April 4th, 2015 
AstroNerdBoy ハヤテのごとく！/Hayate no Gotoku Manga
Hayate the Combat Butler Chapter 487 Review
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
Twenty seven hours, 35 minutes into the Level 5 trip, on a snowy mountain in New Zealand, Nagi is collapsed on the snow. She pulls herself together and curses some girl.
At the start of the trip on the bus, Nagi is confident of a win, but things the rules are too simple, suggesting there’s more to this Level 5 trip. On cue, their completers beep as Director Kananiwa appears on the bus’s monitor to explain the time counter and the second number, indicated the remaining people in the competition. She further explains that all of their electronic devices confiscated, which irritates Nagi.
Twenty one hours later, they reach their destination, where it is winter. Nagi realizes they are in New Zealand based on the geography as the Men in Black escort the students to the hotel to get warmer clothing. The students are taken to ski, or be instructed on how to ski. Hayate and Hina are able to snowboard with ease while Nagi, Izumi, and Aika have great difficulty. Some of the girls talk about how Katsura-sensei isn’t there, but on cue, Yukiji shows up in a mask, pretending to be someone else.
From a distance, another girl observes the students skiing and remarks on how many enemies she has.
Thoughts/Review:
Well, I think all of us Hayate fans are in agreement — the Can’t Take My Eyes Off You story is no longer canon.
The beginning of this chapter does something similar to the start of CTMEOY in that Nagi is shown to be in peril sometime in in the near future of the story. Unlike CTMEOY, Nagi is shown to be much stronger in this chapter because she rises again and doesn’t scream for Hayate.
The end of the chapter with the appearance of what appears to be Ruri from CTMEOY is the final piece to say that CTMEOY is no longer canon. I was really surprised to see her and I wonder how her character will be. (No guarantee she’ll be called Ruri.)
One wonders why the group needs to know how to ski. Skiing or snowboarding down a mountain doesn’t seem like a skill needed to find a treasure or something. So it will be interesting to see how this skill is used later on.
In the short term, it was used to show off Hina and Hayate’s skills, as well as comically show off Nagi, Aika, and Izumi having no skill.
I loved Yukiji showing up in a terrible disguise. I just know something fun will happen.
I’m really looking forward to seeing how Hata-sensei pans this story out and hope Nagi’s father gets introduced.
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New Genshiken is OUT! Get it while it’s hot.
Read it; review is scheduled for Tuesday. ^_^ Thanks for the heads up! 😀
Wait, was their aim to find something? I thought it was a “school trip” with a prize for the survivor. When I saw them skiing, I instantly thought; “that’s right, it’s still a school trip after all”.
Forgot to ask, since CTMEOY is turning into non-canon, do you think I should still watch it? Because I haven’t.
Part of it you already know since the first half of the anime takes random manga chapters that had not been animated before, inserts the character of Ruri into the situation, and goes from there. The second half of the story is interesting in that this was Hata-sensei’s idea of what happened to Nagi’s father.
So yeah, it doesn’t hurt to watch it.
I’m letting CTMEOY influence my thinking, which may be a big mistake. With Director Kananiwa being tied to the main plot, and “Ruri” showing up, I suspect there is something Kananiwa is hoping the students will find. Either that, or the “winner” will get more than a ¥150 million prize.
I enjoyed seeing those panels with Nagi helplessly whining for Hayate to help her out. Totally reminds me of the older chapters/anime.
Yukiji could turn out to be the surprise winner of this whole thing. She seems to have a talent for winning these types of contests… and then subsequently losing all the money she won.
I’m also hoping that Not-Ruri will still be a comedic half-pint who knows systema like she was in CTMEOY. She was the original systema fighting loli for me before some Marie Rose came along.
That’s true. However, now that I think about things more, I’m wondering if Director Kananiwa has other plans for the winner.
Heh! Interestingly enough, I was hoping for the opposite — a more serious character.
I’m daring to hope a little for a well-crafted ending… but I’ll be happy as long as we don’t get another Negima, where you know things are coming to a close, but for once the mangaka has time to cleanly wrap everything up then AND THEY LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER. The End.
Apologies for the extreme cynicism – I’m a bad combination of skeptical, pessimistic, and superstitious (i.e. expecting a good ending will cause the inverse). Murphy and I don’t get along so well. (^_~)
(That, and Evergreen just finished pooping in my breakfast cereal.)
I agree with you about the ending.
I heard that!
It is past my bedtime, so I’m not getting that reference. ^_^;
VAGUELY-SPOILERISH COMMENTS ABOUT EVERGREEN AHEAD
Sorry about that… it’s a manga with the same author as Toradora and Golden Time that at one time I had good hopes for. Now: There were three chapters left, the plot just imploded, and the last chapter was a tangent. Which leaves two chapters, when it would take no less than a dozen to achieve something better than AND THAT WAS IT. The End.
Ah, I understand now. Well, what’s worse is when a manga just stops with zero resolution. CLAMP has had a few of those.
It can definitely be worse to be left dangling in midair, but what I’m worried about with Evergreen is this possibility:
[spoiler title="because this is crossing the line from vague into moderate hint/spoiler territory"]A really good story writer can convince the reader that all hope is lost and the protagonists are hurtling toward an unstoppable train wreck (figuratively speaking) – then at the last minute, they pull multiple unnoticed threads together to create a believable happy ending (or at least a decent one). It takes a good bit of talent, but it can be done.
A lot of story writers try to do this, but stretch the threads a bit too far. This is easy enough to let slide; there’s a good reason they call it “willing suspension of disbelief”.
But some story writers paint a crystal-clear picture of a train wreck about to happen, then give a completely unbelievable explanation for how it was avoided. It may well just be me, but to my mind these are actually more sad than if they’d ended it prematurely or with the train wreck happening.
If you see this, thank you for listening.[/spoiler]
I switched this from ROT13 to the spoiler tags. ^_^ Thanks for the thoughts. ^_^
That girl is named Tsugumi Ruri (raws are out and although I was only able to read the name, I don’t think the name would be dropped randomly)
Nor do I. ^_^