May 29th, 2015 
AstroNerdBoy ハヤテのごとく！/Hayate no Gotoku Manga
Hayate the Combat Butler Chapter 494 Review
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
The school trip goes from New Zealand to the Amazon area in South America. The Men in Black greet the students and warn that students without money may have a difficult time of things. The students are taken to the free “hotel” which is a rundown stilt shack, which only comes with one bottle of water and no food. However, residents might enjoy contact with wildlife as a result. Further, drug cartels and guerrillas are in the area, so the free “hotel” is very dangerous. As such, the Men in Black recommend saying at hotels that cost ¥300,000 a night.
No one quits the second orientation, so Kananiwa appears on a TV screen to explain that the goal this time is to capture a photo of the most unusual animal will be the winner. To that end, she has drafted Wataru and Saki to be judges. Wataru gets asked a question, so he goes off on how they should go for overwhelming victory.
The Men in Black inform the group that there are only three money prizes this time — 1st gets ¥10 million, second gets ¥5 million, and 3rd gets ¥1 million. The group is given an hour to prepare, so Risa figures that a three person team to win one of those top spots and stay at the ¥300,000 hotel.
Nagi and Hayate grab onto the idea and look for a camera person, so Kotetsu pops up and offers his services. Reluctantly, Nagi and Hayate agree. The idea spreads so that the 34 people in the group form 11 teams, leaving Izumi all alone.
Thoughts/Review:
I know Hata-sensei is pulling the old gag on Izumi being alone, but really, I don’t understand why it needs to be three person teams. After pondering it WAY longer than I should have, I’m guessing that the idea here is that with the cheapest prize being ¥1 million, the person in the group submitting the photo that wins this prize could then spend the ¥300K on their room, then spend another ¥600K for their teammates.
What is Risa still doing in the competition? Didn’t she quit when they were in the prison, meaning she should have been relaxing and having fun at a real hotel for the rest of the time? Risa’s only purpose appears to be to leech money off of Hina in order to put Hina into a bad spot (both for comedy and plot purposes) at some point because she doesn’t have the money.
Kotetsu, who’s been mentioned as having been on the trip, finally makes an appearance. Pretty patient on his part, considering how he wants to play jackhammer with Hayate. Kotetsu’s camera stuff has been showed all along, starting from his being a train otaku, and then progressing to him taking pictures of Hayate that covered his room.
I figure Nagi, Hayate, and Kotetsu will win at least third prize. I figure Hina, Risa, and whomever will win one too. Since Izumi appears to be left out in the cold (although I’d laugh if she went solo and took first place), that leaves Miki, Aika, Kayura, and Chiharu.
Although the debt card (Ushijima Card) has been done as a gag, I can see things getting to the point to were Hayate is forced to take a massive loan, win the prize (or Nagi win it), and then he uses that winnings to pay off the debt card, leaving him still owing Nagi that massive debt that he’s owed throughout the series.
Saki and Wataru showing up for a cameo was surprising, but that was the only way Hata-sensei could try to keep them semi-relevant to the series since things have put them off to the side until the end game (I suspect).
Finally, we still don’t know what Kananiwa is trying to pull off here. Although it has been ages since I watched the Can’t Take My Eyes Off You anime, I do firmly believe there will be parallels with the manga’s story and the anime’s story. If Kananiwa is indeed Dolly, then she may be looking for a suitable candidate.
Dolly, an immortal wood nymph (or at least a very long lived one) used the Kurotsubaki to keep her human lover alive by transferring his soul into a new, young body, while at the same time extracting the soul of the person in the young body and ultimately placing it into the dying body. So Kananiwa’s purpose might be to determine who is the strongest person out there to not only be the host for her lover, but to steal the Kurotsubaki. This would make Hayate the perfect candidate on both accounts, since (1) he’s inhumanly strong and endurant and (2) he’s already seen the Kurotsubaki, thus he could be talked into stealing it.
Ruri could be there to make sure that Nagi won just to try to gain access to the Kurotsubaki, as she did in the anime.
Anyway, that’s just a theory.
I wrote a lot for a chapter that really didn’t do a whole lot. We’ll see how things pan out.
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Now that I think, that credit card indeed could be a way for Hata to keep Hayate as Nagi’s butler in case he wins, considering that it doesn’t have a limit.
Players who don’t get the cash prizes could still remain in the trip as long as they win the 150 million.
Since Hata-sensei is known to use gag jokes as plot devices, I figure this might be one of them since money is clearly going to become an issue.
If you’re talking about Risa; yes, she could still be in the trip, but there should be no need for her to take part in the competition, because she already pressed her button (= surrender her right to win the 150 million).
I figured once they pressed the button, they stayed at a nice hotel from there on. So it surprised me that Risa would still be allowed to participate, even as a non-participant.