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Manga Review

Hayate The Combat Butler Vol. 2 – Manga Review

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Hayate The Combat Butler volume two contains more censored pop Japanese culture references, more weird comedy, and most important, more rich oujo-type characters!

hayate-the-combat-butler-2-cover.jpg

Hayate The Combat Butler volume two contains more censored pop Japanese culture references, more weird comedy, and most important, more rich oujo-type characters!

Story:
This volume starts on December 27th, which means the last chapter’s events were all condensed into like, 3 days! Whoa! In this volume, Hayate has a rematch with that nursing robot (complete with nursing missiles) and meets a few of Yagi’s rich oujo friends. Like Sakuya Aizawa, who apparently speaks in Kansi, which translates to “annoying English.” There’s also Isumi Saginomiya, who serves as the quiet, clueless type. This is another character introduction volume, but at least it’s interesting at the same time.

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Analysis:
I think I’m starting to “get” the humor of Hayate. Before I was kind of confused and the cultural references threw me off. This time, the references were easier for me to understand (though I still didn’t get some, like from Ultraman or Fist of the North Star).

Also, the wacky humor is growing on me. The manga really doesn’t take itself seriously at all, which is great. At one point, (you can see it in the scan above), Hayate is wearing a really expensive cashmere jacket. So of course, things that stain cashmere are magnetically attracted to him. In the next scene, a truck full of octopi spurting ink that leaves a stain on cashmere show up. It’s so incredibly stupid that it ends up being milk out of nose funny. I was just lucky I didn’t have milk in my mouth at the time.

The author also handles the gags really well too. One of my pet peeves is when a punchline shows up in a comic or manga that’s easily visible during the setup. My eyes always skip ahead and ruin the joke. A lot of the gags are revealed when turning the page, so props to the mangaka for forward planning!

There’s also a lot of fourth wall breaking. This technique can either end up being funny, or really lame. In this case, it’s usually funny. Like when Nagi flaunts how blue the sky is because that particular panel was in color, but now it’s not because it’s a trade paperback, and there’s even a note on the bottom talking about how they knew that’d happen in the tankouban…

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Conclusion:
I wasn’t quite sure after reading the first volume, but after digesting the second, I’m really liking this manga. I might even start watching the anime. I’m a little worried that the constant flood of new characters might end up hurting the manga, but for now, it’s still darn funny.

Many thanks to Viz Media for sending me a review copy of Hayate The Combat Butler Volume 2!

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