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| "Everything that you see or seem, is but a dream within a dream." (Lawlz, first came across this line in Nocturnal Illusions... just Google it.) |
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| I thought this was Alice version Athena at first. |
The first
one he comes across is Ashibashi Gouji sensei, who is not yet a famous mangaka
at this time. He’s just finished his one-shot manuscript and is on his way to
attempt to get it serialized, but Mikado grabs it and tells him that his manga
is terrible hoping that this will make him even more depressed – but it has the
complete opposite effect and instead inspires him to redraw his manga from
scratch using his own ideas instead of drawing it the way his editor wanted him
to.
Scratch one
candidate. Mikado moves on and sees a rather forlorn looking loli Hina. Unfortunately
for him, Yukiji (who is not yet a sensei) beats him up before he can try to do
anything to Hina.
Mikado then
witnesses from the sidelines that Hina and Yukiji are actually pretty happy as
a family and decides that it wouldn’t have worked out with Hina anyway.
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| Yes, Santa Claus IS evil. No wonder Kyon doesn't believe in Santa. |
Moving on,
Mikado punches a tree and a bit of snow falls from its branches and lands right
on some unfortunate kid – finally, he finds the perfect candidate: A kid with
the most terrible luck in the world – that is, until that kid met someone
blessed by luck one Christmas eve ten years later (I made up the final clause,
but it’s not like this isn’t what Hata-sensei was thinking all the time.)
Review: Happy new year, everyone! Well, unsurprisingly, we got
something actually relevant to the plot for this chapter. This was a flashback
to the time before Hayate met Athena in the Royal Garden and it shows just how
far back this whole Royal Garden plotline actually spans.
There’s not
much to be said for this chapter. I thought that loli Athena was very cute and
it was funny seeing Mikado ask her if she wanted a Christmas present herself.
While this
chapter may or may not be relevant to the main arc that currently involves
Hisui, Housen, and the King’s Jewels, it does add something to the canon Hayate
no Gotoku universe, so we can safely say that this was still a plot-related
chapter.
One
complaint I have is the timing of this release. It would have been nice to have
this one released during December instead of that filler “blatant marketing”
chapter since this chapter is set on Christmas eve.
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| This panel could also apply to Hinagiku, but I just have a strong feeling that this is a subtle foreshadowing for making Nagi the new candidate. |
I’ll end my
disorganized ramblings with this speculation: Nagi might become a candidate to
open the Royal Garden herself since the kind of despair she displayed during
the doujinshi competition might just be what’s needed to open the path. All it
takes is to make her heartbroken over Hayate after all.
You may be right. I hadn't given it much thought, but at this stage I can't see anyone becoming a candidate/opening the path except Nagi or possibly Maria. A big dramatic development like that is not something that will be done by a side character, (Looking at you, Wataru) and we have far too many new characters already (Hsiu, Yozora, Ikusa, Himegami) for Hata to introduce some random new girl just to become a candidate.
ReplyDeleteWe'll just have to wait and see how it all develops.
Personally, I've never even considered Wataru. He just doesn't seem like the type of person to go all emo and become a candidate -- and yeah, he's pretty much become an irrelevant side character at this point.
DeleteI also believe that Nagi's feelings for Hayate after all the developments in the doujinshi arc is still a bit unclear. Does she still think that Hayate loved/loves Ruka, for example? How does she think Hayate feels about her? It's been implied for a while that she might be aware of the initial misunderstanding about Hayate being in love with her -- but to what extent exactly? These might make some pretty good material for long, serious arc.
I just realized something with this chapter. Remember how when Hayate first got the jewel that Nagi ended up destroying, it made him even unluckier then usual. It does that because for it to work, the person using it has to have a burst of negative emotions, thus it's working to get it activated. The more you look back, the more things begin to make sense.
ReplyDeleteIndeed. It's even expounded on more in the non-canon portions of the season 1 anime just how much that King's Jewel brings bad luck to its owner.
DeleteInteresting insight there. So the King's Jewel might be something like a self-activating device that starts working once it's in the possession of a prospective candidate.
I suspect that the filler chapter was done a while back, and it was a marketing thing to help increase sales of the tankoubon. ^_~
ReplyDeleteStill, I don't mind the extra wait since the plot advances.
New chapter is out, BTW. ^_^
Reply script takes forever to load. Anyway, thanks for the heads up. I'll check it out now.
ReplyDeleteI have stumbled upon this website while looking for something else, but (just in case it is of any interest to anyone) the line "Everything that you see or seem, is but a dream within a dream." comes from a song from the 1985 album "A Secret Wish" from the German band 'Propaganda'. I do not know if they lifted it from somewhere else. A record from 1985 may seem rather obscure, but you would be surprised at how often bits of it get sampled by other artists, even today. So, quite influencial.
ReplyDeleteIt's from Edgar Allan Poe's poem "A Dream Within a Dream"
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