(L) Negima Manga Discussion

[TnAdct1]

Originally Posted by Tiresias

Spoiler for 350:

So in the end the book was fake? So what was the moral of the story again? Oh yeah, that the majority of 3-A are selfish, annoying and ungrateful for all the hell Negi has gone through for them?

Most. Pointless. Negima arc. Ever.

Thank God that's over. Can we go back to the adventuring or whatever now?

Actually,

Spoiler for 350:

The second half of 350 time skips to one week before graduation, with Asuna graduating early due to the impending need to have her sealed as part of the plan to save the Magic World.

That's right, folks. It appears that Ken Akamatsu is skipping stuff that we're interested in seeing (i.e. the origin of Ako's scar; Yue's fellow Valkyries visiting Mahora) and instead going into "end game" mode. Not only does this make Tiresias "Sports Festival arc being pointless" comment so true IMO, but also pretty everything in the last few chapters that's not connected to either Asuna being sealed away or Yue regaining her memories of Negi.

It's times like this that I wished that the "fake" spoilers that were posted on 2ch were the real ones (in the case of 350, the fake spoilers talked about Luna/Shiori transferring to Mahora).

[Kurush]

Originally Posted by TnAdct1

Actually,

Spoiler for 350:

The second half of 350 time skips to one week before graduation, with Asuna graduating early due to the impending need to have her sealed as part of the plan to save the Magic World.

That's right, folks. It appears that Ken Akamatsu is skipping stuff that we're interested in seeing (i.e. the origin of Ako's scar; Yue's fellow Valkyries visiting Mahora) and instead going into "end game" mode. Not only does this make Tiresias "Sports Festival arc being pointless" comment so true IMO, but also pretty everything in the last few chapters that's not connected to either Asuna being sealed away or Yue regaining her memories of Negi.

It's times like this that I wished that the "fake" spoilers that were posted on 2ch were the real ones (in the case of 350, the fake spoilers talked about Luna/Shiori transferring to Mahora).

It's moves like this that just makes me go just... "What the Hell?" Seriously, that's it? Nothing in between? What about those talks Negi was gonna have with Makie, Yue & Nodoka? What about the resolve regarding the remaining girls that don't have a pactio card with him?

Nope, we just go straight to graduation time. Thank you, Akamatsu-sensei. You're starting to make me lose hope in what you do. That says something about the things he do.

[kwendy]

Some old dialog in Skype (crappy translation from Russian)

[15.08.2011 6:47:00] Danstep: Negi's sister isn't in love with Negi
[15.08.2011 6:47:16] Danstep: Only she is like that.
[15.08.2011 6:47:36] Kwendy: Such a confidence
[15.08.2011 6:47:54] Danstep: Well, probably not fell for him....
[15.08.2011 6:48:42] Kwendy: That concidering Negi crawling into girls beds, hugging Asuna, stripping her while she is asleep and trying to kiss her only on the basis of she remindes Nekane
[15.08.2011 6:49:27 | Edited 6:49:53] Danstep: SHI THAT'S IT! WHAT DID THIS PERVERTED HAG DID WITH NEGI FOR HIM TO DO ALL THIS STAFF UNCONSCIOUSLY!
WHO DID SHE CREATED!!!!!!!!!!
[15.08.2011 6:50:43] Kwendy: She wants to overtake the world, make it into love polygon for Negi's and then to manipulate the master of the harem
[15.08.2011 6:50:49] Danstep: In short - I am jealous Т_Т
Exactly... Her opinion will always be above even Chisame's... She certainly plotting something Т_Т
And making Negi into a living weapon.
[15.08.2011 6:52:21] Kwendy: The Lifemaker is in the past, the world shall belong to Nekane!
[15.08.2011 6:57:37 | Edited 6:58:01] Danstep: She was traning Negi since he was 4, shoved him books about combat magic, supported him. And in the nights did some other things for him to withstand the harem of more then thirty girls....
And noone shall ever notice anything...

[LoweGear]

Spoiler for 350:

I didn't care much for the harem shenanigans... but those last few pages really hit HARD, with Ayaka and Asuna reaffirming their friendship just as the latter is about to leave the former forever. The fact that Ayaka was so frank about how difficult the entire situation is for her was much too sad for me ;_;

[Shadow5YA]

Ugh... I don't like this. Asuna was asleep for a large portion of the Magic World arc, and now she has to go back to sleep again?

[Von Himmel]

I'm a bit confused here... Where did Yue learn about Negi's project and that 100-year thing?

[DKN117]

...Is Akamatsu losing his spark? Is he in some hurry to finish things sooner than we'd all like? Is he setting up a humongous trolling of the entire Negima fandom? Is he out of ideas?

[AlaAlba]

haha, I also have to say I don't like it, I always look forward for the next chapter every week.... that was a few years ago
now? negima is just one of another manga I follow every week, not more.
oh a break? oh well. oh a sports festival? yeah right. oh negi is dead? oh right...

[TnAdct1]

My take on this after thinking about it: I pretty much feel that Ken Akamatsu did screw up somewhere in the story with it resulting in some of the disappointment that I have with 350. However, the big question is: Where did he screw up? The three main possibilities:

Spoiler for Where Did Ken Akamatsu Go Wrong?:

1. The same problem that affected other tellings of Negima: actually giving all the students of 3-A a personality from the very beginning. After all, at this point in the story, there's still a number of students that haven't gotten any "real" development (the cheerleaders and the twins), and some students have traits that may not be explained at all (i.e. Ako's scar)

2. Ken Akamatsu may have made the wrong decision to use the time between the end of the Magic World arc and chapter 350 to do harem-related stuff a la Love Hina rather than actually trying to devote time answering the questions about the traits that I've mentioned above.

3. Ken Akamatsu may have chosen the wrong place to do a time skip to one week before graduation (especialy if the whole purpose of the Sports Festival arc was to hold off the skip until a milestone chapter.

[Merctrin]

I still haven't gotten over the Setsuna/Tsukuyomi fiasco.

[Flower]

Whatever else the silly arc that just passed was, I am glad of one thing: I am glad Akira has finally entered into a contract with Negi!

I was waiting a long time for that one....

In answer to one of TnAdct1's querries though ... for me the exact point that the manga kinda destructed was the timing with the movie release. I really felt that the deadlines from the movie and the manga coincided and the two endings (both in the movie and in the manga) while different were both rushed.

Everything up to the last conflict in the magic world (i.e. after Negi finally beat Fate) was enjoyable imo. But something happened right around that time....

[Sumeragi]

I have a feeling we're not going to be seeing this end anytime soon. No plan goes according to the plan.....

[Tiresias]

Originally Posted by Sumeragi

I have a feeling we're not going to be seeing this end anytime soon. No plan goes according to the plan.....

Spoiler for Hopes:

Actually I am kinda hoping something will actually happen. Maybe something happens to Asuna (again), or something went wrong with the ritual, or whatever that prevents the "Asuna sleeps for centuries" plan to crumble, forcing new alternatives and with it the final epic adventure.

Because I mean, seriously? And ending where Asuna wakes up centuries later only greeted by an eternal loli, an eternal shota, a gynoid and a demonfolk? Not fun.

And I agree, trying to tie it with the movie, which turned out raping the manga material anyway, was a mistake.

[Sumeragi]

Originally Posted by Tiresias

Spoiler for Hopes:

Actually I am kinda hoping something will actually happen. Maybe something happens to Asuna (again), or something went wrong with the ritual, or whatever that prevents the "Asuna sleeps for centuries" plan to crumble, forcing new alternatives and with it the final epic adventure.

Because I mean, seriously? And ending where Asuna wakes up centuries later only greeted by an eternal loli, an eternal shota, a gynoid and a demonfolk? Not fun.

Spoiler for Continuing:

Most likely that something would be part of the process of bringing out the individual characteristics of our students. I might have my hopes too high, but I think we still will have a bit more to go. We might even get post-graduation stories going into the day before entering high school!

[Tiresias]

A bit? This story won't end until we know just what the freakin' hell happened to his parents. They can't just say "hey, btw your parents are XXX" in one speech bubble without elaboration.

[TnAdct1]

Originally Posted by Flower

In answer to one of TnAdct1's querries though ... for me the exact point that the manga kinda destructed was the timing with the movie release. I really felt that the deadlines from the movie and the manga coincided and the two endings (both in the movie and in the manga) while different were both rushed.

Everything up to the last conflict in the magic world (i.e. after Negi finally beat Fate) was enjoyable imo. But something happened right around that time....

You're definitely right that part of the problem had to do with the movie, especially given the way the ending to the Magic World arc was severely rushed in order to have it done just before the film's release. Had production for the movie had not taken place, I could have easily seen a less slopppy version of the final conflict, a few aftermath chapters to clear up the loose threads (and to set up Asuna being sealed away for 100 years), and some of the worst moments from the period between the end of the Magic World arc and the time skip not taking place at all in the manga (I'm looking at you, Sports Fesitval arc).

[Aebliss]

Oh, my goodness. The most recent chapter actually made me tear up a bit. ^^; Those two girls. So stupid. So sweet.

[Xellos-_^]

So Mahou Sensei Negima will end

and

Mahou DaiMaoh Negima will start.

[Keroko]

Aren't we being a bit too fast in jumping to conclusions here? Asuna being sealed, even if it all does go correctly, doesn't automatically mean a 100 year timeskip. It just means Asuna exits the stage for a while. Horribly for people who like the character (me being one of them) but in no way preventing the story from continuing where it is now.

[TnAdct1]

Originally Posted by Keroko

Aren't we being a bit too fast in jumping to conclusions here? Asuna being sealed, even if it all does go correctly, doesn't automatically mean a 100 year timeskip. It just means Asuna exits the stage for a while. Horribly for people who like the character (me being one of them) but in no way preventing the story from continuing where it is now.

Of course, if the events of the manga are going to follow in the footsteps of the Xebec anime and the neo manga, then it looks like we're about to reach the final storyline, which involves Negi trying to save Asuna from a certain fate (in this case being sealed away for 100 years).