ハヤテのごとく！/Hayate no Gotoku Manga
Hayate the Combat Butler Chapter 549 Review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Nagi wakes after noon. However, when Hayate comes into her room, she can’t remember the dream she had. Nagi demands that Hayate provide her an amazing product to cause her to wake up refreshed in the morning. Hayate decides to make Kopi Luwak, angering Nagi as she isn’t going to drink coffee that has first passed through the digestive tract of a cat. As Nagi rants about wanting something to wake her up, Hayate gives her a kiss on the cheek, which does the trick.

Maria comes in and pulls Hayate away to help her. She scolds him since Nagi is being a handful. As they talk, Hayate has a flash of himself, Athena, and Isumi battling Himegami. Maria asks him if he’s OK. Hayate explains that he’s experiencing something like a waking dream. Maria says she had something similar, where she said she was going to quit being a maid. Naturally, she’s not going to quit being a maid.

Nagi calls Hayate, so he turns to go to her. The mansion is now at the Royal Garden.

Meanwhile, Hayate is actually down in a pool of his own blood with an untouched Himegami telling him this is the result of his own weakness.

Thoughts/Review:

Har! Start off like this is a gag chapter, then show that it isn’t a gag chapter. Leave it to Hata-sensei.

Can’t Get Away From the Gag Manga

Although Hayate the Combat Butler is coming to an end, Hata-sensei feels a strong need to keep returning to the gag manga elements. While I’ve certainly no problems with the gag comedy stuff that Hata-sensei writes, when the manga is coming to an end, stopping things for gag humor really isn’t what one should do.

At least Hata-sensei has enough presence of mind to know that doing a pure gag chapter would not go over that well. So he comes up with a situation to use the gag humor, yet retain the serious element of the plot from where we left off a few weeks ago.

As to the gag humor itself, it was OK for what it was. I was amused by the Kopi Luwak coffee joke. Seriously though, who was the first person who saw a civet crapping coffee beans and thought, “You know, I just HAVE to drink coffee made from beans that have been defecated out of an animal ’cause that would just be the best.” 😉

The Plot Elements

So, what did we learn about the plot from Hayate the Combat Butler chapter 549?

• Hayate discovers that this Himegami that he, Isumi, and Athena are facing is Nagi’s former butler.
• There appears to have been a dust explosion. This would explain the gag references to a dust explosion as well as the general, grainy and dusty appearance of the flashbacks.
• Whatever happened, Hayate is down and bleeding profusely. Himegami appears to be untouched.
• We didn’t see Isumi in the flashback, only hear her use of “Hayate-sama.”

So, it will be interesting to see exactly what happened and where things go.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Not a whole lot left for Hayate the Combat Butler chapter 549, so I’ll wrap this sucker up.

• Interesting that in Hayate’s dream, Maria claims to have had a similar waking dream experience where she said should would stop being a maid when she has no intention of stopping. I’m going to guess that since Maria sprung the news on him, Hayate is worried about a future without Maria as Nagi’s maid.
• It is also interesting that Nagi’s mansion appeared on the rock overhang of the Royal Garden. I don’t know if this means anything or not.
• Does Hayate finally go to his “second form” that Nagi bragged about back in the early part of the manga? I saw a fan joke about this, but knowing Hata-sensei, Hayate may very will have two more transformations. 😉
• Where’s Hina in this fight?

In the end, Hayate the Combat Butler chapter 549 is an OK chapter. Hata-sensei goes back to his gag roots, but manages to work them into the plot in a very interesting way.