By request, today we are discussing the Hayate x Blade Drama CD, Volume 2.

It’s a beautiful, clear day at Tenchi Gakuen. The sky is blue, the clouds are white, and the cheerful sounds of the student body move across the grounds, as they gear up for the excitement of their school festival.

Wait, sorry…that’s some other series. THIS story begins in a secret room somewhere on the school grounds, where a gathering of black-uniformed, glasses-wearing students is under way. Their target – Kurogane Hayate. The crime – getting too close to Akira-sama, possibly touching her butt. The butt part was due to Kirikawa’s unfortunate use of the word “tail” in conjunction with how close Hayate was to Akira.

1) How does one even reach a conclusion like this? Discuss.

THEN the day is beautiful and clear and full of maids. Chairman Hitsugi is unrepentant, even as Shizuku scolds her for making everyone wear maid costumes. She even goes so far as to comment gleefully that it looks like an Akihabara festival. Jun and Hayate admire the figure Ayana cuts in a maid outfit, and Jun supplements that with admiring the figure Yuho cuts in her winter coat.

2) Jun is totally gay. Discuss.

The story that follows is exactly the same as that in Volume 6, of the “A-Team’s” plot to get rid of Hayate for her trespassing upon the personal space of their beloved Akira-sama, of their underhanded trick of kidnapping Miki from Hayate’s beloved Tanpopo Gakuen and their complete underestimation of Hayate, her friends, Miki and Akira.

Hitsugi orders them to fight an 8 against 80 Hoshotori melee with the following handicaps to account for the low rank of the A-Team members: If any of Hayate’s friends lose, the entire team loses. Hayate’s 8 must all use ladles as their weapons. They must defeat all 80 of the A-Team.

3) These are unfair odds. The A-Team never had a chance. Discuss.

And in the end, when Akira *finally* clues in to what’s going on, she arrives in the last seconds, just as the final members of the A-Team collapse and she pulls of her cool long coat to reveal that she had completely forgotten that she was wearing a maid outfit underneath.

4) Akira-sama looks cool, even in a maid costume. Discuss.

For Extra Credit: Agree with me that maid costumes and the assumed submissive servitude implied is really not at *all* sexy, in fact, it’s just kind of pathetic.

Along the way, we meet Jun’s father and find out that he’s a pretty nice guy.

5) Hayate is gay for Ayana. Discuss.

After the festival are two original tracks in which we hear Akira’s piano playing prowess and listen to Jun making most of the dorm help her in wishing Yuho goodnight.

The extras include a spiffy mini-book of character info and a mini-manga full of chaos, and the bonus track sounds like everyone was very punchy. ^_^ The topic was “Your favorite words.” I agree with Akira’s actress, Minagawa Junko, when she said that “Dinner’s Ready” are top of her list. Satsuki Rino, Ayana’s seiyuu, said that “love” is her favorite word and that she wanted to hear it from Yukari. (The VAs were speaking half in character during the bonus track.) Oh, and Hitsugi to Shizuku – “My favorite word is “shinyuu.” Awww

6) What is your favorite word? Discuss.

Ratings:

Art – 8, mmm, color
Story – 8 and kudos for trying to make a ladle vs sword fight make sense with no visuals
Characters – 9
Sound Effects – 9
Yuri – 5
Servic e- 5

Overall – 8

I did a quick survey of everyone in my house – my favorite word right now is “Pudding” and the wife’s is “boulevard.” Just in case you wanted to know.

This concludes today’s discussion. ^_^