qyundt - 2013-07-03 02:32:19

Note: This review assumes you are at least familiar with previous seasons. There might be some minor spoilers.

Cuties is the 4th season of Hayate the Combat Butler. It continues the misadventures of one of the unluckiest characters in anime. Each episode focuses on a different character until you get to the end where you have this big ending episode.

The story starts with Hayate and the girls waking up in a small house... and a loli with drill hair (Athena)... yeah. It so happened that a lot of Cuties is adapted from chapters 300+ which is a great deal after the last season (2) that was adapted from the manga. So the viewer might be overwhelmed with the sudden change, and quite honestly they should be because it's clear the creators don't really care as much about the product they are putting out and just want to promote their manga sales.

The cast of females are all back and as mentioned before many of them get an episode where they are the focus. Yes, this includes Hina and Maria. The quality of each episode varies greatly, but the better ones are stacked near the end. This season will do nothing to make you dislike or like a character more than you already do. Everything is there, like cross dressing and beating talking robots, but only a couple of times do you see flashes of the quality in the first couple of seasons.

The animation stays the same from Can't Take My Eyes Off You, which is a shame because it was clearly a step down from the animation from the second season (which was animated by JC Staff). It's not awful, but it's pretty clearly one of the lower tiered animated shows for the season.

All in all Cuties is a mixed bag. The characters remain fun and entertaining, but the seemingly lack of progress of anything happening and lack of consistentcy really bog it down.