★ Anime Review - Hayate no Gotoku!

17-year old Hayate Ayasaki probably has the worst luck in the world. To add to the fact that his parents are completely and utterly irresponsible and jobless,they gamble at the very little money that their family has. In order to sustain their basic needs, Hayate had to lie about his age to work part-time as a delivery boy. On the night of Christmas Eve, Hayate receives an unexpected gift from his ever so loving parents - a debt of about 150,000,000 yen. They also sold his organs to the yakuza, hoping that it would suffice to pay off their extremely large gambling debt. While running away from the debt collectors, whom Hayate refers to as "nice, kind and generous people", he runs into a girl named Nagi Sanzen'in. Desperate to escape from the debt his parents left him, Hayate then plans to kidnap Nagi, who he assumes is a very wealthy girl. (He wasn't that far off,either.)
However, due to a wrong choice of words, the young Sanzen'in girl mistakes Hayate's attempt in kidnapping her as a confession of love, and she ends up instantly falling in love with him, and as a result, Hayate's attempt was a failure. After giving up in ever surviving the tragedy that has befallen him, Hayate then plans to just simply die in the cold,winter snow. All of a sudden, Nagi gets kidnapped, and Hayate saves her. Thankful for his kind deed and bravery, Nagi then hires Hayate as her new personal butler. And this is where the story begins.


Hayate no Gotoku! (ハヤテのごとく), also called Hayate the Combat Butler! ,is personally one of my favorite anime titles. The quirky and cute characters are very appealing, and though the story lacks a solid plot, it is very entertaining. There are a number of references from other anime in this series, from several figurines that resemble the characters from the anime Negima! to a poster in Nagi's anime production studio that has characters that resemble those from the anime Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch. One episode that I really liked the most from this anime was the episode wherein one of the members of the Student Council of Hakuo Academy (the school where Nagi studies in) was working part-time as a server in Maid Cafe,and eventually became a maid of Nagi's friend, Sakuya. It reminded me of another anime called Maid Sama! ,and it made me smile to know that it was parodied in this show. Overall, I highly recommend this anime to people who want a good laugh, and simply watch a good anime.