Hayate The Combat Butler Chapter 469: Recycling Day Can Be Easy To Forget -- Synopsis and Review

Synopsis: Hata basically used this chapter to fill in some plotholes in the manga. It starts with Himegam and a young Yukariko Sanzen'in in front of the tomb that was in the Royal Garden and later found in the secret room of the Violet Mansion. Himegami explains that their family has safeguarded the royal power for generations and that a King's Jewel is needed to activate it. Except that Himegami refers to himself as Himegami Aoi... which probably means that this is an older relative of Himegami Akane -- who was Nagi's previous butler.

It all turns out to be a dream sequence from Nagi. When she wakes up, she tells Hayate all about it and says there's something off about the dream. The Sanzen'in trio basically break the fourth wall while trying to figure out King's Jewel-related business. Maria also conveniently explains away her own origin by casually mentioning that she was taken in by Mikado at a very young age as a genius to decipher the inscriptions on the Mykonos Villa and so was Aika. Unfortunately, she couldn't read the inscriptions but it was eventually deciphered by Athena.

That laid-back, "taking it easy" pose.

We switch to Athena and Hinagiku visiting Yukiji-sensei in the messy room/Hakuo Gakuen guardhouse that she's turned into her room. Athena discovers the ring that she gave Hayate in Yukiji's possession and Yukiji says that she bought it in a pawnshop when she tried to pawn her guitar but couldn't bring herself to do it.

PLOT... this chapter was all about the plot!

Back at the Sanzen'in estate, Hayate discovers two more King's Jewels that have lost their light. Hayate tries to figure things out about this whole King's Jewels thing, but this reviewer will have none of that. :)

How profound!

He says the numbers don't match up and says how it's strange that they shine and that they lose their light. Nagi says they probably have cheap flourescent paint inside and goes LOL.

Back to the Himegami x Yukariko dream sequence, Himegami entices young Yukariko to try out the royal power saying that something amazing will happen. At this point, Nagi figures out that something was off about the dream because that wasn't Himegami.

Review: Well, not a lot to mince words on since Hata sure casually explained away a lot of things here and there. This chapter was basically one big info dump. I did enjoy Nagi's Conan reference though. It's been years since that manga was last alluded to... and yes, just who is the leader of the Black Organization anyway?

Nagi's expressions never fail to amuse me. Conan reference FTW!

Of course, let's not get sidetracked. We have lots of important pieces of information here, including more about the origin stories of Aika, Athena and Maria... yep, definitely looks like we're headed for this manga's eventual conclusion in December.

I'm sooo going to use this line the next time I write a story.

With that said, Athena sure looked rather miserable when she saw the ring that she gave Hayate... even moreso since Yukiji-sensei referred to it as the cheapest thing she could find. Well, I suppose even if a King's Jewel is a jewel, it can't be categorized as a precious or semi-precious stone when no one in the world knows wtf it is... so yeah, too bad, A-tan. 

Well yeah, his name is "Aoi."

Aaanyway, interesting thing about this Himegami Aoi. The most obvious conclusion is that he's a relative of the Himegami Akane who was Nagi's previous butler... with that said, I don't really remember if the "Akane" name was even canon to the manga version of Himegami since my memories of him have been colored with his "Princess God" appearance in the anime... so yeah, readers, tell me if you know better.

Fanart and Speculation Corner: We have a joint fanart and speculation corner this week. I just drew this today, so you'd better appreciate it. Nagi shall now voice out my thoughts for me. (Partly joking and partly serious)