The episode opens with Hinagiku being filmed by, who we soon find out to be Yukiji, and giving her information. Yukiji then tells Hinagiku to put on a swimsuit and fliers fall out of her pockets. Hinagiku picks up one of the fliers which are for a video of Hinagiku in a swimsuit that Yukiji considers selling to make money. This gets Hinagiku angry so she pulls out Shirosakura and threatens Yukiji while calling her a criminal. Yukiji then runs away calling Hina flat-chested, Hinagiku notices the many pads in the swimsuit top, and becomes a bit depressed. Now the intro rolls. (Very fitting this time as it is Hinagiku's episode.)
After the intro, Hinagiku is shown sitting at her desk in the student council room. She leaves her desk for awhile and notices Izumi and Risa playfully running around. She asks them what they are doing since they failed the last test and Miki (who is obviously around since Izumi and Risa are) tells Hina they're studying. (Sure Miki, that's why you guys have so many snacks.) Hayate comes in, hands some papers to Hinagiku, and Hinagiku tells the girls that she can help them with their studying if they ask before going back to work. Before she gets to her desk though, she overhears Miki asking for a shoulder rub from Hayate, since she is stiff from "studying." Hayate doesn't believe the studying excuse, but gives her a rub regardless. (That's because Hayate is a nice guy like that.) Hinagiku, having returned to her desk, thinks that she would like a shoulder rub, but decides she can't just ask Hayate because it would be embarrassing. She also points out that her shoulders never get stiff, being that she's kind of tough, and after a time comes to the conclusion that if she asks for a massage without specifying her shoulders, Hayate would think she was asking for a breast massage. (Where she gets that idea is beyond me. Hayate is dense but I am fairly confident that he wouldn't offer such a massage unless someone asked for it.) By now Hinagiku has returned to the apartments and she hears Chiharu getting a shoulder rub from Hayate. Hinagiku now realizes that maybe Hayate would give her a shoulder rub if she asked since he is the butler of the apartments. Before she can ask though, Hayate notes that there is some paint (or something) on Chiharu, begins picking some paint off of Chiharu, and Hinagiku scolds Hayate for getting so close to Chiharu. Hinagiku realizes that she shouldn't have gotten angry when Maria walks in and asks Hayate to get some groceries. Hinagiku realizes that they (Hayate, Maria, Nagi) will be staying at the apartments and Hayate asks Hinagiku for help studying after supper. After supper, Hinagiku sees her chance and lays down subtle hints for Hayate to give her a shoulder rub. Those fail so she says out loud that her shoulders are stiff. Hayate catches on and asks if her shoulders are stiff, but Hina is unable to carry through and says that they are not stiff and Hayate notes that they can't be as Hina is quite tough. (See, this is how nice Hayate is, he won't force a shoulder rub on someone if they can't tell him they want one.) Hinagiku returns to her room defeated and after sighing has Alice tell her that she, Hinagiku, needs to tell Hayate that she wants one. Hina goes to Hayate's room to try again, but he is gone and she ends up on the outside walkway thinking that Hayate doesn't think of her as a girl. About this time Hayate calls her and tells her to come somewhere quickly. She goes to the location and finds out that it is an indoors beach resort on the Sanzenin property. She asks Hayate why she had to come there and he tells her that the three council members, Izumi, Miki, and Risa, came to the resort and won't leave until Hina plays with them. (The Three Amiga say that they were studying and decided to take a swim to loosen up.) Hayate then presents Hina a swimsuit and asks her to play with the girls. Hinagiku becomes displeased and tells Hayate he doesn't understand. (Apparently Maria knows what's going on with Hina, but there are few clues for Hayate to pick up on in my opinion, so I excuse him this time.) Hina's response prompts Gilbert (ah man, I thought Gilbert faded into obscurity) to pop up and tell Hayate that he should just give up if he can't handle Hinagiku. Everybody is understandably unimpressed with Gilbert, so Hayate just beats him into the sand. Gilbert complains that he need a handicap to beat Hayate and suggests that they play two-on-two beach volleyball. Nagi first says that Gilbert should just leave, but he insults Hayate so Nagi decides to have Hayate beat Gilbert. Gilbert then introduces his partner
In the first half, the Three Amiga show up at the apartment to play a prank on Hina, but they stop when they hear her talking in her sleep about Sergeant Doughnut. In the second half, the dream Hinagiku is having is shown and the Amiga comment that the Sergeant must be a good man.
The second half opens with the volleyball game about to start. Miki readies her camera as she determines that beach volleyball means swimsuits. Hinagiku come out of somewhere after changing, into a sensible pair of shorts and a t-shirt. Miki gets angry and insists that Hina must put on a swimsuit as Risa restrains her. (Thanks for the double standard Miki. By your logic Hayate and Gilbert should also be wearing swimsuits or at least not full dressy suits. While that would be tolerable on Hayate, it would not be on Gilbert, so it is better for everyone if Hina doesn't wear a swimsuit.) The players get on the court, Hayate is convinced that he and Hina have the game in the bag, and Hina seems excited to do her best as Hayate thinks she is fragile now. Just before the game starts though, Hina gets an idea in her head that she has to act fragile. When the game starts and the ball comes to her she doesn't hit the ball back, and acts like she is hurt. This confuses everybody who thought Hinagiku was going to win. Gilbert then brags that he knew Hinagiku was weak because of her small chest. This angers Hinagiku, but she holds back because she still wants to appear weak. The players go back to their positions and Hayate apologizes for picking Hinagiku as he didn't realize she was in poor condition and he should have done so. This gets Hinagiku to realize that she shouldn't hold back, hoping that makes Hayate like her and pummels the first robot with the ball. Gilbert then calls forth three more robots and the volleyball battle truly happens. While two of the robots are taken out off screen, Izumi and Nagi are shown cheering and Maria, Miki and Risa ponder whether anybody at the game knows the rules of beach volleyball. As Hinagiku is about to take out the final robot and Gilbert, Gilbert says that she and Hayate violated a rule. (Someone on the sidelines thinks that he should have mentioned that earlier. I agree.) The rule that Gilbert says was violated was the swimsuit rule, in which female players must wear swimsuits. (Poor Miki latches onto his argument. Now many fans do want to see Hina in a swimsuit, but they don't side with Gilbert; they simply watch the second ending of season one repeatedly.) Hinagiku pulls off her outer clothing to reveal a swimsuit and defeats the last robot to get Gilbert to go away. Hayate then thanks Hina, but scolds her for peeling her clothing off so easily and it is suggested that she hits him. (You're not getting a pardon this time Hayate.) After some time, Hinagiku is shown taking a bath and lamenting that she showed her non-feminine side again. Hayate is shown in the mansion fixing supper for Nagi and Maria asks him for help later. Hayate says that he can since Hina has been helping him with his studies and he realizes something. Hinagiku is back on the walkway, with her shoulders stiff now. She says that her shoulders are stiff out loud and Hayate shows up and offers her a shoulder rub, which she takes. (This episode was inspired by chapters 221 - 224 and 340. It was essentially chapter 340 with chapters 221-224 spliced into the middle.)
Afterward is the ending, of course featuring Hinagiku. Nothing too interesting here, except there is the appearance of Hina with donkey ears which is kind of nice.
Once again we have been given a great episode. The shoulder massage part of the episode was kind of expected, but the volleyball definitely wasn't. The flow of the episode was excellent, mirroring the flow of the first episode where one story flowed into the other with little in the way of bumps. Only the return of Hayate to the apartments was a bit rough, although it framed well as it seemed like Hayate realized what Hinagiku wanted the previous evening. Definitely made Hayate look somewhat better.
So onto a bit of a rant, which I can imagine isn't too much of a surprise for the astute manga reader who watches the anime. This time I am going to address the fact that the volleyball segment is highly similar to and seems inspired by the volleyball game from Golden Week. Now I am sure that many people are unhappy with the adaptation of that game since it seems to hint that Golden Week will never be animated. Now I will admit that it is a slight strike against the animation of Golden Week, but it has not reduced my expectation of a Golden Week animation in the future. This is due to the fact that season two happened. As any faithful viewer of the series will remember, season two was a highly faithful adaptation of many arcs that occurred after Saku's Titanic in the manga and weren't shown in the first season. Some of the arcs in the second season were: Hakuou Marathon, Hina's Birthday, and the Shimoda Arc. One will also remember that Kazuki's date with Nagi was also animated in season two. Now this is interesting as an episode of the first season was highly similar to Kazu's date, except it featured his sister Ayumu. It is this fact that Nagi has ridden the train for the first time twice in the anime that makes me not give up hope for a third season highly similar to the second. It can easily be handled just like the second season did it. When this elusive season occurs it can open with everybody hiking and Nagi saying something like "What day is it Hayate?" and he replies "It's the eleventh of April, ojou-sama." and she will say, "It's only been a week since Saku's birthday!? It feels like years." And thus the elusive third season like the second season will begin.
Yay! The fifth write-up is done and we're almost halfway through Cuties. Look forward to the next write-up, "Izumi Segawa and the other two" (that is seriously the title), around Friday.
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