Hayate no Gotoku! (Hayate the Combat Butler) is a manga series written and illustrated by Kenjiro Hata. It was serialized in Weekly Shonen Sunday by Shogakukan from October 2004 to April 2017, with a total of 52 volumes. The manga was largely praised for its comedic gags and constantly breaking the fourth wall. It also made clever references to other anime, manga and pop culture.

As of 2009, Hayate the Combat Butler has reached its height of popularity with over ten million copies of manga and other related books sold in Japan. In 2011, the Taiwanese network GTV aired a live-action adaptation of the manga from June to September.

The first season of anime adaptation by SynergySP was aired from April 2007 to March 2008 on TV Tokyo. The second season by J.C.Staff was aired from April to September 2009. Not only that, an anime film produced by Manglobe was later released in August 2011, followed by the third season by Manglobe, which was aired between October and December 2012. Finally, the fourth season was aired from April to July 2013.

The story of Hayate the Combat Butler started with the main protagonist Hayate Ayasaki and his meeting with Santa Clause. When Hayate was just a small kid, he met Santa in his dream.

He asked Santa why he didn’t get any present and Santa replied that it was because Hayate’s family was poor. Santa then began to drift away while saying “The honest and earnest are the ones who deserve the last laugh”.

Believing in those words he heard in his dream, Hayate chose to work hard to earn a living. Even though he was still in school, Hayate was already working. His current job was a bicycle messenger.

It was Christmas Eve and Hayate rushed over on his bike to deliver a manuscript to a couple of editorial staffs who were eagerly awaiting. Nicknamed the “industry's fastest bicycle messenger”, Hayate arrived at amazing speed but he tripped and fell badly. Much to the staff's astonishment, Hayate immediately stood up and delivered the manuscript.

On his way back, Hayate met his classmates that he called “my classmates from an ordinary high school”. They was going to a Christmas party and asked Hayate to join them. The price was 3000 Yen for all-you-can eat and drink. Hayate declined, saying that he had no money and he still had a part-time job to do.

He then explained that both his parents were good-for-nothing and unemployed. They both wasted money on gambling, race horses and pipe dreams. Hayate’s classmates felt sorry for him and left for their party.

Returning to the company, Hayate was suddenly fired because he has lied about his age to get the job. Even though Hayate was the fastest messenger, he was only 16 years old. The required age was 18. Hayate’s parents were the one who called the company and told them. The company then gave all his monthly wage to Hayate’s parents, considering that they were his legal guardian.

Hayate rushed home, afraid that his parents were going to blow off all his hard-earned money into gambling. However, Hayate was too late. On the table, he found a note saying that all of his salary has been lost in Pachinko games and only 12 Yen was left.

Later, Hayate also found another envelope stuck to the window. Inside, he found a written promise to pay back a debt of over 150 million Yen. Much to Hayate's despair, it seemed that the yakuza has come to collect Hayate because his parents sold him off to pay back their debt. Hayate hastily jumped out of the window and escaped.

On the run, Hayate got desperate and didn’t know what he should do to get out of this mess. He decided to become a “bad person”, which the narrator amusingly broke the fourth wall and pointed out that Hayate only became a “bad person” and not a “pervert” because he was the main character.

Hayate saw a young girl standing next to a vending machine and decided to kidnap her for ransom. Just as he was about to commit the crime, two other men approached her and started to hit on the young girl. Hayate jumped in and scared them off. “Keep your hands off my prey!”, he yelled.

The girl, named Nagi Sanzenin, stated that she wanted to thank Hayate for saving her and that she would do anything. Hayate took the opportunity and said to Nagi that “I want you”. Hayate meant to say he want Nagi to become his hostage but Nagi misunderstood and thought Hayate was confessing his feeling of love. She reluctantly accepted his proposal and gave Hayate her home number.

Hayate’s plan seemed to progress smoothly as he was dialing Nagi’s home to demand ransom. Then, Hayate hilariously messed up by politely stating his name over the phone, thus gave away his identity.

Hayate was deeply depressed and began to lose all hope. Eventually, he fell asleep on the snowy pavement and even got trampled on by a woman riding a bicycle. “The curtains closed on the boy's life”, the narrator continued to say, while the young woman broke the fourth wall again and said “We just started, don't end it too fast!”

How will Hayate get out of this mess? Will he be able to pay back the devastating debt of 150 million Yen?