Hayate the Combat Butler/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Angst? What Angst? - Hayate, though he does finally crack in Season 1 when he apparently failed his Entrance Exam to Hakuō Academy, bitterly weeping in resignation that "such a good school is too good for someone like me anyway." One of the rare Tear Jerker scenes in the franchise played completely straight.
  • And the Fandom Rejoiced - There's now going to be a movie adaptation. Some fans think it'll cover the End of the World Arc, and will finally get to see Athena animated.
    • Some others suspect that following a few possible hints from Hata's previous statements and his blog that it might be the Katsura sister's backstory, or at least be about Hinagiku in some way. The general consensus seems to be 'please not a filler movie'.
    • There's a movie coming out. And the studio? Manglobe!
    • It's seemed that the movie will be about a future (even by manga standards) event, and the main characters (Hayate, Nagi and Maria) along with Hinagiku and Ayumu will feature prominently.
    • Luca will apparentally appear in the movie, and the anime is getting a third season!
  • Base Breaker - Athena. Some people love her, thinks the story is better because of her and Hayate's one and only and are saddened by her leaving in chapter 265. Others think the story was doing fine without her, or even go to the extreme of slutshaming her for having sexier looks than the other girls.
  • Better on DVD
  • Crowning Moment of Heartwarming - now has its own page.
  • Complete Monster: Not much compared to others in that page, and their evil is sometimes Played for Laughs. But, still, Hayate's parents... sheesh, their ridiculously high Adult Child tendences boot them right into here. They leave their son destitute after taking his salary and gambling it all away. And just to up the ante, they saddle a debt of over a hundred and fifty million yen on him while escaping themselves. The final insult? They send Yakuza to collect him for organs as a settlement for this debt. Bear in mind, Hayate's sixteen... and they keep on kicking him even after leaving, withdrawing the fees for his school (which he was working to complete). And let's not forget that when Hayate tried to trust them one last time by handing them his girlfriend Athena's absolutely invaluable and very loved ring... they pawned it away without second thoughts, leaving Hayate to face a devastated Athena's utter wrath afterwards.}
    • These two lazy bastards go waaayyyyy beyond Adult Child. Hayate's father is unemployed, saying he's looking for "the perfect job", which apparently includes getting a fat paycheck for doing absolutely nothing. His mother has a gambling habit, and couldn't care less where her gambling money comes from: Hayate's multiple part and full-time jobs, the Very Nice People, wherever. I haven't seen the entire series up to the latest episode, but from what I've seen, they left Hayate behind without a trace.
  • Die for Our Ship - Pretty much all the contenders in the respective unwanted harems of Hayate and Wataru are remarkably civil toward each other. Some of the shippings' fans... er, not so much. Especially now that the series has cranked up the Ship Tease Up to Eleven.
  • Draco In Leather Panties/RonTheDeathEater - Athena and Hinagiku are opposite sides of the coin on this one often even to the point of bringing them up in discussions that didn't even initially include them.
    • Fans of the other girls openly slut-shame Athena for having big breasts and sexier clothes. And they also love falsely accusing her of being a Complete Monster to make their "candidates" look better.
      • This is the girl who kicked Made of Iron Hayate into complaining that she was hurting him, and then she played it off as nothing.
      • Also, she's the only one of the series who has aggressively used her sex appeal, in a series where all of the other girls downplay it and it's easy to miss how physically attractive they actually are because of the clothes they wear. This is despite the fact that they're all trying to attract the attention of the main guy.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse - The Kind-Smart-and-Beautiful Swordmaster Katsura Hinagiku, not to mention the Sexy-Joker Sakuya, the endearingly clumsy maid Saki, and those three girls. Frequently lampshaded in the omakes at the end of the volumes, where various characters will comment on their own popularity with the fanbase disproportionate to their role in the story. (Maria's just a tad bitter.)
    • A character poll in chapter 110 of the manga put Hinagiku's popularity at number one; her number of votes is about twice the number of second placer Maria and just a few dozen votes short of Maria, Nagi and Hayate's combined. Looks like Nagi is just a tad bitter now...
    • The first ED for the second season is completely dedicated to Hinagiku. It's a love song to Hayate sung by Hina in the Framing Device of a karaoke bar, complete with plenty of blushing and a flood of multicolored hearts. Aside from Those Three Girls making periodic singsong remarks, no one else is in it. It's a nice Ship Tease for Hina fans but feels somewhat bizarrely out of place in the grand scheme of things...
      • Given other material, the song doesn't seem to have anything to do with Hayate at all (instead focusing on the friendships). The Hayate-themed ending was probably just Hinagiku's mind playing with her, since that was what the arc was about in it's entirety.
  • Fan Nickname - Nishizawa -> NOM NOM, since she's always eating...
    • Nagi also refers to her as "hamster". It's a catchy name.
    • Her fans like to call Athena 'A-Tan', despite the fact that it destroyed a seemingly strong bond of friendship within the story. It's well implied that Athena only wants Hayate to use the name.
    • although, to be more specific, Athena was simply isolating herself from Hinagiku because she didn't want Midas to accidentally hurt her
  • Fan-Preferred Couple - The show is already rather unusual since not only is there no Official Couple yet, but the chance of the male and female leads never getting together is seriously, legitimately, a possibility despite occasional Ship Tease (but everyone gets that in this show).
    • Hinagiku and Athena both qualify, each with their own very vocal group which even separately seem to dominate the forums. Seriously if you didn't read the series you'd think that they were the main heroines instead of Nagi and Maria. This is especially evident with the results of the 3rd Character Popularity Poll: Hinagiku retains 1st with over 4000 votes, but Maria and Athena switched places and Athena is 2nd with 2100 votes actually being the first to get more than half of Hina's votes which is a serious accomplishment given Hina's widespread popularity even outside the show's fanbase. Naturally, these two seem to get the most Ship Tease, though Hata being Hata pretty much everyone gets their fair share.
      • Possibly a cause for Maria to be getting pushed into the background, while Hinagiku seems to be pushed into the vacancy
  • Ho Yay: Enough examples for its own page.
  • Magnificent Bastard - Opposing Mikado (though in-story she doesn't even seem aware of him yet), Miki Hanabishi is proudly known for her plots to make trouble for Hinagiku, in fact it's clearly stated in her profile that she enjoys it, but generally seems to be using such tactics to push Hina to the forefront of the competition for Hayate's affection. While at the same time pursuing Hinagiku with her own romantic interest.
  • Marty Stu - One-shot character Unit 13.
  • Memetic Mutation - Hayate's status as a Trap is up there with Bridget and Ranma on the Internet these days. Hinagiku's nigh-invincibility and Moe-ness has also spread so much that she regularly competes in contests with characters from all across anime on a regular basis and can come out on top.
  • Moe - Pick a girl, any girl.
    • Or pick Hayate.
    • There ought to be a law against anyone being as moe as Nagi's mother was as a child, 30 years ago.
  • Moral Event Horizon - Hayate's parents cross it in the first chapter, when they try to sell his organs to "those very nice people". It's later revealed throughout the course of the series that their depravity knows no bounds, culminating in the revelation that they pawned off the ring Athena trusted him with. It's absolutely no wonder that when asked whether he'd return to his parents if they ever had a change of heart, Hayate himself said that "there are no second chances". After what they put him through, can you blame him?
  • Ruined FOREVER - About all we've got about the Taiwanese live-action drama that's recently been announced is the actors for Nagi and Hayate, and already there are cries of "epic fail".
  • Ship Sinking - When 'Alice' enters the scene, she recognises Hayate and knows possibly Hinagiku has the sword she's looking for, but there's no indications of the affection she confessed to at the end of her arc. In fact, she actively denies any relationship with Hayate during her chapter.
    • Even Kotetsu would have the emotions carried over if he lost his memories.
  • So Okay It's Average: In order to improve Luca's manga, Hinagiku adviser her to try reaching a level where it can simply be read to the end and enjoyed by everyone who picks it up. This alone will not make it a truly special work that sells millions of copies, but give her a solid base from which to improve further. Kayura later contradicts this by telling Nagi she has to reach for the stars with every work she creates if she ever wants to create something special.
  • The Woobie - Hayate, both to the viewers and to multiple characters in the story. Usually hearing about his parents is enough to make most characters instantly want to hug him and make it all better.
    • Hinagiku is getting to this level within the manga currently
  • Toy Ship - Hayate and Athena when they were around 6.
    • Hayate and Izumi at the same age as well.
  • Unfortunate Implications - Of all the people that harass and annoy Hayate, the only one Hayate wants to kill is the gay one (or bi, depending whether he still likes girls or not).
    • To be fair, Kotetsu is one of only three people who have actively expressed feelings for Hayate and he continues to very aggressively pursue Hayate despite receiving nothing but firm refusals from the start.
      • And he forced Hayate to run out in public after Nagi while dressed in drag.
  • The Woobie: Hayate, who's also an Iron Woobie.
    • Isumi. Look up "hug me" in a dictionary and her picture would probably be there.
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Hayate_the_Combat_Butler/YMMV?oldid=1946052"