OK, time for the second anime off my list. This one's going to be a bit of a bastard for a few reasons. Firstly, I fucking love it. I think I'll have a few more words for it than Hanaukyo. Secondly, the length. Where Hanaukyo ran for 13ish episodes, Hayate has 200+ episodes, as well as a movie. Thirdly, I've read the manga as well, and considering it operates in the same canon as the anime, it's probably going to come up. In discussing the plot and characters, if you have seen the anime and don't know what the hell I'm talking about, it's probably the manga. Or I am just crazy. Which is almost always a possibility.
Now, on to the show.
Hayate no Gotoku:
Hayate no Gotoku, translated to something akin to "Eye of the Storm", but released in English under the title "Hayate the Combat Butler" is a long-running anime, manga and...live action series in Taiwan (but we'll get to that later. The show thrives in parody, strange humour, a childish sense of fun and memorable and charming characters. I admit here and now that this is one of my favourite animes in all, and certainly the highlight of the "Maid period". Other than one or two characters and a few somewhat forced plot points, I love this show unreservedly, bar perhaps the constant reminder that it is indeed a show aimed at a much younger audience than myself. But when have I given a shit about acting my age?
Plot:
The plot for Hayate no Gotoku is rather simple. A 16 year old kid named Hayate, who constantly works so as to provide for his rather irresponsible parents is sold to the Yakuza by said parents to pay off their debt. In fleeing from the gangsters (on Christmas Eve, no less), Hayate runs across a filthy rich 13 year old heiress named Nagi. Desperate, Hayate attempts to kidnap Nagi, but his fumbling and naive attempt of explaining the situation leads Nagi to believe Hayate is confessing his love. As Hayate attempts to demand the ransom (accidentally giving his identity away), Nagi is kidnapped again. Hayate, distraught at Nagi's disappearance is ready to give up when he meets a kind girl named Maria, and is inspired to track down and rescue Nagi so as to make amends. Rescuing Nagi, Hayate is granted the position of her butler so as to pay off the debt of his parents. Maria, who is revealed to be Nagi's maid, discovers that Nagi believes Hayate admitted his love for her, while Hayate is riven by guilt for attempting to kidnap Nagi.
Now, that was a summary of the entire first episode. I really hope this tempts at least someone into reading/watching the series. New parties are introduced, particularly surrounding Nagi's school and its residents, but the relationship between Hayate, Nagi and Maria is at the core of most of the manga and anime. So, now for the fun part...there are fucking dozens of characters. And I'm going to attempt to discuss all of the significant (i.e. named) ones. This is not going to be a single goddamn post, or it may kill me. I'll try to tackle each character in some arbitrary order of the chronological introduction, but taking their importance in the overall story into account. Remembering names is going to be fucking fun.
Now, I've tried to avoid most spoilers in the plot, so most are going to come in discussion of the characters. Fuck, the mere EXISTENCE of some characters are spoilers, so...well...read at your own risk, I guess. I'll try and cover the Sanzenin household (i.e. Nagi Sanzenin) tonight, but we'll see how I go. Now, to be honest, I'll be looking up how to spell characters names, but only if I can remember how the names sound. I consider referring to a character only as "glasses" amusing (and get used to that), but getting Isumi and Izumi confused is just irritating, so spelling may be my one caveat in my "no googling details" rule. What was I talking about? Oh, right, characters.
Characters:
Hayate Ayasaki:
Hayate Ayasaki, "butler-in-debt" and the main character. Hayate is the centre-point of the harem and, to be brutally honest with both my reader and myself, is one of the dullest characters of the entire cast. That's not to say he's unlikable or even outright "boring", but of the cast of vibrant and lively characters, Hayate is a bit of a slow down. He suffers from the same problems as Kid Hanaukyo. He needs to be a constant everyman so as to allow the viewer a bridge into the fantastical world the anime creates, but at the same time is expected to be a consistent and interesting character. It's like if in, say, Jurassic Park, the camera needed to be given a personality and reason for following any particular character. It might work, and make the viewer more submerged, but odds are the camera would be an absolute joke, with constantly changing reasons and personality. Hayate is a little different. He, instead of being given a dynamic personality to adapt to situations, is given a bland personality that fits all sizes. Sure, a square can't fit into a circle, but a blob of play-doh like Hayate can go pretty much anywhere.
I'm being too harsh, I suspect. Hayate is given a wide array of skills, explained as emerging from the fact he worked to support his parents from a very young age. I'd call "Mary-Sue" a little here, but his misfortune is a redeeming trait. I don't mean misfortune in the Mary-Sue manner, which is all earth rending tragedy and glamorous misery (yeah, I know Mary-Sue means a lot of things to a lot of people, but this fits into my definition). I mean it in the "can't keep a jacket clean" or "sucks at gambling" kind of way. Sure, he's in a fancy mansion now, but he's still just acting as a babysitter to a little girl who took a liking to him for the next 80 years (it was a big debt). He rubs everyone the wrong way, always is in the wrong place at the wrong time and just generally is the master of fucking up. THAT is his most redeeming factor, and I think that line speaks volumes. He also has a rather odd conservative streak, particularly around women. He constantly tells Nagi how a "lady" should behave, and at one point lectures a female friend on how she should be ashamed of her clothing. It's not a massive deal breaker, but it's always uncomfortable and makes his character rather hard to keep track of, in regard to complete world view.
He acts far older than his 16 years, which I'm fine with, for the most part. He has a strange history, and brief windows of joy or intense misery in his childhood are hinted at frequently, and they are pretty hit and miss. Stories of ostracisation and loneliness work fine, but never say "Royal Gardens" to me unless you want shit to go down. Overall, I don't have a massive problem with Hayate, overall, but he is a little too passive in his circumstances for the most part, especially in regard to the harem side of it all. Hayate at one point is perfectly happy to be sold into marriage over a bet (in manga). And he just goes with every demand. Not just from his mistress, but from anyone. At the end of the day, I don't want any of the female characters I like to end up with him. Take that as you will.
Nagi Sanzenin:
Nagi Sanzenin, "Young Mistress" and heiress to the Sanzenin fortune. Orphaned at a young age, Nagi was sent to a mansion with only her maid, Maria, and butler, Klaus, to keep her company by her only surviving family and current head of the Sanzenin family, her grandfather Mikado (is it weird me knowing these names? I'm normally just shit with the names of anime characters). As a result of the constant threats on her life, incredible intelligence and a lack of needing to really leave the house, Nagi developed a rather mean anti-social streak. Before meeting and hiring Hayate, Nagi had only three consistent friends, all from similarly wealthy backgrounds. Nagi insists on doing exactly what she wants, when she wants and for the duration she wishes. She's kind of awesome like that.
Nagi really appeals to me in regards to her independent spirit. This is immensely underwritten by the fact she can't actually do anything by herself, relying on Maria and Hayate for every little thing, from meals to shopping, from needing to share a bed with Maria just to be able to sleep to needing Hayate to get objects off high shelves. This is a weak point in Nagi's character, alongside the fact she's pretty much happy with the status quo, dependant on those around her.
Her relationship with Hayate is interesting and well managed. Hayate has absolutely no romantic interest in Nagi because he's 16 and she's 13 and that would be insanely creepy. Hayate believes that Nagi has just been completely forgiving after his attempted kidnapping of her, and his attentiveness and affection for her, which Nagi interprets as love, is merely a mix of guilt, loyalty and gratitude. Their relationship is a strong point, although the constant "will they/won't they" of harem animes really doesn't work in this context because Hayate has no romantic feelings towards Nagi for obvious reasons. All romantic teases fail because it's clear they'll just sail clear over Hayate's head and leave Nagi confused and disappointed.
It's ridiculously hard to surmise 4 series and a movie (not to mention 450+ manga chapters) of character development in a few short paragraphs, but Nagi's slow development over the manga, in particular, has been well portrayed. Although still selfish and self-obsessed, she has become more social and less complacent with the life she lived at the beginning of the anime. I'll be truly interested to see if that is merely a tease or a sign of radical character evolution.
Overall, Nagi is pretty good for a master/mistress character. Normally the role is one of bland, self-insertable cut-outs, but Nagi has a definite individual personality, with her naivety, childishness, stubbornness and passion for manga and anime as unique and fun amongst the entire cast. I wouldn't go as far as calling her one of my favourite characters, but she works, and that's probably the highest praise I can give.
Maria:
Maria, named after the statue of the Virgin Mary she was found in front of, is the loyal 17 year old maid of Nagi, and is clearly a mother substitute. Maria is the nurturing and caring side of the maid character, but for the most part lacks the passivity and inhuman patience of many ani-maids (coining it). Maria gets royally pissed off, develops crushes, has a childhood, is exceptionally intelligent and is self-conscious about her age. Of the three central characters, Maria is pretty clearly my favourite.
I really don't know what to say about Maria. She manages to be a doting mother-proxy to Nagi throughout most of their lives, constantly attempting to encourage her to undertake more taxing endeavours, but until Hayate arrives, is barely successful. As later in the manga, in particular, discusses, Maria had been perhaps too coddling of Nagi, permitting her to forsake any task Nagi lost interest in, and preventing her from learning from her failures. I don't know if Maria should really take the blame for this, but it's an interesting angle.
Sadly, particularly again in the manga, Maria has been becoming a more and more fringe character, particularly as she has been less responsible for a steadily maturing Nagi. One element that is interesting is her relationship with Hayate. Maria, as with her age, is self-conscious about her lack of romance in her school days. As she, like Nagi, is eerily intelligent, she skipped grades, and even became the Student President as a pre-teen, I think. The main group of males interested in her as a student were into the "Lolita" aspect of her persona, and that is creepy enough to put anyone off anything. Hayate, however, represents a boy about her own age who is in close proximity with her on a daily basis. The "will they/won't they" between Hayate and Maria is far better handled than that between Hayate and Nagi (no, there isn't much "will they/won't they between Nagi and Maria. Although that certainly would have been a novel angle). Maria and Hayate seem to have a lot in common, although the different worlds in which they were raised is a constant conflict. Hayate, the world weary jack of all trades who actually knows what the world is like (he internally refers to Maria and Nagi as "housecats" on several occasions) is at ends with Maria, the academic maid, more familiar with dealing with the obscenely wealthy and their natural excess than the real world. It's an interesting relationship, and I like the few places where it's explored.
There's also the idea of Maria as the head of the household, which is tackled in an interesting manner. The Sanzenin Mansion is occupied by a large division of personnel known as "SP", which I always assumed just meant Sanzenin Police. This group, sworn to protect (inefficiently) Nagi from those who would wish to do her harm, are at the complete mercy of Maria. The head butler (and only other butler), Klaus, is also in the same position, particularly in regards to Maria's garden. Sure, that last bit's a little cliche and outdated, but the idea of a 17 year old maid running the entire household of this elaborate mansion is a fascinating one, and a nice character touch.
Overall, Maria is appealing because of her position somewhat removed from the idle rich, but still entrenched in their world, working for Nagi, but still maintaining her independence and ensuring Nagi lives up to a certain level of human interaction. Maria is dorky, maternal, patient without being victimised by her Mistress's demands, charismatic and just a regular human in extraordinary circumstances. I really do like Maria's character. I am a little curious what/if she's getting paid. I mean, even if she is, she never gets time off, so when does she spend it? Is she saving up for something? All this aside, Maria is probably my favourite ani-maid of all time, with Maid-Guy coming up a close second, but we'll get to him another day, I hope.
Klaus:
Klaus, Head Butler, is the on again off again antagonist for Hayate, as Klaus, a figure of seniority, stands against his untrained, untrustworthy presence. Also, he's insanely jealous. The fact Klaus is essentially a background character (along with Tama, who we'll get to in a minute) is a running joke, considering the importance he's imbued with in the first few episodes.
Klaus is infatuated with "Hermione" Ayasaki, the crossdressed persona of Hayate. It's a fun idea, and although the plot sort of forces a sense of urgency on the situation, I think it works. Klaus really doesn't have much of a presence, although the touched upon relationship between Nagi's deceased mother and Klaus is really fascinating. It somewhat makes reviewing an ongoing series difficult when I try to say "I wish they would...", as they very well might, but more on this would be nice, but the mystery is also intriguing. It would go a way to why Klaus is so opposed to Hayate, and gives Klaus a level of relevance. I suppose, as a character, he doesn't really fit into the 13-21 age bracket of the rest of the cast (having grey hair), so his exclusion was probably for the best, but I kinda miss him.
Tama:
Tama is a talking white tiger and Nagi's pet "cat". He only talks to Hayate. Because. He just...does. He, alongside Klaus, is infatuated with Hermione and has also begun to be taken off the cast list for the most part.
I have mixed feelings about Tama. On one hand, he adds an element of the childish and bizarre, a callback to the original parody nature of the show which has slowly dwindled with time (although, to be fair, I'm not 100% sure what they were parodying to start with). On the other hand, he's just at complete odds with the nature of the setting. Hayate no Gotoku has a weird relationship with the supernatural. On one hand, Isumi (we'll get there, probably next post) plays with the idea of spirits and exorcism in a fun, interesting way. Athena (again, we'll get there, but not for a while), on the other hand, is just a waste of time, and in my opinion is massive stain on the series as a whole. Between the good and bad use of the supernatural sits Tama. I can take or leave his presence, although he doesn't really fit with what the anime is now and, like Klaus, his gradual exclusion is perfectly understandable.
Of Tama and Klaus, who really can be seen as a unit, I don't really miss either, but I'm glad both are waiting in the wings in case emergency comedy relief is needed. Klaus, although an adult, barely acts it, and can fit in pretty well, and Tama is...a talking tiger, so I just don't even know where to go with that.
Anyway, that's the Sanzenin Mansion, and pretty much the entire cast for the first few episodes of Hayate no Gotoku. Next time, I'll try to surmise the cast of Hakuou Academy.
I feel like most of my character summaries were less review and more just "So far on Hayate no Gotoku". I'll try and not do that next time, but that said, I guess with a longer series it's harder to find angles for the characters that haven't already been explored. It might get easier as we move onto secondary characters. I hope.
Cheers for reading.
H. Rourke
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