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| 16 year-old Nagi fanart with a little friendly shoutout to... (you know who you are~) |
Disclaimer: This is a personal opinion article from a very biased Nagi shipper. While I try to find a factual or logical basis for my opinions, at the end of the day, they are just that -- my opinions.
Ok, with that aside, let's move on to the actual scene... and instead of talking about it, I'll just show it you. This is from page 16 of chapter 568. The rough scanlations are provided by me. Don't worry, unlike some of the other pages, I'm fairly confident in the accuracy of my translations for this particular page.
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| She grew up... so cute and beautiful~ |
Now let's move on to "why?" I'm pretty sure some of you might be baffled as to how I came to such a tangential conclusion based on this one page, so let me explain.
First of all, I was extremely paranoid prior to the release of this chapter (of its spoiler pages, actually). Like I said in my chapter 568 review, I was losing sleep, losing weight and really, I became an emotional trainwreck. With that said, my brain was also working overtime. I was imagining all kinds of worst-case scenarios. Now mind you, these worst-case scenarios of mine were all plausible endings (at least from my perspective) or ways in which Hata could conclude the story in a way where Nagi doesn't end up with Hayate.
Now this one is definitely colored by personal bias, but even in my worst-case scenarios, I believe that Hinagiku was the only one who had a legitimate chance next to Nagi. Hata had just made the sinking of certain ships far too obvious and certain non-existent ships for certain characters not shown in the ending simply felt too forced for a writer of Hata's caliber (yes, I hold him in high regard) to go with any other route. Therefore, the worst-case scenarios (for my ship) in my mind were either a no romantic resolution for all girls ending or a Hinagiku ending -- that was it.
In any case, one way that I had imagined it could end badly for my ship was to give Nagi a consolation prize ending. Basically, if after the two year timeskip, Nagi had become a breakaway mangaka and had now become an amazing individual by national or even worldwide standards and in her own right -- then that would have dampened her chances of getting together with Hayate quite a bit. Therefore, becoming a world-famous mangaka or finding some similar measure of mainstream success would have been the death sentence for S.S. Hayate x Nagi in my opinion. That would have been Nagi's consolation prize. Becoming famous and fulfilling her other dream of becoming a professional mangaka -- but that would have been the perfect excuse for Hata to pair Hayate with some other girl -- that other girl, being Hinagiku in my mind.
Fortunately, it didn't turn out that way. What we got was Nagi being an "amazing girl" based on standards applicable only to her. It's only amazing for her to become the awesome 16 year-old Nagi that we see in chapter 568 if you knew who she was before she became that way. Otherwise, she'd just be a rather awesome teenager whose got it all together -- but not really special in any way... and I'm glad that this is how she turned out.
The moment I saw her being special by her own standards, I just knew that this girl deserved her happy romantic ending no matter what happens. I was definitely applying my own judgment towards this particular event, but I am very glad that Hata's writing coincided with my judgment.
In a way, Nagi had become Hayate's true ideal girl at the end of the story after the two-year timeskip. Smart, responsible, independent, while still retaining quite a bit of her domineering personality (the queen factor).
Of course, if we go by what Hata said in his blog, he claims that Nagi had already become an "irreplaceable precious woman" in Hayate's eyes back when she made her speech of independence while simultaneously firing Hayate as her butler in chapter 567.
Still, because I had no way of reading Hata's mind back in chapter 567, I personally needed confirmation -- even if the logical part of my brain kept telling me that Nagi had already won. This is why page 16 of chapter 568 was the moment of victory for me. It seems pretty unobtrusive, but it is really this page that I consider the clincher for team HayaNagi. The time when Nagi's "success" was portrayed as a normal, every day success rather than extraordinary one.
As a final note for this particular article, I think that one way of looking at this finale in order to appreciate it better is by changing your perception a bit.
Really guys, if all works of literature were so harshly judged based on initial impressions and hooks back in the past like most of us do with modern media right now, then very few of those that we call "classics" nowadays would have survived mainstream scrutiny. Whether that would have been a good thing or a bad thing is debatable, but it would certainly be different. So anyway...
Here are some ways that I personally look at it.
As an ending to the story of everyone in Hayate no Gotoku: It sucks.
As an ending that heralds the start of a true Hayate x Nagi love story: It's satisfying.
As an ending to the story of Nagi Sanzen'in: It's radiantly beautiful.
Fanart Corner: With that said, I leave you with a few variations of the opening fanart. The words that Nagi says in the fanart are actually from Roop. See you next week for sure!
I'm glad the author showed Nagi becoming the person that she wanted to become as her biggest development so far in the manga while not mentioning anything about her becoming a mangaka. That leaves a question as to what happened to that dream of hers and I'd like to believe that she still has that dream but with a more realistic approach to it and prioritising her friends before that. I loved how she has progressed step by step towards becoming everything that she is capable of becoming. There was a time jump of course, but by chapter 567, the development that she showed throughout, highly foreshadowed her upcoming achievements and it was no surprise to see her independent 16 year old self in chapter 568.
ReplyDeleteTo add to this, there's also Nagi's genius and her extreme luck, which she probably never lost, but weren't even mentioned as playing a part in her success story. I think this was done on purpose to show us that Nagi became who she was not based on talent and default traits (both given to her as well by the author), but through her own determination and effort.
DeleteTo mirror this, Hayate's combat abilities which made him seem nearly superhuman at the start of the series were severely downplayed in the finale to the point wherein we could even question whether Hinagiku might have been stronger than him. It's also pretty apparent in the finale just how "normal" both he and Nagi had become when he never even got a chance to show off his (probably still superhuman) combat abilities when Nagi managed to scare off those thugs on her own.
Ships apart,if Hata wanted to be a great ending for a great manga as Hayate No Gotoku was,it should have ended differentely,okay NagixHayate,but he should have made a final for others too.If Hata didn't give them so much space and concentraded on Hayate and Nagi I would not mind,but since the cast of characters was so big,he should have added few chapters more to show an appropiate ending.
ReplyDeleteAnd I didn't like how characters got suddenly okay with Hisui..like:"yes she's a mess,but let someone else handle the problem"
Mediocre ending for a great manga
Thank you for your comment. I will point out that "Mediocre ending for a great manga" is your opinion and you are entitled to it.
DeletePersonally, I believe the "so much space" that he gave to the other characters were mostly (take note of "mostly") still subtly moving towards this type of conclusion. This too is my personal opinion.
Like I've said before, it's a matter of perspective. You can think it's a "mediocre" ending all you like. It's not going to become a hard, cold,entrenched fact no matter how many people may agree with you.
It may become a "general consensus," but that alone doesn't make it correct. It just makes it the majority's opinion. "We are many therefore we are right" is a logical fallacy.
That's how opinions work. You're entitled to it because this is how you perceive it
Personally, I was ok with Hisui being handled that way because I never perceived her as being someone as "evil" as Hayate's parents. She's openly selfish and greedy and wants everything for herself. A classic super-villain, but the most important part I believe, is that she never actually betrayed anyone (especially not her childhood friends) to achieve her goals. I did like her as a character (Hata even retweeted one of my drawings of her. It's still on his twitter), so I believe she did deserve at least one chapter to add more to her background and why she became who she was.
DeleteWith that said, it appears that Hata was working with a limited number of chapters and I believe he worked with them as adequately as he could. True, he messed around with several useless gag chapters, but I believe that tends to happen a lot with a series that gets as many chapters as Hayate no Gotoku!
This finale was great IMO. It's too bad that you didn't like it, but please don't try to state your opinion on it as fact.
Of course is my opinion,not the truth.Sorry,I talked big without being entitled to.
DeleteI don't mind he using lots of gag characters,but I'd liked more if he did not neglect them at the end.And,while it's true Hisui maybe is not scum as Hayate's parents,they had a big deal before with her having such power,why is okay now? That's my opinion,which seem you didn't disagree completely as you yourself said it is a poor enfding for what concerns all characters
As long as we're clear that all our thoughts on this ending are really just our own perceptions/opinion, I think that's fine.
DeleteCertainly. You have the right to that opinion and if you really care about the other characters, it's not a good ending by that standard.
Sorry if I came off as a bit aggressive. There's just been so much negativity lately that I feel the need to point out that it's not a fact that "this ending sucks" every time. It's a popular opinion.
And yes, your'e right when you say that they made it such a big deal before about preventing Hisui from obtaining the inheritance but now they seem ok with it. I do believe that requires some explanation from Hata... but again, it's a flaw I'm willing to forgive. There are actually a lot of things left unresolved like who was Ruri Tsugumi really? What was Yozora's relationship with Hisui? Where did Hisui's sister Jenny go? I can name these off the top of my head, but I'm sure there are plenty more of that.
I will say that Maria not being shown in the finale was fine by me however. I thought her farewell chapter in 552 (I think... I'll confirm later) was a very well-written chapter with a little bit of the nostalgic comedy of the old Hayate chapters while also showing how her character had actually come full circle when she was that it was now Nagi scolding her for being whimsical and a bit childish. I loved that chapter and I think that wherever Maria might be, we don't need to be shown what she's doing to imagine she's accomplishing great things in the world with her abilities.