We all know that Hayate no Gotoku! is filled with references and allusions to other anime and what not. I probably only catch the obvious ones because I’d imagine that others are hidden with clever “bleeping,” are too obscure, or I simply don’t know about what is being alluded. What Hayate needs is a bibliography at the end of each episode.

I originally thought that the show would run for the standard 26 episodes. Imagine how extremely pleased I was when it kept going. Really, you can stop now and imagine. I’ll wait.

For this post I thought I would point out a few of the references I found in episode 31.

I know it’s really not apparent, but that is a Moetan figure on the pedestal in the left of the image about two-thirds of the way up. This reference was not totally obvious at first. I had to backup and play it a couple of times to fully take it in. In case you hadn’t notice yet, the figure is not in proportion. It’s in what is call “chibi” form. This made the distinction a bit more difficult.

I was proud of myself for recognizing such an obscure reference to a relatively unknown show. After several more minutes of examining the scene I determined that there was probably no more anime referencing.

This scene had a bit more referencing in it. In particular, I only caught this first reference because I had watch a few episodes of Shin chan. Of course, I could be totally wrong, but it seems about right. Shin chan is that massively popular show that aired on Cartoon Network. I get the feeling that they took some creative license with the translation though.

If I could direct your attention to the bottom right of the image about a third of the way up. We see what appears to be a dango hiding in that house plant. Is this about CLANNAD? Is it part of some larger dango infiltration conspiracy?

Is the dango and inside job?