Mahou Sensei Negima! Follow

Because I can't keep polluting other threads with my manga chatter

This manga series has been coming out since 2004, and is the most recent (afaik) series from Ken Akamatsu (author of "Love Hina," "AI Love You," and "Mao-chan"). It finally seems to be winding down... but then again, who knows. With 331 chapters and 34 volumes currently published, the series is huuuuuge and... slow. Dreadfully slow.

Time to rant.

Negima! starts with a fun premise: 10-year old Negi Springfield is a British wizard and son of the famous "Thousand Master" who mastered 1000 spells. As the last step in his goal of becoming a Magister Magi (a wizard rank), he is assigned to become a teacher at Mahora Academy in Japan for a class of about 30 teenage girls. Lulz and fan service galore ensue, as the girls adjust to their cute and precocious teacher. This covers the first 6 or so volumes, as Negi (and the readers) learn about the distinct personalities of all the girls, who include (among others) a (potential?) Martian, a vampire, a robot, and a half-demon.

This is by far my favorite part of the series. Each girl gets a bit of the lime-light, and readers will come to pick their favorites (Nodoka and Yue for me). There's a ton of humor, a lot of fan service, and the plot slowly shapes up to be "what happened to Negi's father?"

By the end of volume 6, there's a shift. The shift actually starts around volume three, when Negi fights a vampire in his class... but then the next three volumes have progressively more fighting against enemy mages and a strange boy named Fate, which leads to two volumes more about training. Hmmm. And while the next "arc" is about the school festival, many chapters are devoted to a fighting tournament. The entire festival lasts nine freaking volumes, of which I seem to think about half were fighting.

The shift is clear by this point. The story had gone from mahou + school days to a fighting manga. And it hasn't shifted back. Sigh.

Flash forward another 150 chapters, and I have no idea what the plot is now. Perhaps with a week break in between each chapter I just forgot. It's been like 2 years (IRL) since Negi and co. went to the magic world, and honestly I'm not sure who they're fighting, or why, or what's happened to Asuna, or Nagi, or Negi's mom. But I do know one thing:



TL;DR Jack Rakan is awesome, a deus ex machina, and the only thing worthwhile in the last couple of years of this manga.

Mangaka wanted to do Shonen action manga, producers wanted Another Love Hina hit. Mangaka slowly went from ecchi harem to what he wanted.

As for the plot I like it and feel he gives ample time to some of the other girls, they all play roles even the powerless ones. Maybe they could have had a bit more with the harem side, but I understand how the mangaka wanted something different to draw so he shifted the premise after it became a hit. IDK its cliche but has some funny parts, the harem is way downplayed now, fight scenes take to long but over all i would give it an 8/10, its a decent read, while not being overly complicated.

Last I recall SpoilerAsuna is the daughter of the queen and maybe Nagi? And was kidnapped by Fate and one of Fate's minions acted as her doppelganger but since she copied Asuna's emotions as well started to fall in love with Negi or something. Honestly I'm not sure cause I stopped reading it about 6 months ago.

It's up on mangafox, go read! Yup, he's back. Seriously, the dude will not die.

Ok, I was unfair to the series overall. I'm disappointed it has become a fighting manga, BUT, it's still incredibly good compared to most unrealistic fighting mangas (I'd rate it up there with Kenichi, but perhaps better; less fan service than Kenichi, but a better story and more entertaining characters, IMO).

The problem for me is that a LOT of stuff seems to be shoved to the side or ignored by Akamatsu. The story doesn't go in circles so much as circles-within-circles. Some of the things we don't know (or I missed?):

SpoilerHow is Asuna related to Negi? And, on top of that, ARE they related? The closest I can tell, they're cousins; Arika is Asuna's older sister, as they are both princesses of the magic kingdom.
2. Who is the Lifemaker? This might be revealed, but right now it seems like he's the Big Bad from 10 years ago that Nagi destroyed... or not...
3. Who or what is Fate, and the other six or so copies? Who or what are they copies of, and how we they made?
4. Where the heck is Nagi? at least the anime came out and said he died protecting Asuna, but the anime isn't canon.
5. What's Asuna's part with the entire plan? I get that she drains magic, but how does that lead to cheat codes that, among other recent developments, bring Rakan back from the dead?
6. What is Negi's plan that will save both worlds?
7. Who or what is Zazi (spelling?). A demon, I guess?

To be fair, I'm sure some of these (Nagi's whereabouts or fate, especially) will be answered in the future. And I also know I might be missing a bunch since I haven't reread the entire series since before the magical world arc. But it seems like Ken Akamatsu throws out a new plot point every few chapters and then refuses to visit it again.

Well...crap.

Looks like Eva's breaking out the big guns on page 7 and 9 of #332.

But ugh, friendship power? >_>