ハヤテのごとく！/Hayate no Gotoku
Hayate the Combat Butler Prototype Chapter Review

Since Hayate the Combat Butler is on a break this week, I thought I’d go back to the origins of this manga series that I enjoy so much.  Prior to the manga fans of Hayate the Combat Butler know and love being done, a thirty two page prototype manga of the same name (Hayate no Gotoku in the Japanese) was produced. I admit, I’m not too versed on its history (anyone who does know, please feel free to enlighten me in the comments), but it appears that this prototype manga was published in magazine form at some point in time. Whether that was prior to the actual manga’s publication, or whether it was published as part of a celebration of the manga series as a way of saying, “this is where it all started,” I cannot say.

Regardless, I thought I would compare this prototype manga to the start of the canon Hayate the Combat Butler manga and write a review.

The premise of the story is the same, but there are a lot of differences. For starters, Hayate has the debt from his parents as he’s standing at the lot where his house used to stand. He’s being chased by the yakuza; he can’t get a job due to not having a legal residence; he has ¥120 to his name; and he decides to go into crime by kidnapping an ojousama, figuring that even if he fails, prison has a bed and food.  Naturally, he meets Nagi at the park, where he sends the two bozos who are trying to hit on her packing for going after his target.

This is where things really start to change. After Nagi thanks Hayate for saving her, she then asks him how to use the vending machine. I laughed when Hayate showed Nagi a ¥100 coin, to which she said she’d never seen such a thing. So rather than give up his coat to her (she is wearing one here), he buys her a beverage with the last of his money before proceeding to tell her a lot of exposition to establish the plot (his debt, the yakuza, etc.). Nagi finds him to be a good person, even laughing when Hayate confesses he’d planed to kidnap her. Nagi finds this confession of Hayate’s as further proof that he’s a good person.

This is where things start getting a little odd to me in terms of plot. Obviously, Hata-sensei wants Hayate to be Nagi’s butler, but how he gets the characters to that point doesn’t ring true.  For starters, if someone said, “I was going to kidnap you” after they’d bought you a beverage with their money and then showed you how to drink said canned beverage, would you want to invite them over, even if you are super rich?  Yet that’s exactly what Nagi does here.

How they get to the Sanzenin estate is not show, but they arrive, Hayate is stunned, and Nagi brings him in. Now enter Maria, who is not happy that Nagi just left a party and has been gone for a while. At Nagi’s word that Hayate is her benefactor, Maria immediately accepts him and she too wants to show gratitude to Hayate. This too comes off as an unnatural reaction.

Now that Hata-sensei has Hayate in the Sanzenin mansion, it is time to bring in the yakuza element and kidnappings as Maria warns Nagi to be careful after some yakuza were in the area screaming about selling a kid’s organs, so they couldn’t let him get away. But how to get Hayate in as a butler? Ah, just have Maria listen to Nagi wax poetically about her savior, Hayate.  So Maria offers him the job of butler, since they just happen to have a position open. Naturally, Hayate accepts. *lol* Yeah, it is pretty silly.

Ah, but in the early days of the manga, there was another person who was supposed to play a larger role — Klaus!  The head butler arrives on cue and wants to know why she’d hire someone they know nothing about. Her reasoning? He was in trouble and Nagi had fallen in love with him. Her amazing insight tells Maria that Nagi’s love will be unrequited as Hayate doesn’t seem to be interested in younger girls. Hoo!hoo!

As silly as that notion is, I did find the twisted side of Maria to be amusing. She was looking forward to seeing this drama unfold as Nagi would be troubled by the fact that Hayate never fell in love with her.

So Hayate now is a butler in the Sanzenin household. Maria’s twisted nature comes to life again as Hayate confesses to not knowing how to be a butler, to which Maria says bluntly that if he can’t hack it, he’ll be fired. Hayate’s response of working until he dies and Maria’s “I’m looking forward to it” response cracked me up though. ^_^

Maria sets the stage for the romantic angle of the manga by asking Hayate to support Nagi’s heart. We learn of Nagi’s many enemies due to her position, which has led to her isolation. Since Hayate understands being isolated, he can relate, and Maria then asks him to protect Nagi. As such, Hayate tells Nagi that he’ll always protect her as that’s his new mission, so all she has to do is call his name and he will appear.

After blowing off the idea of really being kidnapped, Nagi is kidnapped, causing Maria and Klaus to be in a panic. Hayate grabs a bike, conveniently parked on the sidewalk, where like in the canon manga, he then goes after the kidnappers at an incredible rate of speed. Nagi is not the composed, sarcastic girl of the canon manga since this version of the character has not been through various kidnapping attempts.  But, she does call for Hayate, who appears as he did in the canon.

Hata-sensei goes for the gag as he has Hayate run over (which is pretty similar to the canon), whereupon he falls on the hood of the car. However, Hayate doesn’t have that “I’m going to kill anyone that harms Ojousama” air to him. The two kidnappers simply panic because some bloodied guy that should be dead is on their car asking for Nagi’s return.

Having saved Nagi’s life, Maria and Klaus arrive. Nagi gets mildly annoyed by Hayate getting excited to see Maria again and his excited explanation to her of why he’s so strong and durable.

As I look back, it really is quite amazing how much improved Hata-sensei’s canon work became over his prototype manga. Rather than just making wild leaps in order to get the characters into places he wanted and to make certain information known, in the canon, Hata-sensei manages to get the flow of things correct, so that things happen in a logical way. We, the audience, are already expected to believe that Hayate is virtually indestructible as well as incredibly strong and fast. Therefore, adding to that by Maria magically knowing Hayate’s feelings for Nagi and the like in the prototype was just too much.

Since I’m a big fan of the Hayate the Combat Butler manga, I’m really glad I had an opportunity to see the manga’s origins. Although the canon chapters that superseded the prototype are far superior, there’s no denying that for me, I found the prototype chapter to be rather fun.