Hayate The Combat Butler Chapter 456: I Can't Do What I Can't Do -- Review and Synposis

I have to admit, this cover makes Fumi look kinda hot.

Synopsis: Picking up from where we left off in the last chapter, Fumi and Sharna follow Ikusa around the beach and Sharna is curious as to what he does for a living. Isumi suddenly pops up from out of nowhere to offer an explanation and tells them that his name is Ikusabe Yamato, he’s a lifesaver, 28 years old and has a strong sense of justice.

Look who's back!

Fumi goes straight to the point and asks Isumi if he’s single since she’s readily volunteering information and Isumi responds with a totally disgusted face. She offers to help out anyway and just goes up to Ikusa and asks him if he’s single because Fumi wants to date him.

LOL! DAT face!

Ikusa tells them that he’s not seeing anyone right now nor does he plan to, but that he would probably fall in love with someone who holds the same ideals of saving anyone who is in trouble just like him.

At this Fumi decides that she needs to become a lifesaver too and goes off to “eliminate” troublemakers from the beach. She eventually stumbles upon Hayate – who, as we all know, is in dire straits having been left all alone to man the seaside restaurant by team Café Donguri last chapter.

Fumi decides she’s going to help him, but not without unintentionally poking fun at his situation first. She proposes selling Takoyaki using a sleazy cost-cutting scheme.

Hayate is unconvinced, but all of a sudden Yukiji pops up because she’d heard that Hina was sick. She proposes the same takoyaki scheme that Fumi suggested.

Hayate dismisses their ridiculous suggestions, but suddenly, his face lights up with a look of realization.

Review: First of all, I need to admit that all of my previous speculations about how Hayate was going to win this competition seemed to have been proven wrong in this chapter. While there is no clear solution yet, it doesn’t seem likely that any of the scenarios that I laid out would come true. Furthermore, I said that we’ve probably seen the last of Fumi and Sharna for a while, but it looks like they’re here to stay for this arc.

Yukiji's here too.

It was nice to see Isumi making an appearance in this manga again – and she’s still as cute and funny as ever. Especially when she semi-trolls Fumi. Looks like Yukiji’s here too, so I guess she really does care about her sister – even if she acts irresponsible most of the time.

One other aspect of Ikusa I’ve noticed is that Isumi implied that she’s on to whatever his plans are and he seems to have planned out things ahead of time – including Fumi’s meeting with Hayate. In other words, Ikusa’s a scheming manipulator just like someone else we know… and I’m not talking about Nagi’s grandfather ;).

Over-all, this was once again a really funny and enjoyable chapter. This beach arc may be going on for much longer than most fans can stomach, but I personally don’t mind if it’s this funny all throughout.

Speculation Fanart Corner: Hata’s given me nothing to work with for this chapter, so have some fanart instead. A certain goddess whispered this scenario into my ear… and I just had to draw it! Open the pic in a new tab/window if you can't read the text. This is a 4koma, so read the right hand panels from top to bottom first.

What do you think? Would Nagi actually try this?