By Kenjiro Hata. Released in Japan as “Hayate no Gotoku!” by Shogakukan, serialization ongoing in the magazine Shonen Sunday. Released in North America by Viz.

This volume wasn’t really supposed to be read on its own – it came out in Japan at the same time as Vol. 24, as it’s one big epic storyline resolution. But here in North America, where Hayate’s sales sort of suck, we get this volume now and Vol. 24 in late summer. That said, it’s not like this is incoherent without the other volume, it just leaves us with another nasty cliffhanger. More to the point, everything is finally tying together as the universe sets out to make Hayate’s life miserable, and he helps it along as best he can.

Not that Hayate is the only one suffering – we get the aftermath of Hina’s confession, as her heart is shattered into little pieces but she still manages to say the right things to Hayate. There are many characters in this series who are at their best when they’re absolutely miserable, and Hina’s is one of the bigger examples. That said, I suspect she’s not simply going to sit back at the hotel for the rest of this arc and let Athena steal the show…

Nor is Nagi, though she doesn’t really appear much in this volume. Hayate’s self-worth is tied directly to the fact that Nagi ‘saved’ him from his old life, and therefore when Mikado (who is really being a horrible old bastard here) forces him to choose between Nagi’s happiness (as losing all her wealth will destroy her) and Athena’s (as she may very well die if Hayate doesn’t intervene), it’s snot surprising that he freezes up and goes into a bit of a blue funk. It’s not so much a Lady or the Tiger choice as it is two kinds of tiger.

And then there’s Athena (who has a comedy relief servant, Makina, who is appropriately a bit of a dark Hayate to Athena’s Dark Nagi). There’s a bit of possession by evil going on, so her desire to get the King’s Jewel at all costs it wrapped up in that. Her feelings for Hayate seem to be genuine, though, and it’s telling that the evil inside her is allowed to take over when she realizes that Nagi is the one who saved him and the most important woman in his life right now. This leads to summoning giant demonic spirits to kill Hayate once and for all. Thank goodness for Isumi…

…who arrives just in time to lose her first battle in the entire series (as possessed-Athena points out to her, “You’ve never had to face someone stronger than you, have you?), so our heroes have to run away for a bit. Isumi also gets to be infodump girl, informing Hayate that even if they destroy the stone, the shock of the thing that’s currently possessing her being destroyed may kill Athena. He really does have no good options here. Well, except this is a shonen manga, so he can go back and plead with her to listen to reason some more. I suspect that’s what we’ll see next.

At the time this came out, a lot of folks were wondering if this might be the conclusion, and if Hayate would actually end up with Athena. No fear (it’s up to Vol. 39 in Japan now), but this is still an excellent buildup to something big. Can Hayate win despite his amazing powers of self-hatred?

By Kenjiro Hata. Released in Japan as “Hayate no Gotoku!” by Shogakukan, serialization ongoing in the magazine Shonen Sunday. Released in North America by Viz.

This volume, and the two that follow it, are for me the high point of the entire run of Hayate the Combat Butler. Hata has a tendency to get sidetracked and lost in comedy asides, to the point where he’s started to parody his tendency to do so. Also, it’s becoming quite clear that someone is telling him that he has to keep the series going and can’t wrap things up. But that’s in Japan. Here, we’re finally getting to the good stuff. All the slow character development, glacial plot points, and G*ndam references lead to this confrontation in Greece.

For all that Hayate is a wacky harem comedy, it has some dark tones at its core. Mostly it’s been about the horrible parents of Hayate, Wataru and Hina, and the absent/dead parents of Nagi and Athena. But there’s also been a sense of aiming for your dream and failing that’s come up several times with Hina’s alcoholic sister Yukiji. She’s in Italy because the teacher (and old high-school friend) who has a crush on her is trying to make grand gestures so that he doesn’t have to actually confess. After a chapter of misunderstandings and beatings, the now drunken teacher wonders out loud how the cool, guitar-playing Yukiji turned into the lazy, shiftless, aimless young woman we all know. And the answer is that life happens. It’s why people make wishes, and dream of fairy stories. And create magical luck stones, for that matter.

Speaking of which, we finally get the confrontation we’ve waited 10 years for… well OK, four volumes. Hayate sees Athena, and calls out to her. Unfortunately, she doesn’t know who he is. Or at least pretends she doesn’t know – as a very cute aftershot tells us, she is quite aware of Hayate but has some longer game, which involves that stone. The last volume gave us a few minor villains trying to get their hands on the stone, but now we move on to the more dangerous players. 16-year-old Athena looks like a dark queen, what with her black dress and princess curls (and healthy bust – clearly larger than any of the other girls in Hayate’s wannabe harem). We can only hope that she sides with her feelings over her need for that stone.

And so, having started the volume with Yukiji noting that sometimes things don’t work out, and dreams don’t come true, we end with the dinner date between Hayate and Hinagiku, who is determined to confess. Of course, Hina is mistakenly thinking that Hayate hates her because of her tsundere antics. And Hayate has worked out that Athena was lying, and is wondering what to do now and why meeting Athena is affecting him so much. So the dinner date is a masterpiece of distraction. Tragically, the two characters have revelations exactly at the WRONG time. Hina finally mans up her courage and starts to confess. And Hayate finally puts two and two together and realizes why he’s so devastated by Athena’s disfavor, and why he wants desperately to apologize: he loves her.

It’s an epic cliffhanger, to be sure. Hata certainly thought so, as Vols. 23 and 24 came out in Japan the same day. Sadly, that won’t happen here, where Hayate simply doesn’t have the sales. So we’ll have to check back in another six months to see how Hayate’s admission affects Hina, and whether it spurs him to return to Athena. The tension only gets higher from here.

By Kenjiro Hata. Released in Japan as “Hayate no Gotoku!” by Shogakukan, serialization ongoing in the magazine Shonen Sunday. Released in North America by Viz.

I’ve given every volume of Hayate since I began this blog a full review, so want to keep up the tradition. Of course, that tends to mean I have to keep finding new things to say. Should I talk about how the North American audience views harems… no, wait, did that already. What about the relation between gags and serious… no, did that too. It doesn’t help that Hata is very slowly putting all his pieces into play for what promises to be an epic storyline… but it isn’t yet. As a result, we get a lot interruptions here, including some characters who haven’t appeared in so long that Hayate and Nagi have to direct readers to the appropriate volume.

For those who like Maria, enjoy that cover, she’s barely in this volume. (To be honest, aside from one-shot chapters, she’s never really going to be relevant again, unless Hata comes back to her if/when he wraps this up.) The two major events in this book are a beach volleyball game challenge given by Gilbert, the aforementioned character who no one remembers anymore; and Sonia, the nun with a crush on Wataru, trying to steal the Ougyoku Stone. This Stone has come up once or twice since the series began, but here is where it starts to really play a major role, in that Nagi’s Machiavellian grandfather states if Hayate allows anyone to steal or destroy the stone for more than an hour, Nagi loses her inheritance. And there’s a lot of people who want that to happen, including Athena, now 10 years older and living in Greece. The stone is the gimmick that will drive the next few volumes.

The beach volleyball game is the funniest part of this volume. Gilbert immediately shoots himself in the foot by demanding Hayate partner with Hinagiku, as she’s so “weak and frail”. Unfortunately, Hina is dealing with her usual self-image and tsundere love for Hayate, so she decides to pretend to be as weak as Gilbert says she is. Complete with monotone “Eek” noises. Thankfully, Gilbert is *such* an ass that this only lasts for a couple of pages before she decides to kick his ass. (By the way, I note that now that Hata has revealed that Miki is in love with Hina, he’s allowing her to be a lot more open about it, demanding Hina wear a bikini and essentially lusting after her.)

The most romantic part of the volume is the one with Sonia, though she isn’t the reason why. She’s stealing the stone so that she can help Wataru get his *own* family fortune back, and therefore return Sonia’s love. Hayate is absolutely not the best person to figure this out, given that he has all the sensitivity of a hammer. Luckily, Ayumu is there with him, and once again makes you wonder why she isn’t the heroine of some other manga. She calms Sonia down, points out Wataru wouldn’t like her just for money, gets the stone back, comforts Hayate, *and* gets to kiss him (on the cheek) to boot. She would be the clear winner of any other harem manga, but is only a long-shot in this one. Which is a sign of how balanced Hata keeps his harem… and his readers.

Due to the typical low sales of almost all harem manga these days, the next volume will not be out till August. But Hata, for the most part, delivers what readers want – some fanservice, some laughs, some romantic tease, and a few sweet moments. If you read Hayate scanlated, get over the fact that your pairing may not win and buy the manga. As for new readers… why are you buying Vol. 21?