Revolutionary Girl Hinagiku and how DVD killed my VHS Star
Thank you all for the warm welcome to the Hinagiku fan club! Prompted by Haesslich's screencap, I picked up Hayate no Gotoku Ep 34 and was duly rewarded with the sight of Hina-chan cosplaying as (the pinkhaired) Utena of Revolutionary Girl Utena. RGU was a truly epic series (with much yuri goodness) with lots of avant garde weirdness that the benefit of hindsight has smoothed over as the years slipped by. But the pain of hundreds of USD / GBP / SGD spent on anime VHS tapes, until about 2001, still haunts my dreams and current DVD buying considerations.
I have to confess that I also half-wished that Team Hayate would lose so that we could all enjoy the spectacle of Hina-chan in an embarrassing meido outfit. Haiz.
Added bonus in the episode was experiencing the visual sensation of Megumi Toyoguchi-oneesama being a megalomaniac as well as being... erm... rather excited by Hayate's tearfulness and crossdressing.
The downside was that Nagi's idea of a cultural festival inflamed Comiket withdrawal syndrome. Such a pity that I won't be able to go for C73 - one of the highlights for animeblogdom surely must be Shingo's debut at that event; all the best and may Legendary Shoujo A buy your doujinshi!
Much LOL at Hina-chan's 0_0 at Hayate's neko penalty cosplay and then her minions' 'Oh how good Hina-chan would look in a nekomimi meido outfit!' 
~~~ I also suspect that another one of the big reasons why I love Hinagiku is how she has lots of fangirls: a definite plus factor for proto-Oneesama and proto-yuri. Mmmm~~~
I still can remember buying the entire RGU boxset from the dealer's room at Otakon 2000, monthly treks to the old London Forbidden Planet on New Oxford Street (I think the unit's occupied by a net cafe now, next to the Toni & Guys training academy) to check if the next VHS tape for Evangelion had been released yet - yes, the first time I watched NGE was in English dub and it was latterly hearing Yuko Miyamura's 'Anta baka!?' blow Tiffany Grant's 'Are you stupid!?' plain out of the water, it's been Japanese SOUND ONLY for me thereafter i.e. fansubs and DVDs with Japanese audio tracks.
Having spent so much money (it was GBP 19.99 or USD 29.99 a tape orz), I've been unable to throw those VHS boxsets away - even though I haven't had a working VHS player since 2002. The tapes are lying in a big IKEA plastic box in a cupboard, together with the Slayers first season, NEXT and TRY boxsets and the entire seasons of Ranma 1/2 and You're Under Arrest TV (all Chinese dubs which did not grate half as much as the aforementioned English dubs, that's cultural affinity for me!) that I taped off Saturday morning TV on (what used to be) Channel 8. All are probably gently nourishing that furry white fungus that loves video tape, especially in the heat and humidity of the democratic people's tropical island paradise republik which I call my hometown.
I haven't seen the point of purchasing DVD re-releases (when they have been released) of those classic series either. Even if they've been digitally remastered and quality-uppu-ed, like NGE. There's the whole sunk cost issue. But there's also the fear of how rewatching these series will strip away one's OLE SKOOL IS DAH BEST, ALL NEW ANIMU IS TEH SUCK illusions and lay me bare in the light of a time when anime didn't make sense (plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose) and/or looked like this:
P.S. Those new fangled HD-DVD players had better be backward compatible! Well, there's always Shinco to rely on.
P.P.S. Brownie point for anyone who got the title reference.
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December 2nd, 2007 - 13:47
Yay! I got Brownie Points~
I love the last two images at the bottom. They made me lol. Luckily I’m but a wee kid who didn’t get into anime until a few years ago and therefore never dealt with silly VHS tapes (although I have all those silly TV anime on tapes like Pokemon and Sailor Moon… but that’s totally different!).
December 2nd, 2007 - 15:33
Brownie points for me too! Hurrahs!
Thankfully I too am out of the anime VHS dilemma camp, but believe me, I do know the feeling. Almost three full seasons of Babylon 5 on VHS… orz. On so many counts.
Now downloading ep 34.
December 2nd, 2007 - 16:56
She first did this in the battle arc, Ep’s 27-28, IIRC, and Hayate….
▼ Show
…that lucky bastard. Of all of his ‘harem’, he’s furthest ahead with Maria and Hina – first because he thinks of them as dateable (unlike the loli-tsundere ShaNagi) and he’s triggered many flags with both, as it were. He’s seen them at their best AND worst, and they go out of their way to save him. AND they’re all abandoned children (Maria was left on a church step on Christmas Eve, Hayate’s flew-by-night on Xmas, Hina’s ditto with a similar debt that she and Yukiji had to work off….)
Is it bad if one’s fan-worship of Hina crosses into their subconsciuos? It apparently did for me….
December 2nd, 2007 - 21:48
Just a little hint: The “Oooh, reeeeeaalllyyy?” look of Hina’s minions wasn’t triggered by their wish to see Hina in a meido outfit, but rather some sniggering when Hina sighed about how hard it must be to work for someone as “stubborn” as Nagi ^_^ – in that aspect, Hina is actually even worse.
The yuri parts are funny because Hina is definitely straight. And the immense girl attention she gets is bothering her quite a bit. One girl of the terrible school council trio – Miki – will occasionally show a trace more interest in Hina than what’s normal. But that’s also only manga material so far…
I hope they’ll start the important arcs soon…
December 2nd, 2007 - 22:18
Mentar: They’ve already gone into original territory, as of Ep 25-26, as they indicated. Everything else since, as far as I can tell, is ‘all new’ material, with the original story arcs having been done way back when… and the only ‘arc’ we’ve got at the moment is just the Butler Battles and Kuzuha wanting to get her hands on Hayate, because he’s cute as a guy AND as a girl, which gets both fetishes.
And yes, the knowing looks weren’t about the outfit, but the attention she was paying Hayate (again) – especially since they looked like they were having a date just an ep or so ago.
And as noted…
▼ Show
December 2nd, 2007 - 23:39
I’ve had a look at Omni’s entry on Ep 25 and it seems that the anime stops at the beginning of Vol.4 of the manga… but there’s still plenty of material, so why?
If the main anime production house had been asread, then maybe there might be hope of a Hina ending… Synergy SP seems to have only been in overall charge of Kirarin Revolution – anyone knows what that was like?
December 3rd, 2007 - 03:15
Zyl: Ep 34 and 34 had the girl from Kirarin REvolution in it – they’re not above promoting old works, like certain companies did with Haruhi appearances and Kanon references…
I really don’t see them picking anyone for a specific ending – and the manga’s goals, as it were, are to develop Hayate’s relationships with everyone, except Nagi… although their interactions do change over time, especially as Hayate draws out the best in most of the other girls. Except Nagi.
December 9th, 2007 - 01:50
One comment on this episode, while I’m at it – notice how Hina looks over in disbelief at cat-girl crossplay Hayate, while her henchwomen look over in interest at it. I wonder if her ’soemwhat against ecchi’ stance applies to this image, or if it’s just the idea that Nagi would put Hayate through such a thing…