Hayate x Blade 2 Manga, Volume 1 (はやてxブレード 2)

October 30th, 2014

hxb2-1In Volume 1 of Hayate x Blade Nyan, the new semester is beginning at Tenchi Gakuen and everything is different. Students have split into two dorms – Tenkuu and Daichi, aligning with our favorite scion of the Amachi family, Hitsugi  or her “Black Group”-leading cousin, Hajime.

The Hoshitori has been revamped, as well, with more one-on-one battles ahead, and much, much more intense fighting. The first battle nearly mangles Ayana’s poor roommate Kei and introduces us to our first enemy of the new series,  a sadistic sociopath named Terma.

But before we can truly understand what drives Terma, we are turned towards Nagi. Nagi, Hayate’s older, more talented twin, who expected to take her place at the top of the Tenchi hierarchy only to find her goofy little sister firmly entrenched there. Instead of fighting for her place, Nagi has been overwhelmed by ennui. Even the passionate enthusiasm of her shinyuu, Kanai, has been  unable to motivate her. In fact, she’s gone so far as to join the Daichi dorm, but even Hajime doesn’t trust her. Hajime challenges Nagi to a duel and with the help of her shadowy shinyuu Shingetsu, defeats Nagi handily.

Kanai is terribly worried about her brusied and beaten partner, but Nagi insists she feels nothing. Hayate supports this, and calls in their mother to explain. Nagi, it turns out, doesn’t feel pain. At all. Which leads to another worry, because as part of the new Hoshitori rules, individual fighters can be called out for a duel – and Nagi has been challenged by Terma.

As everyone waits on pins and needles for Hitsugi’s opening salvo, the “Ultimate Hoshidori”, they watch as already wounded Nagi and Terma face off in a potentially 5-round fight. Nagi pulls out all the stops and wins the bout in a spectacular display of raw guts and skill. Hayate is so moved that she starts to mimic Nagi’s finishing technique.

Around the corner is Hitsugi’s “Summer Festival”, which they all dread, just because Hitsugi’s looking like she’s relishing the idea.

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Missing from this volume are the linking chapters that ran in the magazine, in which students were forced to slide across greased pipes to get to the new campus, but is otherwise full of the same kind of low gags and awesome fight scenes that we’ve come to expect from Hayashiya-sensei!

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 9
Character – 9
Yuri – 1 Hayate gropes Ayana, and reminds herself to tell Jun. ^_^;
Service – 4 Hayate gropes Ayana, and reminds herself to tell Jun. ^_^;

Overall – 9

And, then, Nagi went BAM! and it was like “whoahhhhh….”

9 Responses

  1. Alison says:

    Hi Erica I hope you had wonderful trips! I really liked the takarazuka and Margaret expo articles. I hate to bug you again but could you please re-post the okazu/rightstuf.com link? I can’t be a sponsor right now but I really hope you get a little cash from stuff I was going to buy anyway!

  2. Alison says:

    I’d like one that just took me to main page for when I shop cuz I check every week for specials, but in particular I want to pre-order sailor moon set 2 blu ray. I hope somday there’s a link on main page like amazon, but lord knows I have no idea how hard it is to change that stuff, let alone when you’re always on the road!
    Thanks Erica!

  3. MelissaGonzalez141 says:

    I read the magazine raws and didn’t really know what EXACTLY was going on, but your awesome review kinda answered some questions for me. Thank you and I look forward to purchasing this volume!

  4. errata says:

    -not new semester
    -Tenkuu
    -Hoshitori unchanged
    -Thelma, introduced vol. 17
    -Nagi motivated, just can’t click w. Kanai
    -technically Nagi challenges Hajime to the duel
    -could always call out for 1v1 duel (eg Moka-chan, vol. 2)
    -Nagi/Thelma duel not Thelma’s challenge, set up by Hajime
    -the Ultimate Hoshitori Kassen already began (ch. 3)
    -Hayate not mimicking Nagi’s finishing move, just doing Kurogane sword style (as she did in ch.106)
    -not linking chapters, beginning of AGI arc
    -Mokomichi is to AGI lodgings, not a new campus (first leg of Natsu Fest)
    -‘character’ is 10, not 9

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