(L) Negima Manga Discussion

[Hata]

Originally Posted by Von Himmel

Could someone please explain this in layman's term for me?

this is a quick translation of a quick Chinese translation of Ken's Japanese tumblr article mentioned by APNki.

there were two Kodansha editors for the showdown debate with Ken in "explaining" the neighboring copyright law, Ken brought George Morikawa, the author of Hajime no Ippo with him in case he needs some muscle backup. one of the editor were together with Ken in opposing the Tokyo Child Protection Law.

Kodansha's position:

publisher will share "equal" copyright with author. because it helps the mangaka to promo, typeset, proofread, research, edit, and printing the manga, and by having the right automatically, the publisher can:

1. when there is going to be an e-book release of the same paper product, no longer need a second negotiation one by one again for the right, which can speed things up.

2. the publisher can go after pirate and 2nd creation violator without spend time consulting the author in the first place, again speed things up.

Ken's reply for #1 is the current contract model works fast enough, no need to give publisher extra right, for #2 all it takes is a phone call between publisher and author.

and the danger for #2 of course is all dojinsh and all 2nd hand creation will cease to exist, Kodansha did say clearly, that it is their goal with this law to go after places like PIXIV and Toranoana, (basically, like how Disney operates.) but what happen as in the case of Ken, who gives his approval and don't want them to be sued?

Ken's position:

1. what happen if the publisher went under, and the right falls into some strange debtor?

2. if an old manga is to be republished (paper or e-book) on another publisher than the original one, what would happen if there is interference from the old publisher?
(Kodansha guarantees this won't happen, but of course Kodansha cannot promise the same for all the other publishers, this is quite important for Ken when you consider the nature of J-Comi.)

3. even with this law, there is no way to stop the pirating.

4. too many people who own the same right will only complicate things

Kodansha's reply: they can't answer Ken's questions, they admit, while this law would be convenient for the publisher, they can't find a reasonable argument to convince all authors,

the truth is, the original proposal is not from the manga industry, but pushed by the literature fiction sector to Japanese culture ministry, or course then you have unforeseen problem developed across the board, Ken's argument is this law's benefits can be achieved with current model, and to give the publisher the extra right is too dangerous.

I happen to agree with Ken on this. Japanese (or substitute any other nations under the sun) government officials and legislators are a bunch of idiots.

[aldw]

Originally Posted by Hata

I happen to agree with Ken on this. Japanese (or substitute any other nations under the sun) government officials and legislators are a bunch of idiots.

It's days like this that I think a copyleft revolution is really needed around the world...

[Gundamx]

In other word bye bye SRW games.....

[Diveman]

Uh I know im a bit late but, they never told/showed who Negi was going to confess to, right?

[Sumeragi]

Originally Posted by Diveman

Uh I know im a bit late but, they never told/showed who Negi was going to confess to, right?

You don't realize what half the rage was about?

[Dark Wing]

Originally Posted by Diveman

Uh I know im a bit late but, they never told/showed who Negi was going to confess to, right?

Nope and I guess a childish crush wouldn't really matter since he grown man now.

[Hata]

Ken just got back from Fukushima, his contribution to the "famous mangaka revitalization plan" are Asuna and Nodoka, two easy draws he had done live previously,

http://shinsakuranikki.blog90.fc2.co...ntry-4717.html

[AstroNerdBoy]

Thanks for the share, Hata. ^_^

[Roger Rambo]

So why exactly do they want to go after pixiv again?

[Lisemer]

Hey, if I understood well from his twitter, it smeems Akamatsu is going to do a Negima - Ala Rubra Spin off!!!

[Von Himmel]

The bottom text says that it's April fool if I didn't misread it

[Lisemer]

Damn it!

[ellifeedn]

Huh, I didn't know they do April Fools too.

[TnAdct1]

Originally Posted by ellifeedn

Huh, I didn't know they do April Fools too.

Ken Akamatsu has been known to do April Fools jokes. For instance, a few years ago, he did one where he hinted about a crossover betweem Negima and Hayate the Combat Butler.

[AstroNerdBoy]

Originally Posted by TnAdct1

Ken Akamatsu has been known to do April Fools jokes. For instance, a few years ago, he did one where he hinted about a crossover betweem Negima and Hayate the Combat Butler.

There was two pieces of official crossover art, done by both Hata-sensei and Amamatsu-sensei, for the Hayate and Negima movies (which were shown together).

[Roger Rambo]

I'm still personally hoping for Gaiden stories. Trying to figure out how the heck this was supposed to have happened.

Spoiler for Hakase Satomi:

...you know? I bet Hakase got turned down on account of being to young, and in a perfectly scientific act, she tossed his ass in Cryo stasis for 5-6 years to help smooth over that problem.

[deathevn]

1) The words to describe the ending is Bullshit. i am tired of people triying of justify this shitt.
is like you just saw the second movie of star wars find that Dark vader is luke father, and you go to see the third movie and you get 2 hours of freaking ewoods, lea criying about to have to make a decision between luke and Han, and then the movie skip to everybody happy in the party they dont tell you who lea choosee becasue they dont tell you she is her siter just to no break the hopes of some fan, and dARTH VADER AND OBIWAN are there alive, the movie end and your are show some picture, of the death star being blow up sayin luke did it, one of darth vader death, saying, he die but is in the party because was brouth of a parallel universe, one of the emperator saying he is the real bad guy, and was defaeted by darth vader. the end. i bet the audience would go out of the cinema and burn Jorge lucas House to the ground. so dont say fans shouldn be mad about this ending.

2) i think of the manga as a mediocre work and this explain why
Negima stars a harem manga that pomised a development a well write hystory great plot and to became a great master piece, but all endit in just a promise, due to execisseve fan service, poor universe setting, bad write plot that once you read the whole thing end in no making sense whatsoever, no one freaking anwser, lack of character background even of the main character, every arc in the end was usseless and pointless. makin this a mediocre work
for the people saying that the end just left some thing out that is complete false so many thing were left out, and no littel things there were things being integral par of the whole manga. i woul list it and explain why the last two volumen make the manga a complete waste of time. people say is a bad ending for a great manga, but the way it ending make the whole universe not having any sense. making it seen riduculous and a poor work.
1) the pactio system, we didnt get a disclosure information, no got explanation of it exact reason or relation to the ostia royal familie and end in not knowing the difference between a permanent pactio and a regular one. this was intergral par of the manga
2) MAHORA WORLD TREE and Mahora academy. taking love hina a example where things magical revolve around the residence hina and incredible magical thing could happend, the explanationg didnt matter becasue it was a comedy manga, and was a miracle whitout explanation, but in negima where the magic is something defined, whit rules and not random you cant have a explantion like, is just the way it is, when the three help to time travel, make a world large spell from chao, seal the lifemaker,and is the gate to old ostia. the least you could do is trow in some background to make this ramdon thing make some sence.
3) The lifemaker past origing and reasong, what was the reason he make the MW in firts place, if he was related whit eva, eva background, Arika, Nagi, exact familie relation of Asuna whit arika and negi, asuna magic cancel exact mechanic how it work, asuna background she was a main character and the only thing you know for sure is that she has magic cancel was used as weapon they never make clear is she was created or what happened to gatuo Vanderwharever or exact vincul whit the lifemaker she appered to know who he was since she call him a pitiful person she know hi was suffering. he royal magic, what happened to arika, reason of the politician for attaking negi village what they expect to gain, what have the demons of zazie world whit the lifemaker, the demond world, what are the demons since the manga hint that everything magical was created by the lifemaker. magia erebea effect on negi. there are the thing left out and i dind include the other girls background like ako scar, and thing you could call secundary that i woul really love to see but could get skiped whitout affecting the plot, just thing that are parts of the plot. that was left out now i begin whit the thing that contradict the whole manga. to make an example Dragon ball z, namek arc, when freeza blow up the planet because he can breath in the space great part of the arc was centred in that, if afterwart when freeza came back and trunks fight him instead of kill him the way he did he take freeza and launch him to the space and freeza died axficiated, that would make that arc a complete wasted of time because violate the setting of the universe, negima is so full os such moment that inst even funny. is like the manga was wrote by a five years old on crakc.
1)the firts blow to the universe setting is during MW arc when they reveal that that world are and the people are ilusions and cant get out of that world, to the real world that mess up the school trip arck, and has impact the setting of setsuna, kotaro, chamo, kami tsukuna, they all existed just fine and there was no thing that make seen other wise, remember the shimenryu hunted youkais thousand years ago when japon was isolated form the world, the author make distintions between dragons, youkai and others and hint the existence of shinto gods an other god but other than the mentioned before every dragon, yokai or other is a creation of the lifemaker and later is say that whithout a artificial body they cant exist outside, and remember setsuna tribe live in the human world and if someone see his winged or are discovered they have to leave, so akamatsu make a decision there were created or no they can exist or no. i think he didnt think this trouthg. this shitt a great plot of the manga
2) Nagi is the one posseded by the lifemaker, this shitt over the manga and make the nigth were negi was save by nagi a stupid out of nowhere thing, becasue it was imposible,firts he was sealaded under the world tree six years before, in a battle so hard that the only way to seal the lifemaker was sefl sacrife, and the battel was in estambul, i can get past the fact that they took the lifemaker all the way to mahora sealed him under the world tree and eva didnt find out. but remember the seal looked exactly like the way they sealed asuna, and we learned that asuna have no way of know what happened in the ouside world. so you want me to belive that he somehow knew the plant of politics in megalosembria that negi was in danger, break the seal ( remember that fate to break the seal needed having the acumulated energy of the magic world the code of the lifemaker, asuna and negi`s blood) fly to england, make it all the way back resealed himself, remember AL didnt know abouit and eva didnt find out, ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME. eva knew went chamo came to mahora, and something whit the power of a god break te barrier and she didn know, only the energy neccessary to break the seal woul have put her on alert. the only logical explantion is that he wanst nagi it was someone makin himself look like nagi, and thats no good either, that make the moment that define negi life a lie, and instead of admiring nagi he should admire someone else, and could had lead a more paceful life. because that situation can be interpreted as a firemen saved my life, when i grow up i am going to be a firemen.
3)TERRAFORMING, this crushed the litle of sense that the manga have left, the reason of terraforming is the magic world was running out of magic because there was no life, WHAT, 2600 year ago the age of the lifemaker there wanst life in mars either who the hell that world was created in the firts place, how can it have more magic than our world when it have way more life than mars, that make no freaking senses, if the lifemaker make the magic world in earth they wouldn be in that problem in the first place, it wanst more easy for negi to create various alternate planes in the world and relocated people there, i meant they have asuna and the code of the lifemaker and that is apparently all you need to make and alternated plane, and our world is tree times more bigger than mars so all the people fit in it. the sealing of asuna is also stupid because during the most important part of the MW arc the desaster of deleting the magic in ostia is due asuna, since day one the power of asuna is to deplete mana so how tha hell that power now help to preserve mana the explanation akamatsu give is because it does. that doesnt make sense.
4) this is a extention of the previos terraforming involved revealing magic to the world, what make the whole school festival arc useless why the hell we spent a whole arc stopping chao when the magic was reveled anyway, and later we learn the no matter what chao did her future wouldn change.
5) Chao time travel and dimension jump, this crushed futher the school festival arc, because remember all the time travel restriction that she have to make her plan that year because that was the only time that time travel was possible that was the point of the arc was there or never because even whit magic and science together that was extremely difficult, they dont apply anymore she can do it when she fell like it, and she can jump to parallel universe, making her almost invencible, i thank god that akamatsu, didnt also say that she can make the dead come back to life, and recreate the universe, the only reason for this been hey what tha hell no. travel between parallel universe is as dificult as time travel and she can do the 2 at the same time whitouth restriction or whitout a explantion why she can do it. what the hell akamatsu smoke.
6) NAGI ALWAYS WAS IN MAHORA AND EVERYBODY KNEW ABOUT IT. this make the MW ARC pointless, why, because the reason the magic world was in danger in the firts place, was because they took asuna there, they didnt needed to go there, and fate and the rest wouldn have put the plan in motion, wouldn have freet the lifemaker, For all that they needed the code of the lifemaker that you dont get whitout asuna. the little we learn about arika and asuna could have been explained by al whithout the risk of loosing your life , a but because of the trip the plan of terraforming was make, that doesnt matter because we learn form ayaka that nagi was alredy researching mars and space development, so they would get the plan anyway, destroying the reason of the whole arc. a but asuna regain her lost memories, remenber they could unsealed those whenever ala rubra wanted they placed the seal in the first place. and asuna didnt get develomepment because she spent the whole arc looking pretty in a princess costume.
7) THE LIFEMAKER IS ASUNA`s BITCH. asuna practicaly one shot the lifemaker she could crush the guy whever she like it, all negi did was pointless because in the end asuna did everythin, Ah but she have magic cancel so she has the adventage, hell no, remember asuna power is called the power to destroy and created the world, and when the life maker created the world asuna didnt even exist so he have to has the same power, okay lets pretend he dont has it, then he has the same power as arika the Royal magic, the ostia royal familie had it and they are his decendant, they explain that is a magic incredible powerful that funtion even in the depletion macig phenomenon so meaning it work on asuna, so is good explanation why the lifemaker could control asuna whitout much opposision on her part. but it turnout that the lifemaker didnt stand a chance, and got one shoted is like akamatsu say ROYAL MAGIG, what i wrote dad in the manga. i dont remember that shitt. this futher make pointless the magic world arc they didnt need the upgrade in power asuna could defeat the lifemaker by herself when she feel like, all they had to do is make her remember later joing hands call her name accept her, and asuna accep herself that how she gain that power., and could have be done whitout leaving mahora so all the training was a complete waste of time because they didn need, she would have take care of everything.
8) TERRAFORMING AND NEGI VILLAGE. and akamatsu again put a stick in negis ass, the event that shape negi life the attack of his village was done by mega wharever senate, thats all i meant the guys burn your village, turn into stone your familie, almost kill your sister, try to kill you, destroy your mother reputation imprisoner her, in a prision like hell during 2 years, probably kill gatou, asuna say that nagi was gone firts so kE was defeated alredy so is very possible that the people that attack them was megalo triying to obtain, asuna, Yuna mother died in a mission in t the same time, coincidence i dont think so, and the guys got away whit it, they probably drinking Piña colada in a beach, whit hot babes around them, whit more money they know what to do whit it, doing dirty politics deals. because is corrup politics are famous for something is for leaving the power (that was sarcasm) then i am supposed to belive that they say remenber the kid we wanted to kill, we are going to obey him in his plan and to no bad action whatshoever, and the bad guy have magician that can invoked high ranking demos remeber the attack to negi village, that was full of stongs mage that were to live there because of nagi. after remembering all this points i am conviced that akamatsu suffer for a union of crack addiction, alheimer, brain tumor, and got hit in the head when child.
The ending make pointless the manga, because what was the point in stop KE to take the people to their ideal world when we get the same thing done to asuna, he got to a alternate reality where she get to live her ideal life, and remenber the whole time travel didnt change her timeline so the negi we read about died whithout even telling us why. whitout getting married waiting for asuna that never got to see, this negi is just a identical copy, and the problem is that there are 2 asuna when that asuna wake up in the future, you think she would remember all that the other asuna did in that life, no because doesnt matter that they are the same geneticaly they arent the same person she would be alone in the future, whithout knowing what the other asuna did.
3) whit who negi ended who the hell care in the end akamatsu crushed the character he develop into a bunch of child torturing asshole that brainwhased a 10 year old kid introduced a stick in his ass(if what i mentioned sound like they torture the soldiers in Iraq is because is pretty clouse to that) and whit only 15 year old acted like religious fanactic claming that they know what was the best for him. and was heavy hint in the epilogue that he ended whit asuna no suprised there, whit the akamatsu the same girl always win

4) i accept the ending, but respect akamatsu, not anymore, he lost his talend and is in my list of mangaka that you most not read next to the guy of wofl guy that expent 15 chapter in the raping of one woman what tha hell is wrong wit this guys and for people thinking that the editor thing was the cause of the end of the manga stop liying to yourself. remember he say that this was no trunkcation this was planed, and why i belive him, remember the movie ending was the original planed ending. so lets compare
Movie Manga
Useless and awful Harem antic Useless and awfull harem antic
lot of thing unexplained and what they explaind didn make sense thing unexplained and thing explained didn make sense
big dark revelation memory whipe big dark revelation asuna sealed and negi inmortal
DEUX MACHI FIX IT makin the whole thing pointless DEUX MACHINA FIX IT making the whole thing pointless
no romance resolution no romance resolution
thing resolved off scream nagi and arika appeard the same like the movie only nagi apeared
we got a shitty epilogue using a whole chapter just for Yue
but what make the manga worts is negi is a background character the last 2 volumen, and didnt deserve to appeard in the epiloque what happened to him we dont freaking know for the main character he deserved better but since akamatsu make sure that he got assrape in the last arc what else we could expect.
I see a patron here so both ending where awful and follow the same path and akamatsu say there was no trunkcation and that is his version so for those saying that were the editors i have more proof than you do, and i havent see a argument present proof that make me thing other wise only especulations. and akamatsu havent say anything abouit so between what akamatsu say and what you would like to belive i choose belive akamatsu, like in the end of negima you could imagine he choose the gilr you want but that doenst make it canon. so i wont be reading or buying his next work.

5) SEQUEL. yes and no, we are never going to get a sequel that clear things out we are getting a sequel that is not a sequel. again akamatsu is taking us for idiots. he say that hi is not retairing and expect his next work or sequel.
the thing will go like this, futuristic space sci fi, whit the leyend of the precursor of the space era (negi) , a kid altmost identical to asuna or negi, whit a misterius power( is not magic it would only make look like that) he left eva and zazie epilogue whit the possiblitie of more history just to make her apperd in this work because they dont grow old and can appeard 200 hundred years after and that would make think the readers of negima we are going to get anwser, and read it, because akamatsu know a great number of reader are pissed at him, the people that buy negima since day one where people that readed and loved love hina, and a great number of negima reader arent going to run to buy his next work, he expect by the time we realized that this is not a sequel much readers of negima wont mind, because this manga is so good and by that time the manga would have his own new fanbase so he dont have to continue to give negima fans false hope to boost the sells. I am not falling for that. this sound like something a awful mangaka would do, and i dont like to thing of akamtsu but he did thing to me whit negima that make me loose all my faith in him as a mangaka.

[TnAdct1]

Originally Posted by deathevn

1) The words to describe the ending is Bullshit. i am tired of people triying of justify this shitt.
is like you just saw the second movie of star wars find that Dark vader is luke father, and you go to see the third movie and you get 2 hours of freaking ewoods, lea criying about to have to make a decision between luke and Han, and then the movie skip to everybody happy in the party they dont tell you who lea choosee becasue they dont tell you she is her siter just to no break the hopes of some fan, and dARTH VADER AND OBIWAN are there alive, the movie end and your are show some picture, of the death star being blow up sayin luke did it, one of darth vader death, saying, he die but is in the party because was brouth of a parallel universe, one of the emperator saying he is the real bad guy, and was defaeted by darth vader. the end. i bet the audience would go out of the cinema and burn Jorge lucas House to the ground. so dont say fans shouldn be mad about this ending.

No, if Star Wars ended the same way Negima ended, we would have had the Ewoks celebration right after Luke received his robotic arm.

[Keroko]

Originally Posted by deathevn

1)the firts blow to the universe setting is during MW arc when they reveal that that world are and the people are ilusions and cant get out of that world, to the real world that mess up the school trip arck, and has impact the setting of setsuna, kotaro, chamo, kami tsukuna, they all existed just fine and there was no thing that make seen other wise, remember the shimenryu hunted youkais thousand years ago when japon was isolated form the world, the author make distintions between dragons, youkai and others and hint the existence of shinto gods an other god but other than the mentioned before every dragon, yokai or other is a creation of the lifemaker and later is say that whithout a artificial body they cant exist outside, and remember setsuna tribe live in the human world and if someone see his winged or are discovered they have to leave, so akamatsu make a decision there were created or no they can exist or no. i think he didnt think this trouthg. this shitt a great plot of the manga

The magic world inhabitants =/= all mythical creatures. Just a large amount of the people in the magic world.

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by Klashikari

Love Hina didn't have exactly an excellent ending either. It got the complete opposite process: LH was way too dragged to the point Akamatsu had to recycle a lot of ideas, and forced cop out methods regarding Naru's feelings (the stark difference between Pararakelse and Kanako's arcs is gigantic).

Both had very good "touch" regarding characters showdown and closure. The difference is that Negima's ending got shortlived and as result left out many points, while LH went way too much.
Finally, comparing Lh and Negima ending is quite dubious, considering the timespan, storytelling and especially the genre are not the same at all. LH had only characters interactions with little backstory to dwelves in, while Negima had as "bonus" the setup (Magic, creatures etc), along with a totally different pace.

Also, becoming a "bad writer" doesn't happen in a timespan of few chapters and the likes. A bad writer would actually be unable to wrap things on the story's own standards, while here, Negima has suffered from obvious -external- reasons.

I'll choose this quote to bounce off of. I had dropped Negima about 2/3 of the way through (just read the summaries and the occasional scanlate sequence). Ken had succeeded in making me not care to invest much energy in seeing how his story proceeded.

My opinion of Ken Akamatsu has stayed the same with pretty much *ALL* his works (from A.I. forward). He sets up a great idea, he designs characters that fascinate people. He begins the story with great teasers, sets up the love angles. Somewhere around the the halfway or three-quarter mark he either loses interest or doesn't know how to proceed, he writes himself into corners. Some other shiny fascinates him. Trainwrecks, plot jerking, suddenly a new character, dropping threads, etc ensue. Fans rage.

So.... in my opinion, he is neither a great writer or a terrible writer so much as for some unclear reason (distraction, ability, failure to plan, etc) he doesn't finish his stories with the same skill he started them. And though we can point to a variety of different excuses/reasons each time --- nonetheless it seems to be the over-arc in all his works.