ハヤテのごとく

HAYATE NO GOTOKU!

MANGA

STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
52
RELEASE
April 12, 2017
CHAPTERS
570

DESCRIPTION

Hardworking Hayate has a plan to pay back the yakuza—who are now the legal owners of his body parts: he’ll kidnap someone and ransom them for a mountain of money! But things get tricky when his would-be kidnappee—who as luck would have it is the daughter of a mind-bogglingly wealthy family—mistakes Hayate’s actions for a confession of love, and subsequently hires him to be her personal servant. At least his employment future is secure, or so he thinks…

(Source: Viz Media)

CAST

Hinagiku Katsura
Hayate Ayasaki
Nagi Sanzenin
Maria
Isumi Saginomiya
Athena Tennousu
Ayumu Nishizawa
Ruka Suirenji
Sakuya Aizawa
Tama
Izumi Segawa
Saki Kijima
Wataru Tachibana
Miki Hanabishi
Chiharu Harukaze
Yukiji Katsura
Kayura Tsurugino
Santa-san
Risa Asakaze
Seishirou Klaus
Shiori Makimura
Linn Regiostar
Aika Kasumi
Shiranui
Koutarou Azumamiya

CHAPTERS

RELATED TO HAYATE NO GOTOKU!

REVIEWS

SIRHC
70/100
Stupid, but funny comedy with romance.

As with any review, minor spoilers will be present. They'll be marked with a spoiler tag.

Introduction

Hayate no Gotoku (HnG), written and drawn by Kenjiro Hata, is very much a standard harem romcom, though the premise is quite unique. High-schooler Ayasaki Hayate gains a 150 million yen debt due to his gambling parents. Running away from yakuza, he tries to kidnap a very rich ojou-sama Sanzenin Nagi (who mistakenly believes him to be confessing to her). He ends up saving her from other kidnappers causing her to fall in love with him and hire him as her personal butler, along with paying off his debt.

Story & Writing (22/33)

HnG is very much your typical harem-romcom. Hayate finds himself the center of attention of several girls while remaining completely oblivious to their affections (at least for the most part). HOWEVER, rather than being a detriment to the story, it in my opinion works very well and is one of the few times a harem manga isn't terrible. Drama exists, though isn't the focus of the manga, but rather simply a byproduct of the harem genre. HnG at its core is a comedy with romantic elements. Some chapters and arcs can be more focused on drama and romantic relationships, though as a whole the jokes and references found in the series are its main appeal. This is where Hata's writing style is either something you hate or love. He'll write one chapter that's entirely comedy lacking any seriousness, then the next would be a drama-fest aiming for the kokoro, and then transitioning straight back into another pure comedy chapter. Personally I find this enjoyable as it keeps the manga fresh, though I know some may not find this to their liking.

Characters (25/33)

Characters are where this manga really shines. While there is a large cast of characters, Hata does a very good job of fleshing them all out. Even the minor ones that would normally just disappear after their appropriate screentime often are seen and written on at several points. However, it should be noted that as HnG is a comedy, deep and tragic backstories, drama, and other attributes seen in many romcoms aren't present or are masked with the manga's characteristic comedy. Not to say it makes the characters any more shallow, it just lacks much of the more serious elements found in deep character creation.

Art (23/33)

As with any lengthy manga series, art styles can drastically evolve, as is the case with HnG. Its early art is, quite plainly, good but not amazing. Though considering the series first serialized in 2004 it is very typical of the art seen in many other manga series at the time.

The past few years of its serialization are where the art style is at its best. Its sharp, clean, and overall very good.

Conclusion

All in all, HnG is a very good read if you're into comedy with aspects of romance. At moments the story can get ridiculous or even stupid, however HnG never strays away from its core.
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sushiisawesome
100/100
A very funny tongue-in-cheek romcom about abandoning material belongings in order to form connections with others.
It's difficult to talk about someone's own happiness and what that means relative to their financial wealth. People often say that money can't buy happiness, and yet this saying betrays just how utterly miserable being poverty-stricken can be - everything from personal relationships to material belongings to familial security can be taken away from you, with a reality that what little you have can be stolen at any second. Hayate Ayasaki lives one such life where he works day in day out, sacrifices any and all connections he may form with others in order to have a better future away from his parents, only for his parents to inevitably walk all over him and take whatever material belongings he has for their own egotistical reasons. This culminates in his parents quite literally selling him off to the yakuza for 150 million yen.

It takes a chance encounter with a girl who mistakes his kindness in saving her from kidnappers and giving her a jacket for a confession to finally turn his life around - with the seemingly minor and swept under the rug inconvenience that ironically he himself was planning to kidnap her out of desperation. This introduction sets the stage for a long, long, long semi-episodic romcom about Hayate paying back his savior in Nagi, who paid his entire debt in exchange for him being her butler.

Hayate has clear issues in how it structures its narrative and comedy. The series is often very tongue-in-cheek about lampshading events before they happen, yet this can often feel somewhat like it's a parody of itself even in instances when the narrative takes itself seriously. The comedy - while incredibly funny even if certain gags overstay their welcome - takes up a sizable chunk of the middle of the manga and this can make it difficult for readers to go through this entire behemoth of a manga they may not even find comedic. Kenjiro Hata's values are occasionally reflected through Hayate himself, chastising this or that female character for being a woman and not behaving accordingly (this gets fades away as the manga goes on before disappearing entirely near the end). The antagonists are rather onenote and serve their purpose without doing anything more - there is one noteworthy exception in the manga's first half, but the finale in particular, while definitely thematically fitting, suffers from this. There's a fair amount of fanservice - this doesn't bother me, but I can see why it bothers others. And, obviously, 52 volumes is an absurd amount to read for what is essentially a romcom parody that only occasionally takes itself seriously.

What there is for a narrative is a story about abandoning material comfort in order to connect with others, and how all the material gains in the world won't mean anything without a drive to succeed, a passion to embrace and people to love. Nagi herself epitomizes this, being deeply in love with manga and desiring to be a manga author for much of the manga, yet there's many instances where it's clear that her life is a lonely one minus Maria, who she literally sleeps next to in order for that emptiness to fade away. Several excellently written foils to Hayate exist in Hinagaku and Ruka, who both were abandoned by their parents and suffered considerably because of it - the former being saved by her sister and thus grew to have a functioning life later on, albeit one where she still occasionally shows scars of her old life, and the latter due to working for her parents' sake to be an idol, only to be abandoned later on.

More examples can be given via the side cast - Wataru and Saki struggling to manage a store together yet finding comfort in each other's presence despite the former being left behind, Maria's abandonment issues that come to surface later on in the manga, Athena being isolated and alone for so long despite her desire to reconnect with Hayate or Ayumu taking Hayate for granted before slowly but surely realizing that her chance to be with him has come and passed. This struggle to find connection with other members of the cast is at the center of Hayate - both in its largely comedic content, and its more serious moments - and without the more funny moments over the course of the series that involve the cast literally goofing off together, the series would simply not work.

The last quarter of the manga and especially the last few volumes is where somehow over a dozen character arcs discussing these themes are flawlessly wrapped up. The manga ramps up its story to 11, it goes absolutely bonkers with its villains and there's a damsel in distress arc and yet the manga was careful enough in building up to this moment that this somehow manages to work out insanely well. More than anything, the ending wraps up the series with the characters in many cases having less materially than where they started, yet somehow this is portrayed positively rather than negatively, since the characters find happiness in each other rather regardless of distance, lifestyle or occupation. This is a message that has aged insanely well considering our current economic situation, unfortunately, and I believe that it is one that would resonate with many a reader in these troubled times.

Do I recommend Hayate? I would, but with the nuance of approaching the story (when the narrative focuses on it) for what it's trying to tell, and understanding that its flaws are as part of the experience as its highs. When the manga ends, much of the less than ideal moments across the series or the long stretches of comedy become fond memories of a more nostalgic time - yet it's those precise moments that make the ending all the more powerful and memorable. Otherwise then I'd completely understand why someone wouldn't be into this series - the comedy isn't for everyone and the middle of the manga takes quite a while to get through.

Aside from that...I can't recommend this series highly enough, even with all its numerous flaws.

Thank you for reading.
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GGShang
65/100
Is this series worth your time? Probably not
So, after reading this series and some of the reviews written about it I feel like I need to give some of my thoughts on Hayate Combat Butler. I find this series interesting because throughout its massive run time of 52 volumes there are a lot of things you could comment on, both good and bad, and so I can see people may have a positive inclination towards this manga. However, when you take this series into context of all the other things you could possibly be reading out there, it’s pretty easy to come to the conclusion that Hayate Combat Butler probably isn’t worth it in the end.

I’m going to split this review by first talking about the issues that I have with the series and then go into some positives at the end, so let’s start off with the biggest problem I think this manga has: its length. In case you couldn’t tell, 52 volumes is a lot to read for a single series, and the problem is exacerbated even more due to the genres that are encapsulated here. I would describe Hayate Combat Butler as generally a slice of life, harem comedy that also has large chunk of plot driven action dotted here and there. Now, I think it’s totally fine to have long a slice of life series and long comedy series can be okay too (though I’m personally not a fan of long comedies), but the one genre that really suffers from length is harem. A lot of people already find 20 volume series of harem meandering and slow, so this series is a veritable slogfest. When you introduce a character in volume 3 and have them never confess their love until volume 52 you end up getting very stale characters by the end. Since there can be no significant movement in the relationship (this is just how harem series work), it’s difficult to give proper character growth since there is never any type of resolutions. This is okay in most harem series because they end relatively quickly (and you don’t expect them to be good in the first place), but that’s not the case here. There are a handful of other characters that have around 5 volume arcs where they appear and basically disappear from the story that have far better character development and are far more compelling than the main girls that we are given at the beginning, which is never ideal for your story. You want your main characters to be the appealing ones, not the ones that there only for a bit.

The second issue I have is the lack of direction at times or at least questionable pacing. Like I mentioned earlier, this series is a slice of life comedy until it’s not. I can distinctly remember the first time that a plot point appeared in this story that was genuinely interesting was in volume 17. That’s longer than most manga go on for in their entirety. Imagine having a 16 volume slice of life comedy intro before introducing the real plot. The story then reverts back to slice of life comedy until volume 22 where the action restarts. This pattern repeats itself throughout the manga and it generally is less than ideal.

The last few small things are more personal, though I can easily understand if other people were to agree with me. First off, the main girl is maybe the worst one out of all of them unfortunately. She gets a bit of character development at like… volume 30 or something and continues to get more as time goes on, but no one is waiting that long for growth. On the flipside, the manga also slowly starts to push one of the best girls into the background to the point where she barely appears in the second half of the story. I won’t say who it is but you’ll know who it is if you start reading. The ending is also kinda rushed in this series, with final bosses introduced in the last few volumes that you don’t really care about and quite a few plot threads wrapped up really quickly or not at all. Also, if you don’t like misunderstanding based comedies then please pass on this. I don’t know how you can make all the characters speak the same language and have them not understand each other at all. It’s actually quite impressive.

Okay, so after all that bashing I think I need to say a few kind words to this series. First off, I do enjoy some of them themes that are brought up, namely focusing on the things that money can’t buy and on the importance of familial relationships. This idea is best exemplified in the main girl, who has all the money in the world but only has her maid and the main character as people considered close to her at the start of the story. Her journey of learning that she isn’t special and working hard towards goals that money could never give her is nice to see, and watching her gradually form more and more irreplaceable relationships is what makes her somewhat likable at the end of the story. These themes themselves aren’t all that rare to see in manga, but Hayate Combat Butler gets a lot more time to develop these than other stories. Themes aside, the plot in this series (when it’s actually there) is generally pretty fun and exciting to see because this manga loves to foreshadow things only to come back to them 10 vols later. So if you are a person that likes noticing small things then you might really enjoy parts of this manga.

If I had to summarize Hayate Combat Butler in a single phrase, it would be this: this manga is too long. The majority of the issues that I have with it are caused directly because of the length of the series, and a lot of the good parts would have been highlighted even more if it was shorter. In terms of impact, the series provides nothing major over other series in the same genre, yet it takes 2-10 times longer to read. That’s not the type of ratio you want to see. So is this series worth it to read at the end of the day? Probably not. Go read four other manga instead of this one and have a good time.
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