Hayate no Gotoku! Cuties 12 (Final)

WHO WILL WIN HAYATE’S KISS? WHO? WHO? WHO???

Apologies for this extremely late post as I was out literally everyday last week.

Click here to jump to my reaction.

The finale continues where the previous episode left off in this spectacular Hata-devised-two-part-original-content-do-not-steal-you-bastard special. Hayate continues his hunt for that ever so precious kiss to save his Ojou-sama – however, time is ticking to that midnight deadline – making Hayate desperate even as far as wanting a kiss from Yukiji – thus sparking a surprisingly well choreographed and animated dueling spectacle.

The jumbled directing remains and jumps back a few hours, where Kayura suggests Hayate he should kiss Chiharu.

While we’re not explicitly informed yet as to why Hayate is cross-dressing, a flag is soon triggered allowing Hayate the opportunity to kiss A-tan. In Hata’s trademark comedic fashion, the ghostly Father follows suit to kissblock Hayate.

I-It’s happening!

BUT SHE’S LEGAL!

Elsewhere, Hina and the Hamster meet up with the Hakuou Baka Trio at “Deathnys” discussing Hayate’s behaviour and wotnot. Ruka and Kayura later join the group.

Kayura confirmed to have been acting as Hyobu all along in The Unlimited.

Manglobe: “P-Please buy our Unlimited blu-rays ;_;”

10/10 disguise

Ruka’s flag is triggered next and we’re finally told why Hayate is unnecessarily cross-dressing. Jumping back a few hours more – he bumped into Ruka cycling for a commercial she’s starring in and fell into the adjacent river. Ruka attempts to go for the win and allows Hayate to kiss her. Unfortunately Hata’s “NO DEVELOPMENT OTHER THAN NAGI ALLOWED” immediately kicks in where Kayura kissblocks Ruka.

Back at Deathnys, Hinagiku is losing her patience and wants to go kiss help Hayate with his problems. With support from the likes of Ayumu and Ruka, the harem brigade go find Hayate’s whereabouts.

I have bad news for you, Hina…

The situation intensifies as we are thrown right back into Hayate’s fight with Yukiji. Hayate soon manages to defeat the drunken teacher and attempts to claim a kiss. The attempt is thwarted as Kaoru randomly makes a rare appearance.

Would you?

HAYATE STAHP

Good.

With only thirty minutes left, Hayate confronts the girls on the bridge in the park. Placed on the spotlight, Hayate must decide on who to kiss and must think fast.

Meanwhile in another dimension, the reason why Nagi was sleeping this whole time is explained as she was busy playing a knock-off version of Dragon Quest III. She finds Tanuki and Clock Man next door; assessing Hayate’s situation on a television and grasps what has been happening during her slumber.

Back in the real world, Nagi enters the scene with everyone else in the park, along with Maria, Sakuya and Isumi, who is holding the Black Camellia. Nagi tells Hayate to give up, questioning everyone if they’re seriously okay kissing Hayate just for the sake of saving her.

With only sixty seconds left, Nagi explains that she’s fine not being able to watch the newest anime series and read the latest manga installments anymore. Hayate is more important to her and reminds him that he’ll always be by her side – a watchful protector – Hayate is Nagi’s butler after all.

Nagi collapses into Hayate’s arms and Hayate laments on his actions for asking for someone’s kiss so casually.

“A kiss is something that everyone treasures.”

In similar fashion as the Sleeping Beauty, Hayate passionately kisses Nagi – seconds before midnight strikes…

NAGI WINNER!

…on her forehead.

Shocked, relieved and in-denial, the other characters rush to the scene to express their juggling  reactions.

Back into the other dimension, the Tanuki and Clock Man, revealing himself to be Shin Hayek (Nagi’s father) disintegrates with a surprise appearance of Yukariko (Nagi’s mother) – passing on with no regrets – assured that their precious daughter Nagi is in safe hands with her butler Hayate.

The series ends with Nagi calling out for Hayate in the mansion, with Hayate running into the distance to where his Ojou-sama lies.

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And so we’ve reached the conclusion of Mr Hayate’s Wild Ride. While the juxtaposed directing fortunately died down this week, I’m glad this episode flowed just a little bit more smoothly. Manglobe really did keep the art direction and animation to the optimum up until the end, and I praise them for that. In fact, I actually like Manglobe’s character designs (in Cuties, not CTMEOY/Movie) more than SynergySP’s and JC Staff’s. It’s perhaps better than Hata’s ever-changing art style haha.

Regarding the ending, while I did predict perfectly that we’ll definitely be getting the automated Nagi end as we did in Can’t Take My Eyes Off You (CTMEOY), I admit that I never saw it coming as I saw Hayate kissing Nagi on the forehead, rather than her… uh, you know. Well played Hata, well played.

The appearance of the Tanuki and Nagi’s father as the dumbed down Clock Man, to the return of the Black Camellia plot device still puzzles me. It feels – dare I say it – forced for Hata go “oh, ONE MORE THING, this Pocket Watch has another curse! I swear!”. This point is further emphasised when they left this story to be inserted into Cuties where it only has two episode slots left. I believe this arc should have been spread out to three episodes. Seriously, where is my Fumi/Sharna and Klaus/Tama episodes!?

Overall, I guess this arc is okay, although I’m not 100% sure what to think of it. It’s a wonder now how Hata will deal with this serious plot fragmentation problem which he brought upon himself when he sealed the deal with Manglobe. While the manga has its own slowly progressing timeline of events – which the first and second seasons followed faithfully. The problem comes when Can’t Take My Eyes Off You begins where it’s set several months ahead of where the manga’s plotline currently is (June) in September. The confusion intensifies as the first six episodes are adapted from a selection of chapters from the manga, then heading off in an original story. Whether or not the first six episodes are canonical or not is left for debate. Cuties just adds fuel to the fire in which its first ten episodes are stand-alone, focusing on a certain character by cherry picking popular chapters from the manga that feature said character.

This ultimately leaves me unsure of what to think about Cuties as a whole. Is the first ten episodes of Cuties part of the main story-line or just to pander to the manga readers? Is Cuties a sequel to CTMEOY or stand alone? Is Hata really in charge of managing his own plots?

What started as a rather serious situation with a surprise ultimatum turned out to be another one of Hata’s Misunderstanding Bombs™. It’s a shame overall because it’s a fact now that no one except Nagi will win Hayate’s love, yet Hata still seems reluctant giving Hayate a happy ending at all. Plus with the abysmal Blu-ray/DVD sales the chances for a fifth season which will cover the Golden Week and Athena Arc have never been so non-existent.

It’ll probably a slippery slope from here on out for Hata and Hayate and gang, and that really worries me.