Two 4koma on the cover, in glorious colour, making fun of how Isumi seems to have lost control of Wooden Masamune which seems to have developed a strong working relationship with the most worthy of wielders, Hinagiku! (Aside: There’s some very nice material on Maria in Chapters 2, 4 and 5 of this volume but as this is a Hinagikuism post, I won’t go into them; please leave a comment to let me know if there’s a Maria fan out there who has already done the honours!)
V07.Ch66(3).p040-042: Absolutely lovely how Miki oh so slyly sets up Hina to receive her Valentine’s chocolates. Miki rhetorically asks: Isn’t V-Day is an event where girls give chocolate to guys? An embarrassed Hina, who is eating her way through a huge pile of chocolate from her fangirls, says that she knows that too.
Apparently Hina’s choco pile every year is pretty big and growing with each passing year. Miki observes that it’s because Hina is cooler than any guy and recalls chibi-Hina lording it over the guys in primary school. She then asks Hina if she isn’t worried about gaining weight from all the chocolate and the ever gallant Hina very sensitively notes that each chocolate comes with a girl’s feelings. Which creates the perfect opening for Miki to offer her chocolates to her dearest Hina (who gives a strangled and surprised ‘NA!!’ LOL) and bids Hina to eat the chocolate with utmost sincerity and seriousness. Hina’s realizes that she’s been had and accuses Miki of bullying her. Miki adds the proviso that Hina mustn’t gain weight because Hina cannot not be cool.
Interesting to see that Hinagiku subscribes to the Rei Hasekura doctrine on V Day chocolate which means to accept all offers, as opposed to the Sachiko Ogasawara doctrine which is to decline all offers except from those that she has a good reason to accept (e.g. Yumi). Personally I think that Sachiko has got it right and IIRC Yoshino remarks that Sachiko is being cruel to be kind while Rei’s kindness can actually be quite cruel. I agree that if the giver who is giving her heart and her feelings, rather than giving a giri (duty or obligation) choco can only be accepted on the basis of giri, then it’s not a fair exchange. To cite Yuuko Ishihara of xxxHOLIC, under-paying or over-paying for any transaction harms both the giver and the receiver. Also, doesn’t accepting on V Day also imply a reciprocal obligation to return chocolate on White Day?
Nonetheless the Miki ambush and gag doesn’t work if Hina isn’t in the Rei camp WRT accepting Valentine’s chocolates. There are certainly interesting parallels between Rei and Hina such as how both are considered ‘cool’ with masculine connotations and both are champion kendo warriors. But it was a lovely scene nonetheless because it shows how well Miki understands Hina and is able to anticipate her reaction and reasoning in a way that allows her to get her chocolate accepted by Hina but without exposing herself too much.
V07.Ch66(3).p044-048: Ever the knight in shining armour, Hina (who’s on her way to get some milk from the conbini to go with her chocolate) comes to Nishizawa’s rescue as she’s detained at the school gates by security. Hina’s definitely got a strong romantic streak as she’s all happy and supportive of Nishizawa’s effort in making chocolate and coming to Hakuou to deliver it. But she’s stunned when Hamster Girl asks for Hayate!
Hina duly sets up the meeting but is definitely not pleased at finding out that Hayate’s harem has yet another girl in it. Jealousy also brings out her charm LOL. After pushing Hayate out of the council room and shutting the doors, she wonders about her own little choco (implied it’s for Hayate). But Nishizawa rushes in and past her, followed by Hayate who says that Nishizawa said that her choco for him was giri choco. Hina is extremely perturbed as this conflicts with what Nishizawa had implied earlier and tells Hayate to go after her.
V07.Ch66(3).p050-052: As Nishizawa hugs Hayate, Hina repeatedly tells herself that she’s done the right thing. She removes her little choco from its wrapping, bites into and remarks: ‘It’s bitter.’ [OOOOH HINAAAAA!!! Melting. I is melting for u!] Nishizawa appears, thanks Hina, finally introduces herself and also gives Hina a box of chocolate. Hina introduces herself too, leaving a surprised Nishizawa (Student council president? Hakuou? Eh?) with the unmistakable impression that Hina is really cool person.
Hina is then ambushed by Miki (who must be ninja trained or something) who notes that isn’t it this kind of masculine/gentlemanly type behaviour just on display by Hina that is the reason her Valentine’s Day chocolates keep increasing every year? A shocked, surprised and embarrassed Hina goes: ‘HA!!!’ LOLOLOL Love how easily Miki gets under Hina’s skin.
V07.Ch69(6).p088-089: Yukiji bursting in on Hina changing. Who gets a good whacking as a result. ‘Hinaemon, your big sister doesn’t just have money problems! ;_;’ cries Yukiji. Hina refuses to help though. Haha!
V07.Ch70(7).p107: The Idiot Trio of the Student Council are up to their usual antics and evoke Hina’s name to try and get Hayate to cooperate; Hayate has to agree that a pissed off Hina would indeed be a difficult situation.
V07.Ch70(7).p114: Izumi Sagawa assures that it’s ok for Hayate to do his powerful sprint (it causes a strong skirt-raising tailwind) as she, like Hina-chan, wears sportsu (bicycle tights). Hayate’s been worried about what Sagawa will write in the class report (re: Nagi missing school again?) and she reassures him that she’ll deal with it.
V07.Ch70(7).p116: Apparently her idea of dealing with it is to scribble: ‘Today I had a lot of fun gallivanting with Hayata-kun. P.S. Sorry, Hina-chan, I’ll leave the rest to you!’ Hina closes the report book, pours herself a nice cup of tea, sits back down before we pan out to the outside view of the clock tower for Hina’s WTF!? exclamation. Back home, Nagi asks Hayate how was school and he reports that Hinagiku is having a tough time. To which Nagi says: ‘Oh, the usual then.’ LOL
Onward to Vol.8 (where Hayate and Hinagiku play house 4TW)!
Just a quick Seasons Greetings
Seasons greetings. :D
Also, present for the Otome manga fans… or for Stripey, given his predilections.
Warning: spoilers inside.
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Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. The last shot’s for Stripey.
Poor Nina and Erstin.
Thanks, guys!
Seasons greetings and happy new year!
Great summaries, Zyl! You know, I’ll definitely bookmark those! :)
I think one detail should be underlined eveb more explicitly from the key chapter 66: Hina’s fateful decision to support Hamster’s attempts to woo Hayate, while subsequently trying to convince herself that this was “the right thing to do”.
Well then, on to the “more serious” developments. Volume 8, chapters 1-7.
Here, we learn a new facet of Hina - not the flamboyant confident school council president anymore who sees a problem, tackles it immediately, fights and overcomes it with a graceful smile on her lips - no, rather a girl who is torn, who struggles to make heads or tails out of a confusing situation, and who tries to sort things out within herself, but only with limited success. Especially chapters 6 and 7 will be crucial, where she compounds her earlier good-hearted mistake to support Hamster.
After “Hinagiku the heroine” we are now treated to “Hina the human”. Kind, gentle, caring, “loving” in a way, but also fallible, aggressive, frustrated and unsure. The next volume will lay the foundation to the very best parts of Hayate no Gotoku, the Hinagiku evolution end of Volume 9 up to the 2 chapters every manga fan I know is longing for at the beginning of Volume 10: Chapters “Mind Education” and “The Heady Feeling of Freedom”.
Mentar: It’s more that Hina believes that effort ought to be rewarded, and she prefers to MAKE things go well… even if it costs her something in return. It’s not that she’s fighting for justice, but that she wants to make things right, given how screwed up her life has been prior to coming to Hakuou.
Spoilers…
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With all that, she seems to have a compulsion for making things GO well for everyone; with Nishizawa, there’s some resonance given her own feelings for Hayate, and she admires Nishizawa for being able to act on them the way she can’t. In this sense, Nishizawa is heads and tails above the other girls (Isumi, Nagi, Hina, and maybe Sakuya) in being able to say what she feels for Hayate and then do something… even if she knows it’s likely to be futile. That’s why Hina set up the intervention in the first place; even if she ‘lost’ Hayate, she’d have done the right thing for someone else, and that was important to her principles and her world-view… even if it wasn’t ‘right’ for her. That’s what Miki was commenting on, that self-sacrificing bit, as being what the other girls admired about her; what made her ‘GAR’ as it were.
And yes, those few chapters in Volume 8, then Volume 9 and 10 are great… especially with the way those two (Hayate and Hina) interact, and even Hina’s heart-to-heart chats with Nishizawa. It makes you want to root for Hina and or Nishizawa, even if you know that Hayate’ll either end up with Nagi by default, or with nobody.
Also, Musashi has gotten all of Volume 7 done, as a Christmas present for everyone.
Thanks for heads up, Haesslich. I can see why so many fans enjoy the manga so much and compare it favourably to the anime; not just for Hinagiku fans but also for the flow and the humour in general.
Many thanks to both Mentar and Haesslich for your encouragment, sharing your views and ideas WRT to the debate on the Hina-Hamster dilemma, I’m still mulling over it and will probably have to more to say once I’ve worked through the moonspeak of Vol.8 which will hopefully be in the not too distant future. ;)
Zyl: Vol 8 chapter 56 out. Hayate thinks of Hina as a woman… which is more than he does for everyone else save Maria and MAYBE Nishizawa. And there’s more where that came from.
Thanks for the heads up! I’ve skimmed the raws up to Vol.13 but haven’t made the time to look up the more difficult words and do the write-ups… orz