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But doesn't substance require you take the plot somewhat seriously? Between the ghosts, robots, fightan butlers, tsundere-ko with more money than Warren Buffett, and the other elements that are really thrown in for little more than the sake of comedy, is there really much room for "substance" without it coming off as bathetic. This isn't Toradora, hell this isn't even School Rumble, which is the incredibly compromised work that Hayate no Gotoku could potentially become if it ever forgets what it is and suffers an identity crisis (the onset of which is becoming apparent in this season). School Rumble teased its audience with moments of "substance" but didn't bother developing them right up until its mind-numbing, rage-inducing and completely gutless finale.
This type of rom-com really struggles when it takes any half-way choices. If it wants to have substance, then it should go the Toradora route and only use comedy with sparse effectiveness. If it wants to be light, pointless entertainment, then its first season is a reasonable model, ie, ten different types of comedy before it even contemplates dealing with characters and relationships. Because the middle path has been followed often before, and the result is generally failure, eg, School Rumble.
Synergy got this. I'm not sure J.C. Staff has. I get the feeling J.C. Staff is compromising this anime for the sake of appeasing manga fans, and the result is a tepid, toothless brand of comedy with no bite. You can add all the substance you want, but at this stage comedy still dominates this show, and I can't see how it speaks to any more a mature audience than the first season. Hell, I'd say it's the other way around, since the first season at least had a reasonable amount of self-aware wit (which is almost a necessity in modern anime comedy). It knew it was a go-nowhere rom-com and even made jokes about the fact. In this season, it's been the characters' various gags that have been at the forefront of the comedy, and those gags have started to become tired anyway. The first season managed to offset that in the latter part with a reasonable amount of satire, parody and tongue-in-cheek humour. But it also highlights the fact that these are, essentially, gag characters, and there's very little to them past their initial two or three character traits/jokes. How do you make "substance" out of that? How do you get the audience to take that substance seriously?
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