate coronet snacks.

Meanwhile, Wataru is stunned that Sakuya’s ¥100 million loan was delivered in cash. When he calls her about this, she says it is so he understand how much he’s borrowing. Hayate shows up at the store, so reluctantly, Wataru has them come with him to deposit the money in the bank. On the way, Armageddon knocks the suitcase of money out of Wataru’s hands, where it ends up with Yukiji. Before Yukiji can give it back, Armageddon snatches it and runs off, returning to a skipping Fumi-chan. When Fumi realizes her dog has brought her a case of stolen money, she panics, assisted in this by her Indian friend, Sharna-chan.

Armageddon runs off again, so Sharna and Fumi give chase while Hayate goes hunting as well. On a hunch, Hayate returns home to find Armageddon has returned to Ah-tan. Unfortunately, the case is empty. Fumi and Sharna arrive, so Fumi starts wiping her fingerprints off the case. Since they can’t communicate with the dog, Hayate seeks out Tama, putting the tiger in disguise, so that Tama can translate what Armageddon says. However, the dog is not impressed with this trash tiger, so the two get into a fight. Eventually, they learn the location of the thugs that took the money out of the case. Wataru and Hayate meet at the location to discover Yukiji beating the thugs for the money. She reluctantly returns it to Wataru, who gets it to the bank.

Nagi and Ah-tan are alone at Yukari-chan house with three nikuman that Maria left them to reheat. Unfortunately, Nagi overdoes it in the microwave, so they decide not to eat what’s left. However, they are hunger, so when Ah-tan hears Father Radiostar’s suggestion that they go to Cafe Donguri to eat, where Hayate and Nagi work, she suggests it to Nagi, who readily agrees. The two set up, but the journey is longer than expected, since Hayate normally bikes himself and Nagi there in no time. Eventually, the weary and hungry duo come to a convenience store and are happy. However, Nagi knows that if they go to the top of the hill, they’ll get to the cafe and Hayate’s cooking. So, the two go to the cafe, demanding Hayate make them nikuman.

Thoughts/Review:

For the record, this anime covered the following chapters (in order of appearance): chapter 306 (volume 29), chapter 316 (volume 29), chapters 317 and 318 (volume 30), and chapter 346 (volume 32).

One thing this anime episode made me realize is just how little Ah-tan has been featured since her arrival at Yukari-chan House, where she mysteriously went from her teenage form to her current child form, sans memories. Well, with the massive cast that Hayate the Combat Butler has, I suppose it isn’t that surprising, but it does further show how little the main plot has progressed. *lol*

The problems with the Cuties anime will continue to be twofold. First, Western fans are going to be confused as heck if they aren’t current with the manga in Japan. Second, even those fans who are current with the manga in Japan are likely not going to be happy with this mix-and-match approach the anime is doing in order to meld stories.

While having the different Armageddon stories works on that level, the A-story in the manga was Wataru’s loan from Sakuya and his attempts to get it to the bank safely.  Because this episode is supposed to be focused on Ah-tan (though Fumi is a massive scene stealer), a big chunk of the backstory about Wataru’s need for the loan and how this was affecting Saki is lost. Further, the manga story seems to resolve the “Wataru likes Isumi” thread as it is Isumi who gives him the advice in the manga, not Ah-tan.

The fight between Armageddon and Tama is funnier here than in the manga, so I do give credit where credit is due.

Through three episodes, I find myself rather disappointed overall by this anime series. There have been some smiles and small laughs, but overall, I just don’t like the decisions that Manglobe has gone here.