ハヤテのごとく！/Hayate no Gotoku Manga
Hayate the Combat Butler Chapter 473 Review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

After Saki learns that the boy Ayumu likes is Hayate, she decides to help Ayumu since “Hayate-sama” is a natural gigolo. So as Ayumu changes into her maid uniform for work, Saki confronts her with what she knows. She says she’ll support Ayumu’s feelings for Hayate, but when Ayumu wants to know how Saki will support her, Saki doesn’t have an immediate answer.

Saki changes the discussion by questioning how Ayumu couldn’t advance her romance with Hayate when she was living with him, despite the fact that there were others living there (Yukari-chan House) as well. Ayumu refrains from retorting that Saki hasn’t made any progress with Wataru despite living with him all this time. Saki advises doing something extreme, then realizes she’s never made progress, even when bathing with Wataru.  Saki says that fashion is important, despite the fact that she only wears a maid uniform. As they discuss what to wear, Wataru comes in, telling them to get to work.

Returning to Yakuri-chan house, Ayumu decides to put some fashion work into her outfit. Hina comes in wearing a t-shirt and sweat pants, so Ayumu scolds her for not working on her appearance to attract Hayate. Hina responds that doing such work would be the same as losing. Ah-tan comes in, saying Hina wouldn’t understand it due to her lack of romance talent. She says that their efforts might not be rewarded, but they don’t want to have any regrets.

Ayumu discovers she left her phone at work, so she takes off to go get it. On the way there, she passes an area where she sees Konoha (Makise) kissing Hayate.

Thoughts/Review:

Har! This chapter was an interesting way to not only have the Ayumu x Hayate thread pushed forward (with touch of the Hina x Hayate thread), but also a way to actually acknowledge the Saki x Wataru thread, which we all knew was happening, but was never really officially put out there. However, with Saki’s thoughts “betraying” her, we know now for certain that she has deep feelings for Wataru.

As to Ayumu, she was pretty humorous here with her “useless couple” thoughts. Her self restraint on saying something to Saki about her lack of advancing her romance with Wataru was funny.

As to Hina, I found it amusing that she doesn’t want to dress up for Hayate as it would be the same as losing, but she has dressed up for him when he served that dinner for her.

Being an Athena shipper, I like Ah-tan’s involvement here. There’s a part of me that wants to think that she understands their feelings, but in the end, she’d be happy to have them removed from the field of play, even if it means encouraging Hina and Ayumu to go for Hayate, only to set them up for failure.

The scene with Ayumu finding Konoha kissing Hayate, that reminded me a lot of the scene where Nagi found Hayate together with Ruka. It is hard to say what the result of this scene will be since Hata-sensei is so unpredictable.

Speaking of Ruka, I know she’s not coming back into the manga, but I would like to have a reference to her that isn’t a flashback.  I’m thinking something like a concert appearance or the like.

Finally, the interlude frames with Nagi and Maria were weird. I guess Hata-sensei didn’t have enough story to fill the chapter.

So, a fun chapter.