Hayate The Combat Butler Chapter 483: It's Unclear If This Is The Only Neat Thing To Do -- Review and Synopsis

Maybe it's about time for me to get to that "Hina as Archer" fanart that I mentioned about a year ago.

Synopsis: Hinagiku is mulling over the scene she witnessed between Hayate and Ayumu. She commends the hamster for her aggression and it also doesn't escape her that Ayumu implied that Hayate has already kissed another girl so she steps out to stalk Hayate investigate.

Meanwhile Hayate is at loser park and he's all ready to go home when he stumbles upon Konoha who apologizes to him for some reason. He apologizes right back and tells her that he should have been better at "dodging." 

Anyway, Hayate makes it clear that he cannot go out with Konoha and so the girl says her farewell.

At that moment, Hinagiku appears from behind and surprises Hayate by asking him why he rejected such a cute girl. Hayate goes into emo mode and explains how Konoha's feelings were probably a mistake and that no girl could fall in love with him except by mistake.

At this, Hina asks him what his reaction would be if it wasn't a mistake. For example, what if it was Hina confessing to him and it wasn't a mistake... hypothetically, of course!

Hayate says that he'd probably be happy if it was her and that it would be like a dream come true (cue dreamy anime bubbles).

HAH! Totally saw this coming.

Hina entertains the thought of confessing to him right then and there, but before she can, Hayate quickly adds that there's no way that he could go out with her even if that did happen.

He explains that it can't happen because he's a butler with a 150 million yen debt and that he can't go out with anyone as long as that remains.

Since no one has actually told her that to her face in this manga, I can only conclude that she is breaking the fourth wall and talking to us, the readers.

Hayate offers to see Hina back to the apartment and along the way, she ponders what he has just said and concludes that there's only one thing to do.

Review: First of all, I have to thank Doughnut Gunso, since it was his review that prompted me to write about the particular subjects tackled in this entry.

Well, this chapter took a long time to come out, but... at least I can read the raws >D. Buuut, my Japanese is terribad, as I've mentioned before, so I won't write a review unless the English scanlations come out because I might mislead any readers who come to my blog... assuming anyone still comes to my blog, of course.

This was a rather interesting chapter for me because it shows some degree of character development from both Hayate and Hinagiku's side. Let's start with the indebted butler. 

At this point, Hayate has done something quite commendable in confirming his rejection of Konoha -- which is a big step up in character for him considering that he has been doing nothing but sending mixed signals to most of the girls with feelings for him in this series until this arc came along. Certainly, Konoha's feelings were hurt by his actions, but it's definitely better for him to make things clear rather than giving the poor girl any false hope. For once, he's actually manning up and not using his inferiority complex as an excuse to be evasive around women.

Of course, Hayate is still Hayate and at the end of the day, he still gives Hina the tired old speech about "no girl could ever fall in love with him." (By the way, you can thank "A-tan" for this false belief that he has.) Furthermore, it can also be said that Hayate was forced to be direct because Konoha's advances were just as direct, unlike the subtle advances that the girls before Ruka had been using on him.

In this chapter, Hayate tells Hina that the reason he cant go out with anyone is because he is literally an indebted butler -- one with a 150 million yen debt, but in Ruka's arc, Hayate tells Nagi that he can't go out with Ruka simply because he is Nagi's butler after all. So what does this mean? Does it imply that Hayate was lying to either Nagi or Hina? In my opinion, he wasn't -- that's because he was talking about the same thing in both instances -- just worded differently. After all, we all know that Hayate's diction is often the cause of confusion in this manga -- it's the running gag that's been running since the first chapter.

Anyway, I believe that Hayate wasn't lying at all. In my opinion, Hayate's status of being an "indebted butler with a 150 million yen debt" and being "Nagi's butler" are all the same in his mind. In other words, he equates being "Nagi's butler" to being a "150 million yen indebted butler," but what he can't put into words is that both of these actually refer not to a literal, quantifiable debt, but to a "debt of honor," one that he willingly subjects himself to (as we all know that Nagi does not care about the monetary side of the debt at all and he owes her more than that anyway... ahem... Mykonos Arc). In fact, one could even say that Hayate has anchored the meaning of his existence to being an "indebted butler," which is why he is not reluctant to say that Nagi "his life" and why he goes to such extreme lengths to protect her. 

The highlight of chapter 483 for me. The reason should be obvious.

Now from here, we could speculate as to the reason why Hayate has anchored his existence to being Nagi's butler in the first place -- well, there are plenty of clues scattered all throughout the manga, but I'll just apply Occam's Razor here and go with the one that requires the least amount of presumptions. Yup, you know what I'm talking about.

Anyway, on to Hina's side: this chapter definitely proves that Hinagiku has come quite a long way as a character in this manga -- even if many of the moments wherein this is shown are in the more comedic or otherwise easy-to-gloss-over chapters. 

If you look at the Hina of the current manga, you'll find that she has definitely come a long way from "to confess is to lose" and is actually actively trying to take positive action in her campaign to win Hayate's heart. Her progress may be slow as molasses, but one cannot accuse her of making "zero progress" or being in a stagnant rut anymore as far as her relationship with Hayate is concerned.

This is a subtle confession! This is TOTALLY a confession!

In Ikusa's arc, she has tried several direct methods of confession, which were all amusingly thwarted (such is the choice of Hata's Gate. The Hata Attractor Field will not allow it) via Hata ex machina. However, in this chapter, she actually tries something different and this is something that seems more prevalent in the Japanese raws. Hina gives Hayate a hypothetical example of herself confessing to him -- in other words, a subtle confession. Of course, this completely escapes the oblivious butler (or he might understand and is actively in denial), but he does state that he would deem such a scenario as a "dream come true."

Of course, now the problem lies with Hayate who has, in my opinion, given her the wrong idea once again by saying that he can't go out with anyone because of his butler debt. Well, here's the question that should have been on Hina's mind and that should be on everyone's mind who is reading this manga as well -- did Hayate ever state that he was against the idea of being an indebted butler? I rest my case.

Fanart Corner: Don't have any new fanart for now since I'm actually just about to draw one and yes, it is Nagi indeed, but I'd like to show you guys some custom-made shirts that I've had made featuring my fanart.

I'll wear em too!

Guess my age! I dare you! You totally CANNOT guess my age! Muahahahahahaha!