Hayate no Gotoku!!: Electric Boogaloo.
For those of you just tuning in to this season: Hayate no Gotoku!!, known as Hayate the Combat Butler in the west, is a comedic romance/slice-of-life series with a parodic streak. It’s based on the manga of the same name about a young man called Hayate Ayasaki. Hayate ends up, through a series of misfortunate events, inheriting a multi-million yen debt from his jerk parents and becomes the indentured servant butler of a spoiled rich kid called Nagi in order to pay it off. Wacky events, harem comedy and more lightweight otaku references than you could shake a stick at ensue.
The first season was animated by Studio DEEN in 2007 and contained 18 episodes based on the original manga and 34 episodes anime-original filler material (52 total, for the math-deficient). For this second season, the torch passed to Studio J.C. in 2009 and gave us 26 new episodes that follow the manga almost entirely.
So, this season features a new and better-reputed animation studio, a more manga-centric storyline, same beloved seiyuus, music, style and kinds of fanservice. Sounds like a winning formula to everyone, yes? For the manga fans, I won’t doubt it was. But I’m not one. I’ve never read the manga. All I did was watch the first season, and I found the random comedy, parodies of other anime series, fourth wall breaks, repeated pop culture references and consistent silliness to be light-comedy entertaining. The second season is mostly more of that, only for some reason not quite as good. Let me try to explain why.
Animation and Visuals: 6/10 – The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Despite the changes in animation studio, those hating and fearing radical re-designs of Hayate no Gotoku need not worry. The edges have gotten a bit blunter and the colour palette appears beefed down a bit from the level of 'eye-straining extreme' to 'slightly less eye-straining'. The animation appears to have been beefed up a bit. Other than that, nothing’s changed. The character designs are exactly the same, quality of backgrounds appears to be much the same, and there’s not much new in scenery of note. The end result is ok, little more and little less.
Audio: 6/10 – The less things change, the more they stay the same... Wait a minute…
What goes for the visuals counts equally much for the audio. The music tracks used in the last season are entirely recycled for this season, and so are the seiyuus. Rie Kugimiya is still the wrathful loli Nagi, Ryoukou Shiraishi is still the effeminate Hayate, Norio Wakamoto is still the incredibly smarmy narrator (although his lines and interplay with the remaining characters are cut down considerably in this season), and so on. I didn’t notice any new sound tracks, and while there are some new voice jobs because new characters are introduced, I can’t honestly say any of them stick out as good enough to mention here. They’re about as competent at their jobs as the existing cast.
It’s entirely ok and nothing to really gripe about, but not so much to praise it for either. Somewhat above average due to the colours of the voice cast that gives a little more than your average slice-of-life show (but still not quite as good as, say, Toradora).
Story: 5/10 – So, now that we’ve actually *got* one...
Hayate no Gotoku’s second season carries on from episode 18 in the first season. It follows the manga storyline of how Hayate, having adjusted to life as a butler to the wealthy, now has to obliviously deal with his large number of crushes amongst the female supporting cast. This story is told in small episode arcs rather than the free-standing single episodes used by most of the first season, leading more or less nowhere. The end of the second season is by no means the ends of the show, just the end of another arc: By the time it's rolled by, a few new characters have been introduced into the already myriad cast. A few love-confessions aside, nothing else has really changed. There is more ‘development’ in the story, but really, not that much: For all of this season ‘following the manga’, the manga doesn’t seem to be going much of anywhere.
Piling on to this is the fact that the contents of the arcs makes for neither particularly original storytelling nor really my preferable story material. I’ve never been fond of sitcoms and love drama, and Hayate no Gotoku’s second season is a bit more sitcom-ish and love-drama-ish than the first season. The parody aspects are toned down a fair bit, as is much of the random skit comedy. There are some pure comedy arcs, mostly those containing the newly introduced priest and nun characters, but it’s just not the same. These kinds of distractions now stick out as a sore thumb compared to the new general content of the series, the story elements are more predictable, and the show takes itself seriously to a much bigger degree. Sure, there are still signs of the random craziness of the first season (for good or ill) but it’s a lot less of it around and the show has completely stopped with meta-humor and breaking the fourth wall. The new material *works*, but the archetypical sitcom funnies wears itself out pretty fast in comparison to what I was used to from this show.
Furthermore, much of the filler of the first season introduced events and character development between the characters that is now entirely disregarded by the second season’s story. I can certainly understand why – re-writing an entire manga-based story to take into account filler is more than most shows are willing to do – but it’s a bit silly, nonetheless.
Characters: 6/10 – The core cast’s still there, and they still work as they should. Fringe character fans may be disappointed, though.
However many half-baked comedy animes I’ve seen (and I’ve seen a few), I must admit that I still have a soft spot for the characters of Hayate no Gotoku!!. Hayate is still the annoyingly-perfect, good-natured and otherwise perfectly nice guy that the universe just loves to screw over on a regular basis, Nagi is still the same annoying-lovable little brat she’s always been, Hinagiku continues to be wildly popular for some reason, and so on. The characters are a bit archetypical and act a bit unrealistic at times, but they work and are mostly believable as characters as well as enjoyable to watch, working as more than just roles for delivering the story and the comedy.
The character cast in the second season contains the same core trio in Hayate, Nagi and Maria, but the secondary characters take a bit of a shuffle. Characters such as Tama, Klaus and the narrator fade out of focus faster than a greased barrel down Niagra falls, and the newly introduced characters and Hayate’s love interests are now in the centre of the spotlight: All in accordance to the show’s shift in storyline. I can’t exactly say that this, in itself, is a bad thing: If you’re the type of person who liked the drama and love octoseputangels better, this will obviously work for you. But it kind of annoys me when shows constantly introduce new characters and leave previously introduced characters in the dust and unfulfilled and unused, as it speaks to me that the writers don’t know how to utilize the cast they’ve already created properly. This show hasn’t reached Bleach levels yet, but it’s not a positive precedent.
Value: 4/10 – There may be some irony present in the show’s previous originality having been its non-attachment to the manga… Or maybe that’s just me.
The originality levels in Hayate no Gotoku!! aren’t exactly sky-high. The show’s premise pretty much turned it into a gender-flipped He is my Noble Master from the get-go and its characters are fairly archetypical. The show’s comedy situations have always depended either upon classic anime romance comedy misunderstandings, awkward people being unable to confess properly to each other and so forth, or its use of anime references, bizarreness, fourth wall breaks and meta-humour. Neither of the methods are particularly original ways to be humorous, and Hayate no Gotoku!! never really pushed the envelope either. While amusing, neither setting nor characters make for that much of a memorable experience.
I find it hard to recommend this show: If you’ve seen the first season and liked it, you’ll probably give this season a whirl as well. If you didn’t like the first season the second one sure as heck won’t add anything new, unless you hated the first season purely on principle because it didn’t follow the manga. If you liked this show and want to explore something similar, you may want to try, oh, the above-mentioned He is my Noble Master and They are my Noble Masters, or Ouran High School Host Club, for starters.
Enjoyment: 6/10 – …Heh.
Ok, I’ll confess this much: Hayate no Gotoku!! is still kind of fun to watch. Sure, what I’d generally describe as the ‘SHAFT factor’ (anyone who’s watched PaniPoni Dash! and Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei will probably understand what I’m talking about here) is heavily reduced. Yes, this does remove several of the main points of enjoyment, but what’s left is still at least competent at making me chuckle. The attempts at cuteness aren’t cute enough to melt my heart or anything, but I can at least appreciate the effort. I still can’t help but think that this show was better as a meta-humor-laden parody than a sitcom, however.
Total: 5.5/10 – An ultimately overlookable affair, though not without its distinctive charm at times. Can't seem to decide between light skit comedy and actually accomplishing something, and therein lies its failing.
In summary, Hayate no Gotoku!! is a follow-up to its first season, no more and no less. Despite its shift in focus and cutting down on filler, it’s still pretty much the same show with a slightly different direction. It's Otaku-bait comedy with a side dish of awkward teenage romance without the latter becoming the primary focus (although the second season skirts dangerously close to it at times). From where I'm standing the show’s average, or a little more than average: It compensates for a general lack of originality and archetypical sitcom situations with a cast that’s generally lovable, and the occasional moment that goes slightly beyond the call of duty. I’ve seen worse, but I’ve also definitively seen better.
This season doesn’t particularly add or resolve much in the grand scheme of things: Ultimately it’s a middle stop between the first season’s setup and later actual developments. Apart from those two confessions and the two new characters, nothing much happens. Those who actually want resolution of the plot hooks introduced in the first season had better look forward to the inevitable sixth season or something instead.
