VIZ MEDIA – @VIZMedia
MANGAKA: Kenjiro Hata
TRANSLATION: John Werry
LETTERS: John Hunt
EDITOR: Shaenon K. Garrity
ISBN: 978-1-4215-9866-6; paperback (January 2019); Rated “T+” for “Older Teen”
192pp, B&W, $9.99 U.S., $12.99 CAN, £6.99 UK
Hayate the Combat Butler is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kenjiro Hata. It was serialized in Shogakukan's Weekly Shonen Sunday magazine from October 2004 to April 2017. VIZ Media is currently publishing an English-language edition of the manga as a paperback graphic novel series under its “Shonen Sunday” imprint.
The star of the series is a young man named Hayate Ayasaki. He begins working to pay off his degenerate parents' gambling debts when he is nine. Before they disappear, his parents sell their son’s organs to the yakuza to cover their debts. Hayate is working various part-time jobs to pay off the debts when fate brings him to teenage heiress, Nagi Sanzenin a/k/a “Ojô-sama.” She is the frequent target of kidnapping plots and of various schemes by people trying to get her money. Hayate becomes Ojô-sama’s butler, zealously protecting her, while she falls in love with him.
As Hayate the Combat Butler, Vol. 33 opens, Hayate gives a tour of the surrounding area to their newest resident, Kayura Tsurugino, the homeless girl who was living in a tent in the park. How will she adjust to her first day in a new school? Can she adjust? Then, its the seventeenth birthday of Izumi Segawa, the girl who really (and secretly) loves Hayate. When he makes her a large birthday cake for her birthday, he also suggests that they share it with their housemates. But Izumi does not want to share her cake or Hayate.
Then, after a six-week break (as the Hayate the Combat manga took a six-week break from publication), it is time to head back to school... and to a big test! But the four girls sharing the house with him all have a cold. Can Hayate take care of them without getting sick himself... so that he can stay healthy to take a test that he cannot fail?!
[This volume includes bonus manga and four-panel comics, a preview of Vol. 34, and more.]
THE LOWDOWN: I read the Hayate the Combat Butler manga a few times a year. Now, I have finally moved into the first volume released in 2019.
Hayate the Combat Butler Graphic Novel Volume 33 is more of the same-old, same-old, and that's a good thing. Its 11 chapters break the fourth wall, and creator Kenjiro Hata gives us more antics from Hayate and company. Hayate the Combat Butler is like the cozy anime-manga parody equivalent of a cozy mystery. It gives readers what they expect, and because they are wedded to a “cozy” genre, it gives them what they need.
As usual, John Werry's translation sparkles and allows for reader contentment. Letterer John Hunt's spry fonts maintain the amiable mood. They are both good on “Episode 9,” which finds Hayate attempting to teach one of his female charges to ride a bike.
I READS YOU RECOMMENDS: Readers looking for otaku comedy can find laughs in the “Shonen Sunday” manga, Hayate the Combat Butler.
A-
7.5 out of 10
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a "I Reads You"
The text is copyright © 2020 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.
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