Hayate no Gotoku! Ch. 478

It’s a little bit late but… HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Okay, I would admit that I am making the same mistake as Nagi does.

Ever since the conclusion of Comiket, Nagi’s manga career has never been mentioned again. Instead, our attention has been turned to Nagi’s return to her wealth, then to Hayate’s newest affairs with Konoha, and then to the latest updates of the other girls. With the new developments all over the place, it is indeed easy to consider Nagi’s mangaka dream as something that is already over – or, in better terms, accomplished.

Apparently Nagi thinks so too, as we see that she is lazing around in her big mansion, watching Ruka’s hard work on television. With her career goal now become clear, Ruka seems to be enjoying her life as an idol, and she is shining brightly. We don’t know how hard she is working on her doujinshi, but as far as her life after the Comiket goes, she is doing a very good job.

Never expected our first panel in 2015 is Ruka.

Nagi is a more curious case. You certainly cannot say that she has achieved nothing since Comiket; on the contrary, she has achieved what arguably was her primary goal: to restore her right to inheritance and say goodbye to “poverty”. Yet while a career can last for a long time, Nagi’s wealth restoration is an one-off. After she has achieved this one goal, I think it would be legitimate to ask what her next goal could be.

Once again it takes Maria to call this out to Nagi and make her rethink her life. The first thing Nagi must realise is that her ultimate goal is far from having achieved. Surely, if Nagi is really serious about selling trillions of manga, a success in selling 100 doujins is a good start but not a good finish. She has to keep on working towards her goal, instead of lazing around without a purpose.

Maizumi the Tsundere?

A second thing that Nagi has to realise is something that we might or might not have suspected, but would have solved a huge mystery: how on earth had Nagi managed to make the drastic change from on-site trash bin filler to 100 copies seller in two months? Well, today Kayura has revealed the answer: Nagi’s doujins were bought not because of the quality of her work, but that Maizumi had been promoting her manga behind the scene. I have no idea why Maizumi would do this to help Nagi, but he is making another great impression here. A long, long time ago Hata has promised us that he would want Maizumi to be likeable, and (damn!) he really is growing on me!

This isn’t a good news for Nagi, though. For some time she has thought that her efforts alone have won her the competition, and it now turns out that it did not. She is still standing at her starting point, while all the way dreaming that she has already made a strong start. It appears that Comiket has won Nagi nothing other than Hayate. Well, that’s the only thing that matters, isn’t it?

Now, Nagi still wants her ultimate goal achieved, so she needs a new way to pursue her career. She needs a path that is more professional than making doujins, and the most straightforward – meaning, most difficult – way is to submit her manga to a magazine. The magazine that Nagi would choose is Shonen Sunday.

There is no fourth wall.

While I agree that Nagi should avoid Shonen Jump like the plague, I am not sure about choosing Shonen Sunday. As Kayura has pointed out, Shonen Sunday is very ambitious despite its lower popularity. Competition will be as hard as if not harder than Shonen Jump. Of course, the whole discussion could well be simply making fun of Shonen Sunday, but a part of me doesn’t quite enjoy the whole business comparison.

Anyway, Nagi now needs a new manga. If there is anything she has learned from Comiket, it is that she should make a manga based on her own experience, or at least something she can personally relate to. She then makes a rather wise choice by looking for love comedies around Kayura. Somehow, Maria is out of the question.

Anyone thinks that Maria is expected something?

The thing is, by suggesting that Kayura is the least involved in romance, Nagi is basically saying that Kayura is not in Hayate’s “harem”. Somehow I think this implies that Nagi has a certain degree of knowledge that girls other than Ayumu and Ruka have a certain degree of involvement in romance. The only question is whether she realises that they are her love rivals.

Still, Maria is out of the question.

Arguably, it is not so wise for Nagi to try making a love comedy out of Kayura. Here is a ship that is forced into “production” simply because Nagi thinks it will be interesting. As Wataru and Kayura have never met before, a “confession” out of the blue isn’t going to be interesting. Wataru is probably going to bluntly reject her unless a) he is suddenly out of his mind, or b) Kayura presents herself to be an extremely attractive girl.

She is cute alright, but…

Unfortunately, option b doesn’t seem like to happen, because Kayura’s blushing face and her “nyan” word manage to piss Nagi off. In fact, Nagi is so angry with Kayura’s acting that she decides to cancel “Project Kayura”. It may actually be a good thing for everybody, but it also means that Nagi has to restart her search for a love comedy.

Perhaps she should have a look at her own butler…