(L) Negima Manga Discussion

[Marine-RX179]

Well, the artwork of Ken Akamatsu for Negima has definitely improved comparing to Lova Hina. I've read the first 4 Manga for it so far and it is really interesting, and the content is quite detailed as well unlike some Manga which the pics take up too much space for a page (i.e. Manga by Clamp......but they are famous, so no one's complaining lol). Not that I don't like Clamp's Manga (I have all 12 Manga of CCS and currently following the story of Tsubasa as well), but the time it take me to finish reading 1 Manga of Negima I could have finished reading 2 Manga of CCS/Tsubasa......so for killing time wise, Negima is more value for the money.

Honestly I think almost anyone would enjoy this Manga (well, may be except snoopy because he hate Ken lol).

[MangaBoi1989]

dude, are u STUPID!? okay, u probably failed Math in skool anyway, so who cares.... Here is the pRoblem: 3rd year Junior High= +20 of age? i dun fink so~

if u actually had brains, u'd figure that 3rd year junior high = grade 9= 14~15 years old

[Newprimus]

I think Negima is awesome. I've read all the way to the latest scanlated chapter and it hasn't lost it's touch since the first.


I also find it funny how everytime a character in a manga or an anime just happens to be less than 14 or 12 years old and is surrounded by older people, they immediately label the work as pedo bait.


Negima is hardly pedo bait. It's not even all that harem at all. There's less romance in it, and more fighting and magic going on.

[snoopy]

Heheh. They aren't older. They're middle school girls. Besides, everything Akamatsu does will always be pedo bait to me. If I ever found myself reading something that was his and liking it, I'd stop reading it.

[brightman]

Originally Posted by snoopy

Heheh. They aren't older. They're middle school girls. Besides, everything Akamatsu does will always be pedo bait to me. If I ever found myself reading something that was his and liking it, I'd stop reading it.

They are middle school girls while the kid is a 5th grader (if he wasn't such a genius)... That would make them older.

Anyway, geez, if you hate the man so much why do you bother reading his works? Just ignore him.

Anyway, I think the manga is quite interesting plotwise. And it's no small feat to be able to keep track of 30-something unique characters and still be able to give a great number of them at least some bit of story like this manga did, and to do it effectively (IMO).

[snoopy]

Originally Posted by Shinova

I also find it funny how everytime a character in a manga or an anime just happens to be less than 14 or 12 years old and is surrounded by older people, they immediately label the work as pedo bait.

I was replying to this. The post that infered the main characters were 14. Since the kid's obviously not, I assumed it was a mis-reference, and was intended to talk about the influx of little girls in the series surrounded by adults (which they aren't).


And no. Giving an entire class a unique background does not a good manga make. It just means that he doesn't give each character very much background. Hell, if 30 characters have had their entire backstory told in 1 year of manga, then you're talking about the worst manga ever written, even if the backgrounds are consistent with the character (which is all you have to do to make it 'effective'). And from what I've read, there hasn't been any character history period, which leaves a whole hell of a lot to do in 3 volumes (the chapters I've read had the beginning (first like 5 or 6), some weird underground library or some crap like that, and then some PE class where their clothes fell off, and after that I just skipped by it in the weeklies).

And why do I come in these threads? It certainly can't be because I read this crap. I read a little of just about everything and all of what I like. Normally what I like and what's popular coincides, and I look thoroughly into it when it doesn't. "Why do people enjoy this pedophile manga?" "Why do people read something that has a story that is swayed by availability of panty shots?". And I can't find the answer. So I come into threads like this and don't recieve answers. I get lots of "the characters are good", but there's no way that 30 characters can be introduced in 4 volumes of manga and have them be good. You can introduce 30 characters and have them recurring but unexplained, but characters like that aren't good, they're just fluff characters to fill out the environment. Then comes the "It's not pedophile manga", but the only reason he made it a middle school class is so he could have characters that fit into the loli-con classification without giving them some special background to make them fit in with a highschool class.

The fact is, I don't want some "this manga rules" statement, I want to know, honestly, why the fuck anyone likes this. If people would just admit "I like seeing little girls in skimpy outfits and taking baths" then I'd drop the entire thing. Instead I get this crap explaination everywhere I go. It's a harem manga. An absurd harem manga. If anyone else did it, it'd be laughed off the news stands. But this one was by the Love Hina guy (yet another manga I don't understand the popularity to, yet was long ago written off as a slapstick fanservice work, so I didn't care). It sold in the top 10 for volume 1, before anyone even knew what the hell it was.

[Kyuven]

Originally Posted by snoopy

The fact is, I don't want some "this manga rules" statement, I want to know, honestly, why the fuck anyone likes this.

Because we can't see this happening in real life, yet it seems almost real
you can also blame harry potter
and, perhaps, the 30+ characters are (no matter what you say) what makes it popular to people
with 30+ different and unique (admittedly, about 3 characters look like the girl from the last chapter of Love Hina with different facial expressions tho) characters, the creator was basically showing his audience many different character types:
1) Aggressive Naru-type character (Asuna) (NOTE: Love Hina won people over because of its characters, so i will be relating characters to a Love Hina model when necessary
2) Shy Shinobu-type character (Nodoka)
3) Aggressive Motoko-like character (Ayaka, Akira, Setsuna, actually there are surely others...Motoko was Akamatsu's favorite character after all)
4) Tall air-head Mutsumi character (Kaede)
5) Peanut-gallery-friend-with connections (Konoka)
6) Weird-ass-Kaolla-like foreign girl (Fei Ku, Zazie, Lingshen, Mana)
7) Robot Girl (Chachamaru...when i saw her picture in the class roster i kept getting "To Heart" flashbacks...)
8) Nurse-type (i'm assuming Ako going by the roster notes)
9) Perky (Sakurako)
10) "Little Girl" types (Fuka, Fumika, Evangeline) (ok yeah these ones are blatant lolis)
11) Emotionless Vanilla-from-Galaxy-Angel type (Yue)
12) gymnastics girl (Makie)
13) Fat girl (Satsuki)
14) Glasses Girl (Chisame-strict type, Satomi-nerdy type)
15) Ghost girl(?) (Sayo)
16) Manga girl ala Hikaru from Nadesico (she even looks like her dammit) (Haruna)
that about covers all the girls i could infer from vol. 1, there are some i didn't mention but god knows they have something going on...
anyway, Akamatsu specializes in harem anime/manga, in harem anime/manga, the viewer/reader picks his/her favorite character(s) and follows them through to the end, wanting to know what happens
I myself, while reading Love Hina, was interested in all the characters by the end (and lord knows there are PLENTY if you look on the cover of vol. 14) and was sorely disappointed in the lack of development some characters received (mainly Kitsune, jeez is she just transparent...?) and really liked the way the characters that did receive a lot of development were developed
Akamatsu will always pick his favorite character(s) and develop them more than the others (sometimes more than the main characters! i.e. Motoko) however, it appears he likes having a lot of characters in place (A.I. Love you had about 7, Love Hina had...a lot...and Negima has 34+)
i hate to say it, but if akamatsu wrote an ero game (which he probably wouldn't...he'd probably end up with 108 characters 0_o) i'd play it instantly
his name on the product surely attracts me to the title, but it's only because i personally adore the style (i love series with a lot of characters like Love Hina, Negima, Houshin Engi, and Naruto)

[snoopy]

So he made a giant hentai game. LH and all other harems have the 5 or 6 basic types (nerd, loli, sports, mature, ditsy, etc) and then made one character for each sub-genre of characters (the ditsy nerd, the mature sports fanatic, the mature loli, etc). And you're telling me that makes it good? I could do that. If you ignore my less-than-good art and focus on the characters, anyone could do that. Hell, I'm sure some doujin artist must have done it as a joke after the harem genre boom a few years back.

Character interaction, characters influencing other characters, realistic relationships, complex histories defining a character's current reactions. Those are all required if a story be considered 'character-based'. For a story to be 'story-based', then it needs a plot that pulls the characters together and pushes them into conflicts and resolutions or it seems to drag. For a comedy, many of those aspects are watered down to make room for humor, I admit that, but there is very little true humor in Negima, at least from what I've seen. Just about every 'joke' involves tits, and that's just not funny after you're old enough to get a car, and that's pushing it a bit. And when a story is intended for adolescents other watering down is allowed (this is my personal opinion, of course, not some textbook story-writing definition). You can remove or only hint at truely sexual situations, love is usually climaxed at kiss scenes, death can be looked over, and main characters are almost always the epitome of good, while villains are almost always evil with a touch of good to make it possible that they have a revalation and move to the good guy's side. These are all reason why I find most shounen mangas less that stimulating if they aren't purely comedic, but I have digressed from the topic and spent too much energy writing all that to bother deleting it.

What I was attempting to get at is that Negima doesn't follow my person definition of a good character manga. Nor does it classify as a manga with a good plot, or any real comedic value. And as those are the three largest factors I use in deciding if a manga is worth my time, I have deemed Negima to be pure crap. To further explain my rating system I'll use Himizu as a subject. I don't really like the horror or depressing genre, yet I LOVE Himizu because even though it has no humor at all (or very very dark depressing humor, thus counting as no humor in my personal humor scale), it has wonderful character developement and interactions as well as a believably yet wholely depressing plot. And those two values are so high that they are actually capable of counter-balancing the zero that is added in for humor level. Now, getting a passing grade isn't really all that hard... decent scores in 2 and an average score in another are all that you need for me to enjoy your manga. And obviously Negima doesn't qualify.

[brightman]

Originally Posted by snoopy

And no. Giving an entire class a unique background does not a good manga make. It just means that he doesn't give each character very much background. Hell, if 30 characters have had their entire backstory told in 1 year of manga, then you're talking about the worst manga ever written, even if the backgrounds are consistent with the character (which is all you have to do to make it 'effective'). And from what I've read, there hasn't been any character history period, which leaves a whole hell of a lot to do in 3 volumes (the chapters I've read had the beginning (first like 5 or 6), some weird underground library or some crap like that, and then some PE class where their clothes fell off, and after that I just skipped by it in the weeklies).

HA see, that's the thing. Of course your initial reaction to this concept would be "how in the world can he develop a mass of characters like this??" But he DOES. He gets you to know most of the characters in the short time this manga has been on, and while the minor ones don't get a lot of exposure, he manages to get you interested in them. That's the charm about this manga and that's why I like it. It's like a harem manga to the extreme.

And of course, there's the plot, which while starts with Negi and Asuna does lead to more and more characters being involved. But you've only read the first few chapters so of course you wouldn't know about it.

[Kyuven]

Now that i think about it, the success of Akamatsu anime and manga may be paving the way for H-games (at least the console versions) to come to the U.S.
Akamatsu and his works are ALL "Love or Hate", and if you've been following this thread (other people) then you've surely realized that, unless you're as dense as a brick, that Snoopy does not like akamatsu
in much the same way, there are manga *i* can't stand no matter how "critically acclaimed" they are or how popular they are: mostly shounen-ai and almost all "what if.." doujin titles of popular anime/manga. Mostly because no one can match the level of development of the original creator, there's almost always a certain level of "magic" that the author has in his own creations (in the case of Love Hina, akamatsu actually had real personal experience, he really DID fail to get into Tokyo U and met his "young wife" (implying the age difference between his own characters, Naru and Keitaro) soon after. I'm sure his fans have noticed stylistic changes over the years: Hitoshi is a complete and utter wimp, Keitaro starts off like Hitoshi but then becomes a really admirable character (even though he resembles Seta in everything but facial hair) and negi starts off like Keitaro at the end of Love Hina. all 3 even LOOK similar...guess why? )
oh and about the Himizu manga: if i read it, i'd probably like it (like i said...there's very little i don't like...for chrissakes i read magical girl manga and enjoy it!) but Random_PersonA i know wouldn't. Try running a high school anime/manga club, it'll put people's likes and dislikes and why into perspective. Since i collect basically EVERYTHING i feel like reading, i get a lot of requests and have a lot of conversations with nearly every kind of anime/manga fan there is: DBZ/Cowboy Bebop/Evangelion/etc. obsessed fanboys, yaoi obsessed fangirls, booby obsessed fanbois (no surprise here: this group likes Negima, but so do some of the yaoi obsessed fangirls @_@....the other fanboys are a lost cause...*sigh*), the "manga addict(s)" (this kid'll read ANYTHING i let him borrow, he's read my entire goddamn collection!), warez kid (need i say more?), and the people like me (there's only 2 other people like me...heh...)

[pyu]

Uh, what's with all the hate? I think Ken Akamatsu is pretty okay. He draws decently, his characters are attractive and his stories are okay. He has grabbed hold of a theme (the harem theme) that has made him popular even though it is not very original. (Even though I feel Mutsumi would be a far logical choice for Keitaro, ... )

By and large, I can name some mangaka who set up great starts and leave people hanging for years with stoppages and all that.

He has many flaws - but his latest work, Negima, has shown he is improving too - even if I find the premise for some of the things to be a tad ludicrious. His work is somewhat light and fluffy, excellent for winding down especially after spending time pouring over 16 volumes of 20th Century Boys and trying really hard to pin down 'Friend''s identity.

[USCPharmacist]

All I can say is Evangeline KICK ARSE!!!

Her offensive spells are the strongest atm, and the fact that she is a vampire make her almost invincible in battle. Luckly for negi she has hot for his father, and is now acting like his step mom ehhehe.

BTW from the way the story is going I wonder surprise they can make an RPG out of this game. At the very least they can sell girls' cards like Yu Gu Oh cards.
Ken really is a smart sell out hehehe

[brightman]

Originally Posted by USCPharmacist

All I can say is Evangeline KICK ARSE!!!

Her offensive spells are the strongest atm, and the fact that she is a vampire make her almost invincible in battle. Luckly for negi she has hot for his father, and is now acting like his step mom ehhehe.

Well, that and the fact that

Spoiler:

Asuna is immune to magic so she's like the perfect partner for Negi (and that helped them beat Eva).

BTW from the way the story is going I wonder surprise they can make an RPG out of this game. At the very least they can sell girls' cards like Yu Gu Oh cards.
Ken really is a smart sell out hehehe

I think they're already selling those cards, aren't they?

[Village Idiot]

Ya, I saw some ads of them.

They had a preview of Konoka's (correct) Contract Card if you buy one of the character song CDs.

Akamatsu was taking a 3 week break after Ch52, so no new Negima until next week

I loved how the current arc ended though

Spoiler:

Setsuna has angel-wings, ChaChamaru finally appears with a huge ass gun, and ChaChaZero is so damn cute when she's carrying that huge ass knife

[USCPharmacist]

I don't think Eva used full force when she fought Negi. Especially consider how easily she destroyed "2 face" ehehe

I like the spell she used:

In the name of Darkness that is Infinate, Glacier that is eternal, I shall end the World. (Rough Translation)

BTW I think Asuna maybe trouble later on because of her imunity to Magic. Since we don't know who her parents were, they could be anything....

[Village Idiot]

It never did occured to me until the Eva Arc that Asuna is immune to magic, yet it was already set up since the 2nd chapter of the manga.

[Kyuven]

magic using vampire girl...
there's another "fantasy girl" right there

[brightman]

Originally Posted by USCPharmacist

I don't think Eva used full force when she fought Negi. Especially consider how easily she destroyed "2 face" ehehe

She didn't, they mentioned that in the manga... But it's still hard for her to defeat Asuna if her spells only work on her clothes...

BTW I think Asuna maybe trouble later on because of her imunity to Magic. Since we don't know who her parents were, they could be anything....

Not sure if this manga will ever get serious enough that it would do something like that... It's an Akamatsu manga after all...

Originally Posted by Village Idiot

It never did occured to me until the Eva Arc that Asuna is immune to magic, yet it was already set up since the 2nd chapter of the manga.

I think that "memory spell" in the first chapter was the first evidence of her immunity actually

[Village Idiot]

I think that "memory spell" in the first chapter was the first evidence of her immunity actually

Good point, I never thought about that. I thought Negi screwed up the spell or something.

[Kyuven]

also explains why she didn't fall in love with negi during the whole potion thing...