ハヤテのごとく！/Hayate no Gotoku Manga
Hayate the Combat Butler Chapter 452 Review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Kayura and Chiharu are enjoying the amenities of their hotel, but when they return to the suite, they find Nagi is very bored. After briefly wondering what might be going on with Hayate, Hina, and A-tan, Nagi decides that while they wait for them to return, Chiharu should go to the convenience store to buy her some Häagen-Dazs ice cream. Chiharu strongly objects to this, so Nagi challenges her to a game, the loser has to buy the Häagen-Dazs. Maria offers to go and buy it, but Nagi refuses, saying she doesn’t want charity Häagen-Dazs.

Chiharu agrees, so Nagi says they are playing Object Shitori, meaning that for this word game, you can’t just state the word, you have to actually have it with you. Kayura, Ayumu, and Maria get into the game as well. The main fight remains between Chiharu and Nagi as they go all out. Kayura’s words all seem to come from the stack of anime music CDs she has with her.

In the end, the group ends up at the convenience store with it being Nagi’s turn to find a word that starts with “ha.” Naturally, she pulls a container of Häagen-Dazs from the freezer, but since they are already there, Nagi just buys it.

Returning to the hotel, the group talks about the game while Nagi notices something.

Thoughts/Review:

Häagen-Dazs comes up a lot in manga and anime, as if it is the only ice cream around. It is good ice cream, but rather expensive. The only time I actively purchased Häagen-Dazs was when they did their Five line. The milk chocolate version was the best, but alas, they no longer sell it, so I don’t buy Häagen-Dazs any more.

That aside, I wonder if Hata-sensei is making fun of his own simplistic character designs. The generic faces make it very difficult to distinguish one character from another without certain identifying markers, such as Chiharu’s glasses. But, considering how Kayura made the remark about a character with glasses having a 3 for eyes, maybe Hata-sensei is just doing a generic glasses joke.

Content-wise, this is just a humorous filler chapter to show what the others were doing while Hina, Hayate, and Ah-tan are getting the spices. The shitori game was fun, especially the fight between Chiharu and Nagi. I loved the nod to Maison Ikkoku with one of Kayura’s CDs.

The mystery Hata-sensei leaves us with is what Nagi saw when they all returned to the hotel. With Hata-sensei, one can never be sure on which direction he’ll go.  I could be as simple as seeing Hayate and Hina returning together, or it could be another character showing up.  Heck, it could be a Häagen-Dazs vending machine, meaning they didn’t have to go to the store at all. *lol*

In the end, not a lot to say, but an enjoyable, fun, and humorous chapter.