[Pong]

When it comes down to Negi fighting Fate, he has the power to hurt him, just not the skill or speed to continue to do the damage to defeat Fate.

I think it was quite the opposite myself. Negi had enough sill and speed to hang with Fate it was just that he didn't have enough power to brake the Mandala barrier and not enough stamina too keep fighting.

Fate actually didn't overwhelm Negi in that fight he simply waited until Negi tired himself in unsuccessful attacks.

I agree. While I don't mind the increasing amount of fighting in general, it bothers me that Negi has far surpassed all the girls. For me the best thing in Negima was always a big cast of cute, hot, smart and most importantly strong female characters. And I don't mean only 3A girls, up til Magical World Arc even the "evil masterminds" of all previous arcs were girls. But since the beginning of the current arc not a single really strong girl was introduced, not even in Rakan's flashback.

At the beginning of the current arc Negi was still much weaker than some Ala Alba girls, and suddenly he's many times stronger than Setsuna or Kaede. If it goes on like that they will be reduced to some background weaklings who would die in one hit. Even Kotarou seems to have surpassed all the girls...

I really hope Negima won't become another typical shonen manga where all singificant fighting is done by guys, and girls only cheer for them from the back lines while fighting small fries.

Well from a one point of view it actually makes sense. And that point of view is looking at the structure of the story. Despite what it looked like in the beginning MSN isn't a romantic comedy of any sort, far from it . It isn't like Love Hina where the central issue of he story was "Who is gonna end up with he main character?" . In Negima it isn't even that important of a question (Though fandom gets heated up over it as much as everywhere ). And thats because Negima is completely different type of story altogether.

Because when you go right down to it Negima is a coming of age story. Its story of negi who grows from a kid into a true successor of his father greatness. Everything else is just add t make the story more interesting but the coming of age is it core.

You are probably wondering what it have to do with Negi becoming one man army? Well just think of Negi at the beginning of the story and how much he'd grown.

He was very unsure of himself -now he is growing more and more confident.

He was rather clumsy- now he is very capable

He was very much alone and in his heart there wasn't almost no one beside his father- Now he has a true partner in Asuna, he has Kotarou who is practically like a brother to him, he has his own Nakama in the Members of Ala Alba and even gained not one but two mentors (Eva & Rakan).

He was also weak- true he was strong enough to fend for himself but he could not do everything alone. He had to often ask the girls for help. Heck that the entire point of having partners! That's all good and all and allows for more focus on other characters but just compare that to Nagi Springfield legendary "Thousand Master" who was invincible and was said to never use the helps from partners.

If Negi ever was to surpass or even match his father he must also do it i strength. This means that he must become strongest in the world - and strong enough to fight is battles without help.

So I believe that Negi surpassing all the girls isn't just effect of akamatsu forgetting to develop them in the rush but a conscious decision that makes sens in the context of the story and keeps to its theme.


Of course it doesn't mean we have to like it but it is at least reassuring that Ken do it for a reason and not because he is losing his touch.