Hayate the Combat Butler Chapter 522 Manga Review (Ending a manga.)

ハヤテのごとく!/Hayate no Gotoku Manga
Hayate the Combat Butler Chapter 522 Review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Hayate the Combat Butler chapter 522 Nagi visits Chiharu at Yukari-chan House to discuss how the gag manga Ika-chan is ending after nine years. Nagi goes on to speak of how tough it is to run a manga for such a long time, but how it is even tougher to end a long running manga, figuring that even when entering the final phase of the manga, it still takes a few years to wrap everything up with an ending the readers will like. This task is further hampered if there are lots of characters in the story. As such, the ideal way to end a long running manga would be to do it like Urusei Yatsura did in the final volume, which is not easy to do. Plus, while trying to wrap up the manga, the manga could get canceled.

Chiharu asks Nagi if she’s been drawing a manga since she’d promised to submit one to Sunday magazine. Having forgotten this, Nagi stumbles around the topic, so Chiharu suggests submitting one before the year ends in three months, reminding Nagi that she has to face Ruka in ten years.

At Cafe Donguri, Nagi informs Hayate and Ayumu of her plans to write a manga through the month of October to win the manga prize by her birthday. She decides her manga will be based on her recent school trip experiences, but as she describes things, her story has almost nothing to do with the school trip. Nagi sees on her own how the story doesn’t use her experiences, and since she can only write 32 pages, she decides to scrap the extraneous stuff.

A few days later, she shows Hayate her manga’s storyboard, which she’s titles Almighty Butler Hayata-kun. With Hayate as the model for Hayata, and Nagi the model for the rich heroine, who after a great crisis which threatened to tear them apart, they overcame it and and got married, having realized their love for each other. When prompted, Hayate says the manga is quite good. Nagi says that the emotions are real when it is based on one’s experiences, so she goes off to draw the manuscript. Hayate wonders about the ending of the manga, which has the main characters loving each other.

Thoughts/Review:

Heh! Well, Hata-sensei does love injecting personal commentary into his manga at times, and this chapter has that.

The first half of this chapter spells out quite well the dilemma Hata-sensei is in. He clearly wants to end the manga, but with so many characters to deal with, in order to tie up all of the loose ends, including the unrequited love stories of Ayumu and Hina for Hayate, it will take time, possibly years. He also has to consider an ending that fans would accept.

In my mind, the chapter reiterates what I believe is Hata-sensei’s original intent, which was to have Hayate and Nagi fall in love with each other by the end of the manga and live happily ever after. To date, Nagi’s romantic love for Hayate has been unrequited and while Hayate cares deeply for Nagi, he doesn’t love her. I think he still loves Athena.

While there are fans of the Nagi x Hayate ship, fans of the Ayumu x Hayate ship, and fans of the Hina x Hayate ship, I think the highest percentage of fans want an Athena x Hayate ship. So how does Hata-sensei come up with an ending that fans will accept, but will also be the ending he wants, assuming that’s the way he goes?

I’ve still to read the Urusei Yatsura manga (I’ve obviously watched all of the anime incarnations), but Hata-sensei’s referencing it makes me very interested to see how Takahashi-sensei did end that manga series.

Going into the actual story itself, there were three things I liked in this chapter. First, Nagi heads to Yukari-chan House to visit Chiharu. I like this because it shows Nagi is still a landlord and Chiharu is still a resident there. Further, it shows that Nagi is willing to go out and visit her friends without Hayate being around, continuing to show her growing maturity.

Second, the plot thread of Nagi drawing a manga and the vow she made to meet Ruka again on the field of battle in ten years was a nice element. While Ruka’s story was wrapped up, it is a shame that the manga pretty much has ignored her ever since. I wouldn’t mind seeing a Ruka poster at Wataru’s shop (or in that area), or it being referenced that Ruka is still seeing Chiharu as a friend. Just something to indicate she’s alive without her actually being present in the manga.

Third, I loved the progress of Nagi’s manga. Her first instinct was to do something wild and wacky, but she shows her maturity by realizing she’s not going down the right path and makes a correction. Instead of having a terribly drawn, terrible story, she has a nicely drawn, interesting story, based on how she’s seen her life with Hayate.

Hayate the Combat Butler chapter 522

Now it seems that Hayate will come to understand that Nagi has been in love with him all this time. We’ll see what Hata-sensei does with this. As I said earlier, how will Hata-sensei juggle fan expectation with his own desired ending?

In the end, Hayate the Combat Butler chapter 522 was quite good, half of it being an interesting commentary on the problems Hata-sensei faces as he tries to end Hayate the Combat Butler, and the other half being dedicated to picking up a couple of plot threads, one from the beginning of the manga.

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12 Responses to “Hayate the Combat Butler Chapter 522 Manga Review (Ending a manga.)”

  1. mr. Poneis says:

    So… Shinryaku Ika-musume just ended like this? Man… that came out of nowhere… that really is one less reason to continue reading Shounen Champion…

    About ending a manga… Well I don´t really read this much long runners to be able to depict an scenario on how difficult is ending a manga… Although Bleach and Naruto really comes to mind… All that axes here and there really did a number on me in all these years inside this vital industry…

    Now about the the facto story… It’s really awesome how Nagi-chan didn´t even esboced a reaction about showing this manga to Hayate… Maybe it’s cause she really is sure about how she thinks that Hayate feels about her… or maybe… The next chapter sure will be great!

    Até mais ver
    mr. Poneis

    • AstroNerdBoy says:

      So… Shinryaku Ika-musume just ended like this? Man… that came out of nowhere… that really is one less reason to continue reading Shounen Champion…

      Because I was not paying attention (and this is called Squid Girl in the US), I didn’t realize this was a real manga that Hata-sensei was commenting on until I read your comment. ^_^; Bad me.

      As to Nagi, I think she thinks Hayate does love her. She’s thought that in the past. However, so far, it has been unrequited.

      • Nagi definitely thinks Hayate loves her. It’s Hayate’s fault this time. She was beginning to doubt his feelings for her and then all of a sudden, he gets rid of his debt and then subsequently asks to continue being her butler — how else is she supposed to interpret that given that she already suspects that he likes her?

        • AstroNerdBoy says:

          I don’t disagree there. Him agreeing to stay on leaves her with another misunderstanding.

      • liz says:

        i have not read squid girl yet, but i have heard it is a good read.
        as for hng, i love this twist. it could not have been done in a better way. it is a lost cause now; no matter how hard hayate tries, nagi will get hurt.
        Urusei Yatsura ended without stressing on details, as to how all the characters ended up. it leaves it to the reader’s imagination.
        seeing how much hata sensei is distressed of ending hng; my hopes remain moderate. i mean it will never be possible to satisfy everyone with the ending, it is a harem after all.

        • AstroNerdBoy says:

          i have not read squid girl yet, but i have heard it is a good read.

          As have I, but for some reason, I’ve never checked it out.

          Urusei Yatsura ended without stressing on details, as to how all the characters ended up. it leaves it to the reader’s imagination.

          That doesn’t surprise me. I was thinking that it was Maison Ikkoku where Takahashi-sensei actually came up with a proper ending for the characters.

          i mean it will never be possible to satisfy everyone with the ending, it is a harem after all.

          Heh! That’s true.

          • Just have to add that I like Urusei Yatsura’s ending by the way.
            [spoiler]A little bit of deja vu and then a subtle hint, and then… “only time will tell.” So it’s all left up to your imagination. Nothing is officially confirmed, but you’re given all the clues so that there’s really no doubt. I think Hata’s writing is pretty similar to this. He loves implications but rarely says anything explicit/definite — it’s one of the qualities that I like from his manga.[/spoiler]

          • AstroNerdBoy says:

            The manga ending wasn’t in the anime, was it?

        • Wiki says it’s the same for the anime and manga. 5th film is an anime adaptation of the manga’s ending.

          • AstroNerdBoy says:

            I saw and reviewed that. I need to take a look at things again.

            Update: OK, I read back through my review. It was a good episode.

  2. Just remember that “there is no love between them” /= “there can be no love between them.”

    Hayate doesn’t really know where Nagi stands in his life (romantically speaking) because he’s never given it much thought. Now he’s going to have to think about it, and I don’t think the answer is (nor should) be as simple as “I just have no feelings for her.” He might think that way temporarily, but to not ever give Nagi a chance in his heart would be a betrayal of the entire structure of this manga’s plot. I’m not just saying this as a Nagi shipper either.

    • AstroNerdBoy says:

      Just remember that “there is no love between them” /= “there can be no love between them.”

      That’s true. And as I’ve said, I think Hata-sensei wants the Hayate x Nagi ship. 🙂

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