|
Volume 1 This manga is every boy's dream scenario, at least it sure was mine when I was about 11 or 12. My parents were teachers so when I visited their classes, a lot of the girls would squeal and giggle at how cute I was. Then when I went through puberty I became ugly and no one liked me anymore. What will Negi grow up to look like? Since it's fictional, probably a handsome young Chad. My favorite girl used to be the shy bookworm Nodoka but now it's Saotome of the manga club. Is there a dating VN of this, or something with the scale and scope of 30 in-depth possible dates? I hope so. Lastly, Negi sure doesn't seem concerned about riding his staff like a broomstick in public, all the way down to the beach to console Asuna, even though there would surely be dozens if not hundreds of people seeing him FLYING on the way there. It's a small inconsistency. |
|
Volume 2 The library exploration was fun. It sure is funny how often girls are bereft of clothes and just happen to fall onto Negi. Stripping is (almost) always the solution. Hasegawa was my 2nd choice for favorite girl based off of her looks and interests but I knew something was off based on my memory of my first reading of the manga. She's a weird idol girl and would be probably grow up to be very slutty. Also, I get it now. Negi is quite brazen about his magic and it's just silly plot armor that no ones really notices. Perhaps it will become an issue in the future. I remember something big happening and one of the girls being bad in another volume or two. |
|
Volume 3 The page with Chamo-kun smoking his cigarette, explaining his pantsu thieving and he's wearing a hat, tie, holding a briefcase and waiting for a ship to leave Wales is incredible. The Pactio has a seal of Solomon and zodiac around it which is expected but neat. Evangeline's saga is nice but clearly not wrapped up. She is being set up to add to Negi's harem. |
|
Volume 4 I vaguely remembered Setsuna being set up as a new character. That was the farthest I got in the manga as a kid before I stopped. It wasn't my choice though; I just couldn't find the next volume at the bookstore and hated buying anything online. Paypal was real simple back then but a lot of retail websites required credit cards which seemed insane to put on the internet (it still is). Anyways, it is getting annoying seeing nearly full nudity and no parts. It's especially jarring with how raunchy it's getting in the Kyoto spa. Was it censored in Japan or did they do that for international releases? Japan is pretty stringent so I am not blaming anyone. Chamo is getting kind of annoying and I hope he develops more. Nodoka's confession fills my tummy with butterflies and Asakura the reporter really made me nervous. Will Negi wipe her memory at some point? |
|
Volume 5 Wow, my suspicion of Asakura immediately paid off! She partners up with Negi of course. I am hoping the quiet shrine girl Tatsumiya gets some storyline soon because she sure is pretty. Zazie Rainyday finally shows up and has some dialogue, watching the kissing game behind Asakura. Nugi, Migi, Hogi, and Yagi was a great twist. I wonder if those are just silly, random names or connect to form some pun in the original Japanese. This is my favorite part of the manga so far. |
|
Volume 6 Holy shit the plot thickened! Not only are a bunch of girls gonna know about magic but Konoka is actually really important! The white-haired magi boy being a powerful prodigy is neat and he could be a real rival to Negi. Evangeline gets to be a protagonist and hero. My favorite part are the demons the monkey witch summons with Konoka's magic. They're funny, especially when they point out that Asuna isn't wearing underwear (her panties got turned to stone by the white-haired kid). Will the wolf boy show up again, perhaps as a good guy some day? He has the makings of a friendly rival-type. Tatsumiya finally makes her debut. How did I predict that one? Also, some spells being Sanskrit and Greek instead of Latin is so cool, and the explanations at the end of the omnibus volumes are getting very esoteric and complicated. Makes me wonder if Ken Akamaru is a Japanese mason... |
|
Volume 7 The love potion chocolates Chamo ordered on Maginet makes me wonder what other crazy things you could buy. I really want to know more about Chamo and other ermines. Was he a wizard who got punished after being revealed? Yotsuba, or Lunch-chan as I call her, has had a few little lines here and there, mostly to do with making meat buns. Will she have her own storyline? I am looking forward to Negi and Yue going back to fight the dragon. How long will it take? The bust battle towards the end was great. Poor Negi, smothered to death by boobs... then he fights the "shark" with kung fu underwater. What a manga. |
|
Volume 8 Negi is training in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber! Who would've guessed it?! I knew Kotaro would become a good guy! He had all the makings of an antihero. And Chizuru-san is to the rescue with her motherly love and strength. I take it back about the manga being too censored without parts. If it wasn't, it would be borderline hentai; seinen for sure. This volume had at least 3 typos whereas the previous had a combined total of maybe 3. A lot of words and conjunctions get left out, and I'm not talking about Ku Fei and her Chinese accent. It's still seems like a really high-effort localization though. Count Heimerstein or whatever, the demon, was pretty cool. Negi's circle of students who know about magic grows yet again! At this rate, when will the entire class be in on it? What about Lunch-chan?! |
|
Volume 9 Ahh!! Zazie and Lunch-chan finally gets their spotlight! Chamo-kun goes "homina homina" a few pages in. It's a tiny line but it made giggle so much. Aisaka the ghost girl was very strange. It said 1940 on her seating chart and I couldn't be sure it was a date or some other reference. No wonder I couldn't spot her during the trip to Kyoto. Chachamaru runs on Windows 98 and stores images as TIFs. The typos are getting worse too. When Asuna can't manage to call Takahata-sensei out to the festival it says "You want I should talk to him for you?". Sometimes a character repeats multiple sentences in one speech bubble in a way that surely wasn't intentional (class rep-san a few pages after the last example). If this keeps up, the localization will reach scanlation quality. I'd hate to be the sucker who bought a physical copy. Lastly, I want to see more of Chamo-kun's ermine magic. And reading the end notes, the backgrounds and some objects were made with CG. I knew some things were too clean and perfect. What a shame. |
|
Okay, I got tired of writing after each and every volume. Basically, the Mahora
Festival arc was a huge leap in stakes. Chao started out of nowhere and I
felt almost nothing for her characterization. She should have been established
earlier in the series (Hakase as well). Unholy levels of fanservice are to be
found in those volumes. The robots' nudity lasers were an expected gag but it
never fails to amuse me. Chisame Hasegawa finally joins the Negi harem. The
voice of reason falters! Her virtual battle with Chachamaru was great. One
thing still bugs me after the arc: why are Tatsumiya, Chachamaru, and Hakase
unpunished by the magical authorities? Tatsumiya wasn't just a mercenary: she
admitted to actively revealing magic to the world. Chachamaru was programmed
to obey Chao but still! And Hakase was the literal chanter of the ritual spell
that would reveal magic to the whole world. How are they not ermines after
that?!
Some great parts take place before the Wales trip. Anya appears at the beach resort and the girls fight over who lays next to Negi in order to trick him into unconsciously cuddling. The Comiket doujin scene, Anya and Nodoka using a spell to inflate their boobs but they go too far and float into the sky, Kaede and Tatsumiya going to the movies: all a lot of fun. The training gets a little tedious though. I liked the magic world, mostly. Rakan was by far the best addition with his perviness and stupidity, as well as the booby obsessed bounty hunter Paio Zi, Goddess of Breasts. Rakan and Chamo sniff panties, he flies on a giant sword, and breaks false reality by just going "HNNNNGGG" really hard. Cosmo Entelekheia is symbolized by the a combo ouroboros-phoenix (if you know, you know). Once in Ostia, the pacing falls apart and the story is dragged out with artificial suspense. It takes way too long to realize the truth about Asuna's impostor. The typos are out of control by this point and page 157 of volume 32 has insanely fucked up typesetting. Nothing fits in the bubbles. How did this even get published? Imagine paying money to read manga lol. A lot of the demon forms in Negima remind me of espers in Final Fantasy XII. Dynamis' demon form gives off the same feeling as Dark Dream from Dragon Quest. The later volumes give up on fancy Greek, Sanskrit, and Japanese fonts. It's pretty soulless (lightning Averruncus' spear is spelled Gungnar...) I was pretty checked out until they get back to Mahora at the end. There's so much stalling and what should take maybe 2-3 volumes ends up being 6. Guess the translation team also checked out too. Maybe I read too fast but I still don't know who the hooded girl that fought one of the Averruncuses was, and nothing about Zazie and her sister Poyo is revealed except they're demons from Venus. What about their connection to Cosmo Entelekheia and dream powers? The hunt for Negi in the last volume was fun: hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. The happy cuck ending was boring. Whatever, Ken Akamatsu set the whole thing up to have a billion parallel universes to excuse any audience grievances and anime/game/manga plot differences. In my ending of Negima with hookers and blackjack, Negi chooses all the girls and impregnates them multiple times (life finds a way with Chachamaru, and Eva's rotten eggs end up creating monstrous babies). He actually lives forever and never ages from a 10-year old shota (he ought to be 12 at the end but whatever). Negi's first generation of children rule both Earth and Mars, with Negi as the God Emperor, but the 2nd gen squabble, requiring Negi to step in and stop war. He simply isn't powerful enough to be everywhere all the time so he flees into the vacuum of space and goes to sleep, abandoning Earth to engage in his own phantasmagoria, replaying his life over and over but always choosing the same fate in an endless cycle of self-created misery. Ranking: 1. Chachamaru (really liked her development, choosing to have a soul) 3. Yue 2. Nodoka 4. Misora (it's funny how she denies responsibility) 5. Sayo Aisaka (I'd at least be a friend)
FINAL THOUGHTS: I regret the manga past a few volumes. The place I stopped as a kid, before the field trip to Kyoto, was a decent stopping point. Remove the plot about Negi's father and village, erase Fate, and just have nonstop wacky harem sex comedy sprinkled with supernatural pseudo-conflicts like the adventure into the library. Yet I still loved the manga and its characters. It can't be helped...
|
