September 2nd, 2016 
AstroNerdBoy ハヤテのごとく！/Hayate no Gotoku Manga
Hayate the Combat Butler Chapter 541 Review
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
Izumi gets her future plan questionnaire, so she starts pondering her future. She consults with Miki and Risa on this topic. Miki feels she should be a politician as her dad, grandfather, and beyond were. She figures she can become the first female prime minister of Japan. Risa thinks she’ll just take over her family’s shrine. Since Izumi isn’t interested in her family’s electronic empire and her brother will likely take that over, Miki thinks Izumi will become a NEET. Izumi protests this and decides to find her own dream.
Izumi meets up with Hayate and Aika in the Student Council room of the school’s clock tower. There, she learns Hayate’s dream was to have a 3LDK home (living, kitchen, and dining areas, plus three rooms, one with tatami floors). Izumi is told that she can find her dream in everyday life, so Aika assigns Hayate to follow Izumi to learn Izumi’s dream.
Izumi takes Hayate to a vacant lot that’s owned by her dad. She comes here often and grows weeds and moss since the place gets little sun. When asked why, Isumi states she’s always been fascinated by plants that thrive in harsh environments. She tells Hayate the purpose she sees in such plants, impressing him. Hayate compliments her on how she fills the world with her brightness. As such, a life with her would be a happy one.
Aika is suddenly there and asks Hayate why he’s proposing to Izumi. He denies this and attempts to explain Izumi is like the sun. As they talk, Izumi is happy Hayate looked at her. She suddenly realizes a dream where she can watch over everyone even when she’s far away. Further, they can look to her like the sun. As such, she puts down her first choice of a job as space pilot.
Thoughts/Review:
With Hayate the Combat Butler chapter 541, I really get the impression that Hata-sensei is starting to say goodbye to characters. Last chapter was Katsura. This chapter is Izumi.
It is always fun seeing the Student Council Trio together. While the focus of this chapter is on Izumi, Miki and Risa got some love too.
Risa came up with the least amount of time as her future plans are to just inherit her family’s shrine. I remember Hata-sensei writing about Risa early on in the manga and how her role wasn’t to be that great. Over time, it seems to have become greater than Hata-sensei intended, but in this chapter, her role is pretty much as Hata-sensei originally laid out.
For Miki, it makes sense that she wants to become a politician. As devious as she is, she’d be able to do it for sure. 😈
Aika does her normal comedic role of showing up when least expected. That always makes me smile.
As to Izumi, she’s always been a very likable character. Her monologue on weeds and moss will certainly have me looking at a vacant lot fill with these things in a whole new light. If this is her farewell chapter (not saying she’ll never show up again, just that she’ll be pushed aside for a while), it is a good one.
As to her job choice, there aren’t too many space pilot jobs out there. 😉 But an astronaut comes pretty close I guess, though there aren’t many of them either.
In the end, Hayate the Combat Butler chapter 541 has some humor, fun, and allows Izumi to shine in a rather poignant moment.
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experimental shuttles that even a monkey(not chimps) Izumi can sign up for it
Har!
I’ve never heard the term ‘neet’ – but looked it up.”Not in education, employment, or training”. Izumi is 16. I don’t recall anyone who seriously knew what they wanted to be as a professional adult at age 16. Yeah there are dreamers at that age, but seriously … she’s 16… the cliche ‘sweet 16’ is said for a reason, and not for nothing. This is right before the pressure of academics and standard testing starts to take priority.
Hayate shares a observation about her character as being a person who can find good things in anything – even to things most people ignore, like weeds and moss, and sees the source of good in them. I can see why Hayate can be attracted.
I didn’t think of ‘space pilot’ as a choice either, but more of a profession to help and understand people to be better, like a psychologist or school counselor.
Space Pilot reminded me of a phrase used by a earlier generation – saw it in films from the 60s and 70s – it was ‘space cadet’ – someone who is ‘spaced-out’ or a big-time dreamer that was their normal or natural behavior or drug induced as in using LSD. This came to mind when I first saw ‘space pilot’. It was a time when cops were called ‘Fuzz’, and everyone ‘keep on truckin’ ‘. ‘Sock-it-to-me’ baby!
Yeah, space pilot is not really a normal term in English. But you talking about this made me think of the song “The Joker” from The Steve Miller Band.
😉
In Japan, students are required to think about their futures in high school. Of course Japanese high schools are different from ones in the U.S. and probably other places too. I wouldn’t have been good in a Japanese school. 😉