December 6th, 2016 
AstroNerdBoy ハヤテのごとく！/Hayate no Gotoku Manga
Hayate the Combat Butler Chapter 551 Review
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
The day after Hayate, Athena, and Isumi suffered their loss, Hayate awakens in the mansion. Maria questions what happened to them. When Nagi shows up, Hayate embraces her, vowing to not allow her to lose everything. He further vows to protect her in the past, present, and future. Nagi interprets this as Hayate expressing his love for her. However, Maria knows the truth and looks troubled.
At Sakuya’s mansion, a recovered Athena thanks Sakuya for her help. After their chat about the situation, Athena is driven to Yukari-chan House, which is her still her residence. Hayate meets her there, where they discuss the situation. Athena reports that Isumi is investigating where Hisui and Himegami went off to. However, Athena feels that she, Hayate, and Isumi still have a chance.
When Athena enters the apartment house, they are greeted by Ayumu, who’s shocked to see Athena as an adult. Athena hasn’t noticed and so chats with Ayumu like normal. Chiharu enters the room and is similarly shocked since she too has never met Athena as an adult, but knows her as the school board chairman. When Chiharu attempts to ask why Athena is there, Athena things the question is about why she was out all night. Her response causes Ayumu to think that Hayate spent an erotic night with Athena.
Hina comes down with Kayura, where both are shocked to see Athena. Athena tells Hina that she wants to speak with her, but since Hayate has the bath ready, she decides to do that first. In the bath, Athena hears the commotion outside and realizes that she caused this because she’s returned to normal.
Thoughts/Review:
Har! So Hata-sensei gets back to the gags, but he continues pushing plot elements forward.
Hayate’s Part (With a Side of Maria)
For me, the funniest gag element of this chapter came from Maria. Her imagining Hayate going to a maid cafe and going nuts because Maria is quitting as a maid just cracked me up.
Sadly, the misunderstanding element between Hayate and Nagi also comes up. Hayate hugging Nagi and vowing to protect her past, present, and future (on top of vowing not to let her lose everything) continues to get Nagi’s love meter up. That’s why I think Nagi is the one who will open the path with an explosion of negative emotion when she learns Hayate doesn’t love her that way. Should this happen, it will be a very depressing chapter.
Maria also knows the truth here. She’s known since the start of the manga. She’s never done anything about it. As such, I think Maria’s role for this final arc is that she will attempt to tell Nagi the truth. I don’t envy Maria.
Athena’s Part
It amuses me that Sakuya is the one “normal” character least affected by the supernatural elements going on. Yes, I know she worked with Isumi on jobs, but she really has been mostly unaffected, unless she was the target of said supernatural thing.
Through Athena, we got to check in on the other residents of Yukari-chan House, which I appreciated. I grinned at all of the shocked reactions to Athena as an adult. I guess no one except maybe Hina knows the truth. Even then, I’m not sure Hina knows. I can’t remember.
Still, this chapter showed me why I think Athena is still the best girl. 😉
Final Thoughts and Conclusion
So to wrap this review up.
- I’d been wondering how Hina would be brought into the fight. After all, she has Shirozakura (sometimes spells Shirosakura or Shiro-sakura), which we first saw in the Royal Garden. Plus, Hina is a good fighter, so it would be nuts not to get her involved.
- Yes, I really do like the theory that Himegami’s body is currently inhabited by Nagi’s dad. It would follow the theme of the now non-canon Can’t Take My Eyes Off You anime and allow Hata-sensei to finally introduce Nagi’s father properly in the manga.
- I was disappointed that there was no mention of Machina while Sakuya and Athena talked.
In the end, Hayate the Combat Butler chapter 551 turned out to be an amusing chapter with a nice side of plot elements.
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I hope Ruka came and see Athena and say. Hayate found another one
Hahaha! Yes. ^_^
[spoiler]Athena didn’t drag Hina into the King’s Jewels business.[/spoiler]
Also, Hina still has that wooden masamune from Isumi.
I am counting on Nagi being the one to open the path to the RG — as a Nagi shipper.
Oh yeah, that’s true. Heh. I can just see Hina being a dual wielder. ^_^
I think this was set up from the start, so for me, it wouldn’t make sense for it to be anyone else. I just hate the thought of seeing Nagi go through it.
Just been through various parts of the internet. I’m still bewildered at people who think that Hayate setting off the old “bomb between them” will sink Nagi’s ship. It has the complete opposite effect IMO. Have people nowadays lost the ability to read plotlines?
(Not referring to you, ANB.)
I can understand that line of thought. Hata-sensei is in a bad spot though. As other harem authors have learned, having their MC pick a single woman can cause massive uproar. Cases like Ai Yori Aoshi are a bit different because the chosen girl is established first (in HnG, I don’t see Nagi as established as the chosen girl since Hayate has no romantic feelings for her). As such, no matter what Hata-sensei chooses to do, there will be butt-hurt fans who don’t like it.
IMO that’s one of Nagi’s main advantages. (that Hayate has shown no romantic interest in her) What makes her special as a co-protagonist is that Hayate has shown some degree of romantic interest in everyone in the harem race except for her. This is good news for me because Hayate has a rather twisted, immature concept of “being in love” in the first place. Nagi has matured much faster than him in this department. I’ve discussed this in detail in one of my older essay/blog posts so I’ll leave it at that.
You’re correct though that Hayate hasn’t made his romantic choice just yet — but that’s more of a flaw in his character rather than anything to be blamed on mai waifu
I don’t see anything to blame on Nagi. Hayate is the one oblivious to Nagi’s feelings. And he doesn’t understand that his actions are being misunderstood left and right.