(L) Negima Manga Discussion

[RadiantBeam]

Originally Posted by Krono

Yes, but possibly wanting someone more like Nagi and less like Negi has absolutely nothing to do with class/rank, or age/height.

It's hard to say who Asuna would want at the moment, since as of yet we still haven't seen how she's been affected by remembering her past. Just because she has her memories back doesn't mean she'll automatically return to how she was when she was young.

[Blank-Mage]

Originally Posted by RadiantBeam

It's hard to say who Asuna would want at the moment, since as of yet we still haven't seen how she's been affected by remembering her past. Just because she has her memories back doesn't mean she'll automatically return to how she was when she was young.

I'm not particularly worried about Asuna reverting to how she was; she's too well established as a character. Even if she did, it wouldn't last long with the entire class of 3-A there to refriend her. Yes, I used the word 'refriend.' Anyway, I don't think it's even likely that she got all of her memories back. That would answer entirely too many questions, and make things way too convenient for our heroes. Unless they plan on just revealing everything else in one massive spoilerific BLOWOUT. That'd be awesome!

[KaneDragon]

Page 9 was kinda... nice. For a moment, I thought Negi was trying to determine Asuna's authenticity by the feel of her bare breasts (as a throwback to chapter 72, among others).

[nines]

Ugh I wanna see the reactions once they come out of the sphere with Shiori :O

[Nosauz]

Originally Posted by Xacual

I really don't think it matter's too much who Negi ends up with anymore, romance of any sort has taken a backseat to the adventure / shounen plot that Ken wanted to do all along. Now of course I want Asuna to be the final winner since I know Eva won't happen but whoever Negi does end up with, if anyone, it won't really kill my enjoyment of the story. Love Hina and stuff was all about when Naru and Keitaro would finally just get together, there was never really any other option.

see thats the thing, love hina was very shounen in that it wasn't all romance all the time, he just chalked himself into a corner where he probably wants further the romance and the shounen bits but in the format he is, it's very hard to get all that stuff in, with out pacing slowing into a crawl.

[RadiantBeam]

Originally Posted by nines

Ugh I wanna see the reactions once they come out of the sphere with Shiori :O

I'm more interested to see exactly how Negi's going to explain that little decision. I understand he made the Pactio to prove a point, but now he's Pactio'd with one of Fate's girls. I doubt everyone else will be happy with that, especially since Shiori's feelings are still up in the air.

[nines]

Originally Posted by RadiantBeam

I'm more interested to see exactly how Negi's going to explain that little decision. I understand he made the Pactio to prove a point, but now he's Pactio'd with one of Fate's girls. I doubt everyone else will be happy with that, especially since Shiori's feelings are still up in the air.

We can expect some people to dislike Shiori but also to be nice since they are well....just overly nice and overly understanding lol. But theres gonna be some conflict of some sort over the pactio, or negi might brake the pactio, no clue.

[Blank-Mage]

Originally Posted by RadiantBeam

I'm more interested to see exactly how Negi's going to explain that little decision. I understand he made the Pactio to prove a point, but now he's Pactio'd with one of Fate's girls. I doubt everyone else will be happy with that, especially since Shiori's feelings are still up in the air.

Aw, you saw that look. Shiori's fallen for Negi so hard it probably incurred permanent spinal damage.

Well, nothing in this chapter we didn't see in the spoilers. Kinda disappointing, really. Next chapter is going to be interesting, though. I freakin love characters like Shiori; complicated and quiet, with a respectable amount of tragic backstory! She's perfect! (Of course, I might be jumping to conclusions, we hardly know her, after all.)

[bhl88]

lol I never expected Negi to pactio with Shiori XD

[Keroko]

Ah, relationship speculation boiling up again. I think I'll pitch in my thoughts.

Originally Posted by Kurush

That's just plain wrong to think so. There are several things that counteract the NegixAsuna pairing if that's what you're trying to say is going to happen. If so, then there's a certain pattern in what Akamatsu does: the first girl who meets him, is the one who gets him in the end.

Which doesn't exactly counteract the pairing, since Asuna was the first person to meet him.

Originally Posted by Kurush

First of all, Asuna is his aunt, as far as we know. That's -not- 1st cousin at all, no matter how you look at it!

Negi knows that by now, and why on Earth & Mars, would he go and marry his Aunt? Go on, tell me. It's still Squick and Incest, and even if it is minimum, the chance for birth defects is still higher than the normal population.

The birth defect argument fails on the premise of this being a manga, not reality. Marrying family is simply a kinky forbidden love in manga, not a genetic paradox waiting to happen.

As for why, well let's face it, does Asuna look like Negi's aunt to you?

Originally Posted by Kurush

Also, the real Asuna happens also to be pointing Negi in Nodoka's direction. She prefers that he ends up with Honya-chan rather than herself, because Honya's feelings are real, very, and she wants the best for her friends always. If she were to push Nodoka away from him and hog Negi to herself, what kind of friend would she be?

The same kind of friend that Yue is? We also have Shiori's words to remember, about how Asuna's feelings which she was copying were 'genuine.' Admittedly, it was never said what exactly these feelings were, but judging by her beet-red face, she herself thought of them as romantic.

Originally Posted by Kurush

Just because someone pulled a scientific investigation justifying their own marriage, does that really mean that he'll go for her? No. Just, no.

And just because you think it's morally wrong doesn't mean he won't either.

Originally Posted by Kurush

If we can confirm that Chao really is his descendant, then we can definitely count Bells out of the chart as well. She didn't have any defects at all.

*Point to the above 'this is a manga, not real life' argument*

Besides, if you really want to use the birth-defect argument marrying your aunt doesn't guarantee your child will have birth defects. Add to that how Chao called Negi her 'ancestor' rather than father, and you can count a few generations of genetic purification between Negi's child and Chao.

Originally Posted by Kurush

Negi and Asuna are gonna be close in life, but not to the lvl of hitting the springs or getting married, but if you refuse to see that point of view, then you need to be hit on the head.

My head's quite fine, thanks. And in case you hadn't noticed, Negi and Asuna were hitting the springs this very chapter. All in all, I doubt Negima will be a single-pairing ending. It's likely to pull the generic harem trick and leave everything undecided.

Though if there is a confirmed pairing in the end, then hats off to Ken for having the balls.

[ac195]

Originally Posted by al103

Negi did grow up several times in this manga. Which also been noted several times IN manga.

Several times? I can only recall ONE instance... when Asuna and Negi met up in Ostia for the first time.

Oh and I'm only talking about physical development.

[Kurush]

If I had known that Keroko-san of all people here would watch this thread as well, I figured I should have just kept my mouth shut...

[Keroko]

I have that much of a reputation now?

Anyway, with Shiori being unmasked and knowing more about Negi than he does about her, there's going to be a lot of... awkwardness.

I wonder if Shiori will still have -or want to keep- Asuna's urge to take care of Negi?

[Kurush]

Originally Posted by Keroko

I have that much of a reputation now?

Anyway, with Shiori being unmasked and knowing more about Negi than he does about her, there's going to be a lot of... awkwardness.

I wonder if Shiori will still have -or want to keep- Asuna's urge to take care of Negi?

First: You made an OC that Satashi-sama fell in love with. That's enough for me to dread you.

Second: I do think that she'll have that urge. If not, she'll at least be having Asuna's feelings about him, with all that has happened so far between them, since I might also point out that those feelings had been planted neatly and grown into small spurts in the Magic World and Ostia, and then grown into full bloom with Shiori taking Asuna's place.

Finally, I think I should apologize. I don't really buy the NegixAsuna in a romantic way. There is also a lot of hints going on in the manga that is going on against that pairing, so I did want to make that point clear as well for people to know, if they didn't. I was also hoping for someone else to take a stand as well.

[Keroko]

Originally Posted by Kurush

First: You made an OC that Satashi-sama fell in love with. That's enough for me to dread you.

There's a strange and awkward feeling of pride there somewhere...

Originally Posted by Kurush

Second: I do think that she'll have that urge. If not, she'll at least be having Asuna's feelings about him, with all that has happened so far between them, since I might also point out that those feelings had been planted neatly and grown into small spurts in the Magic World and Ostia, and then grown into full bloom with Shiori taking Asuna's place.

I can't wait to see how that's going to work out. An enemy in love with you, oh the awkwardness.

Originally Posted by Kurush

Finally, I think I should apologize. I don't really buy the NegixAsuna in a romantic way. There is also a lot of hints going on in the manga that is going on against that pairing, so I did want to make that point clear as well for people to know, if they didn't. I was also hoping for someone else to take a stand as well.

Which is fine, we all have our opinions and feeling on pairings. There's no need to apologize for not liking or believing in a pairing. One thing tough, you've said twice now that there are lots of hints against the pairing, but you haven't really shown them yet. You only noted that they're possibly related, but since sibling love is something not uncommon in pairings (sometimes even the main selling point) I don't really see why that would matter.

[al103]

Originally Posted by ac195

Several times? I can only recall ONE instance... when Asuna and Negi met up in Ostia for the first time.

Oh and I'm only talking about physical development.

When he received muscles, when muscles became bigger and more apparent, when he compared his height to Anya's, etc. It's invisible because all art changes slowly in manga, so it's easy to notice after he stayed so much in grow-up form, but not in continual progression, but if you compare Negi each 60 chapters you will see that change. Same with psychological progression - start of the manga crybaby disappears long before it became apparent when Negi blew up in MW. It's same with other characters really, I was NOT surprised by Nodoka in recent chapters at all because I noted her continual progression while reading and rereading - and it was natural result of that progression. That is one of the reasons why Negima manga is so great.

[quigonkenny]

Originally Posted by Nosauz

see thats the thing, love hina was very shounen in that it wasn't all romance all the time, he just chalked himself into a corner where he probably wants further the romance and the shounen bits but in the format he is, it's very hard to get all that stuff in, with out pacing slowing into a crawl.

Well, he's intentionally concentrating on the shounen action stuff lately rather than the interpersonal relationships. That is the kind of manga he wanted in the first place, after all. But that doesn't mean he's not able to put it all in there in a workable fashion. The man has incredible skills at pacing. The way he writes, breaks in the action come naturally, and so he crams them with pactios, or fanservice, or relationship development, or plot advancement, or in the case of this last chapter, all of the above (with a little extra action thrown in). But overall, the actiony stuff advances the plot more at this part of the story, so that gets the bulk of the time. Relationships will advance in their own time, and can derail a plot like crazy when rushed, so less is more. There's no hurry.

It was similar with Love Hina, but the focus was much more on the relationships. Whatever else was going on at the time, the "who likes Keitaro/who does he like" question was always hanging over the story. In Negima it's much more focused on the story itself, and only certain characters draw the thoughts back to romantic relationships.

Speaking of, count me into the Asuna=familial love side. Rather than go into scientific studies, morals, or the currently ambiguous genetic relationship between the two, I'll point to what can be seen in the series. When last we saw her, she was exuding more of a sisterly vibe than at any point in the series, and I can't see how anything that's happened in Fate's clutches, or that's potentially gained from Asuna-hime's memories, is going to push things toward romance. Quite the opposite, most likely.

As for why Shiori's getting the romance vibe from Asuna's feelings, that's not surprising. The girl's been brought up from being an orphan with a bunch of other orphaned girls, so sibling love directed at a boy is probably fairly alien to her. And the primary male focus in her life is the emotionless near-father figure that the rest of her "sisters" (and presumably she herself) are clearly and unhealthily infatuated with. In short, she now is in much the same situation that Asuna found herself shortly after first meeting Negi, when Asuna first started getting her own feelings for the boy. Only TTT is a lot more emotional than Fate, Negi's own feelings for Asuna are much stronger now than they were then, Shiori hasn't had months of time to forge the inarguably strong sibling-love portion of Negi and Asuna's relationship (regardless of what type one might think the relationship primarily is), and the screwed up childhood was excised from Asuna's memories. It's no wonder that Shiori might become confused. If her orphaning didn't screw her up, spending a week or so in Asuna's muddled head certainly hasn't helped.

Even given Shiori's clearly romantic feelings for Negi (her "bedroom eyes"on that last page make Chachamaru post-pactio look bored by comparison), most of Asuna's dialogue and actions this chapter are classic "big sis Asuna". Only her risque outfit (lampshaded by Negi) and swimsuit model poses are off-norm. That combined with the leaking through (into Asuna's) of Shiori's thoughts toward the end could suggest that Shiori is a larger subconscious influence than Fate planned for.

[zerodragon]

so does anyone know when the next chapter is out or spoils

[DKN117]

My darker-and-edgier prediction for Chapter 284:

Spoiler for prediction:

Somehow Fate will be alerted to the fact that Shiori has Pactio'd with Negi, and will either assume she betrayed him or something else. Cut to the sphere, where Shiori suddenly grabs hold of herself and screaming, begging in tears for Fate to spare her, to forgive her. Negi and co. watch in utter horror as the Lifemaker Code activates, disintegrating her from the inside out.

One wonders how the group - especially Negi & Nodoka - would react to this.

[RadiantBeam]

Originally Posted by DKN117

My darker-and-edgier prediction for Chapter 284:

Spoiler for prediction:

Somehow Fate will be alerted to the fact that Shiori has Pactio'd with Negi, and will either assume she betrayed him or something else. Cut to the sphere, where Shiori suddenly grabs hold of herself and screaming, begging in tears for Fate to spare her, to forgive her. Negi and co. watch in utter horror as the Lifemaker Code activates, disintegrating her from the inside out.

One wonders how the group - especially Negi & Nodoka - would react to this.

... Just a general question, if that happens, how exactly is Shiori Code of Lifemaker'd without being shot at?