[madmac]

I don't know man, I've read that line in Japanese, fan translation and official translation and I don't find it particularly interesting. Perhaps, had I read it back in the day, I would have thought it was interesting. But, at this point, I really cannot. But well, who knows?

*shrug* It's far from being the best example I could have used, just something that came to mind quickly. I'm certainly not going to debate it to death.

Hmm... it's not as if I'm considering the romance to be a completely plot apart. You have one story as a whole, but the parts which focus on Hayate being Nagi's butler and the romance parts are not always the same or even connected.

I guess I just don't see the divide between "Butler time" and "Romance time". Frequently, they overlap. Not always, though, I'll give you that much, and naturally there's less butler focus when Hayate is interacting with characters he isn't butlering for. Nagi has the most spotlight time in general, so it follows that she uses less of it for romantic subplots.

Honestly, I do understand where you're coming from. You're hardly the only person that sees the relationship between Nagi and Hayate as being fundamentally a non-romantic one.

I just can't see it the same way in a series where you have giant robots snarking that Hayate needs to quit the rom-com nonsense while he and Nagi make googlie eyes at each other or where the first volume closes by essentially saying "There's no way this 13 year girl could make this delicate relationship we're subtly contrasting to a flower work...or can she?" To say nothing of the omakes poking fun of Nagi for being so slow and not even managing to kiss her man after the first year of the manga.

Even ignoring all that, Nagi is every bit as in love with Hayate as Ayumu and Hina are, and that makes her a viable romantic interest. It's not as if Hayate has expressed strong romantic interest in anyone besides Athena at this point anyway. His feelings are still up for grabs.

Sure, in terms on how they have advanced, there hasn't been much. I guess I should rephrase what I said. What I mean with romantic development, was romantic focus. Hina and Ayumu have had a considerable amount of it. In fact, most of the time they get some focus, you can be sure some sort of romantic subplot will take place.

Well they are the designated main rivals. It only stands to reason that they get the most romantic development aside from the heroine. The reverse cover goddess even jokingly introduces them as "Strong Rivals" that appear in volume 4, and Ayumu's own character profile mentions that she was one of the first characters created as a rival/foil to Nagi and therefore her polar opposite.