March 28th, 2014 
AstroNerdBoy ハヤテのごとく！/Hayate no Gotoku Manga
Hayate the Combat Butler Chapter 445 Review
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
Hina is not happy with how Hayate is treating her as Hayate sends the exhausted Kotestsu packing with a train ticket home as thanks. After the first day of sales, they have only about ¥200,000, which is only a fraction of what they need to win the bet. As such, it is decided that they need something really special to draw in the customers.
Ah-tan suggests making curry, mainly because she wants it. Nagi’s suggestion of “black curry” is rejected due to it using illegal drugs. Ah-tan says they need special spices to make the curry revolutionary, but there happens to be a nearby island with the spices they’ll need. Hina volunteers to held out into the night to help acquire said spices since she can handle any thugs they might encounter. Ayumu offers to assist as well, but Ah-tan rejects that.Hayate scores a swan boat as Chiharu teases Hina on her opportunity to be with Hina. Hina takes this differently, thanking Chiharu for reminding her that she needs to pay back Hayate for being mean to her.On Higan Island, Hina remarks on the atmosphere of the place, leading Ah-tan to tell a horror story of a village of murdered folks who used to live on the island, but are now ghosts. Hina is not amused and freaks out when a spirit orb drifts past. A series of screams are attributed by Ah-tan to the murder looking for new victims (said murderer having committed suicide). However, overcoming these obstacles is what will make the curry awesome.Taking Hina’s hand, Hayate starts to promise to protect her when the ground opens beneath them, causing them to fall in. As they fall, Ah-tan hopes Hayate can protect Hina.
Thoughts/Review:
Har! Hata-sensei loves to do things unexpected as well as the expected.
Among the expected things, Hayate gets the restaurant up and running, but sales aren’t enough. That wasn’t difficult to see coming.
While Ah-tan doing something was expected as well, what she ultimately did was unexpected.
I think that since Ah-tan needed Hina living at Yukari-chan House, she wanted Hina going on this island excursion with Hayate. The fact that Hayate’s recent attitude only helped. I think that had Hina not volunteered, Ah-tan would have manipulated things to get her to go. As it was, Ah-tan got what she wanted, so she kept her mouth shut about the ghosts on the island.
If I’m right about Ah-tan wanting Hina and Hayate on the island, I wonder how this will play into her ultimate plans to return to power and form. Since Athena and Hayate had been boyfriend/girlfriend, and Hina and Athena had been friends, one wonders how this will make things play out. I still believe Hayate has a torch for Athena, which would further add to the mix. Could Athena being trying to cause a massive explosion of negative emotion in Hina?
It is a shame that we won’t learn anything for a couple of weeks.
Finally, I smell the lovely scent of a young lady in the air. I think we can expect Isumi popping in for this adventure before all is said and done. ^_^
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Hayate is acting quite a bit out of character here. From a story perspective, I don’t think a proper groundwork was laid for his sudden ruthlessness. On the other hand, maybe he is just getting tired of being everyone else’s fall guy. After all, when we met him in chapter 1 he had decided on following a criminal career. From now on, let these lazy girls do their own cooking. I agree with you, though, I think that the girl Hayate loves is Athena, first because he said so to Hina, and secondly because Athena is part of the main plot stem. And thirdly because I favor Athena.
Well, he has been angry before, mainly at Kotetsu or if someone tries to hurt Negi. He’s been ruthless before, namely when he drove Ruka to learn to ride a bike in an incredible short period of time. So both elements were originally shown to be there.
That being said, this is the first time Hayate’s done something in his own self interest, using anger at his brother and the ruthless streak within him as tools to get what he wants done. So while I agree that Hayate is acting out of character from how he normally does things, I do think enough of the groundwork has been laid to establish how Hayate could snap.
I think this is part of it. Ikusa’s attitude caused Hayate to snap. At that moment, he was not going to submit to another family member doing something that could hurt someone he cared about (in this case, Nagi and getting her back into the mansion).
I’m with you on all three points. I think we’ll see Athena disappear either at the end of this arc, or shortly afterward since she was not part of the movie nor the CTMEOY TV series. When Nagi is back in the mansion, I think that we could end up seeing a new “find Athena” quest for Hayate.
Or it could just be that Atena is a sadist and is just doing it fir the lulz.
Possibly, but I suspect plot reasons behind everything at this point.
I agree, I think the author established his basic plot right at the start and will stick to it until the end. I think , however, it is uncharacteristic of Hayate to use other people as his tools to achieve his purposes. He is a combat butler and can be ruthless but he has never done that before. When he was ruthless with Ruka, it was for her benefit, not his.
You are correct that he’s never done it before. The elements were there though, and it was Hina who told them at their first meeting that he should do something for himself sometimes. Now seems to be that sometime, and how ironic is it that Hina is the one suffering for it. *lol*
It’s kindofa trivial note to make, but I got a kick out of the chapter title. Ano Hana is one of my favorites, and the way they chose to corrupt its name gave me a good laugh. (^_^)
Interesting idea, and it would make sense if it plays out that way. I kinda suspect that this is just sensei looking for a way to wrap yet one more loose end up, though. By getting them alone together, he’s setting the stage to unambiguously sink the HayatexHina ‘ship.
I haven’t seen Ano Hana, though I am aware of it on a surface level (meaning I have seen imagery for the series, but that’s it).
The only reason I haven’t gone down that path is that as I reread the manga from Viz, I see that Hata-sensei seems to set up these Hina-Hayate moments, but doesn’t kill the romance. Even after Hina learned that Hayate was still in love with Athena, she didn’t lose her feelings for Hayate.
Hina also has Shirozakura, which Athena needs to regain her power. I forgot to mention that in my original post (though it was implied by Hina living at Yukari-chan House at Ah-tan’s request). So I think that element is at play here.