… to see what is wrong with it, perhaps?
Another week went by, and most of us have been bombarded with news of Diablo III and the Champions League. The former proves that 12 years of wait could be ended with just 8 hours of game play, while the latter proves that Chelsea are better off without EBLJT, and that Drogba would not call the world a f*cking disgrace only when it is him who wins the game.
As for Hayate no Gotoku! the most recent news is that Vol. 32 is released. A copy has just arrived at my home safely; Amazon is just so efficient. You might also want to know that I have gone back to the “old” style of Chapter Reviews again. The “new” style doesn’t seem to be very delightful to read, from what I have heard, so I think it is better to go back to the “old” style. New things aren’t always better, and it is not a good idea to force anyone to change to anything new. Cue Timeline for Facebook.
If there is something which is likely to get everyone excited, it would be a new manga chapter. So here comes Hayate no Gotoku! Ch.363, which focuses on Nagi, Ruka and Ayumu. Let’s talk about them one by one.
When Nagi gets cocky, she is in trouble.
Inspired by Ayumu, Nagi comes up with a new story. It sounds very promising, and Chiharu is very happy with it. She eagerly reads the storyboard Nagi has written, but then…
For the 753th time, I have to say that Nagi’s problem has never been her ideas or her arts, but the presentation of her ideas. In fact, all along the series we have seen her coming up with a lot of interesting ideas, which are ruined by her feeble presentation skills. She wants to make every single panel as “explosive” as she could, but the result is that the “explosions” turn her story into dust in merely one page. Uncontrolled explosions look fascinating, but we get next to nothing from such excessive fireworks.
Feel the heat!
This might explain why Kayura likes Nagi’s manga. Kayura has read too much manga that an “ordinary” one would not get her excited anymore. Nagi’s excessive fireworks, on the other hand, are powerful enough to get Kayura’s attention. She feels enough “heat” and “shock” from Nagi’s explosions, so she thinks Nagi is good.
In the end, whether Nagi is a good mangaka (at this moment) depends on what you expect from good manga. If good manga is an exciting thriller which does not require your brain to work – or, which requires your brain not to work – then Nagi is a very good mangaka. If good manga yields something substantial after the explosions… then Nagi is very, very poor.
You might have expected Nagi to learn her lesson from her Comisun disappointment, but Kayura took her roller-coaster train around a loop, and Nagi is now back to square one. She is still very confident of herself, drawing manga which hardly anyone understands, and she doesn’t know what is wrong with her manga. While someone benefited from the Comisun experience, it seems that Nagi simply wasted her time.
The old man knows manga surprisingly well…
The “someone” as mentioned above is of course Ruka. Her success in Comisun gave her confidence to do well in Summer Comiket, but she now faces her own problem: her company isn’t happy with her success at Comisun, and they are worried that should Ruka prosper in the manga industry, she would never work as an idol. It is not all about the debt: think of how much money the company could earn with such a popular idol for 10 years, and you would know that they simply can’t let Ruka quit.
Apparently the manager talked with Ruka, and banned her from further manga-making. Ruka is mad about this decision, and she runs away. It is safe to assume that the company pays the rent of her apartment, so if Ruka wants to run way from the company, she would not live in that apartment anymore. She needs a room, and the only person she could turn to is (of course) Hayate.
At last!
It has been widely assumed that Ruka would rent a room at the Violet Mansion, ever since her first appearance. Over the past one-and-a-half year it had not come true, but now it is highly likely that this is going to happen. It could be only me, but I would say: “At last!”
Meanwhile, the idol work of Ruka is stopped. The company makes up a very ready-made excuse for it: Ruka has fallen ill, but she would return in two weeks. Nobody knows why they set the return date to be 2 weeks, but it seems that they are confident about getting Ruka back to work quickly. Come to think of it, the “2 weeks” statement could be an ultimatum to Ruka: get back to work in time or you will be in trouble.
With a rare display of sufficient empathy, Hayate manages to get the story from Ruka. Finding out the problem is the first step to help someone, and Hayate successfully takes this step in this chapter. Let’s see how he, the unlucky and (sometimes very) stupid butler, could solve the problem for Ruka.
Maximum normality.
Things are not going well in the exceptional idol world, and they are not going well in the normal family world, either. Once again, the perfectly normal Nishizawas are not able to go to any sorts of trips – you can’t help thinking that they can’t even get out of Tokyo. The reason (or excuse, if you are on Mrs. Nishizawa’s side) is that there is a global economic recession. Keeping in mind this series is set in Year 2005, I start wondering: Was the world in economic recession back in 2005? I only know that things started going very bad in 2009…
The Nishizawa children are not happy with a no-trip. After all, it is summer vacation, and normal children – presuming that they don’t prefer locking themselves up with Diablo III or Euro 2012 – want to go on trips. Kazuki (… who?) does himself a favour by signing up a homestay programme, which means that we are not going to see him again for a long time!
What are you doing here, Ayumu…?
Ayumu, who is not even aware of such a homestay programme, begin to look for alternatives. She wonders if Hayate and his happy friends would go to trips again, just like Golden Week. Sadly, while Nagi was a trillionairess before Golden Week, she is currently not. It is therefore unlikely that Nagi and her happy friends would have the money to go for overseas trip.
Come to think of it, most of the main cast members went to Shimoda in March and to Greece in May. If they were to go on trips again in July, then they would be going to trips every two months! Seriously, isn’t it a bit too much for High School students?
Let us not forget that in the end – in the Heaven is a Place on Earth movie, that is – Ayumu would be the one who is taking everyone to a trip. It would be extremely funny if it is revealed that Ayumu suggests the trip because she hasn’t got her trip from Hayate or Nagi over the summer.
The scene that is supposed to cause misunderstandings.
This chapter ends with both Ruka and Ayumu arriving at the Violet Mansion. We all know that this is only the beginning of an arc. Let us not forget that the “mysterious room”, mentioned in the chapter title, has not been shown yet. What would be in that mysterious room? And what are the odds of both Ruka and Ayumu moving into the Violet Mansion?
Let’s look forward to the next chapter!
Hayate Report 