Hayate no Gotoku! Can’t Take My Eyes off You Episode 6

Before we proceed, let’s talk about some forum activities, shall we?

I have another awful story, wanna listen?

For some reason I wasn’t able to watch the episode before I went to work this morning, so I went to some forums to get an idea what this episode is about. Somewhere out there a question was raised: “Has it ever been said that Black Camellia (Kurotsubaki) is a sword?”

Well, technically, no. Athena only said that Shirosakura is the rival of Kurotsubaki, but she never said specifically that the latter is a sword. But then, some of us assume that it is a sword for a reason: logically speaking, only two things of the same category can be “rivals”. Otherwise, the two things can’t rival each other, for there is a lack of common ground for competition.

At least they can be friends.

Kobe Bryant and Cristiano Ronaldo cannot be rivals on the pitch. An iPhone cannot be the rival of a PS3. A sword cannot be the rival of, say, a pocket watch. If there is something that can be considered Shirosakura’s rival, I think many of us would think that it has to be a sword, or at least a weapon.

Of course, if it turns out that the “rivalry” between Shirosakura and Kurotsubaki lies somewhere else, then admittedly the latter can take any form the author likes. By typing the above text I do not mean to insist that Kurotsubaki has to be a sword. I am merely explaining why I think that it is a sword.

By the way, from now on I shall drop the name “Black Camellia” and use “Kurotsubaki” instead. The reason is that Shirosakura, the transcription of the kanji “白桜”, should be matched by Kurotsubaki, the transcription of the kanji “黒椿”. The rightful match for the name Black Camellia should be White Cherry Blossom.

With the business of Kurotsubaki sorted out, let’s go back to Episode 6!

This is a nice story.

It is an episode full of story-telling. At the beginning (and the end) of the episode, Hayate retells a completely new version of Urashima Taro. Then we have Yukariko telling us a love story. In this episode the story is cut into two halves, so let me just do a Hata and combine these two halves together:

There was an orphan who lived in a very poor environment who dreamed of becoming something big. As he grew up into a robber, his dream was specified to being the best robber in the world. A big boss in the robbery business (?) told him that he could earn great respect if he could steal Kurotsubaki. He therefore went to look for Kurotsubaki, and tracked it to a castle deep in the middle of a forest. His infiltration failed immediately, and he had to run for his life. For some reason he chose to go deep into the castle, and he found “the world’s most beautiful princess”.

This is a not so nice story.

He admired her and blushed, but he also had the idea to take her as hostage while he grabbed Kurotsubaki and escaped. To his surprise, the “princess” possessed a .44 magnum, so he couldn’t do anything to her. The “princess” revealed that she did not have long to live, but she wanted to fall in love before she died. She made a wish to the stars for the man of her dreams to appear, and then the robber came, and she accepted him to be the one. As they did not know each other well, the “princess” asked the robber to be her butler. Of course, the robber had no way to refuse before a .44 magnum…

Although there are a few rather odd turns, the story is very well-told. Yukariko’s voice is nice, the music is peaceful and the puppet of the robber is cute. It qualifies as a lovely romantic story, and it is reasonably assumed to be the story of Yukariko and Shin. That would help us to know one key thing about Shin: he was not a good man who turned bad, as he was a bad man to begin with. Whether he has turned good for a while because of Yukariko is questionable, and “losing” his wedding ring is not exactly a good sign…

Noon IS early for you, milady.

Nagi wakes up from a dream of her mother, wondering to herself that it has been a while since her last dream of Yukariko. She greets Hayate good morning (a rare expression of courtesy), and Hayate is surprised that Nagi wakes up so early at… 12:00 noon.

As Nagi is having her drink, Hayate reveals that it is already “the second half of Silver Week”. It means that if Nagi still wants to collect whatever Shin has left in America, she only has a few days left. Nagi shows almost no interests in her father, and she seems reluctant to go. This is in sharp contrast to Episode 1, in which she had great motivation, and she ran away from home because Maria did not let her go. Perhaps, as her enthusiasm for the UFO news cools down, she has lost interests in America and her father’s things altogether…

I thought the photos were facing down?

Hayate then shows Nagi the photos of Shin’s belongings, but Nagi is not able to recognize them. We can see near the end of the episode that it is a pocket watch. The context heavily implies that this pocket watch could well be Kurotsubaki. So a sword can be the rival of a pocket watch, after all…

Whether it is Kurotsubaki or not, this pocket watch is fearful, as everyone who are involved died in unfortunate accidents. The police then moved it to a highly secured place to ensure the safety… of other innocent people. This explains why the pocket watch has disappeared for so long, but it still doesn’t explain why it appears now. If the pocket watch is just so dangerous, shouldn’t it never be returned to the Sanzen’in household at all?

In any case, Nagi now has no intention to collect the pocket watch, and she intends to spend the rest of Silver Week with Hayate, starting at the moment. To her disappointment, Hayate tells her that he is going shopping, or Nagi would have nothing for dinner this night. I thought Maria is the one who does the shopping…

We could order groceries instead.

As she is determined to spend time with Hayate, Nagi follows him to shopping – an impressive move for someone who is thought to dislike going out of her house. Luckily, there is something that interests her even though she is not in Akiba: a box of fish sausages with anime stickers. She begs Hayate to buy it, while Hayate ends up buying the “normal” fish sausages. Seriously, it doesn’t need too much intelligence to tell what exactly Nagi wants with fish sausages?

Annoyed with Hayate’s idiocy, Nagi decides to hang out with Chiharu and Kayura at the Violet Mansion. As she doesn’t know the way to the Mansion, she has to ask Hayate to take her there – this is something Nagi has yet to improve.

23rd September.

The sky is getting darker and darker as a tropical cyclone moves toward Japan. Hayate leaves Nagi at the Violet Mansion and resumes shopping. To Nagi’s surprise, nobody is in. She then receives a text massage from Chiharu, who tells her that she has (or they have) just arrived in Las Vegas for Ruka’s concert. As things turn out, Nagi is quite alone at the Mansion.

Being alone in such a big house is really unnerving, and Nagi becomes afraid of the odd cracking noise from the Mansion. She reaches breaking point and screams as the door suddenly opens (it really is scary!), but it turns out to be Tsugumi.

Nagi has no business with Tsugumi, and she doesn’t want to stay with her younger sister (self-proclaimed/LOL). As she heads toward the front door to go home, it starts to rain, so Nagi has no choice but to stay with Tsugumi. For a conversation, Nagi suggests Tsugumi to talk about herself.

It can’t buy you the way to Heaven, for one thing.

CM Time: The SC Rangers are going on trips again, but it seems that they have no idea where they are going or what would be awaiting them wherever they go. Meanwhile, Ayumu wants to go to Ruka’s concert as well, but apparently she doesn’t have the money…

Oddly enough, a conversation has not started right away, and Nagi has to bring the subject of Tsugumi’s agenda up once again. She goes as far as to saying that if Tsugumi were honest with her, perhaps she could help her younger sister (self-proclaimed/LOL) fulfilling her wish. Tsugumi, who has fallen into Nagi’s traps more than once, is worried that it could yet be another trap, and refuses to say anything.

Top interrogation skills, but then… eat first, then talk.

Nagi then picks a fish sausage as snack, which Tsugumi seems to have no idea. When Nagi is about to tell Tsugumi what it is, she has a sudden change of thought and lies that it is foie gras (what?). Tsugumi believes in her (WHAT?!) and begins to show great interests in the snack. Nagi is not sharing it with her, unless Tsugumi reveals her true agenda. Soon, the “foie gras” becomes too tempting for Tsugumi, and she finally reveals that she is looking for Kurotsubaki…

Man, this girl is just so easy to manipulate.

Nagi has no idea what Kurotsubaki is, so she calls “that damn old man” and asks about it. Perhaps surprisingly, Mikado sounds calm and even a bit kind as he tells her that Kurotsubaki has been stolen 13 years ago – meaning that Tsugumi has nothing to steal… But then Mikado goes cocky again and says he has nothing to tell Nagi about the identity of the thief. Nagi loses her patience and smashes her iPhone… again. If you remember, she smashed her iPhone in the Heaven is a Place on Earth movie, so the device she has been using in this episode should be a replacement of that broken phone, and now it is broken again.

How has this house survived previous storm seasons?

Tsugumi blames Nagi’s carelessness in handling her belongings, and the two enter a shouting match. It is cut short as a lightning bolt hits the ground – the rain has now become a thunderstorm. The old apartment looks shaky in the strong wind, and soon enough the roof begins leaking. Having no way to call Hayate (actually she should have called him a long time ago…), the two girls are left on their own to save themselves and the apartment.

Tsugumi shows her composure as she heads to – I can’t tell what she is doing – while requesting Nagi to check on the leaking roof and everyone’s room. As Nagi runs along the corridor, a broken tree branch flies towards her… At the very last moment, she is saved by Tsugumi who grabs her from behind. The two girls cheer each other on as they are determined to save “everyone’s doujinshi”.

It’s not alright then.

The storm is finally gone – so soon for a tropical cyclone – and Hayate goes to the Violet Mansion to check out on Nagi. The girls are exhausted, but fine. Nagi asks why Tusugmi saved her, as there is no reason for her to get close to Nagi. Tsugumi says that she doesn’t help people for a reason, and that might be true: we save people in mortal peril not really for a reason.

Hayate then gets a call from Mikado, who voluntarily reveals the identity of the thief to Nagi: Shin Hayek, her father.

Again, it remains unknown as to whether Shin really was the one who stole Kurotsubaki. After all, we have only heard Mikado’s side of the story, and whether he can be fully trusted is debatable. We have seen that Mikado has had a great deal of hostility towards Shin. Hostility makes us biased, and when we are biased we distort facts.

In any case, now that Mikado has said that Shin “betrayed” Yukariko, I doubt if Nagi could still say that she is not interested in her father. She must have one or two questions about her father, which should (finally) bring her to America. So, let’s wait for the next episode!