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| Don't worry guys, we can expect Nagi to steal the show with some awesome lines pretty soon... she does that. |
Hayate: At this rate, I won't be able to get Maria to confess to me.
Hayate: How can I get Maria to notice me just a little...
Maria: (turns and smiles)
Hayate: Damn, that's cute... but anyway, it's not like this is the first time.
Hayate: When we first met, it was definitely...
This person is the most beautiful person in the world... Chapter 537: Last
Regrets
Maria: In the end, we didn't find any chocolates for Nagi, didn't we?
Hayate: So, Sou desu ne?
Hayate: I can't let myself fall for her.
Hayate: I have to think of my next move to make Maria confess to me.
Hayate: Should I try suddenly holding her hand? Ah, but taking her hand so
suddenly would be strange. Also, it could be mistaken for sexual harrassment.
Maria suddenly grabs Hayate's hand.
Maria: By the way, Hayate, let's go to that new candy seller.
Maria: C'mon. Let's take a look.
Hayate: Curses! Maria-san is making my heart beat.
Maria: Fuwaa~ these are some stylish chocolates, aren't they?
Hayate: This is not good, I can't think of a good way to approach her.
Maria: Hayate-kun, Hayate-kun, they gotz some free samplez here! Wanna try?
Maria: Ah---~n
Hayate: I can eat it by myself...
Maria: Izzat so~~~
Hayate: This is bad! As expected, Maria's cuteness is overwhelming.
Hayate: When I first met her, I thought to myself, "this person is really
beautiful."
Hayate: Being together with this person over the last 10 months... truly, many
things have happened.
Hayate: Yes, of course! I remember now! I can use this memory.
Hayate: It's nostalgic. I can use these.
Hayate: Ok, then it's settled... on the way home.
Maria: It's totally dark now.
Hayate: Maria-san, Maria-san, do you remember this place?
Hayate: At that time, I was a bit fuzzy in the head and I got ran over.
Maria: It brings back memories, doesn't it? It's been 10 months since then.
Hayate: KUKUKU! GOOOD GOOOD~! This is a nice mood! The nostalgia is floating
all around~
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| You so ebil, Hayate-kyun~ |
Maria: Various things have happened since then, eh?
Hayate: Yes, really~
Maria: That Christmas Eve... when you entered while I was taking a bath, I really wanted to have you arrested~
Hayate: I-izzat so?
Maria: Yes.
Maria: After that, the mansion was almost destroyed by sexual harrassment. I thought Nagi had picked up a really troublesome kid.
Hayate: I'm SORRY! I'm SORRY FOR THAT TIME!
Maria: Ahaha... it's too late for an apology, however... ever since then, being wtih you has really been a lot of fun everyday.
Hayate: eh...? Wait... could this be? The flow of this conversation is...
Maria: Hayate-kun...
Hayate: y-yearh?
Maria: There's something I've always wanted to tell you~
Hayate: Could this really be...?
Hayate: Something you wanted to tell me?
Maria: Yes, I've really always wanted to tell you.
Hayate: WAIT A SECOND WAIT A SECOND.
Hayate: what ees eet? What ar you hesitating for...?
Hayate: My heart still isn't ready.
Maria: THis is something very important.... some very important words.
Maria: I... I...
Maria: I'm thinking of quitting being a maid.
Time... seemed to stand still for a second.
Review: WOW! WHAT A LOADED CHAPTER! Seriously, going into this chapter seeing nothing but conversations between Maria and Hayate and Hayate's inner monolgue, I kinda thought... meh, wtf is this? Where's mai waifu?
And then Maria just suddenly stole the show with that big reveal at the end.
Anywayz, let's talk about the implications of her decision. WHY is she thinking of quitting. I can think of a number of reasons. First of all, it's an acknowledgement of Nagi's growth. Perhaps Maria has realized that the time when Nagi would no longer need anyone to serve her is arriving pretty fast. In fact, even though Nagi can't seem to do housework, I don't think she'd die of left to her own devices now. She does have friends who can help her out and she has been shown to learn quickly.
Even without anyone teaching her, it might be awkward for Nagi to do housework on her own for a while, but it sure won't kill her. She's not the same incompetent kid from hundreds of chapters ago after all -- not with all her character development all throughout this manga.
Secondly, it's also Maria acknowledging that she can't anchor the worth of her existence to Nagi. Maria is young and talented and has her whole life ahead of her. She shouldn't be wasting it away in servitude to Nagi her whole life -- even if she does love Nagi.
Thirdly, and this one is really in the realm of supporting my ship, Maria is giving way for Hayate and Nagi to be together since she has recognized that Nagi may in fact be ready for a relationship now... even though I can't say the same for Hayate.
Fourth, let's hand a bone to the Maria shippers. What if she's doing it so she can be together with Hayate-kun? Well, my problem with this is that she hasn't shown any kind of "love" for Hayate even if she has found him sort of attractive from time to time. There might be a "romantic spark" between them which could develop into love if they were real persons, but it just doesn't work for this manga's story... so nope.
Anywayz, this was a really nicely written chapter over-all. Once again, Hata starts off with a red herring by making us think that this would be all about Hayate's bumbling attempts at wooing Maria, which was also funny when Maria just keeps pre-empting him, but then it slowly starts to develop into something else and the end result is that even though it's a cliffhanger again, we're left with something really serious to consider -- again, a mark that the end is very, very near for this manga.
Still, if Hata can pull off chapters like these, I have high hopes that this manga will have a very satisfying ending. Also, like I said in the last two chapters -- there's this one ship that's just so sunk right now. This chapter made my heart go doki doki as much as Hayate's.
By the way, a certain blondie just won da Nisekoi~ this tangentially related news is significant for us Nagi supporters!
No break next week, so see ya on 7/27!
Fanart Corner: This is a request from Bill again. Grovel before the princess of heroes, you mongrels! Na-Gil has arrived!
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| I wonder if she'd use the Gate of Babylon to store her manga/anime collection? |
You know, the longer we go on without Hayate ever specifically thinking about Nagi's confession, (from a readers perspective at least) the more I think there's a twist in the making there.
ReplyDeleteEspecially here in this chapter, where he's repeatedly steeling himself not to fall for Maria, combined with the last few chapters...How do I put it...
Hayate was always quick to trot out the "I'm a butler, I can't!" excuse when cornered, but he's always wanted a girlfriend deep down, and I'm not seeing that from him at all lately.
He's just been way more cold to everyone since then, even putting aside his (seriously) evil plan.
Hayate 20 chapters ago would have been flipping giddy to hang out with Maria like this, as opposed to the guy who responded to Ayumu's heartfelt (re)confession with a lame apology before reluctantly crossing her off his target list, brushed past Athena like she wasn't there, and responded to the whole Ruka scandal without a drop of jealousy or regret.
I don't think he's decided he's in love with Nagi, at least not yet, but I suspect he has actually ruled out dating anyone else, possibly ever, knowing his mistress has feelings for him.
He's been absolutely fanatical lately, and the longer it goes on the more curious I am. It reminds me though, that if the expected cliffhanger happens and Hayate opens the path by breaking Nagi's heart instead...The mental trauma on Hayate's side won't be that he's SHOCKED Nagi loves him, he has to know that already, but rather by the depth of how badly he screwed everything up.
Oh also the Maria cliffhanger is huge, naturally, and it's really nice to finally get some Maria development after all this time.
I'm still rather confused if Hayate even knows that Nagi has feelings for him. He has read her manga, but unless I see how he understood it, I can't trust him to know what it actually meant.
DeleteBut you're right. His obsession with getting Nagi her inheritance is beyond what is normal for him even considering his extreme devotion to Nagi.
I still do believe that Nagi should be the one to experience the explosion of negative emotions that opens the path to the Royal Garden. If it happens, it will prove to Hayate (and to Nagi's haters) once and for all just how real her love is.
Well, basically, if Hayate didn't understand Nagi's feelings from reading the manga on any level, than there was no point to that event happening at all, as it's not like there were any jokey followups or anything afterwards.
DeleteIt's the fact that Hayate's feelings on that reveal are, months later, so secret that they can only be inferred by his actions that makes me suspect something is up. Not even a good something necessarily, but Hayate is clearly on tilt lately and that reveal is the cause.
His feelings right now on the matter may well be so secret that we won't get a look at them after things blow up.
I also agree with you that Nagi must be the one who opens the path for a number of reasons, I was just musing that the usual path of events afterwards are going to necessarily be different in this series, because Hayate already knows (or suspects at least) that Nagi loves him, and also because he's proven his devotion to her several times over already.
The sense of betrayal on Nagi's part will have to be epic to compensate for that, and accordingly so the sense of abject failure and despair on Hayate's part.
Oh yes! Chitoge won in nisekoi. I'm really happy. I think there are many parallels between nisekoi and hayate no gotoku. Hayate (raku) makes a promise with Athena (kosaki), whom he loves, then meets her 10 years later. But he also meets a biracial tsundere blondie, nagi (chitoge) with whom he faces many ups and downs but they gradually start having a lot of fun being with each other and eventually fall in love with each other. Nisekoi has strengthened my hope that hayate will end up with nagi.
ReplyDeleteAs I've mentioned before, I don't follow Nisekoi myself, but I was rooting for Chitoge if only because of the parallels to Nagi. I read that chapter whe she finally won and I like how it was handled. Here's hoping we get something similar in Hayate... or Nagi breaking the 4th wall in a future chapter going: "Chitoge just won in Nisek*i" and Hayate responding with, "-_- wtf are you talking about now, ojou-sama?"
DeletePeople are speculating if Maria has the same plan as Hayate: to have someone with a King's Jewel be exploded with negative emotion. I mean, she must know this, and she probably does have a connection to the Royal Garden judging from the fact that her face showed up in that mirror that was there when Athena looked in way back. It could also just be her true feelings, which may be convenient for this situation. I don't know, but this is getting real.
ReplyDeleteThat's also a possibility. It's just a little bit too much speculation relying solely on indirectly connected events to me. Her face showing up in the RG's mirror could mean anything. As for Maria having the same plan as Hayate, we have no proof/clue of any particular motivations that Maria has for this - unless we assume that she agrees with Hayate's assessment of Nagi's helplessness.
Delete