Hayate no Gotoku manga (raw discussion only)

[Dorfl]

Right, I just remembered, thanks.

Originally Posted by Shadow5YA

I agree that the Greece/Athena arc was the highlight of the series, but I think everyone has also been spoiled by it. Before it, Hayate never really had an overarching plot to it. It was always about the over-the-top, 4th wall breaking slice of life comedy. Now that there is a direction and a destination, people can't go back.

You can't really blame us for that. If you feed someone hamburgers for a while and they like it, and then you feed them Kobe steak for a couple of months, they're not going to want to go back to hamburgers again. "What? But you used to like hamburgers!" "Well my tastes have matured now, hand over dem steaks!"

[Used Can]

I've just read the latest chapter, and I thought it was rather funny, especially the ending. In fact, I cannot recall the last time HnG made me laugh this much. I think this was a rather good chapter.
I really love how Ayumu's simplicity tends to solve things. I seriously love that girl.

Anyway, gentlemen:

Spoiler:

[madmac]

I agree, it's a fun chapter.

I really love how Ayumu's simplicity tends to solve things. I seriously love that girl.

Spoiler:

Kitties fix everything!

I'm not sure at this point if this is going to end up an improvement or a disaster...

[Dorfl]

The slight progress Nagi is making with her manga is cancelled out by Hayate's persistent refusal to tell Luca the truth. This shtick was old 50 chapters ago.

[madmac]

The slight progress Nagi is making with her manga is cancelled out by Hayate's persistent refusal to tell Luca the truth. This shtick was old 50 chapters ago.

Eh, it's only been about 20ish chapters since the misunderstanding started, and maybe 7 of them where's it been relevant. I know you dislike the subplot on principle, but Hayate has only met Luca like twice (And same day both times.) since he first saved her. By this manga's standards it hasn't nearly been overplayed yet.

[Used Can]

I also think Hayate's reason make sense. He has indeed seen her naked and made her believe he was a girl. There are far too many things that could go wrong if Luca learns about the truth, and Hayate is trying to keep the lie, because he's not expecting her to be around him for too long.

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by Dorfl

The slight progress Nagi is making with her manga is cancelled out by Hayate's persistent refusal to tell Luca the truth. This shtick was old 50 chapters ago.

That can't happen before they've taken a bath together, and maybe groped each other's chest.

[Dorfl]

Originally Posted by Used Can

I also think Hayate's reason make sense. He has indeed seen her naked and made her believe he was a girl. There are far too many things that could go wrong if Luca learns about the truth, and Hayate is trying to keep the lie, because he's not expecting her to be around him for too long.

Why isn't he expecting her to be around for long? She's a good friend of Chiharu's, she knows where he lives and now she's all buddy-buddy with Nagi. I'd argue for telling her the truth even sooner, before one of them inadvertently spills the beans.

[madmac]

Why isn't he expecting her to be around for long? She's a good friend of Chiharu's, she knows where he lives and now she's all buddy-buddy with Nagi. I'd argue for telling her the truth even sooner, before one of them inadvertently spills the beans.

Sure, but these are all things he only knows now, after the most recent time he ran into her. Before she dropped in on Nagi he had no idea how deep a hole he was digging for himself.

[Dorfl]

Which is why instead of trying to borrow Hina's clothes, he should be heading into this meeting to tell the truth. This little shtick is not funny, it's not interesting and it's not leading anywhere (that I want to go) so it's pissing me off.

[madmac]

Which is why instead of trying to borrow Hina's clothes, he should be heading into this meeting to tell the truth.

I know where you're coming from, but still, you're oversimplifying things. The obvious implication from how this chapter ended is that there's something in the message he received that's making him not want to tell Luca yet. He just got done telling Hina he intended to tell her, after all. Probably because she's feeling vulnerable and reaching out to him to cheer her up.

Besides, even he was going to tell her, it would be kind of hugely dickish for Hayate to just turn up in his normal clothes and be all "I'm a man dammit! Leave me alone!"

At this point he's let things go so far over his head that he really doesn't have a nice or easy way to break it to her that isn't going to feel like betrayal, and it's in Hayate's personality that he'll go to ridiculous lengths to avoid hurting someone.

In any event, I don't expect this to continue much longer. She'll find out soon enough, at least by the time the doujinshi showdown happens, I'm guessing.

[Shadow5YA]

What's more interesting is how Luca apparently does not sell as much doujinshi as Nagi and Chiharu hyped. She was supposed to be the example Nagi looks up to when making doujins, but it turns out that she's having as much trouble as Nagi.

[Tom Bombadil]

Is the butler borrowing the panty and the bra, too?

[Dorfl]

Originally Posted by madmac

Besides, even he was going to tell her, it would be kind of hugely dickish for Hayate to just turn up in his normal clothes and be all "I'm a man dammit! Leave me alone!"

I'll wait till the next chapter to comment on that, but the fact is that the longer he keeps up the charade, the worse the inevitable fallout is going to be. It's going to introduce unnecessary drama over an issue that shouldn't even be such a big deal.

[madmac]

What's more interesting is how Luca apparently does not sell as much doujinshi as Nagi and Chiharu hyped. She was supposed to be the example Nagi looks up to when making doujins, but it turns out that she's having as much trouble as Nagi.

I think it's more she's Nagi's idol in general, what with being a mega-popular idol who seems to be good at everything and has similar interests. In the realm of Manga, they're more or less equally bad. It's easy to let the fact that Nagi likes Luca's manga overshadow the fact that it didn't sell very well, got specifically ripped on by that Maizumi arse, and that it was hinted that Luca had the same traumatic experience with visiting Ashibashi sensei that Nagi did.

I think Nagi's dream this chapter highlighted something about her personality that isn't obvious if you don't read Yukariko's character profile in Volume 16. It more or less explains that Nagi's mom, while super-lucky and adored by everyone was basically useless at everything and couldn't do anything by herself.

Nagi sort of defines herself by trying too hard to not be her mom and failing anyways. Hayate calling her a "hopeless" person in her dream underscores her own insecurity that she isn't actually good at anything.

(It also says that Yukariko didn't die of illness and that he hopes to write more about Nagi's father some day. It's one of the more interesting of all the character profiles.)

I'll wait till the next chapter to comment on that, but the fact is that the longer he keeps up the charade, the worse the inevitable fallout is going to be. It's going to introduce unnecessary drama over an issue that shouldn't even be such a big deal

Heh. I dunno, I get the feeling she'll get over it quickly enough...

[Dorfl]

Originally Posted by madmac

Heh. I dunno, I get the feeling she'll get over it quickly enough...

In which case it will be as annoying as all those pages Hina wasted angsting over whether to tell Ayumu that she liked Hayate too, only to find out Ayumu didn't care. Either way the readers lose.

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by Dorfl

In which case it will be as annoying as all those pages Hina wasted angsting over whether to tell Ayumu that she liked Hayate too, only to find out Ayumu didn't care. Either way the readers lose.

... I don't.

Originally Posted by madmac

I think Nagi's dream this chapter highlighted something about her personality that isn't obvious if you don't read Yukariko's character profile in Volume 16. It more or less explains that Nagi's mom, while super-lucky and adored by everyone was basically useless at everything and couldn't do anything by herself.

Wasn't she (Nagi) supposed to be a successful trader, or has that been retconned to make drama over her lost fortune?

[madmac]

Wasn't she (Nagi) supposed to be a successful trader, or has that been retconned to make drama over her lost fortune?

It's hard to say. Nagi has shown confidence in her investment skills and supposedly learned a lot about finance from Mikado, but we don't know how successful she really is at it. Managing the estate was more Klaus's job, it's one of the reasons he was away so often.

She did put the 20 million yen directly into investments and has only mentioned it once since then. (She tells Hayate that "Plan B is stock investments" and then makes a face and says ..."Lets not talk about Plan B.") I guess that might indicate that her investments aren't doing well, but it could always turn around down the road.

I wouldn't say Nagi is actually a failure at everything she does--she's a child prodigy after all, but she often worries that she is.

... I don't.

Indeed.

[Dorfl]

Okay, either way I lose.

[Used Can]

I think it was obvious she wasn't a particularly big hit in the dōjinshi world when we saw her at the end of the Greece arc. I think we simply let Chiharu's own opinion and the fact Luca is a popular idol with a cool personality make us believe she was particularly good. In fact, we even saw her work and it... well, it wasn't the sort of thing that sells a lot.