5th Anniversary of Hayate Report: Top 10 Most Read Posts

I do not like repeating this phrase again since I have posted it on my Facebook page and Twitter already, but there is no better words than “time flies” for describing how I feel. Like I have said last year, Doughnut Gunso is not the most diligent of bloggers, so I am happy that I have made yet another year, and with my studies coming to an end soon, things might just get better (or, return to normal) for me.

As 5 years make a rather special milestone, I am going to write an article to review the articles I have written in the last 5 years. Specifically, I would like to “announce” the 10 most read articles I have written, in order. I think it would be a fair reflection on what have been liked by you readers most.

Without further due, let’s begin!

All statistics courtesy of the WordPress Stats page.

No. 10: Hayate no Gotoku! Ch. 309 (1,695 views)

This is a very interesting chapter, as it turned out that readers’ attention is not really on the chapter itself, but the cover page. What’s so special about the page is that it gave the answer to a riddle from Ch. 308: who has erased Izumi’s embarrassing “selfie” video?

While the riddle was very easy to solve, I think readers were very eager to find out if they had indeed got the correct answer.

No. 9: Hayate no Gotoku! Ch. 315 (1,732 views)

Hinagiku chapter reviews generally receive a bit more views than other chapters, and this one is no different. To be fair to this chapter, it is not hard to see that this is an important chapter instead of a filler with the benefit of hindsight. After all, it was the first step for the Hayate-Hinagiku-Ruka team to assemble and won at Comisun – with relative ease.

There have been doubts on whether Hinagiku could make a contribution because of the time limit or her lack of manga knowledge. In the end though, Hinagiku proved all the doubters wrong simply by caring and working hard enough.

One more fun fact: we were fighting for the 80,000th visit count to this blog…

No. 8: A Blessing in Disguise: The Denseness of Hayate and Hinagiku Could be Beneficial in Building Up Their Relationship (1,932 views)

This is an essay of pure Doughnut Gunso style. As I have noted in the essay itself, I have made Hayate-Hinagiku observations in an arc which has very little to do with Hinagiku herself. In addition to that, the main argument itself came from a one-panel comment by Ayumu (“How dense are you, Hina-san?”). Most notably, Hinagiku’s denseness in love has only been highlighted by the last 50 chapters, so an article in 2012 is arguably a pioneer.

The biggest challenge of this essay was the analysis on Hayate. I had never really looked in depth into his relationships with Athena and Nagi before writing this piece, so I was no expert on the matter. Somehow I have not received any feedback saying that I got things wrong, so I could only assume that my analysis was sound.

No. 7: Valentine’s Day 2011: Hayate-Hinagiku Relationship Revisited – The Relationship between Parallel People (2,049 views)

Allow me to say that this is my personal favourite. I would say that this piece is the foundation of my entire view of the Hayate-Hinagiku relationship, and while I have got a lot of other things wrong, I am proud to say that this “parallel people theory” so far remains valid.

The essay ended with the wish that Hayate and Hinagiku could develop a mutual understanding through their continued cooperation, which could be “make or break” for the validity of the entire essay. However, I have written this essay not for academic soundness, but to establish an argument for my continued support of my favourite character. So far, this article is serving this purpose fine.

No. 6: Hayate no Gotoku! Ch. 302 (2,178 views)

This was the chapter which decided Hinagiku’s “fate” as one of the tenants at the Violet Mansion. This arrangement means that Hinagiku and Athena, who came in first and second of the Third Character Popularity Poll, would live in the same room for 3 months.

Now that the 3 months are over, we still do not see Hinagiku moving out of the Mansion, or Athena returning to her full self permanently, or any further explanation of the importance of Shirosakura to the current plot(TM). For these things I guess we will have to wait a bit longer…

No. 5: Hinagiku Inquisition: From Tomboy to Otome – Katsura Hinagiku Has Become More Feminine (2,230 views)

This was my very first Hinagiku Inquisition essay. Arguably I have set up the impression that this is a pro-Hinagiku blog with this essay (well, not hard to guess anyway since I have begun blogging with Ch. 267), so this may be an important essay in this sense.

Now, I must confess that I have quite forgotten to mention something: the conclusion that Hinagiku has become more feminine is not purely my observation, as I have read it on 2chan. What I have done was to explain this conclusion with the four traits, and also to point out that Hayate has been happy seeing her more feminine traits. In fact, after all these years since this essay came out, we do not seem to remember Hinagiku’s masculine traits anymore…

No. 4: Hayate no Gotoku! Can’t Take My Eyes off You – News Centre (2,247 views)

The popularity of this post is easy to understand: it is the first TV anime since Season 2 (the movie is another matter; more on that later), the post has been updated a few times over 2 months, and most importantly there are a lot of pictures.

The “funny” thing is that I have actually whined that the character design looked horrible, in bold text, since late July 2012. Perhaps Manglobe has heard my complaints and reacted in a very funny way, because of all the episodes in this season, the most horrible artwork came from the Hinagiku episode. Obviously Doughnut Gunso must learn when to shut up…

No. 3: Top 5 Hinagiku Moments No. 1 (2,507 views)

This is the final part of a five-entry series of Top 5 Hinagiku Moments. I have actually forgotten why I had the idea to start the series anyway – perhaps as a means to boost my post counts in my early days?

While the other 4 entries are all out of top 10, this one strangely ended up this high and I have no explanation for this. Anyway, I think my analysis on Silky Heart is on the whole correct in the sense that Hinagiku handled the heartbreaking moment very well, to the point that she suffered no long-term damage in her relationship with Hayate.

No. 2: Hayate no Gotoku! Heaven is a Place on Earth – Part 1 (3,963 views)

Here is another confession: I actually messed up with this article, because I have overwritten the “News Centre” with the first part of the movie review! I have absolutely no way to tell which views belonged to the News Centre, and which belonged to the review. Ahhhh!!!

I tell you what, writing the movie review was a horrible experience. In 2011 I was still using my “old approach” to write reviews, i.e. to describe what appeared on screen/page, and then to offer my feedback. This has turned out to be very, very heavy workload for a movie, and I surely will take a new approach to the next movie review… if there ever would be.

No. 1: Hayate no Gotoku! Ch. 300 (4,088 views)

New readers might not realise, but in the early days of this blog, I did spoilers and reviews. There was a time when leaked photos would appear in forums days before the official release in Japan. You all know that there is no such practice now, and the major reason is that there are no more leaked photos like the old days.

The “good old days” actually contributed to the high view counts for this post. You may recall that this was the chapter that announced the results of the Third Character Popularity Poll, so we had a lot of feedbacks and discussions over the leaked results. You know, to some of us, this moment is comparable to winning the Champions League.

What do you think of my top 10 most read posts? Is there any other article over the past 5 years that you found particularly memorable? Please let me know!