Do mountain bikes really get that good mileage?
What They Say
Episode 16: Stardust Memory
Continuing on from the previous story, Hayate, Nagi, Maria, and a bunch of others head to Shimoda on the Izu peninsula to find the effects of the meteorite that fell. On the way, Nagi gets lost but raves about some Russian salt ramen and mindlessly suggests biking to Shimoda where Nishizawa-san picks her up. On the way to Shimoda, two masked hit man appear before them! Hayate comes to the rescue when a white masked spirit appears. Will they be able to make it to Shimoda safely?!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
For fans of the Hamster and Dragon routine, they should be fairly happy with this episode, as we get Part 2 of the Hamster and Dragon Road Show. Hayate himself runs into a little bit of trouble as Isumi's great-grandmother shows up again and tries to force Hayate to come with her to Shimoda…except that Hayate already points out that he's headed in that direction.
So, with a little help, Hayate quickly polishes off the masked goons after Nagi and Nishizawa. At Atami Station, he meets up with Maria again, and so it's back to being on the road to Shimoda. Nagi, however, feeling grateful to Nishizawa for helping her, orders Hayate to bike Nishizawa to Shimoda. For fans of the Hamster, they will be pleased by this rather calming interlude with Hayate and Nishizawa.
Once at Shimoda, we get the onsen scene. Don't get too excited, as it's just Nagi and Sakuya in the hot springs. What's amusing is that Nagi apparently gets overcome by the heat (or is it the effect of the water?) and starts acting like she's drunk. Hayate comes to fish her out, and of course we have a repeat of the Great Bath Fiasco of earlier this season when Hayate saw Nagi naked, and didn't get either flustered or excited (much to Nagi's annoyance). Alone in her room. Nagi wishes that she could meet an alien, and lo and behold…
We'll see what, exactly, it was she met next episode.
At this point we've caught up to Viz's domestic release of the manga. Next week we go into uncharted territory unless you've been following the Japanese release.
In Summary:
More sight gags and tender moments in this round, as we see some great interaction between Nagi and Nishizawa, as well as Hayate and Nishizawa. Things seem to be getting slightly more complicated on that front, as an interesting friendship appears to be in the making between Nishizawa and Nagi, a relationship that Nagi really kind of needs to grow beyond the pampered hikikomori that she is. The very end of the episode, however, seems to point things in a completely different direction, as Nagi gets a visit from a strange being who has a dramatic entry. We'll see where this goes. For light comedy sprinkled with some tender moments, this show is just the sort of thing you'll want.
Features
Japanese 2.0 Language, English Subtitles
Review Equipment:
Apple Mac Mini with 1GB RAM, Mac OS 10.5 Leopard
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