Hayate the Combat Butler eps 1 to 2 review

So here it is, the first of the new spring ’07 series’ I started watching. ::sigh:: there’s just too much new anime to check out, and not enough free time! =P So as usual, I had to pick out only a handful of the new spring series’ that I feel I’ll have time to watch and keep up with. But after watching the first two episodes of Hayate the Combat Butler, I’m glad this was one of them ^^

Lots of good things to say about this series. First of all, it’s funny. Rather than typical slapstick, fast-paced, and/or fanservice gags (it does have some of these, but doesn’t overdue it) the humor is refreshingly situational and clever, for example, the silly little “censored” sign that covers up supposedly violent scenes. What’s also a bit different is that a lot of the jokes point out the fact that what you’re watching is an animated show, for instance, the sarcastic narrator. Very few series’ do this, and despite the fact that it takes away from the realism that makes anime so unique compared to other cartoons, it adds a lot to the show’s good sense of humor and its ability to not take things (or itself) too seriously.

Another plus for the series so far is that the characters seem good too. Despite being a bit dense and clumsy, Hayate is a funny and likable main character. He doesn’t have your stereotypical shounen hot-tempered, arrogant, fighting spirit. Rather, he seems to be an all-around good natured guy who’s just trying to get by. His parents however, are unbelievably irresponsible, and I think he should have seriously gotten a lawyer on their case or something, but oh well =P Nagi seems a bit on the “tsundere” side, but I don’t get the impression that she fits the mold entirely. She was really cute and nice to Hayate in the first episode before she developed that in-denial crush on him, so even though she got mad at him in the second episode, I don’t think their relationship will turn out to be the typical love-hate relationship. The only other character we’re introduced to in these first episodes is Maria. She seems like a likable character too, and I’m hoping the rest of the cast will be the same =)

As far as the story/plot of the series goes, it’s really hard to judge it from just two episodes. It’s interesting and unique enough so far, though I feel it will fall into some sort of formula eventually. But as long as it continues to be as entertaining as these episodes were, I don’t mind ^^ I get the feeling it will focus the most on humor, romance, and action, without getting too serious in any of these things. Despite the manga being in Shounen Sunday, you won’t find too much deep shounen themes and drama here, at least not in these early episodes.

Anyway, a couple other things to note about the series, the animation is decent and the songs are great. The opening is a fantastic, up-beat song by KOTOKO, and the ending song is pretty good too.

Well, that’s about all I’ve got to say about Hayate the Combat Butler so far. I could tell these two episodes were just the setup for the series’ main story, plus there’s a ton of characters I saw in the opening and ending songs that have yet to make their appearance in the episodes. So I’ll be looking forward to watching the rest of this fun and cute series ^_^