Hayate no Gotoku! Can't Take My Eyes Off You (also known as Hayate the Combat Butler! Can't Take My Eyes Off You) is a separate series of the Hayate franchaise that stands independently written by the author of the manga, Kenjiro Kata himself. Now, this can be both a good or bad thing. Likely, if you're a manga reader, then you'll be very familiar with his works. However, if you're more into the animation product, then brace yourselves. This might be something you might want to keep your eyes on for mixed reasons.
The series retains its lighthearted tone of a comedy. Nagi and Hayate stars together as the main protagonists along side their friends. Yup, the gang is back together for some maid and butler fun. The series starts quite slow and Nagi is lazy as ever. She's always been lazy anyways but still retains that fondness for video games and doing whatever she wants. Damn, talk about being a lazy spoiled brat. In fact, a new semester is about to begin and she's still laying down on her sofa. Things does somewhat pick up its pace though as her knight in shining armor (Hayate) comes to her recuse like anyways.
The initial episodes of this series seems to be independent despite the title of the series. It's sort of misleading as “first night, second night, third night” as one might expect some sort of chronically linear story. However, most of the first half doesn't seem to connect much. Furthermore, it introduces a new character who comes under the claim to be Nagi's little sister. It's hard to take her seriously with her personality. In fact, it's hard to take this series seriously at all with the themes, cliches, and gags. Although it does brings back some nostologia from the original series, it's starting to lose its touch especially for die hard fans from season 1. It doesn't help by the fact that there are even a few minor fillers in between. As painfully it may seem, it's there.
However, there is some good news. A certain strawberry colored hair council president makes her return in this series along side some other promising characters including one with an idol status and those dreamlike song entrances to boot. Other characters makes their appearances as well but all seems to be in the background. Even Maria from the original series seems to have a lesser role. I scratch my head several times whenever I think of this as a thought pops into my head: There's a butler with a star role, what about the maid?
The artwork from this series is a joke. No, it's not even a parody because it's portrayed as a joke, in the wrong way.
“Can't take my eyes off of you?” I can barely look at some of the characters' design from this series. Hayate looks like a bishounen more than he should be. Hell, he's like a trap now. The rest of the characters' designs aren't too different either. They all have identical heads with different colored hair attached to their bodies. In other words, it doesn't work out right. Most of the background colors are also quite generic and weak. A bit of an improvement to the artwork would have been much better to be honest.
Luckily, the soundtrack of the series works well from my perspective. Although nothing special, "CAN'T TAKE MY EYES OFF YOU" by eyelis actually fits and presents some of that Hayate-like feeling of pleasant nostologia. The OST of the series so is just average but the insert songs from a certain idol shake things up. The ED song,"Koi no Wana by Haruka Yamazaki, performed from that same girl is presented quite well in the form of metamorphic art and style. Not too shabby.
Ultimately, watching Hayate no Gotoku! Can't Take My Eyes Off You is like trying out for a sports team at a new school. You think everything might go your way but it might turn out otherwise. Whether the result pleases you will be different for everyone. Some of you might not take your eyes off of the series while others hit that drop button without a moment of hesitation. I'm sort of in the middle. At times, I snooze and lose the thought of enjoying the series. At other times, I get a pleasant feeling of watching it through. But overall, the decision is up to you to decide if you will enjoy this new and latest installation of the Hayate franchise. I mean, it-it's not like I want you to watch this series or anything!
