ハヤテのごとく！/Hayate no Gotoku Manga
Hayate the Combat Butler Chapter 552 Review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Athena tells Kayura, Chiharu, Ayumu, and Hina that Alice (Ah-tan) returned to her country, but she enjoyed her time at Yukari-chan House. In Hina’s room, Athena marvels that she, as Alice, slept in the closet for several month. She gets into the bed and actually falls asleep.

Athena gets up when Hina remarks that she doesn’t have to stay at this apartment house any more. To Hina’s horror, Athena knows events that happened between Hayate and Hina. As such, she also knows Hina’s feelings for Hayate. She encourages Hina to stay, though she’s envious of the thing they have that she’s lost.

Ayumu learns from Hina that Athena is the former girlfriend of Hayate. As such, Ayumu rushes down to confront Athena. Athena sends Hayate ahead to Hakuou with her things so she can speak with Ayumu. Ayumu asks of Athena’s feelings for Hayate. She confesses she loves him but knows he no longer loves her.

When Athena asks of Ayumu’s feelings, Ayumu passionately says she does, longer than any other girl including Athena. Ayumu is surprised when Athena says she saw Ayumu’s love for herself, but then adds that the info came from Alice. To that end, Athena says that Alice wants to be friends with Ayumu when Alice grows up, regardless of whether Hayate ends up with Ayumu or not.

Thoughts/Review:

And so once again, with Hayate the Combat Butler chapter 552 Hata-sensei attempts to sink the Athena x Hayate ship.

Hina

Before we discuss Athena, lets talk Hina. I had thought that Athena would attempt to draft Hina into the fight since she has possession of Shirozakura. Instead, we got comedy bits regarding the subplot of the Hina x Hayate ship.

I was amused by Athena teasing Hina. I suspect that through Athena, Hina ends up staying at Yukari-chan House just because of Hayate and the chance to finally confess to him.

That aside, I hope Hina is in the final battle.

Ayumu

I may be an Athena x Hayate shipper, but to be honest, Ayumu is the one girl who’s a close second for me. Why? Because of all the girls, Ayumu is the only one with guts enough to actually confess to Hayate. In some regards, she’s a coward like the other girls, but when pushed, she will spring into action.

That came through in this chapter when Ayumu confronts Athena. Despite Athena being this very beautiful girl, Ayumu isn’t letting that stop her.  Ayumu gets Athena to confess that she loves Hayate. While Hina may have blushed and wondered how Athena knew her feelings, Ayumu passionately proclaims her feelings. As such, there’s a part of me that kinda wishes the ordinary girl in a sea of beautiful ojousama would win the day.

Athena

Earlier, I stated how I loved how Athena teased Hina. I also loved that Athena was smart enough to know what her conversation with Ayumu was going to be about and sent Hayate away. Her final words with Ayumu about being friends were quite nice as well.

What I disliked is Hata-sensei’s desperation to write Athena out of the harem. No, it isn’t a surprise that he’s doing this. After all, he tried this earlier when he had Athena hand Nagi back Nagi’s hat. Hata-sensei was symbolizing Athena handing her role as Hayate’s girlfriend to Nagi. Of course there was one snag — Hayate doesn’t love Nagi romantically.

So, Hata-sensei has Athena take the coward’s way out. What do I mean by this? Athena still has feelings for Hayate, but because she no longer sees herself reflected in Hayate’s eyes, she’s bailing out. Yes, you can argue that she’s taking the anti-Ayumu approach on this. Whereas Ayumu refuses to give up, Athena is doing the “if you love someone, set them free.”

Hata-sensei’s column remarks were a clear shot at Athena x Hayate shippers. “Athena is out. Scream all you want, but I’m ending the manga so I don’t care about lost sales at this point.” 😉

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Time for some final thoughts.

• So, when does Hata-sensei torpedo the Hina x Hayate ship and the Ayumu x Hayate ship?
• I think we all know that come hell or high water, Hata-sensei is 99.9% certain to end this on a Hayate x Nagi ship.
• There’s a 0.1% chance of some ending like Hayate dreamed about, where the mansion is up in the Royal Garden and Hayate’s happy life working with Maria as part of Nagi’s staff never ends.
• I don’t see a chance of a harem ending.
• New chapter comes out in Japan today, then there’s a winter break.

In the end, Hayate the Combat Butler chapter 552 is a good chapter in how Athena interacts with Hina and Ayumu. For Athena x Hayate shippers, it isn’t a pleasant chapter since Hata-sensei slams yet another torpedo into a ship he’s been wanting to sink for ages.