Hayate no Gotoku! Cuties
ハヤテのごとく！Cuties Episode 08 review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Ayumu discovers she’s gained weight, but can’t figure out how. When she goes to work at Cafe Donguri, Hayate offers her a plate of nikuman, leading Ayumu to realize that Hayate has been making all this delicious food for her. While her instincts tell her not to eat if she wants to lose weight, eating food Hayate has made trumps all. Hayate also offers her a plate of cookies, causing Ayumu to recall her last birthday.  Back then, Hayate made cookies for her, though Nagi was not pleased by this. Chiharu suggests that Nagi throw a surprise birthday party for Ayumu, which Nagi reluctantly agrees to.

Miki, Izumi, Risa, Hina, and Nagi gather at Cafe Donguri to discuss the surprise birthday plans when Ayumu arrives, hoping they remember her birthday. The group tries to act casual and when Ayumu starts dropping hints, everyone abandons Hayate. Miki, Izumi, and Risa watch the situation from outside the cafe, where no matter how hard Ayumu tries to get Hayate trapped where he’d be forced to acknowledge her birthday, he always finds a way out. Depressed by her lack of success, Ayumu heads home. The others return and prepare, leaving Nagi to call Ayumu and beg-demand Ayumu return so she can talk to her. Ayumu reluctantly does, and is happy when she sees her surprise party.

Hayate and Ayumu finish up their work shift at Cafe Donguri, so Ayumu decides to use the notion of increased crime in Japan to get Hayate to walk her home. As they walk and talk, Ayumu remembers she left her notebook at school, so they take a side trip there. Hayate mentions the ghosts at Hakuou, which scares Ayumu though she wouldn’t mind seeing one just to jump into Hayate’s arms. They get the notebook with no trouble, leading Hayate to wonder where the night teacher is. They find him bound and gagged as a huge criminal attacks Ayumu. Hayate defeats him with Ayumu’s notebook, destroying it in the process. The two then walk home, Ayumu wondering if that evening’s excitement caused her to lose weight.

Thoughts/Review:

In case you are curious, this episode was adapted from the first half of manga chapter 347 (volume 32), the last half of chapter 281, chapter 282 (both from volume 26), and chapter 157 (volume 15).

There were obvious changes to the original manga story. For example, Ayumu’s “gift” was actually a souvenir she picked up in Greece when she and all the others spent Golden Week there. So it made sense for her to be giving the cafe “Master” a gift in the manga while in the anime, it comes off as odd.

Also, in the manga story for Ayumu’s birthday, the reason she comes by the cafe is to work her shift. As such, she’s in her Cafe Donguri apron and regular work clothes rather than her school uniform. However, for whatever reason, the anime decided to just leave her in her school seifuku and just hang around, making her just seem pathetic and desperate to have her birthday acknowledged.  In the manga, she has purpose hanging around, for which she takes advantage of to attempt to get her birthday acknowledged.

Basically, as I’ve said before, I’m not a fan of this Frankenstein approach this anime series is doing. Context is SO very important. I weep over the lack of a proper manga adaptation. (Well, not really, but you get the point.)

Regardless, I’ll keep blogging this one since I don’t like to quit in the middle of anything. Plus, almost no one else is blogging this anime. *lol*