November 6th, 2013 
AstroNerdBoy ハヤテのごとく！/Hayate no Gotoku Chapter 428 Review
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
Hina, Kurosu, and Hayate arrive while inside the venue, Ruka’s mother and father show up. Her dad says they want to apologize, explaining that after they dumped their debt on Ruka and fled, they were involved in a major car crash in Hokkaido. They’d been under medical care (Dr. Kurosu), but when they heard about Ruka’s health problems on TV, Kurosu went in their stead until they were ready to travel.
Ruka’s father speaks of a butler (Hayate) coming to see them and telling his story, and speaking frankly about their situation, but expressing his thoughts that if they are serious about reconciling with their daughter, he feels it will happen. With that, her father apologizes and he and Ruka’s mother bow respectfully. Ruka’s parents say they are taking back the debt and will pay it off, so Ruka is free to do as she wills.
Hearing this, Ruka hands her father the last copy of her doujinshi manga about MURASAKI Shikibu being reborn in modern times. The story now accurately reflected Ruka’s current life, with novel writing replacing being an idol singer. With that, she tells her parents that she’ll continue being an idol because after all is said and done, she truly loves her job and keep singing for herself and no one else.
Ruka tells her parents that she isn’t yet able to forgive them, but she does thank them for the apology and for giving her music.
Thoughts/Review:
There weren’t many, but there were those who called it by stating that the suited person asking to buy the last copy of Ruka’s doujinshi was her father as her parents were the ones collected by Kurosu, Hayate, and Hina.
I didn’t do a good job of expressing it in the blog (actually, I did a crappy job as I read back through things), but ever since Ruka made her decision to continue being an idol, I felt that it was based in part on her love for the job. I remember feeling the crowds swayed her and she based her decision to stay based on them. But when taken with how her rehearsal session went and her earlier hard work as an idol, it is clear that Ruka loved her job even if it had been forced on her.
When one does a job they are forced into, but have no passion for, they may do a good job, but they won’t go above and beyond the call of duty. However, if one truly loves their job, even if it is hard work, long hours, and the like, one would willingly and easily go above and beyond the call of duty to be the best the could be at it. After all, when one truly loves the work they do, it doesn’t seem like work.
So, the decision Ruka makes to remain an idol of her own volition makes sense to me. It works with how we saw Ruka in CTMEOY. That Ruka was into what she did and it showed. I had a more cynical view of things when I watched the anime, chalking Ruka’s appearances purely for CD sales, but it would appear there were aftermath elements from the doujinshi contest at work as well.
I hadn’t cared for Ruka’s parents at all because of how they abandoned her. Hata-sensei giving them an excuse for being absent from Ruka’s life so long is a bit of a stretch. They seemed pretty healthy in this chapter, but the car accident provides a convenient excuse for them not to be around.
Still, when I saw her parents and heard their apology, I couldn’t feel the same disgust with them that I had before when they were faceless entities.
I do wonder if Kurosu has a further role to play in the overall story.
I am surprised that Hata-sensei didn’t show us the trip Kurosu, Hina, and Hayate took. I really expected chapter 428 to deal with that. I guess that Hata-sensei is wanting to press forward with things.
Well, it will be interesting to see where we go from here.
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Tsk. Wasn’t Atsumari after all. Missed the mark, but at least she did have some involvement here – which proves that she’s not as bad as she seems.
Looks like Ruka has been conveniently removed as a major character now. I didn’t like how little involvement Hayate actually had in this whole doujinshi arc and with things more or less resolved now, he can remain as oblivious as ever to all the girls’ feelings for him.
While I like that Ruka finally admitted that she loves being an idol, I felt this entire chapter was very, very rushed. There was very little to no foreshadowing regarding Ruka’s love for her idol career.
As for Ruka’s parents, you’d think that they’d at least try to get in contact with Ruka once they found out that they were on the verge of death… gotta wonder what kind of injuries they sustained when they apparently had to seek out Kurosu in order to be healed. Did they need some kind of operation that only a doctor with miraculous hands who charges outrageous prices could pull off? (lol)
So… while I’m all for the developments and resolutions in this chapter, I feel that they weren’t fleshed out well enough to make this a good arc-ender. I hope there’s a little bit more before we move on to the movie and CTMEOY’s respective timelines.
I liked those panels that shift in-between Ruka and Murasaki Shikibu’s perspectives, but I thought the story itself wasn’t all that special.
>Wasn’t Atsumari after all. Missed the mark, but at least she did have some involvement here – which proves that she’s not as bad as she seems.
It almost seems like she may be working with Ruka’s parents on a professional level.
>I didn’t like how little involvement Hayate actually had in this whole doujinshi arc and with things more or less resolved now, he can remain as oblivious as ever to all the girls’ feelings for him.
I think Hayate’s stepping aside was to allow Nagi to shine.
>While I like that Ruka finally admitted that she loves being an idol, I felt this entire chapter was very, very rushed. There was very little to no foreshadowing regarding Ruka’s love for her idol career.
It was rushed, I suspect so that Hata-sensei can shift to comedy chapters to go into the end of the year break with.
As to the foreshadowing, it was more subtle. Like I said, one doesn’t go all out and be the best at their job if they hate it.
>As for Ruka’s parents, you’d think that they’d at least try to get in contact with Ruka once they found out that they were on the verge of death… gotta wonder what kind of injuries they sustained when they apparently had to seek out Kurosu in order to be healed. Did they need some kind of operation that only a doctor with miraculous hands who charges outrageous prices could pull off? (lol)
*lol* Yeah, well…
I think there’s an element of Japanese culture at work here. Once they’d abandoned Ruka, they could not then contact her once they were in a car accident. It was only because Dr. Kurosu let others know so that Hayate could return with her to convince them to step up to the plate that they even reached out to her. Otherwise, I don’t think they would have ever done so.
>So… while I’m all for the developments and resolutions in this chapter, I feel that they weren’t fleshed out well enough to make this a good arc-ender.
And I can certainly understand that.
>I hope there’s a little bit more before we move on to the movie and CTMEOY’s respective timelines.
I’m not sure if more with Ruka will be done, but I suspect there’s a fair amount of stuff to be done before CTMEOY for sure (getting Nagi back to the mansion).