Hayate the Combat Butler/Shout Out

Hayate the Combat Butler gleefully makes not-so-oblique references to other anime regularly. If the actual (trademarked) name of the series comes up, they Brand X-ify it by covering part of it with Sound Effect Bleep ("* BLEEP* dam" for Mobile Suit Gundam, etc.)

• Not sure if it was there in the original work or just a joke by the translator, but there's the quote at the bottom of this page.
• The oppening has Eight copying the pose from the oppening of Gundam Seed
• This is included in the first opening where Hayate is protecting Nagi from the silhouettes of three robots, they are from right to left Tetsujin-28 RX-78-2 Gundam and Opitmus Prime.!
• This troper's favourite was Birth Note, which showed, of all things, an apple on the poster.
• Challenged to a kendo duel, Hayate begins to intone, "Hiten Mitsuru--" and is cut off by his opponent shouting, "Stop right there or you'll violate a major copyright!"
  • At the next episode, the Butler of the challenger kicked said challenger for being a wimp(he ordered the Butler to fight Hayare). Nagi's reaction ? Down, DownLeft, Left, kick.)
    • Said Butler is voice by Katsuyuki Konishi and constantly told his Master to become a real man. Yeah...
• Then there's Sakuya's massive cruise ship, daringly named Titanic, which eventually sinks just like its namesake. Hayate even ends up swimming in freezing cold water to save a girl similiar to the final moments of Leonardo DiCaprio's character, who is also mentioned several times. Of course, this manga also adds sharks.
• When questuoning the criminals who blew up the ship, Sakuya scolds them for confessing their plan too easily:

Sakuya: That's not how they do it in Conan, is it?

• • Later on, the entirety of chapter 108 is one big shout-out to Detective Conan. Conan himself appears several times and the main characters dream they are ransported to his world to solve a case. It's even named after Conan creator Aoyama Gosho.
• And of course, one can't forget the "evil combat butlers" attempting to defeat Hayate throughout the second season, nearly all of whom were blatant Shout Outs to popular Shonen series. "Duel Butler" was a dead ringer for Shoubu Kirifuda, "Butler B-Da", who looked like the main character from B-DaMan, "Race Butler", who looked like the main character from Crush Gear Turbo, "Butler Nabeshin", "Puppet Butler", who took over people's minds using his Evil Eye (and was voiced by Jun Fukuyama), and "Cyborg Butler", who looked like a cross between Gai Shishiou and Viral, was voiced by Nobuyuki Hiyama, and used nearly all of GaoGaiGar's Super Robot attacks under Brand X names.
  • The Cyborg Butler also made a Super Robot Wars Shoutout. After Shion said permission of using Final Hammer aproved, ala GaoGaiGar, the Cyborg Butler shouted Drive, a spirit command/spell in said game
• When Hayate was cursed to wear girl clothes, he went by the alias of "Hermionie" to avoid being recognized. Other characters commented that it sounded like a wizard's name.
• Nagi claimed to be a superior director to Haruhi... this is clearly why Nagi's popularity fell in some of the later polls.
• There's also Zangief and Dhalsim appearing as thugs who are stopped by Hayate. The fact that they're at an arcade definitely adds to this.
  • Not only do the thugs look like Zangief and Dhalsim, but Hayate gives Zangief a taste of Shoryuken in case someone somehow failed to notice.
• Don't forget the new class register, formatted in the style of some manga or another filled with weird students (such as a ghost) and filled with little notes scrawled in the margins. Oh, and apparently some fellow calls himself a 'Mahou Sensei' just to make sure you get it.
  • Adding more shout out to that scene: Hayate's class number in the picture is the same one as Kaede's, who, like Hayate, is voiced by Ryoko Shiraishi.
• Hayate's boss at his delivery company in episode 1 of the anime bears a strong resemblance to Gendo Ikari from Neon Genesis Evangelion, complete with Scary Shiny Glasses and the typical "Gendo Pose".
• CathedralTerra made an appearance in one of the latest episode in season 1
  • There's a brief arc where Hayate is one of the hostages taken by a robber — wearing a seven-eyed mask based on the symbol of SEELE.
• In Chapter 192, Spice and Wolf is combined with Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu to produce "Fool and Test and Spice" — with a wolf-eared girl in a school uniform on the cover. Chiharu is a fan of the heroine's speech pattern, but Nagi thinks the best part is the crossdressing boy.
• The Lucky Star cast has a cameo as posters at a shrine during a quiz game in Chapter 194.
• Speaking of Lucky Star, in episode 23, Kagami is apparently one of Hayate and Nagi's classmates.
• When two members of the cast go to Las Vegas, there's a fewpanels showing the four guys from the Gaijin 4koma.
  • They appear again in chapter 295.
• Not only anime and manga. In episode 40 Hayate manages to beat a talking car called CHITT in a race... a six-wheeled KITT.
• In the same episode, Hayate shouts, "Financial Drift!" This is a reference to the Internal Drift technique in Future GPX Cyber Formula.
• Episode 33 of the first season had a massive shout out to Nabeshin of all people, where he was one of the obligatory Battle Butlers, though he himself just wanted to draw Moe.
• Episode two of season one. While Hayate is at the docks with the Very Nice People, he imagines what's going to happen to him. Among those Imagine Spots are : The crew of the Black Lagoon showing up and a weird shout out to One Piece.
• Pay attention to the statue busts in the mansion. Quite a few are shout outs to various main characters.
• In a recent trailer, one can see a character who resembles Iron Mask Ronah.
• Nagi's grandfather, Mikado Sanzenin, shares a name with an obnoxious Handsome Lech of a combat figure skater in Rumiko Takahashi's Ranma One Half. Whether or not this is deliberate is unknown.
• In the manga itself, there's a poster of Ayumi from The World God Only Knows on a title page. The two mangaka are apparently friends.
• Hinagiku is a pink-haired swordfighter and the president of an Absurdly Powerful Student Council. Already sounds pretty familiar, even before her costume and intro sequence in the Tournament Arc.
• In terms of the manga, chapter 334 features Ruka dressed up as Kyubey.
• Chapter 336 has Chihaya, Hibiki, Azusa and maybe the Producer in the background at one point, and two certain blue and pink-haired train information girls.
• In chapter 342, Nagi goes to a store in Akihabara that one of the doujinshi with a pair of girls on the cover that look a lot like Tenri and Diana and a poster in the background featuring Mami and Kyubey.
  • Chapter 294 in the manga has a poster with Ayumi as well.
• The manga (volume eight, chapter six) has Nagi playing a game and noting "this game is divine." A close examination reveals Okami Divine Retribution on the screen. Her companion seems uncertain about the "doggie" being the hero.
• The infamous original Bright Slap gets referenced countless times, one of the moment even has Lampshade Hanging on it.
• Season 1, episode 8: Cat Ear Mode Sends You To Hell. I'll serve the Earth's future ~nyan.
• Looks like Nia was just hiding. See?
• In episode 4 of the 1st season, there's a scene of Hayate trying to use stealth to enter Nagi's school, by sneaking inside a box of oranges, and wearing a bandana and beard.
  • In the same episode, while Miki, Izumi and Risa are having a No Fourth Wall moment, looking and waving at the camera, Risa does the Vulcan salute.
• "I must run away, I must run away, I must run away, I must run away.".
• One of the episode in the second season, Nagi played a card game, and uses a card which allows her to continuously attack so long as the card she picked up from the top of her deck is a character card, complete with Doro ! Character Caado !
• One of the doll in Izumi's house is Teddy
• One of the chapter has a spirit of a dead priest, entering a penguin costume. Sounds familiar ?.
• When Hayate is told about Hakuoh's high standard, he is stabbed with a Zankantou
• In the panel where Hayate wields six swords at once, his stance is very reminiscent of one of burial priests in Fate/stay night and Tsukihime.
• One of the events in the anime has Hayate using Inazuma Kick complete with the narrator stating the name of the move. Now, take a look and check the narrator's seiyuu.
• In the anime filler RPG Episode, a slime's attack animation starts with it morphing into a creepy Rei Ayanami face.