Mahou Sensei Negima!

[Ishido]

"This guy's so broken it's not even funny!"

Ridiculous chapter, yet again.

[yayaok]

NOW WE GET TO SEE WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO ASUNA
i bet some ppl even forgot that she was kidnapped lol

[CrimsonAngel]

that was one anti climatic end to a fight...

[Kaylia]

Didn't feel out of character in the context. I'm fine with this, I just want them to move on to something else.

[Eaglestrike]

Didn't feel out of character in the context. I'm fine with this, I just want them to move on to something else.

Same. It does need to end, though I kinda want Fate to be the one to end the fight instead of Negi actually win.

[Kaylia]

Fate is going to come in and backstab Rakan, because he was the only person around who could possibly stop him.

It would be kinda lame, but I'm expecting something along those line. Not that my prediction are ever right with this manga.

[Zilong]

Seriously, while some of the things are really cliche in concept, his execution is really unpredictable.

[Kaylia]

As long as there is good characters (good character = take decision like a rational being, and not like a fucking robot that was poorly programmed), the rest doesn't really matter. The plot is bound to make sense if everyone make sense.

[Imitarate]

That was friggin' hilarious, I loved that chapter. It was an excellent cap point for this fight. It suits Rakan more than Negi, but there are a few points. He's never been shown as particularly dour (he even has to TRY to be emo for Magica Erebus), he has a silly side. He's gotta be brain-fried from all that magic. And he's psyched that Rakan acknowledged him as being on an appreciably-close level.

This is the point after which everything hinges on how Ken handles Negi's power upgrade in comparison to the rest of the world. He obviously needed this to contend with Fate, whom we should encounter soon, but what about, say, anyone else? He's elite class, at ... well, we'll say 10, though I think with all the time-training he's probably closer to 13 or 14. This is where other shounen writers can run into trouble. But then, Ken has, as Kay said, surprised us all many times.

By the way, remember when I idly thought it'd take 5-6 chapters and you said 2-3 and we were both ridiculously wrong and it wound up being awesome anyways? Yeah.

[Imitarate]

I finally got around to watching all of the Ala Alba OVAs, and I was quite impressed. Ken finally got some decent animation out of Negima. I liked the way they did magic, with the latin layered underneath the japanese. I was a bit concerned that they'd be in trouble with the fighting bits, and... I'm not sure, there was some fighting in part 3 (Negi vs Setsuna, Neg and Asuna vs Evangeline before they leave), but not enough for me to be sure. I would really like to see the Rakan fight animated, if their production values are high enough. Maybe from the fight with Fate where Nodoka learns his name to now, at the end of the Rakan fight (and maybe the next couple of chapters if Ken wraps up the vs Rakan without going immediately into Fate).

[Kaylia]

Yeah, I was completely wrong about chapter size. I'm glad it was better than I expected thought.


And thank for mentioning the ova. The sub took forever to be released, and I totally forgot about them.

[Kaylia]

The last one was pretty good. The training scenes before they leave for Wales were some of my favorite in the manga. I enjoyed that episode a lot. Episode 2 on the other hand sucked as much as it did in the manga...mostly fanservice and useless stuff.


In overall, I'm happy with the ova, but I really hope they will animated the next arc. There is so many good thing comming up it would be a shame if they stopped there.


[edit]

The unofficial Neko to Negima! to Seiyū-san site reports that Kodansha producer Yoichi Ishimoto announced a second series of Negima! Magister Negi Magi original anime DVDs (OADs) in a Negima! event in Tokyo on Wednesday. Starting this summer, the second series will reportedly ship on four DVDs that will be bundled with limited editions of four manga volumes from Ken Akamatsu. If sales are good, there will be plans for a theatrical film adaptation. The new series will cover the Mahō Sekai story arc.

I guess this is good news. I wonder how much they will get out of 4 episodes....there is no way they reach the current fight. Let's hope they get to Rankan training at least.

[Imitarate]

I do agree about part 2; it wasn't a strong example of the best parts of the series.

It's definitely good to hear about the second OAV series, now that you mention it I do seem to recall hearing a similar rumor or story. Very vague recollections and/or sprawling hopes make me think it'll go up to initial acquisition of Magica Erebus; that seems about right for 4 OVA episodes.

[Kaylia]

It probably won't go that far. A lot of stuff happened in Wales (long flashback), it should last at least 1 episodes, maybe two. After this, there is the fight at the airport, the jungle part, the search for the girls, and the first arena fight (probably where they will stop).

[Eaglestrike]

Good chapter, a draw is fair. Rakan being worried about Fate means he really was lying about that power chart thing. And we'll see if the Magia Erebea drawback makes Negi have to stop using it entirely and thus makes him weaker except for those special moments where he has to protect his ladies.

And lol at taking off to collect data again. Not until May 13th...damn.

[Kaylia]

Wtf..may 13th. I hate him.

The last chapter was rather slow like most transitions chapter, but they are unavoidable if they want to set up a plot that make sense...It just kinda suck when you have to wait 3 weeks for another chapter.

That said, i think I have a mancrush on Rankan. He was great and funny at first, but the more we see him, the better he get.

The magic erabia part was rather interesting as well. It's a nice way to set up the plot for later.

Spoiler: show

http://img56.onemanga.com/mangas/000...0165662/14.jpg

[Imitarate]

HERE COMES THE HUMAN ATOMIC BOMB!

It was a very good arc transition; we can consider the Rakan Training arc thoroughly over now (from the fight against the shadow dude to here, I think). Next we should hopefully get back to Fate and what's going on with Asuna.

[yayaok]

wasn't that bad, good plot organizing and you know shit's gonna go down when ken gets back... i wanna know what happened to asuna after she found out she's a pimp queen

[Zilong]

inb4 hollow negi

But that was a pretty good conclusion for the arc, I love how the fake Eva was like just "oh well, he's not gonna go berserk anytime soon, the real me should be able to handle it when the time comes"

Also, now that I remember, his pactio is only temporary for the fight iirc, so I wonder if he'd be able to re-contract and use his artifact at a later time, or if the pactio can grant different artifact the second time...I hope that wasn't the last time we see the notebook of doom though

[Kaylia]

Hmm, considering he made 15 temporary pactio with the girls around him, I'm going to guess he will be able to use this one indefinitively. The girls were even able to use their card when they were on the other side of the world, so distance doesn't seem to be an issue.