I have returned yet again (this time a few days late, not that you can tell from the dateline at the top) to do a write-up of an episode from the Hayate no Gotoku anime. This episode focuses on Alice also known as Athena Tennousu. I will refer to her as Alice due to that being the name she chose once she became young again. (For anyone who hasn't read the manga and thus doesn't know about Athena I will give a quick explanation of what I mean "young again.'' Athena used to be around Hayate's age, but for one reason or another she became a child and took the name Alice, hence her current form.) Another reason I chose to call her Alice is due to the fact that "Alice" is a letter shorter than "Athena". So onto the episode write-up (after the jump, of course.)
The episode opens with Hayate calling "A-tan" out from her room to do her introduction. She asks if she should talk about her relationship with Hayate and he says sure. She says she can't do that because she doesn't have her Athena memories and goes with a simple introduction featuring her name and mentioning that she is living in Hinagiku's closet for various unknown reasons. Hayate thanks her and she leaves after saying she didn't do it for him; the introduction plays now. (Man, I love that intro.)
After the intro, a street is shown with posters about a lost dog, Alice gets up from her nice bed in Hina's closet, and Alice decides to go outside to wake up. As she is about to nod off, Hayate asks her how she slept. Alice points out that she wasn't about to fall asleep and asks about breakfast. Hayate says he has just the things for her, chocolate cornet bread shaped like her curls. She gets angry and tells him to make her pancakes. She decides to eat the cornet bread while she waits and wonders why Hayate says it looks like her hair. As she is about to eat she is tackled by a big dog and Hayate has to pull the dog off of her. The dog resumes harassing her though so she tells Hayate to look for the dog's owner. She commences a lecture to the dog about how stupid he is acting and gets tackled before getting him to act smart. She figures out that the dog wants her bread and is about to give him a piece when she gets tackled. By this time Hayate has found out where to find the owner and he and Alice take the dog to its owner with Alice lecturing the dog on proper etiquette. They eventually find the owner, Fumi Hibino, who gets tackled by the dog named Armageddon. Alice looks a bit sad about parting with Armageddon and Fumi tells Alice that it is obvious the dog loves her, primarily because her hair looks like his favorite cornet bread; Alice and Hayate decide to go home. (This part of the episode was inspired by chapter 306.)
The next day begins at Wataru's shop. Sakuya has sent over 100 million yen and Wataru (and Saki) want to know why there is 100 million yen sitting on their table. Sakuya tells him that she sent the money in bills so that Wataru could feel the weight of her loan to him. Wataru then decides he must get the money to the bank before something bad happens; unfortunately for Wataru and his mental health, Hayate walks in. Wataru freaks out (probably rightly) and tells Hayate that he is concerned about Hayate's presence near so much money; Hayate is somewhat insulted that Wataru thinks money just disappears around Hayate. Saki then proposes that she and Hayate should take the money to the bank and they commence putting the money into random bags (Wataru was probably right about Hayate, but he should also worry about Saki more.) Wataru decides that he can not let that happen so he closes the store and goes with Saki and Hayate; he also puts the money in a briefcase. Wataru's plan hits a hitch though when he is tackled by Armageddon and the case goes flying. The briefcase is picked up by Yukiji, Yukiji questions Saki about the briefcase and is about to hand it to Saki when Armageddon jumps and steals the briefcase. (Should have just asked Yukiji if she could carry the case to the bank as Yukiji has strong hands.) The scene shifts to Fumi skipping in the park. Fumi is stops to see what Armageddon (the master of freeloading among dogs) has brought her and sees that he has brought her money. Fumi wonders what to do with the money and Sharna comes by to talk to Fumi. Sharna says that Fumi is now a criminal as Armageddon is her dog and the owner is responsible for his theft. Fumi asks what will happen to her and Sharna says Fumi will be executed. (Not sure what experience with law Sharna has as I'm not sure theft = death.) Fumi freaks out and Armageddon decides to take the suitcase somewhere else. Armageddon runs into two people. The scene shifts back to Wataru and Hayate, Saki, and Wataru are shown in a park. Hayate decides to find Fumi and tells Wataru to report the robbery; after Hayate leaves, Saki tells Wataru that if the money isn't recovered that she will quit and find a different job to repay the money. Fumi and Sharna are shown running and looking for Armageddon. Sharna tells Fumi that she can confess to the police now and she likely won't be in trouble, but Fumi points out that she needs to wipe her fingerprints off of the briefcase. (It is moments like this that convince me that Fumi smarter than she lets on.) Hayate stops the girls, Fumi then freaks out, and Sharna says that Armageddon is not with them. Armageddon goes to the apartments and brings the case to Alice. Alice is impressed that Armageddon brought the case to her and Hayate shows up, figuring that Armageddon would go to the apartments, relieved to see the case with Alice; unfortunately for Hayate the case is empty and the connecting theater plays.
In the first half Alice points out that Hayate seems to have only female friends and Hayate is eventually forced to agree. In the second half Alice and Maria (and the ghostly father) are shown watching a soap opera featuring characters similar to Hayate and Nagi.
The second half opens at the apartments with Hayate, Alice, Fumi, Sharna, and the dog. (The dog is easier to type than "Armageddon.") Fumi wipes her fingerprints off of the case and attempts to leave until Sharna punches her for her stupidity. Fumi then tries to get the dog to tell them where the money went, but Armageddon, being a dog, cannot tell them and Fumi laments that there isn't someone there who can speak both animal and human languages. This inspires Hayate to fetch Tama to help (after dressing Tama in an absurd outfit). Tama tries to talk to the dog, but the dog insults him and Tama gets angry and fights with Armageddon. The dog eventually reveals the location (off-screen) and Hayate tells Wataru where the money went. Alice decides to get the dog to help by getting him to sniff the way to the money. Hayate, Alice, and Armageddon begin their journey but the dog is distracted by food multiple times until Alice gets angry and forces the search to continue. As the search continues Alice rides Armageddon until they reach their destination, around the same time Wataru arrives. (At this point I am convinced that Armageddon is Tadakichi-san's slightly criminal cousin.) Hayate decides to go into retrieve the money with Wataru and the dog comforts Alice as she worries about Hayate. Hayate and Wataru get there too late though, as Yukiji has already retrieved the money from the criminals. She returns the money; Wataru, Hayate, Alice, and the dog now go to the bank to deposit the money and they succeed. Alice gives credit to the dog for their success and Hayate points out that the dog caused the problem to begin with. Wataru says he is happy everything turned out fine as it means Saki doesn't have to cry anymore. Alice says it sounds like Wataru has someone special and that he should protect her; he agrees. Wataru returns to the shop and tells Saki the good news. He also tells her that she should never consider quitting and energizes her for future work. Back at the apartments Alice is with the dog and Fumi. Fumi says that the dog seems to like Alice more than Fumi, probably because of Alice's hair; Alice finds out this is at least somewhat true and gets angry. (This section was inspired by chapters 316 - 318). For the last little bit, Maria has left Nagi and Alice alone in the apartments. They are both hungry and Maria has left some meat buns for them. Nagi attempts to warm them up in the microwave, but overcooks them to the point of being gooey which the girls do not want to eat. (I don't blame Nagi though, that is one fancy microwave on top of a refrigerator or something so Nagi can't even see what she is doing due to her height.) The girls are still hungry since they didn't have the buns and try to think of something to eat since Maria is going to be gone until around suppertime. Father Regeoster suggests (to the air since he doesn't think they can hear him) that the girls go to Café Donguri where Hayate is. Alice likes this idea and brings it up to Nagi; they then begin their trip to the café. They soon realize that they aren't sure where it is, but just go with Nagi's instincts. The trip takes longer than expected so they decide to get a drink, but they can't due to only having credit cards. (I get Nagi not having cash due to her lacking clothing, but I don't get why Alice doesn't carry any cash around in that full dress of her's.) They then come to a road that Nagi recognizes, while talking about the food that Hayate makes well and Nagi reveals that they only have to go up the hill to reach Donguri from where they are. Nagi then spots a convenience store near by and both she and Alice celebrate the fact that they can just buy food there, but they ultimately decide that their quest for Hayate's food is more important and make their way to the café. Hayate and Ayumu are about to close up the café when Nagi and Alice come in and tell him they came there for food. He asks what they want and they say they want meat buns, ending the episode. (Yes, I know that every instance of meat bun should be nikuman, but that is what the translation said. This section was inspired by chapter 346.)
Afterward is the ending theme this time featuring Athena (and some of Sakuya, I guess it is Saku's voice actor singing the end). (I am going to comment on a bit of the content of the ending again, mainly because it is really interesting this time. First, observation is that the ending features quite a bit of the dog, which makes sense given what happened in the episode. Second is the "maze" sequence, which begins with mountains and Saturn, but shifts to a bunch of pillars and ends with grown Athena at the end of the maze.)
All in all this was a very good episode in my opinion. Although it is a bit sad that this episode featured Alice chapters instead of Athena chapters, I am okay with it due to the fact that it means that no Golden Week stuff is animated ahead of time. It also helped that this episode featured some of my favorite non-main characters (what am I saying, I like most of the characters) Fumi, Sharna, Saki, and especially Wataru. The ending also helped to improve the episode in my mind, especially the segment with the columns and grown Athena. Finally, I like how they yet again included a reference to the previous episode, this time a small one where Nagi says that the tomato and egg stir fry was good. The references to previous episodes is nice as it helps to reinforce the overarching theme of this anime being the somewhat normal days of Hayate no Gotoku characters.
I don't really have a "rant" topic for this time so I will write about some of the thoughts that occurred to me when I saw the pillar maze. This reminded me of the End of the World arc (yet to be recorded in the arc database as of May 3, 2013) and the Royal Garden. The pillars are of course (for anyone who has read the manga up to now) the Pillar Forest of Abraxis. The sequence ended with a grown Athena near a sort of flat rock (maybe the coffin she owns). So the camera either went through the Pillars of Abraxis into the Royal Garden where a grown Athena is found hinting that once she returns to the Royal Garden she will resume her grown form, or the camera went through the Pillars of Abraxis out from the Royal Garden as a possible reference to how one exits the Royal Garden. Both are possible, but the first seems more likely for some reason.
With this write-up done, look forward to the write-up of the fourth episode featuring Isumi Saginomiya and Sakuya Aizawa next Tuesday.
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