ハヤテのごとく！/Hayate no Gotoku Chapter 410

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

After Nagi introduces Kurosu (and her Lamborghini) to Hina and Chiharu, Chiharu figures Nagi didn’t get any ideas for her manga. She bluntly tells Nagi that she and Hina have already done enough sightseeing in Kyoto, so Kurosu suggests heading down to Ise Jinguu (Ise Grand Shrine), which is over 90 miles away. Hina and Chiharu are game to go, but Nagi wonders why a doctor would need help from a god. Kurosu’s response is that sometimes, prayer is one’s only option.

Since the Lamborghini only holds one, Chiharu and Hina offer to go by train until they realize they don’t have the money for that. Nagi, remembering her ride, offers her spot to one of them and she’ll take the train instead. Isumi shows up with the shaken Kayura and offers to take them to Ise. Kayura is upset at having nearly died several times thanks to Isumi. Isumi finds this rude, considering they crashed only a few times and survived.

Isumi insists on being allowed to do this as an apology to Nagi for getting her lost in Hokkaido in the first place. Nagi reluctantly agrees, but discover Isumi’s transport is a damaged helicopter, which she claims will make it. No one wants to get on the helicopter, causing Isumi to begin curses on the others for mocking her kindness. They decide to draw omikuji (fortunes), and the one with the best luck gets to ride with Kurosu. Everyone draws bad to worse fortunes, with Nagi drawing an impossible “loser” fortune. Since Chiharu’s fortune was the least bad, she gets to ride with Kurosu.

Maria shows up with Ah-tan, having gone there to help the lost Nagi. Hina asks how she got here, to which Maria says it was a private jet. Nagi says that’s what they’ll use to get to Ise, causing Hina worries over getting on an aircraft and Isumi to be displeased about no one using her helicopter. Meanwhile, Chiharu discovers why Nagi was keen not to ride with Kurosu as they speed to Ise.

Thoughts/Review:

I’ve got to hand it to Hata-sensei on this chapter. I haven’t laughed this much over a Hayate the Combat Butler chapter in a long time. The only problem with that is that I’ve been sick the last several days, so my laughing stirred up my chest, which gave me a terrible coughing spell. Ah, but the laughs were worth it…mostly.

Hata-sensei has always been good at the “reveal jokes” (not sure if these have an official name or not), whereby he sets up a joke, then reveals the payoff on the next page. Such was the case with Isumi’s helicopter, Hina’s fortune, & Nagi’s fortune.

Making these kind of jokes funniest comes from doing the unexpected, or doing the expected at an unexpected moment or in an unexpected way. As such, when Isumi reveals the battered helicopter to them, it is funny because one doesn’t know what to expect on that next page.

The fortunes were all funny, save for Chiharu’s, since I didn’t get Kayura’s “Ao x Kuro” reference. Hina’s “A helicopter will crash” fortune was so nicely set up by the previous reveal of the battered helicopter, combined with Kayura’s having crashed in three other helicopters with Isumi. Kayura’s impossible bad luck fortune made me smile, but it helped set up the reveal for Nagi’s impossible “loser” fortune, which had me laughing (and coughing).

Considering Nagi’s “fortune” was that she would lose because she spills ink on the manuscript, I wonder if Hata-sensei is foreshadowing what will ultimately happened in the contest between Nagi and Ruka or not. He has been known to couch important things in humor.  It wouldn’t surprise me if Nagi loses, since I’ve long thought that this would be the outcome, followed by Ruka giving up on Hayate of her own accord.

Anyway, now everyone got to Kyoto and now it is down to Ise. What fun awaits there?