Hayate the Combat Butler

About Hayate the Combat Butler

Hayate the Combat Butler (ハヤテのごとく！) arrives as an action anime by SynergySP and Studio Tulip (2007), and the premise is easy to summarize. The premise: Hayate Ayasaki's life wasn't great, but when he loses the job he used to support his good-for-nothing family, and his deadbeat parents sell him to the Yakuza for cash, it really hits rock bottom! Faced with having to pay off the huge debt before he's converted into black market organ parts, a desperate Hayate chooses to kidnap oddball heiress Nagi Sanzenin for ransom... but when even that goes wrong and he accidentally.

Further in, now he's the Sanzenin family's butler, and… maybe… it might be the start of a potential romantic relationship… assuming Hayate can survive the on-the-job training, of course.

With action at the core, fight choreography, pacing and sound design carry much of the weight. Voice work is led by Rie Kugimiya as Nagi Sanzenin and Shizuka Itou as Hinagiku Katsura. If you count yourself among viewers who like fast, high-impact fights, put it on your list. At 52 episodes in total, it is easy to plan a viewing schedule.

Production & Appeal

SynergySP and Studio Tulip is the studio behind Hayate the Combat Butler, and its direction shapes everything from character design to motion. Within the action category, fight choreography, pacing and sound design carry much of the weight. At 7.2/10 it earns a solid reception, a safe pick for fans of the genre. On the casting side, Rie Kugimiya voicing Nagi Sanzenin gives the lead role a recognizable voice. Released in 2007, it competed with that season's other new series for attention.