Shizuru Hayashiya

I guess it just shows that I shouldn't judge a book based on its cover.

When I first noticed this book "Hayate X (Cross) Blade, Vol. 1", my initial impressions was that this was going to be the typical shonen 'teen powerup' series, that we've seen before ad nauseum (Bleach, Naruto, Bayblade, etc). Consider me surprised to find this to be one entertaining but highly hilarious series. Although the premise is somewhat generic (school wide competition for the best fighter), it's the characters themselves make this such a fun read with our main character Hayate, being such a happy-go-lucky ditz. I'd say this is series worth giving a try.… (meer)

What can I say? I find myself really enjoying this series. Much more so than I initially expected. When looking at the artwork, one would expect to find the usual ('generic') shounen battle/friendship arc that's been getting too common lately, even if one is not a Bleach, Naruto, or a One Piece. Instead, the perfect balance of pure hilarity, mixed with action, and interesting characters guarantees that this would be a series I wouldn't not be missing out in the long term.

In this volume, we have the:
-Minori/Kurea Rank S battle arc
-School Festival arc leadin… (meer)

The is the volume of Hayate x Blade where all the disparate elements from the previous volumes finally start to gel together. Almost every side character finally gets some sort of focus (as most gather together to form a "team Hayate") and none of the characters feel like random insertions for the purposes of plot progression. In other words, the cast finally seems set. And thus, we start to flesh out more of our main characters as we get hints of some of their pasts.

In this volume:
-School Festival arc, day 1
-School Festival arc, day 2 (Yukari/Maki match)… (meer)