(L) Negima Manga Discussion

[Von Himmel]

-Hikkikomori end for Chisame. WTF Ken, wtf. This was probably the worst part of the ending. As many mentioned she deserved much better.

She still got her place as Negi's special advisor though I must say that her epilogue placed her as one of the girls who are very close to Negi right now.

*Is Mei Sakura related with Naru Narusegawa?

I think I've seen it somewhere before in his interview that she only shared similar character design...

[Narzia]

I'm glad I'm not really a fan and only followed it loosely sometime after the magic world arc started. Otherwise I would be even more angry. I feel like I wasted all those years reading it.
Not only did Asuna not win, and she's like the poster girl, one of the few people to have any noteworthy development and relationships with him, he didn't end up with anyone and basically every single important plot thread was left unresolved or solved off-screen.

This is piss-poor.
Off to the shit list with you, Akamatsu.
That's right, there. Right next to CLAMP.

This is terrible enough to be on xxxHolic's level. Though I'm not sure which ending was worse.

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by Team Rocket Elite

Fate is seen in the background with Negi. It can reasonably be assumed he's hanging around and helping with Negi's projects. Fate's girls are missing, though.

Or that the OTP is Negi x Fate. Yuck.

[Sumeragi]

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

Or that the OTP is Negi x Fate. Yuck.

YES! YES! Everything is all right now.

[Johnny]

Biggest ball buster for me was the main drive and really the entire purpose of the manga, i.e Negi finding his dad and it's solved off camera so to speak. "Abracadabra, make Nagi appear." Look, he's been found...

[Klashikari]

It is probably because of the movie, but the ending didn't leave me such a bitter taste than I was expecting. In fact, the chapter itself is pretty good, if only Akamatsu didn't use such shortcut, timeskip and offscreen points prior this one.

A lot of details are still loose, but I definitely did feel some "conclusion" through this ending, unlike the movie.

A disappointment? Most likely, but the series itself did deliver for years, so branding the whole franchise into a failure because of the last part of it is a bit far fetched to me.

Originally Posted by Narzia

This is terrible enough to be on xxxHolic's level. Though I'm not sure which ending was worse.

Now that's some gross exaggeration. Holic has an "ending" that basically isn't any. Past being open, it just leaves -everything- to speculation, from Watanuki's stance to things like the egg.

Negima has a closure, however rushed it is. It might be as "frustrating", but by no means both endings are on the same category.

[Von Himmel]

If anything, this ending is more like School Rumble ending than holic's ending

[Ridwan]

Aaah... good thing I have ceased to hope anything for this series. But the ending really has fallen below even my expectation :/ Well at least there is KotaNatsu and implied NegiChisame

But, I think it's rather unfair to blame it entirely to Ken. I personally can't read Japanese, but those who and have been following his twitter and the news should already know that he has been struggling under the shadow of Kodansha who has never stopped at forcing them drawing fanservices. I don't claim to know the whole thing, but that sounds bad enough.

I initially liked Negima since I'm into SS, and it did have the potential to be really good, and I can see that Ken indeed tried his best under the condition he was in while working on this series. I just hope that one of his future work will feature SS ;p be really fleshy without being under restrictions of movement.

[mdauben]

I liked the actual ending of the series, which to my mind was when Asuna was reunited with Negi and her classmates. I had even been a bit misty-eyed when it looked like she had returned too late and would never see them again. If Akamatsu had just ended it with the reunion, I probably would have been happy.

Now, the last two published chapters were quite disappointing. After all that build up for who Negi likes, Akamatsu coped out in the end and did not answer the question and Negi ends up with no one. The chapter about Yue seemed more like filler than an actual wrap up of a 350+ chapter manga. Some of the character wrap ups in the last chapter had me going "WTF!?", too. In particular, Chisame's ending seemed to totally undo every bit of the quite extensive character develop she went through in the story. I was also very disappointed to read that Konoka and Setsuna each married someone? What happened to hundreds of chapters of their blatantly yuri relationship? Truly disappointing.

Overall, it was a great series that I totally enjoyed, but it really seemed to collapse at the very end with those couple of weak ending chapters, like Akamatsu was tired of the whole thing and just wanted to get it over with.

[Klashikari]

Why are you misled by the not so subtle description of Setsuna and Konoka's marriage?
Both "conveniently" get wed the very same year, Setsuna using all her savings for a ship and there were no guy introduced at all, be it before or during the epilogue.
Akamatsu basically confirmed rock solid that both had engaged to each other, but couldn't spell it completely due to the obvious problems, publication wise.

[Flawfinder]

Originally Posted by leokiko

And Chisame, my favorite girl, had the shittiest of all endings. Hikikomori, wtf. I share the hate in this thread. That was the worst ending I have ever seen.

I actually kind of like that ending. Mostly because I'm one of those people who doesn't believe in the fact that magical adventures and stuff can really affect your future (after all, she's still working behind in the scenes, so it wasn't a total downer). Plus I still remember the pain of that ending in the second season of Digimon. Did they all have to have high-power jobs?

As for people's complaints on the ending, I won't lie that I would have liked to have actually seen stuff like Nagi getting saved or who Negi actually chose (if he did). But I notice a lot of people complaining about explanation on minor stuff, like why Ako has a scar. Does that need to be explained? It sort of reminds me of that X-files movie. It explains a lot, but it ends up making a very uninteresting watch (or read in this case) in return.

[Klashikari]

The other point is that Chisame is self conscious regarding her "hikki" status, yet it isn't like she dislike that. The proof of that is that She was unaffected by Poyo's Magical Circus of illusion ability, and was basically as "happy" as Makie, which says a tons of things.

Furthermore, the fact Chisame is "shut in" doesn't mean she doesn't stay in touch with everyone else, although remeber that while she was a comrade among the Ala Alba, it doesn't mean she has a "textbook" friend among the group, except perhaps the likes of Chachamaru.

[ellifeedn]

Originally Posted by Aegir

But, I think it's rather unfair to blame it entirely to Ken. I personally can't read Japanese, but those who and have been following his twitter and the news should already know that he has been struggling under the shadow of Kodansha who has never stopped at forcing them drawing fanservices. I don't claim to know the whole thing, but that sounds bad enough.

I really wish the people that are bashing him would at least remember this. He's not a terrible author, because otherwise we wouldn't be so invested in the story and characters up to this point.

[Flawfinder]

Originally Posted by ellifeedn

I really wish the people that are bashing him would at least remember this. He's not a terrible author, because otherwise we wouldn't be so invested in the story and characters up to this point.

No, I consider him a good author. One of the problems though is that the ending is one of the most important parts of the story and it didn't help that he raised expectations really high due to his likable characters and such. It also didn't help that a lot of off-screen resolutions and unreveals happened.

I knew the ending was going to disappoint somewhat because he couldn't possibly meet the high standards of his fans at this point. But for something planned from the start, I was kind of expecting more.

[RRW]

i dont understand several build up at the end of MW arc like lifemarker appearance, eve secret and gravemaster.

if KA already knew that he gonna to end this in less than a year. why would he do that

[Ridwan]

I agree that he could've likely done better, but personally I won't blame him for being too put off to remain staying on Negima any longer.

[OverMaster]

Originally Posted by ellifeedn

He's not a terrible author, because otherwise we wouldn't be so invested in the story and characters up to this point.

Correction: He wasn't a terrible author, but he became one.

If the Akamatsu who has just written this had started the series back then, odds are he wouldn't have engrossed anyone with the characters and plotting. At that time, he knew how to wrap an ending up beautifully (see Love Hina), but now, his writing has devolved into an inconsistent, uneven bad parody of itself.

[RapidPotential]

Although I've seen many complain about the ending, I just feel ending it off like this would have been the best solution considering it was a rushed end.

Not saying that it couldn't be better but I'd have preferred this ending over a real crappy one. I'm just glad to have followed through all the chapters of this series. Perhaps this is one of those series where you just feel had potential to tie up loose ends it had left and never really did in the end.

[Klashikari]

Originally Posted by OverMaster

At that time, he knew how to wrap an ending up beautifully (see Love Hina), but now, his writing has devolved into an inconsistent, uneven bad parody of itself.

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.

[Tiresias]

Originally Posted by Klashikari

A bad writer would actually be unable to wrap things on the story's own standards

Isn't this exactly what happened in Negima? It had all the potential for greatness, the makings of grand adventures, the massive and continuous build-up that promises a grand finale worthy to conclude its tale...and epically failed to meet up to that standard.

In the end, Negima's massive scale became it's own undoing. Ken went too big, and didn't know how to gracefully end it.

Some say that Ken had actually planned for it to end like this from the very beginning. If anything, that made this entire debacle worse, because it means he had decided from the start to give Negima such an abrupt conclusion.

Some say that Ken was forced to do this due to "external" factors, and that he would made it up with a sequel. But if that was indeed the case, then there was no need for him to close it like this. Better to left it hanging for a while before the sequel resumes the story, rather than finishing up the loose ends off-screen. Especially that whole business with Nagi, bah. No need for the tedious "Who Negi loves?!" sub-arc, nor Asuna's "like he'd really end it sadly" arc. If there was supposed to be a sequel, they would be better put there.

I have to agree with OverMaster here. Akamatsu's writing skill worsen during the last few arcs. Maybe it's just him. Maybe outside influences are involved. But the result is clear - Negima's ending awoken my long-suppressed memories on how Sukuran ended. Negima had the chance to become one of the most enjoyable manga I've ever read. Now it's just mediocre.