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Editor: Next Step After Hayate Film Being Planned
posted on by Egan Loo
Takashi Kumagai, Shogakukan's editor in charge of the Hayate the Combat Butler manga, revealed in an interview with the Mainichi Shimbun paper's Mantan Web site that the next step after the Hayate film is already being planned. Shogakukan's Weekly Shonen Sunday magazine had announced last month that first-time director Hideto Komori is helming the theatrical film. The original manga — and the anime based on it — follow a boy named Hayate who serves as a butler, bodyguard, confidante, and more to a girl named Nagi to pay off a 156,804,000-yen (about US$1.8-million) debt.
Kumagai also mentioned the separate live-action television series that the Taiwanese production and broadcasting company Gala TV will premiere this spring. This live-action series is part of the overall "2011 Hayate the Combat Butler Project" along with the anime film, although Kumagai noted that the live-action cast is depicted as adults (unlike in the original manga). He also indicated that big changes are in store for the heroine Nagi in the original manga this year.
The 27th compiled manga volume will ship in Japan on February 18, and there will be a limited edition that will bundle a 2011 school calendar. Viz Media will publish the 17th volume in North America in March. The manga already inspired two television anime series in Japan, and Bandai Entertainment announced at Anime Expo 2008 that it licensed the first anime series for North America. Crunchyroll simulcasted the second anime series in several countries as it aired Japan in 2009.
