September 26th, 2013 
AstroNerdBoy ハヤテのごとく！/Hayate no Gotoku Chapter 422 Review
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
In Hokkaido, Kayura’s mother lets Kayura’s father know that their daughter has returned to Tokyo. Kayura’s father isn’t so happy that Kayura’s room is a mess.
At Yukari-chan House, Kayura tells Ruka the story of a new idol who held a concert event at a supermarket for their re-opening ceremony. The concert was terrible as the stage was cheaply made, the music was from a cassette player, and the only ones there were a few old people. Kayura felt the idol was sad and shabby, but the idol gave it her all, which affected Kayura. After the concert, the idol shook everyone’s hand and gave them a signed poster. When it was Kayura’s turn, she noticed the idol’s faint smile mixed with bitterness. Thus, Kayura realized the idol wasn’t happy with her situation and had been lying and wasn’t good at it.
Thus, Kayura tells Ruka to not draw lies since she’s bad at lying, Ruka having been the idol in Kayura’s story. Ruka demands to know what Kayura means. Kayura says it something Kayura can’t let go of and hands Ruka back the storyboard.
The next morning, Kayura tells Chiharu that she and Ruka will be heading to Rainbow Village to finish Ruka’s manuscript since having two rivals under the same roof isn’t a good thing. She tells Chiharu to tell Nagi “good luck.”
Maria checks in on the ailing Ayumu, who has a fever. Ayumu wonders if she’s going to die, but Maria assures her she won’t die, but she needs to be checked out, so Maria arranges to have her taken to the hospital.
Meanwhile, Chiharu comes in to help Nagi, finding her in the early stages of getting sick. Nagi is concerned over her lack of progress since she could lose Hayate. Nagi asks how Ruka is doing, to which Chiharu answers that Ruka has had a breakthrough and is making progress. With that, Nagi returns to working on her manga.
Elsewhere, Hina, Hayate, and Kurosu arrive in Hokkaido.
Thoughts/Review:
I’m glad that Hata-sensei isn’t worrying a great deal about forcing gags into the chapters of late. Sure, there was something humorous about Ayumu being ill (even though being sick is never funny) and something humorous about Hayate coming out of a Lamborghini trunk. But this doesn’t feel like, “MUST TELL GAG JOKES” that sometimes Hata-sensei comes off as doing.
I need to go back and read Kayura’s first displayed meeting with Ruka to see if Kayura shows any signs of having met Ruka before or even being her fan. I don’t have a problem if Kayura’s story in this chapter is a retcon, but I’m just curious to know, especially since Kayura hung up in her room the signed poster of Ruka from that early concert
The lie Kayura speaks of is Ruka’s whole life to date as well as her love. The idol lifestyle was forced on Ruka, so she did what she could to be good at it, though clearly, in those early days, she had a hard time being completely successful at hiding the bitterness she felt about having this lifestyle forced on her. That has never ended, thanks to Ruka’s decision to not quit being an idol in order to do the responsible thing and pay off the debt she owes, thanks to her worthless parents.
The other element in Ruka’s manga is the love aspect, where her heroine finds happiness in love. While Ruka may be in love with Hayate, she hasn’t found happiness yet. For starters, Hayate doesn’t love her in a romantic way. He cares about her, just as he cares about a lot of girls. But that’s a long way from romantic love. Even if he did love her, they’d have a tough life together, both of them being so saddled with debt.
Regardless, it will be interesting to see what changes Ruka makes to her manga.
Also interesting is that Kurosu took Hina and Hayate to Hokkaido, Kayura’s home town. I didn’t remember Ruka being from there, but it would explain her being at a concert years earlier for a supermarket there. I’m really curious as to what might still be here that could make Ruka happy.
As an aside, Hina makes an interesting choice to go up to Hokkaido with Hayate and Kurosu. I say this because I wonder if Hata-sensei will try to use this as an opportunity to explore Hina’s backstory a little more. I’m currently (and VERY slowly) rereading the Viz manga releases of Hayate the Combat Butler. One of the remarks Hata-sensei said back when Hina and Yukiji were introduced was his desire to tell their whole debt story, since he’d already done the groundwork to tell said story (which I believe was for an earlier manga concept). I know we’ve seen bits and pieces of that story, including a glimpse of how Yukiji did whatever it took to pay off the debt, but I’d like to see it actually drawn out in more detail, even if it takes several chapters to do so.
So, some interesting things happening in this chapter. I really hope Hata-sensei continues to press forward with actual story and doesn’t go, “Oh no! Must do one shot gag chapters to waste time!”
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I think you should look forward in the timeline to see hints of Kayura being a long-time fan of Ruka. There’s that bit in Cuties wherein she scolds Hayate for trying to kiss an idol and proceeds to give him a very long lecture.
As to Ruka’s “lie,” I guess it’s not as clear-cut as Hata-sensei thinks it is. I’ve seen at least three different interpretations (including yours) of the lie across different blogs and forums. I don’t have one myself as Hata tends to betray my expectations a lot. I just found Kayura’s advice kinda confusing and a bit of a downer really, as I fully expected her to have a shining moment of awesome just like when she was first introduced and she inspired Nagi not to make her manga using conventional methods.
>There’s that bit in Cuties wherein she scolds Hayate for trying to kiss an idol and proceeds to give him a very long lecture.
I tend to ignore Cuties, save for the last two episodes which were crafted by Hata-sensei. ^_^;
>I’ve seen at least three different interpretations (including yours) of the lie across different blogs and forums. I don’t have one myself as Hata tends to betray my expectations a lot.
He certainly knows how to troll an audience, eh? ^_~
>I just found Kayura’s advice kinda confusing and a bit of a downer really, as I fully expected her to have a shining moment of awesome just like when she was first introduced and she inspired Nagi not to make her manga using conventional methods.
I can understand that. However, Kayura did what she needed.
Well, that bit I was talking about should be in episode 12.
Heh, I don’t like how Cuties took random chapters from the manga either, but it was also nice seeing some of them animated. Ruka’s first meeting with Hayate was totally out of context though. It seemed as if they’d known each other for a long time and Ruka just felt comfortable stripping in front of Hayate while changing costumes.
“Ruka’s first meeting with Hayate was totally out of context though. It seemed as if they’d known each other for a long time”
I want to watch when Ruka met Hayate the first time too in anime. T3T
“Ruka just felt comfortable stripping in front of Hayate while changing costumes.”
yeah, agree. I hope I will see Ruka’s so embarassed about this after concert is finished but sigh.
Taking the chapters out of sequence does remove a lot of the context, which is why I don’t like Cuties at all.
I liked this episode a lot. I think Hata is actually a better writer of drama than of comedy. When he is doing drama, it is as though he is talking about what is really important to him, and so it comes out as much more authentic and forceful than his comedy. This is why I think the Athena arc was the best part of this series, and the current Ruka arc is also finally starting to build up a full head of steam.
I think I read somewhere that he stated that initially Hayate was supposed to be more in the nature of a drama and that he was initially going to start with the Athena arc (which is why the second page of volume 1 has a picture of Athena’s house on the precipice) but that his publisher wanted a comedy. But if there is anything I have noticed, it is that Japanese comedies never seem to end as comedies; sooner or later in the course of the show it turns serious and sometimes into a tragedy. Sooner or later they remember the evanescence of life, and then they can’t laugh any more. All the characters in Hayate have tragic backstories, in spite of the fact this is supposed to be a comedy. The opening chapter of Hayate in volume 1 is an atypical start for a comedy, involving as it does destitution and attempted kidnapping.
>I liked this episode a lot. I think Hata is actually a better writer of drama than of comedy. When he is doing drama, it is as though he is talking about what is really important to him, and so it comes out as much more authentic and forceful than his comedy. This is why I think the Athena arc was the best part of this series, and the current Ruka arc is also finally starting to build up a full head of steam.
At times, he can be quite funny, but I agree, he is a good drama writer.
>I think I read somewhere that he stated that initially Hayate was supposed to be more in the nature of a drama and that he was initially going to start with the Athena arc (which is why the second page of volume 1 has a picture of Athena’s house on the precipice) but that his publisher wanted a comedy.
I hadn’t read that specifically. Well, if the publisher is wanting a comedy, then that might explain why Hata-sensei always feels so compelled to force comedy.
>But if there is anything I have noticed, it is that Japanese comedies never seem to end as comedies; sooner or later in the course of the show it turns serious and sometimes into a tragedy. Sooner or later they remember the evanescence of life, and then they can’t laugh any more.
Hmmmm…I hadn’t thought about this, but I know several comedy titles I’ve seen/read did turn serious for a bit.
>All the characters in Hayate have tragic backstories, in spite of the fact this is supposed to be a comedy. The opening chapter of Hayate in volume 1 is an atypical start for a comedy, involving as it does destitution and attempted kidnapping.
Hina’s and Yukiji’s tragic story is the one I really want to see explored. I guess because it has been out there so long.
In terms of comedy vs drama, my understanding is that Hata was expected to do mostly comedy the first few years of the manga. When the first season of the anime came out he kept to doing almost entirely random comedy/fluff during that year so it would be easier for anime watchers to jump in.
Right after that he did the EOTW arc as the first true serious arc. He mentions being really nervous about how it would be received, but it was a hit and ever since it seems he has license to insert drama elements whenever. I’ve seen him answer questions on his blog about wanting to do various “depressing backstories” and such early on and being denied, but that he could probably get away with it now.
For what it’s worth, I’ve seen Hata say more then once that there’s too much backstory to Hina/Yukiji for him to fit it into the manga and he’d have to do it as a spin-off or something.
Not that it stops him from dropping hints about it, of course.
Maybe Hayate , Hinagiku & Kurousu might meet with Ruka’s parents.
Kayura will not let Ruka pursue her love but throw idol job so easily because she is an elite fan of Ruka (if you remember when Kayura reserved tickets for Ruka’s concert via her phone with god speed after she read announcement in newspaper). If Ruka quit from idol job, Kayura will not see her performances anymore.
I think Kayura is like Nagi, they don’t care about Hayate & Ruka’s feelings. Kayura want Ruka as her fav idol forever and Nagi don’t want Ruka has Hayate even if Hayate might love her. I understand about this because Kayura and Nagi still be middle school age so they can’t think other’s feelings are important too.
Hinagiku is different since she want to help Ruka too even if she knew Ruka loves Hayate.