April 30th, 2013 
AstroNerdBoy Hayate no Gotoku! Cuties
ハヤテのごとく！Cuties Episode 04 review
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
Isumi reflects on the fact that Sakuya and Nagi both have dedicated maids, so she tells her mother, Hatsuho, of this. Hatsuho decides to enlist the help of Hayate to find the perfect maid for Isumi, telling him and Nagi that Isumi’s only weakness is her smartphone power. Reluctantly, Hayate agrees to help, posting flyers in the neighborhood. Sharna-chan and Fumi-chan immediately happen upon one, so to Hayate’s chagrin, Fumi-chan applies for the job since it pays well. Hatsuho introduces Fumi-chan to Isumi, who’s not impressed. Fumi breaks up their argument, telling Isumi to ask her a question as she would a smartphone. Isumi asks and Fumi tells her to go Google it. Fumi gets fired.
Sakuya is changing and needs “Haru-san”, Chiharu’s name when serving Sakuya to get her a dress. This causes Sakuya to recall when her butlers Makita and Kunieda realized Sakuya was at an age where she needed a maid rather than butlers. They arranged to have a maid cafe built for Sakuya to pick a maid from. Chiharu enters and doesn’t impress Sakuya until she changes into her maid costume. Sakuya heads to Nagi’s place, where she consults her on why she chose Hayate for her butler when he was a stranger. Nagi says it was fate. Sakuya heads to an arcade, where Chiharu happens to be. The two play a zombie shooter game, after which, Sakuya decides to hire Chiharu as her maid-san.
At Yukari-chan House, Nagi is unable to come up with a good idea for her manga. Sakuya comes over to Chiharu’s dismay, so Chiharu gets Sakuya to agree not to let any of her housemates know she works for Sakuya as her maid. Regarding Nagi’s manga, Chiharu says Nagi has talent as Nagi comes to get Chiharu for a consulting session outside, leaving Sakuya with Hayate. Sakuya realizes that Nagi no longer depends on her as an “oneechan” like she did when they were kids. She refuses to accept this and decides to read one of Nagi’s manga, but can’t understand it. Isumi shows up and says Sakuya is too boring to understand Nagi’s work. So, Isumi has Sakuya dress in a bird costume to become interesting, but of course, this doesn’t help. Sakuya and Isumi leave just before Nagi and Chiharu return. Nagi’s disappointed Sakuya isn’t there, but Sakuya and Isumi return, having heard Nagi’s voice. Sakuya reads Nagi’s latest attempt, but still can’t understand Nagi’s manga.
Thoughts/Review:
For those curious, this episode was adapted from the following manga chapters (in order of appearance): chapter 341 (volume 32), chapter 175 (volume 17), and chapter 309 (volume 29), with the Maria fanservice removed from that story.
One of the biggest problems I have with this latest anime outing of Hayate the Combat Butler is that Manglobe has been attempting to ramrod stories from vastly different points in the manga, then implying that somehow, everything is taking place AFTER the Can’t Take My Eyes Off You anime. For the first time, Manglobe decides to go with a flashback to show how Chiharu came into Sakuya’s service instead of trying to make it happen in the now. I suppose that’s because CTMEOY did mention Chiharu working for Sakuya, if I recall correctly.
As in the previous episode, Fumi-chan threatens to take over everything during the first story here, which is supposed to be all about Isumi. I suppose Manglobe had a hard time coming up with solo Isumi story since a lot of her more recent manga involvement is either cameo or tied in with the main story. There’s not a lot of, “lets do an Isumi story” on the side, and as shown here, Fumi-chan had to carry the day.
Sakuya also suffers something similar. Like Isumi, she doesn’t live at Yukari-chan House, so she is only rarely involved in the manga story. Unlike Isumi, Sakuya didn’t need Fumi-chan to save her, but that’s mainly because of the presence of Chiharu.
As I mentioned earlier, the two pages of Maria bathing fanservice were removed from that story’s adaptation, as well as the page discussing the fanservice. Naturally, this wasn’t missed. Instead, we got additional time for Isumi and Sakuya to return to Yukari-chan House after having left. That was mildly interesting to me since that wasn’t in the original manga.
Another change I noticed was in the first story, when Nagi explains to Hayate why Isumi doesn’t need a maid since Isumi has her mother, is that Maria coming in and “mothering” Nagi is removed. Instead, we got an adaptation of the 4-koma comic strip where Isumi says her smartphone is buzzing and must be broken, so her mother says throw it out. That came off funnier in the manga to me.
Regardless, I’m finding Cuties to be rather a disappointing waste of time. I’ll keep blogging it, especially since I’m one of the few doing so. ^_~
Posted in 
Tags: 
When did Isumi become 14 years old?
That, I don’t know. ^_^;
What is with the tanuki making cameo appearances in every episode?
You know, I haven’t even noticed. ^_^; I’ll have to start looking, I guess.
As much as Cuties has basically f’ed up the canon better than a nuclear bomb, I still enjoy it. Of course there’s a mild irritation and perhaps it is due to the fact my memory is sort of fuzzy on the minor manga stories, but if there was something that has been missing from Manglobe’s adaption, it was the comedic value and I’m glad it seems to have been found (Comedy obviously being subjective of course). Case in point, I don’t remember Fumi trying out to be a maid at all and I laughed louder than I had done in a while when Isumi’s mom compared her face to an emoticon.
Fumi’s attempts to become a maid were more recent, but still well beyond where the official manga publication is in America. ^_^; I did remember it because most Fumi chapters are funny. ^_^
“Naturally, this wasn’t missed.”
Normally, I’d say something like “Don’t talk as if you’re talking for everyone!”, but since Hata’s drawing style has never lent itself for fanservice…
Well, my remarks were meant to refer to me only, but I can see how they could be construed otherwise. ^_^; I’m not big on fanservice and ecchi, though I’ve seen a ton of it.
The whole time i was wondering who the maid was. Everybody looks the same and theres like 20 different girls. Bloody confusing, especially as I dont care for any of them.
When Fumi-chan was introduced in the manga, she was pure gold. Hata-sensei makes her mostly in the slack-jawed, super deformed mode these days, which lessens her impact, but she’s still one of the funniest characters in the manga, enough so that she often threatens to steal scenes.