(L) Negima Manga Discussion

[Eastern_Mage]

Yap, he has to do almost everything. Fortunately, he has staff to help him.

I'm sure Negima and other manga as well takes a bit longer because of more detailed background; the inks and inking process; publishing queue; retouches; and the mere fact that the magazine which Negima appear published only once a week.

Hmmm, maybe...just maybe...the first process is the story writing - Akamatsu-sensei can finish an 18-page period of his manga in less than an hour, revisions included. He has a creative mind so writing the novel will be a jiffy. Next comes pencilling, putting his story to manga concept. It takes a large amount of time due to conceptaulization. Next is inking - I'm sure, this stage is Akamatsu-sensei's biggest headache. One tiny misplaced smudge can ruin the entire page aesthetically, and this is very frustrating if you're already on the bottom part of the page. Extreme caution must be exercised on this part. I usually 'get hit' on this stage. Lolz!

Those are just my two cents, coming from a writer's point of view. Only Akamatsu-sensei know the actual process of writing his manga.

However, I read Delrey's manga that Akamatsu-sensei also employed drawing techniques with the use of a drawing software (Photoshop, maybe???). Such technique helped Negima became a beautiful and detailed background manga. With that I salute our good mangaka.

[Vash002]

And well, here we go:

Spoiler for Ch 218:

Tentacles.
Lots of them.
Anyway, Negi and friends to the rescue, and well, Negi went dark mode until the end of the chapter, oww.

Spoiler for Ch 218 -Nodoka-:

Evil Akamatsu.

[Keroko]

Well hellooo Asuna, looking mighty awesome there. Can't wait to get my hands on the RAW.

The 'stripping Nodoka' part though... less so. Kinda drains the tension of evil enemies away with pointless fanservice in my opinion.

[GuidoHunter_Toki]

Asuna looked badass, and Negi going dark mode. Can't wait to read this chapter. I don't really like Nodoka so the Tentacle thing doesn't do much for me.

[Sian]

boobies!! ... the crazy bountyhunter is by far the funniest character there's been around for some time :P

[Keroko]

Okay, actually reading the chapter is better then those spoiler pictures. The fanservice is somewhat less pointless with actually knowing whats going on.

With that said, spoiler time!

Spoiler for 218 summary:

-Nodoka's comrades take a pounding as the bounty hunters close in on them. Nodoka wants to get close enough so she can see their faces in order to find out their names.
-The two guarding Nodoka rush in to safe their captured comrades (tentacle-bound with stripped clothing, gods Akamatsu, why not go full monty and make it a hentai manga already?) they get their asses kicked.
-Nodoka is captured, the bounty hunters explain that she is just bait.
-Nodoka does the usuall 'I'm useless, I have to be like..' routine and then... asks the bounty hunters for their names?
-They laugh (well, so did I, and I even know why Nodoka asked for their names ) but they comply and tell their names.
-turns out that they're nothing more then an extremely powerfull bunch of idiots. One of them is named 'Chiko-tan' *snrk* another is a bony demon to concerned with his appearance, the third is a demon who does this work so send money to his ailing mother (dwuh? ) and the fourth is obsessed with boobies. Literally.
-Nodoka finds out that they're using her as bait, unfortately she blabs and they find out she's a mind-reader. Nodoka tries to escape but they re-capture her and begin to strip her in sreach of her mind reading artefact (and the Nodoka fans rejoiced).
-But before the tentacle rape can begin, Setsuna and Kaede to the rescue!
-Or not, as the trap turns out to be a relic from the war, an anti-army magical mine which 'calls down a hundred-meter storm of lightning attacks for one-hundred second.' Ouch.
-But Asuna to the rescue, looking mighty badass (wait, does that mean her magic nulification cancelled out that humongous spell? )
-And Negi apears, in Dark Mode, ready to beat the bounty hunters to a pulp.

[mdauben]

Originally Posted by Vash002

And well, here we go:

Spoiler for Ch 218:

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Someone has to release a large scale figure of Asuna in that pose. I mean normally I'm a big Nodoka fan but... Damn!

[Keroko]

Seconded, I'd definetely buy that.

[Pride]

Finally, Nodoka fanservice!

[Keroko]

You say that as if this is the first time we've had Nodoka fanservice.

[Dusk_]

It's official, Eva influence gives +200% to badassness.

[Vash002]

Originally Posted by Dusk_

It's official, Eva influence gives +200% to badassness.

Of course, but, you saw Asuna? I mean, just look at that pose and face!

[Anh_Minh]

Next, for a challenge, Eva will give Nodoka some special training in badassness.

[Undertaker]

just read 218, man, the dude sure doesn't put a mask on what he likes. This chapter must break some sort of record on how many time boobs/chest was mentioned in one chapter. Even hard-core H-manga didn't use that word that many time in a row... ^_^

[Dusk_]

Originally Posted by Vash002

Of course, but, you saw Asuna? I mean, just look at that pose and face!

And who do you think was behind that outfit .

[Sian]

Originally Posted by Undertaker

just read 218, man, the dude sure doesn't put a mask on what he likes. This chapter must break some sort of record on how many time boobs/chest was mentioned in one chapter. Even hard-core H-manga didn't use that word that many time in a row... ^_^

its all about proving a point about how screwed up one of the bounty hunters is

[Keroko]

Originally Posted by Vash002

Of course, but, you saw Asuna? I mean, just look at that pose and face!

Which is only more proof that Eva influence gives +200% badass.

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

Next, for a challenge, Eva will give Nodoka some special training in badassness.

Nodoka badass?

...

*snrk* This I gotta see.

Originally Posted by Devilen

its all about proving a point about how screwed up one of the bounty hunters is

One of them? The other three weren't exactly normal either. One of them hunts people to help his sick mom, another one is a demon with a serious concern for his appearance, and the last one is named 'Chiko-tan'

Seriously, I can imagine why the guy changed names...

[TnAdct1]

Originally Posted by Devilen

its all about proving a point about how screwed up one of the bounty hunters is

Oh, just wait until the next chapter.

Spoiler for Chapter 219:

All KO'ed and still hungry for boobies.

[Vash002]

Originally Posted by TnAdct1

Oh, just wait until the next chapter.

Spoiler for Chapter 219:

All KO'ed and still hungry for boobies.

And you forgot Negi was lucky for a couple of seconds:

Spoiler for Ch 219:

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by yezhanquan

Looks like I'm not the only one feeling uncomfortable about the direction of the series. Anyway, waiting for Vexx's comments after his advanced viewing.

Well... just finished rereading the entirety of the festival arc and it still feels quite muddled and Chao Lin in particular came off not-well-explained. Yeah, yeah, she thinks revealing magic to the world will fix some future horror but her whole manner in losing just seemed to make the motivation that drove her less meaningful. I do recognize this is purely an emotional gut opinion, though. It will be interesting to see how/if various players suffer the consequences for their actions in the melee.

As far as telling the story -- it suffers from two recurring issues at least for me:
1) Action in comic frame form is a difficult feat to pull off --- Ken still has a lot of work to do before he can match some of the work one sees in action comics. Much of the time it was distracting to have to figure out what happened beteen one frame and the next.
2) This was made more problematic by the issue that many of his tier 2&3 characters look alike. At times, I had to keep the cast of characters sheet available to figure out who had just popped into a frame.

Ken is trying to do something that stretches his abilities - that's a good thing. But it does mean he's going to trip and stumble more often.

I'm interested in seeing some story arc progression in the earlier themes (Negi/Nodoka/Yue, Negi/Evan/Chach, Kono/Set, more library exploration, etc). I admit readily my favorite parts of the manga are the portions that play more like "small group of adventurers and how they inter-relate". I am encouraged by the sampling scans that pop up from those who are looking ahead.