Monday, August 22, 2005
	| First| Prev | Next |Last | Parody Strip #21 "Hasegawa the Combat Professor" | First| Prev | Next |Last | "Hasegawa the Combat Professor" by Akira (2005-08-22) "Hayate no Gotoku (Hayate the Combat Butler)" written by Kenjiro Hata became one of my favorite manga in Weekly Shounen Sunday. It the reason why I buy "Weekly Shounen Sunday" (costs about $2) every week. Mr. Hata updates the comments on "BACK STAGE" every week and they are really fun to read. You can read also the first episode of "Hayte no Gotoku" too. Here is the list of manga in "Weekly Shounen Sunday" which became anime: Detective Conan Inuyasha Konjiki no Gashbell Yakitate Japan MAR Major Ueki no Housoku Please write your comment to this strip at pOnju forum

	Tuesday, August 23, 2005
	"Hayate Ayasaki" by Akira (2005-08-23) Hayate Ayasaki is the main character of this manga. He's still sixteen years old, but lead such a harsh life. Both of his parents are unemployed (or should I say, don't like to work) and gamble a lot. Hayate worked hard from childhood to earn income (like bicycle delivery) just to survive. To make up for 1.5 million dollars worth of debt parents made (specifically borrowed from ACOM), they sold Hayate to Yakuza (Japanese mafia) as an organ donor and a slave sold outside Japan. While running away from Yakuza, Hayate met with a "very" rich girl, Nagi, in a park alone. He decides to kidnap Nagi, but fortunately or unfortunately, his kidnapping speech was wrongly taken as a confession of LOVE by her. The debt was taken care by Nagi and Hayate became the butler of her to pay back 1.5 million dollars to her (which will take him forty years). Many things happen to him as a butler like forced to fight again a big white tiger, forced to cross dress with cat ears, and so on... (Every main characters of any manga are destined to cross dress at some point, but Hayate cross dressed at episode 8 ^^;). Even in such a misery, Hayate is polite, kind, and charming :) Author loves classic child stories like Frances Hodgson Burnett's "A Little Princess", "Little Lord Fauntlero", and Ouida's "A Dog of Flanders". I hope Hayate doesn't freeze to death in cold winter night at the end.

	Wednesday, August 24, 2005
	"Sanzenin Nagi" by Akira (2005-08-24) Sanzenin Nagi is the extremely rich girl (she even has two rooms for PlayStation and Sega Saturn) who misinterpreted Hayate's kidnap speech as a love confession and hired him as a butler. Their is still a huge misunderstanding between Nagi and Hayate even after forty episodes or so (longer story gets, the bomb grows larger and larger): Hayate thinks "Lady Nagi is such a generous person (even though she's a kid). She helped me from Yakuza and hired me as a butler. I'll do all I can do for her as a butler." (As you can guess, Hayate is not a pediphile at all) Nagi thinks "Hayate devotes so much for me because he love me. But if he tries to cheat on me, I'll not forgive him." (Only Nagi's maid, Maria, knows what is going on between them). Nagi's personality is extremely stubborn, doesn't admit her fault/defeat, very otaku (she draws her original comic "Magical Destroy" which noone can understand except her friend Isumi), smart (she's in high school just like Chiyo-chan), childish,�@gets jelous very easily, but rather kind.

	Thursday, August 25, 2005
	"Maria" by Akira (2005-08-25) Maria is a house maid of Nagi since her childhood and she's the only "normal" person in this manga who can bring jokes back to reality again. Maria is the only person who knows about the misunderstanding between Hayate and Nagi, but she doesn't do anything about it (didn't have energy/will to tell them) ^^; She's very smart, beautiful, calm, and charming and Hayate is obviously attracted to Maria than Nagi (can see blood in the future ^^;). All the readers were surprised when they found out Maria was still 17 years old after reading a profile of her in the first volume of tankobon/comic. Most people thought she was over 25 or so... Poor Maria ^^;

	Friday, August 26, 2005
	"Hinagiku Katsura" by Akira (2005-08-26) Hinagiku became one of my favorite characters from "Hayate the Combat Butler". She doesn't appear until episode 35, but she's cute and cool. She is 15 years old and is a president of a student body of Hakuou high school which Nagi and Hayate study. The author wrote in his rants that there might be a (very slim chance) Hayate and Hinagiku get closer...? There is a website which is crazy about "Hayate no Gotoku". "Gansaku" The author of this webcomic artist loves "Hayate no Gotoku" and he draws a lot of parody webcomics. He's also famous for buying 15 first volumes, 25 second volumes and 35 third volumes of "Hayate no Gotoku" (and he's unemployed)... Some people claim "Hayate no Gotoku" became famous because of him ^^;

	Saturday, August 27, 2005
	"Isumi Saginomiya" by Akira (2005-08-27) She is Isumi Saginomiya and she's the only person who can understand Nagi's comics. Isumi doesn't have a sense of direction and she gets lost extremely easily. She's quiet and shy, but brings a lot of problems to people around her (especially to Hayate). She wears kimono all the time (just like Haruna :) ) and seems to have power to purify/battle against evils ^^; So, what I like so much about "Hayate no Gotoku"? I think I like the very hard-core jokes of anime/game/sub-culture are the biggest reason. Take the titles for example: 8) "Nekomimi Mode de Jigoku Iki (Go to Hell with Cat-Ears Mode)" - Obviously it's a parody of "Tsukuyomi - Moon Phase". 18) "Bakademo Kazeha Hikukara Tasukete Nurse Angel. Madamada Ikuyo~ (Even fools catch cold, so help me Nurse Angel. We're going fore more~)" - Jokes from "Nurse Angel Ririka SOS" and a famous catchy phrase "madamada ikuyo~" from a crazy opening song of a H game "Mikomiko Nurse (for adults over 18 only)". 28) "Super Shuffle no Chousenga Mitakatta (Wanted to see the challenge of 'Super Shuffle')" - I'm not sure how many people know about Super Shuffle ^^; It got famous because it looks very similar to "iPod Shuffle". 36) "Sekai wo Kakumeishinai Chikara (power not to bring the world revolution)" - If you don't get this, you are not otaku at all. It's a joke from an anime "Girl Revolution Utena". Sub-culture jokes are filled everywhere like: Nagi: "Hayate's fighting power increases dramatically by transformation, and he has two more left. You know what this means?" - Freeza from Dragon Ball ^^; (episode 6) Wataru and Saki are playing "The Queen of Heart" - a doujin game which non-professionals made... (volume 3) Hayate: "What's going on...? His personality changed like he remembered the memory of the note?" - Obviously from "Death Note". (episode 21) Nagi: "I thought a housemaid like Maria can use a death move like 'Five-Point Palm Exploding Heart' technique..." (Kill Bill). (episode 44) Kenjiro Hata was an assistance of Kouji Kumeta (famous manga artists). No wonder it's filled with subculture jokes... Reference: Hayate no Gotoku Wiki

	Sunday, August 28, 2005
	"A girl with sailor costume" by Akira (2005-08-28) A quick drawing of a random character I did over a weekend. I drew and inked this a couple of months ago, and forgot to finish it. Anyway, it's fun to draw a random character. It's very refreshing. I'll try to update a comic strip at least once a week from now on (most like on Monday, rants will be updated everyday). Uploaded comics will be mostly parody strips on my favorite manga. I still need more time to bring back my drawing skill back to normal (and time to finish programming). I don't know when I can restart ExCoKo or MaMi, but I hope you enjoy 'Tsunami Channel' :)