ハヤテのごとく！/Hayate no Gotoku Manga
Hayate the Combat Butler Chapter 560 Review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Athena, Isumi, and Sakuya examine the command center they’ve built to monitor the Royal Garden should the path be opened.

Elsewhere, Ayumu is at a park and wonders if Hayate will come to her party or the one held at Hakuou Gakuen. Hayate shows up to tell Ayumu he won’t be attending her party. Ayumu gives up without a fight, telling Hayate goodbye, and fleeing in tears.

On Christmas Eve, Ruka gets the Hakuou Gakuen party going. Miki, Risa, and Izumi get Hina to wear a sexy Santa-san outfit. Nagi has disappeared. After Hayate informs the others, he races back to the mansion while Chiharu returns to Yukari-chan House to see if Nagi is there.

As this is going on, Hisui and Himegami are in a blimp with a giant King’s Jewel, containing a small one in its core. With it, they are attempting to gather all negative emotions in order to force open the path to the Royal Garden. Isumi gets ready to meet the threat from Hisui.

Meanwhile, Hayate can’t find Nagi at the mansion. As such, he calls Chiharu, who hasn’t found her at the apartment either. The sales guy shows up to chat with Chiharu. As they chat, Hayate shows up and recognizes the man. With that, Hayate angrily punches him in the face.

Thoughts/Review:

And so the rapid fast-forward of the manga continues.

Self-destruct the Ships

Because “reasons,” we’ve seen Athena and Hina sink their own ships in the Hayate harem. And now, we see Ayumu sink her own ship. With that, the deck is cleared so Hata-sensei can get the pairing he wants, to heck with all else.

I was never an Ayumu shipper. However, had Hata-sensei decided to go this route, I would have been fine with it because there’s a long established history there. The case is easily made. Even Hayate has acknowledged that Ayumu would be someone he’d be happy with. Ayumu was the first to confess to Hayate once he was in high school. Ayumu was the one determined not to give up, even though she’d been rejected twice. But now, she remembers Athena’s BS excuse for giving up on Hayate and decides to give up too.

It really is angering to me. Of the harem, only Ruka got a proper exit. Athena, Hina, and Ayumu don’t get a proper resolution. Instead, we are just to accept that these girls all give up ’cause reasons at the end of the year. Yay! Woo!hoo!

Yes, I know Hata-sensei has run out of time. Its his own fault because he had this stupid idea that he couldn’t stray too far away from the gag humor. As such, tons of time was wasted rather than resolving plot threads. Plus, I’m guessing he was scared of killing manga sales by sinking Athena, Hina, and Ayumu immediately after sinking Ruka.

The Final Confrontation

I don’t get the parody references for the command center in the tower, nor the helmet that Isumi had built. If someone does know, let me know. 🙂

That said, I don’t imagine we’ll see much of a fight. I suspect that Hata-sensei has to end the manga by March (or whenever he hits the right number of chapters to complete a final volume) or maybe Golden Week at the latest. If I’m right, that would mean that there’s no time for any battle action. I’m afraid we are in for a rushed, unsatisfying ending to things. We’ll see though.

Hayate’s Dad

As some suspected, the sales guy who keeps lingering around Yukari-chan House is none other than Hayate’s dad. Well, that would explain things. Now to see what sort of scheme he has cooked up and if he’s involved with Nagi disappearing.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Time to wrap this review of Hayate the Combat Butler chapter 560 up.

• If it weren’t for the cameo of Fumi-chan and Sharna-chan, this chapter would have just purely depressed me.
• Ruka didn’t much look like Ruka in her cameo. It may as well have been Hayate in drag.
• Since Nagi is missing, did she get kidnapped, or as she’s wont to do, did she just wander off? And where are her guards?

In the end, Hayate the Combat Butler chapter 560 is an angering chapter in that we get yet another, unsatisfactory ending of a girl’s route in the harem, this time Ayumu. We are flying through to get to an end, which I fear won’t satisfy many people at all.