| | |  | MANGA | Home » » » » Hayate the Combat Butler, Vol. 1 | | | | | | | Product Promotions: | | | | | Description: | | Hardworking Hayate has a plan to pay the yakuza--who are now the legal owners of his vital organs--back: he'll kidnap someone and ransom them for a mountain of money. But things get tricky when his would-be kidnappee--who as luck would have it is the daughter of a mind-bogglingly wealthy family--mistakes Hayate's actions for a confession of love, and hires him to be her personal servant. At least his employment future is secure, or so he thinks... | | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| Kenjiro Hata | | Paperback:
| 208 pages | | Publisher:
| VIZ Media LLC | | Publication Date:
| November 21, 2006 | | Language:
| English | | ISBN:
| 1421508516 | | Product Length:
| 7.48 inches | | Product Width:
| 5.08 inches | | Product Height:
| 0.63 inches | | Product Weight:
| 0.39 pounds | | Package Length:
| 7.3 inches | | Package Width:
| 5.0 inches | | Package Height:
| 0.8 inches | | Package Weight:
| 0.4 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 7 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 7 customer reviews )
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2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 (3.5 STARS) Pretty Good Start of the Long-Running Comedy MangaApr 04, 2009
By Tsuyoshi
On Christmas night nice, hard-working boy Hayate Ayasaki discovers that he is actually the unluckiest teenager in Japan. His irresponsible gambler parents not only ran away from home, leaving behind a massive amount of debt (about $ 1.5 million). Not only that; for fearful yakuza gangsters are after him, trying to "collect" his organs.
Desperate Hayate thinks of kidnapping a 13-year-old girl Nagi Sanzenin, whom he encountered in the park. What he didn't know was she was a spoiled girl of an incredibly rich family, and Nagi mistakes Hayate's "I want you" for confession of love and she falls in love with him!
In spite of the contrived and impossible opening chapters, "Combat the Butler Hayate" starts pretty well, as an amusing comedy (yes, it is a comedy) about Hayate, Nagi, Maria (17-year-old, Nagi's maid), Klaus, the head butler of the family and Tama, a tiger Nagi keeps in her room. There are several pop culture references (see p.132, for example, references to Batman, Thunderbirds, and Death Note), but most jokes and gags are easy to understand. And they are funny, well, most of them.
Kenjiro Hata's comic has been serialized in Shogakukan's "Shonen Sunday" since 2004. This is a manga for shonen magazine (boys' magazine), so though the manga contains romance (only on the side of Nagi, anyway), the comic is basically a comedy in the vein of Rumiko Takahashi's "Urusei Yatsura" (which was also serialized in "Shonen Sunday"). If you are looking for so-called moe or fan service, you will be disappointed.
VIZ Media's translation is excellent. English words are carefully chosen and faithful to the original phrases. All FX is translated and the content of the English edition is almost exactly the same as that of the original. The only difference is that the preface/postface manga (two bonus four-panel comic strips) are in color in Japanese edition.
"Combat the Butler Hayate" is nothing groundbreaking, but enjoyable nonetheless, with several interesting characters and above-average illustrations.
[TRIVIA] The boy's name "hayate" means "fast, storm-like wind" in Japanese. The heroine's name "nagi" means "a calm" or "a lull."
2 of 3 found the following review helpful:
 Comedy MangaDec 14, 2007
By Hongster
Intro: Hayate no Gotoku (The Combat Butler) is a story of Ayasaki Hayate who is in debt after his parents sold him off to a group of Yakuza. In order for him to pay off his debt, a young Ojo (Rich Young Girl) named Nagi comes to his rescue to pay off his debt and in return Hayate works as a butler at her place. Now that we have the basics down, unto the review!
Pro: The characters in Hayate are the main reason why you are reading this series, the plot (while a bit plain) is not it. While reading this book, you will understand the circumstances each character faces, Hayate with his huge debt, Nagi who is infatuated with Hayate, Maria who is trying to resolve the misunderstanding between the two and so on. The manga is filled with many humorous moments (my favorite happens to be the one where Hayate is dressed up as a cat girl and Tama goes crazy for him). Every character is interesting and refreshing, there are no 2 characters which are alike.
Con: This is a shonen so expect some things that are familiar with other shonen manga (such as tournaments, lame fights, etc...though none of these are present in this volume).
Conclusion: I highly recommend this to any fan of anime or manga as well as anyone who wants to read something funny. You will not be disappointed.
Amazing Series.Jun 30, 2011
By Dojo Master
Hayate the Combat Butler is an awesome manga. The story is barely existent in the first two volumes but the humor makes up for the non-existent plot. Having read most of the series, I can honestly say that you will either love it or hate it. The polarizing is most likely because of the humor which at times is based on some obscure Japanese reference or the subtlety of some jokes.Thus, whether my review convinces you or not, I urge you to buy it.
Courtesy of The Figment Review at Figment[dot]comApr 04, 2011
By The Figment Review
by Matt Reeves
So as some of you may already know from my previous reviews, I'm no stranger to Japanese pop culture, and least of all to manga. When I'm not buried in a young adult novel from overseas, I usually like to spend my time reading one of my favorite Japanese manga series. Since I didn't quite feel like finishing Train Man yet, I decided to take a break and return to reading a comedy series that never fails to make me laugh.
I first discovered Hayate the Combat Butler a number of years ago because of a review in NewType USA (R.I.P.) back in the day when the first volume was released. I went to the bookstore and after reading a few pages found myself laughing uncontrollably, much to some book buyers' annoyance, I might add. It was a match made in heaven.
The storyline of Hayate the Combat Butler is simple in its complexity. Hayate is an average teenager, that is if constantly working at different jobs throughout his life in order to earn money for food is normal. The problem Hayate faces is that his parents are completely irresponsible with finances. One day, he returns home from getting fired on Christmas Eve to discover a note from his parents. They explain that they have run up a debt with the Japanese Mafia so large that they had no other way to repay but one. They sold Hayate's organs to them. Stunned and staring disbelieving at a debt of up to 150,000,000 yen, he hears the debt collectors pounding on his door and quickly makes an escape. So it is, that on the night of Christmas Eve, Hayate is out in the cold running for his life when he spots a young girl. An idea strikes him. He can kidnap her and raise money that way! But when the girl gets kidnapped by two other thugs, Hayate unknowingly becomes a hero when he risks his life to get the girl back. In reward, the girl, who believes that Hayate was trying to express his love to her, offers him a job as her butler. But what follows proves more than he, she, or the girl's maid nearby could ever imagine.
If you haven't guessed it by now, Hayate the Combat Butler is the best kind of comedy. Smart, witty, sometimes deep, and punch lines on every page. Never missing an opportunity to poke fun at something or crack a joke, Hayate proves itself the source of non-stop chuckles and out-loud laughter.
There are many manga in Japan, but some prove themselves so well that they become more than popular. Hayate is an excellent example of a manga that began with a simple premise and grew to become a franchise that included two successful television shows, several novels, and a video game.
Perhaps one of the things that makes Hayate so great is its ability to continually keep a story flowing from one chapter to the next. Never at any point in the series does it ever feel as though the artist has forgotten the continuity of events. The plot is never sacrificed for the comedy and new characters are seemingly always being added. Relationships are also slowly built upon and characters gain depth in many unexpected ways.
Another thing that makes Hayate so hilarious is its seamless ability to use Anime/Manga culture to aid its jokes. In fact, some entire sequences in the series that could make one spit their milk out from laughing are based on previous knowledge regarding specific popular franchises. Because of this, newcomers to Japanese pop culture may find themselves slightly lost in the sea of references. However, even so, Hayate contains more than enough jokes that anyone could grasp that it makes for an entertaining read for either the Anime enthusiast or the average Joe wanting something light and entertaining.
Overall, if you're looking for a fun change of pace from the world of novels, but desire something better than the US Comic Industry, check out Kenjiro Hata's masterpiece of comedy. If you can manage to stop laughing in between panels, you just might have enough time to breathe again.
0 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Cute and funny!Jul 16, 2007
By Yoyo
This manga is very good! It's funny and very cute, I can't wait for volume 6!
See all 7 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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