Hayate the Combat Butler

Sixteen-year-old Hayate is really down on his luck. With unemployed parents who squander their meager funds on gambling, he starts working at a young age to support the family. The harsh reality makes him blisteringly fast, extraordinarily tough, and skilled at things boys do not typically master, yet it also leaves him in a precarious position, as his parents have racked up a staggering gambling debt and have sold him to the yakuza for the value of his organs. In a desperate bid to avoid that fate, Hayate resolves to become a "bad guy" and kidnap someone to be held for ransom, but his attempt is mistaken for a confession of love by the girl he targets. When he helps save the ultra-wealthy 13-year-old Nagi from real kidnappers, she takes him in and hires him as her new personal butler (and love interest) until he can pay off the debt. Yet Hayate is more drawn to Nagi's teenage maid Maria, and head butler Klaus initially disapproves of a boy with such a poor look. And then there is Tama, Nagi's pet, who is also a force to be reckoned with.