MANGA REVIEW | "Hayate the Combat Butler" - Volume Forty-Six
Whenever the cast of Hayate the Combat Butler travels, it’s anything but relaxing. Wherever they go, trouble follows. One would hope that a school trip would at least take some sort of burden off the shoulders of Hayate, Nagi, Hinagiku, and the others, but no. As Volume Forty-Six of Hayate the Combat Butler shows, even the most dangerous of situations will show up to cause chaos for these high schoolers.
For starters, we continue where we left off from the last volume, with a race in a deadly snowstorm. Nagi and Ruri are facing off against a familiar nun, while the rest attempt to place high in the race to win a big prize. The lower the placement, the smaller the cash prize. And if you come last, you get something worse than bupkis: a debt card that’ll make you consider selling your kidneys to write it off. You can probably guess which person gets stuck with that.
Although fans of Hayate the Combat Butler will know Ruri from the Can’t Take My Eyes Off You original series, her placement here feels a lot different at first. Only Hayate and Nagi seem to have knowledge of her, with the other students having no memory or record of her existence. So is she a ghost, or is she just really good at being incognito? Honestly, it could be either or even both. Kenjiro Hata certainly is no stranger to writing weird stuff in his manga.
Next on the trip is a photography contest, where teams attempt to take the best wild animal pictures. Again, the submissions are wild, ranging from Hinagiku swimming with dolphins to Hayate punching a crocodile. The winner, Izumi, winds up taking the wildest of pictures, capturing what appears to be Smiling Friends characters in the making. However, the real craziness is saved for after the photo competition.
To paraphrase a famous quote, “If you’re going to rip something off, rip it off from the best.” But no one would ever guess that Hayate the Combat Butler would go full Die Hard on its readers, terrorist organization, and all. Naturally, it’s a bit more goofier than the Bruce Willis classic and lacks a Hans Gruber lookalike. Nevertheless, we get to see just about everyone kick some terrorist booty in a fun and silly way.
Which leads to the final part of the trip: Las Vegas! Yes, it's the place where Can’t Take My Eyes Off You also ended. Is this how Hata plans to tie the original series into the main canon of the manga? Volume Forty-Six only gets into the beginning of this arc’s finale, but it already looks promising. While the comedy isn’t as standout here as past volumes, Hayate the Combat Butler still finds ways to keep the narrative interesting. Yes, even if it means having to take a break in the narrative to celebrate 500 chapters with Nagi’s new schlocky manga.
FINAL GRADE:
Promotional consideration provided by Chantelle Sturt of VIZ Media.
