Hayate × Blade
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Tenchi Gakuen is introduced as a prestigious girls' school, unique in its Sword Scholarship program in which teams, known as "shinyuu", battle each other for bragging rights and the hefty monetary rewards given to victorious teams. A more detailed outline of this system, known as hoshitori, can be found on its page at the other wiki.
Enter Kurogane Hayate, trying to impersonate her twin sister Nagi in the school until Nagi is out of rehabilitation. Initially disinterested in anything outside retaining her sister's scholarship, Hayate resolves to actively take part in battling when she finds out that their old orphanage is 8 million yen in debt with the Yakuza. Seeking out the surly Mudou Ayana, who had fallen from the upper ranks after abandoning battling in general, Hayate embarks on her mission, encountering Loads and Loads of Characters in the process.
First running in Media Works' Dengeki Daioh magazine, then moving to Shueisha's Ultra Jump, Hayate × Blade ran from November 2003 to July 2013. It has a total of 18 published volumes and three drama CDs. It is notable for having the word "baka" in every chapter title, which has been described by some fans as a reference to not only the main character but also the whole cast. Written by Hayashiya Shizuru and published in America by Seven Seas Entertainment, this series is a comedy stuffed full of Les Yay.
There is now a Character Page. It is hoped that character-related tropes will be focused there, with this page having tropes that describe the series itself.
Tropes used in Hayate × Blade include:
- The A-Team Has Your Orphan
- Absurdly Powerful Student Council: Justified in that only the top-ranked sword bearers can be part of the student council.
- Action Girl: Everyone.
- Amusing Injuries
- Art Evolution: Not anything dramatic, but certainly there.
- Asskicking Equals Authority: As described above, the student council.
- Badass Longcoat: The student council. Hitsugi probably just wanted to go by the Rule of Cool.
- Baka: The title of each and every chapter uses this.
- Banana Peel
- Beat Panel
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Subverted with great justice in the name of slapstick shenanigans!
- Bilingual Dialogue: Conversations with Ensuu often result in this. The Kuroganes, Ayana, and Makoto are a few examples of characters subjected to her incomprehensible-to-them, Warrior Poet-esque statements.
- Blade Lock
- Blue with Shock: Well. Black with shock, anyway.
- Boarding School
- Boke and Tsukkomi Routine
- Bowled Over
- Cast Herd: Characters are generally seen with those in their own herds, except Hayate, who meets and gets along with nearly everyone. Additionally, shinyuu hang out with each other for most of the scenes they are in, even for Yukari and Maki, who are in junior and senior high respectively.
- Junior high; which includes Hayate, Momoka, Wanko, Kiji, Michi, Sou, Mizuchi, Riona, Ouka, Ayana, Jun, Yuho, Yukari and later Nagi, can be further split into the first-years, the Momotaro-gumi (Momoka [Momotarou], Wanko [dog], Kiji [pheasant], Michi [monkey]), the third-years, or according to room assignment (Ayana and Jun, Hayate and Momoka), etc.
- Senior high; which includes Hitsugi, Shizuku, Akira, Sae, Kurea, Minori, Ensuu, Meiko, Sid, Nancy, Maki...oh, and Tatewaki, usually sees the student council (or ex-student council, after volume 5) together, Meiko trolling everyone she comes across, and the A-Team doing what they do.
- Later on, the faculty forms something like a herd as well, what with Benibachi, Nagare, and other staff members getting time in the spotlight. Characters from the Nurse Team and Judges might be considered part of herds, since they are often shown with other members of those groups.
- Challenging the Chief
- Charles Atlas Superpower: Less extreme than most manga examples, but still very apparent. Especially when it comes to the student council.
- Chekhov's Boomerang: Great Human Slicer Dainingen Giri.
- Color Failure
- Comically Missing the Point: Hayate.
- Cross-Popping Veins
- Defeat Means Friendship
- Duels Decide Everything
- Elaborate University High
- Empty Eyes
- Enhanced In Volume Format
- Everythings Cuter With Kittens: The Shigeru family, as well as the cat that pops up with Hayate in some illustrations.
- Everything's Better with Cows: Hitsugi's pet(?) Dona.
- Everything's Better with Spinning: Hitsugi/Shizuku vs. Minori/Kurea.
- Expy: Some of the cast might remind readers of characters from Hayashiya's other major series Strawberry Shake Sweet, and vice versa.
- Face Palm
- First-Name Basis: Most shinyuu address each other either by first name or nickname.
- Flexible Tourney Rules: Justified, since the president has the final say, and if she thinks its interesting she'll allow it.
- Four-Girl Ensemble: Since shinyuu have a tendency to hang around their partners most of the time, many of the teams close to each other have this.
- Frame Break
- Friendly Rivalry
- Giving Up the Ghost
- Grievous Harm with a Body: Great Human Slicer Dainingen Giri!
- Hair Contrast Duo
- Holding Hands
- Hot Chick in a Badass Suit: In some promotional art.
- Hot Chick with a Sword: Easier to note who isn't, for a series like this.
- Hypocritical Humor
- Identical Panel Gag
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Every chapter title has the word "idiot" in it.
- Imagine Spotting
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Hayate: Stop hitting me! |
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- Implausible Fencing Powers: Subverted most of the time, but some of the moves pulled by a few characters venture into this territory.
- Joshikousei: Though a large part of the major characters are still in junior high.
- Lampshade Hanging
- Law of Chromatic Superiority: Odds are, anyone with a white uniform is a thousand times more badass than the regular sword bearers.
- Lightning Glare: Between Nagi and Ayana.
- List of Transgressions: The A-Team records Hayate's crimes thoroughly.[1]
- Loads and Loads of Characters
- Medium Awareness: Occasionally.
- Meganekko: The A-Team. Yes, all of them.
- Meido: The school festival. Hayashiya later revealed in an author's note how relieved she was to not have to draw maid uniforms anymore when the arc came to a close.
- Moe Couplet: A lot of shinyuu.
- Mood Whiplash
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Momoka: What the hell're you grinnin' like that for?! |
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- Mundane Utility: Riona has some interesting cooking ideas, and the resident ninja does not always use her abilities with the purest thoughts in mind.
- My Kung Fu Is Stronger Than Yours: More so in the short post-Gakuensai training arc, though thankfully never a major focal point in the first handful of volumes.
- Negated Moment of Awesome
- Odd Friendship: Several.
- One-Gender School
- Orphanage of Love
- Panty Shot: Surprisingly few, though Jun does mention how she wants to see what lies under certain characters' skirts a dangerous number of times.
- Pyrrhic Victory: Momoka's duel with Kiriya ends... oddly.
- Pit Trap: The mountain hike arc is filled with these. They are highly effective.
- Quivering Eyes
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: It could be said that Akira does not have the fondest of feelings for her fan club.
- Romantic Two-Girl Friendship: Most, if not all shinyuu.
- Running Gag: Let's see...
- School Festival: Yay, maids?
- Schoolgirl Lesbians: Arguably, all sisters-in-arms are seen as this by their shippers, although there are also fans who see Subtext between Ayana and Jun, Ayana and Mizuchi, Ayana and Yukari (see the pattern forming?), Momoka and Kiji, or Jun and every single female character.
- Saving the Orphanage: Hayate's reason for participating in the hoshitori.
- Second Love: Ayana, Yukari and Maki were all ex-"divorcees". Also goes for characters who have been shown taking an interest outside the partnership they were in, or ended up in.
- Ship Tease:
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Sae: I guess, if I were Akira's wife, it wouldn't have been this troublesome. Though that would be funny... in its own way. |
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- Shout-Out: Too many to list.
- Sick Episode
- Slapstick Knows No Gender: No surprise, since practically the entire cast is female, with Hayate and Jun being most frequently on the receiving end.
- And Riona tries to invoke this intentionally, but her act just ends up being... kinda disturbing.
- Squee
- Sweat Drop
- Talking Is a Free Action: Played mostly straight, with people having short conversations between sword strikes, but averted in a few cases. "They spent almost four bells just yelling at each other" indeed...
- Thick Line Animation: At times.
- Thunder Shock
- Too Dumb to Live: Subverted to hell and back, almost everyone is too dumb to die. Or be tricked, or be caught threatening civilians...
- The outcome of Hayate's actions are consistent with her being a lot smarter than she looks, however. Well. Her, and several others.
- Unknown Rival: Sonoe and Mizuchi both have a bone to pick with Ayana...she doesn't even remember who they are.
- Ayana does this to everybody. She usually refers to her opponents as "Scum 1" and "Scum 2."
- Well... Ayana's glasses really, really undercorrect her sight. Because of this, she can't really make out faces...though if someone annoys her enough, she'll eventually be able to recognize them even if she can't see shit.
- Visible Sigh
- Weirder Than Usual: According to Akira, Hayate not talking a mile a minute around her is creepy.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Ayana's past with Yukari was thought to be this but Ensuu had a part in it. Also hinted at with Ayana's grandfather.
- World of Action Girls
- Yakuza: Smiley Finance
- You Gotta Have Blue Hair
- ↑ And by "crimes" we mean glomping Akira.