2012-03-13, 06:10 | Link #8362 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2008
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And there we have it. 355 Chapters of awesomeness.
After taking a breather from knowing a big favorite of mine is finished, had some time to put some thoughts together. This ending would have been the perfect ending (ok maybe not perfect, but REALLY good) IF we were shown "One more story arc", which could have been the "Save Nagi Arc" to make this ending more meaningful. I really liked the Fire Emblem like epilogue to each of the characters, to show how far they've come, though there's gonna be audience interpretation here and there. An example is: Spoiler for 355:
I'd like to believe there's more to her ending, especially since she's always still maintained the 'working in the shadows' aspect. But that's what Akamatsu has left us, which I still find very strange. It's not like that "Oh this ending frigging sucked, Negima ruined" moment for me, its more as I said, would been great if it had one more arc before it closed the book. Even if in the future Negima material gets made, whether as a new manga, OAD (yes I'm aware anime final is meant to be the last but hey, time changes) or even drama cd, it will unfortunately never be seen as a "Sequel" to continue the story, and rather only ever be seen as 'side-material' or at most a 'prequel'. A prequel would be nice to detail Spoiler for 355:
However knowing the conclusion wont be as exciting compared to the event happening in real time. It'd be a feeling like the Ala Rubra stories, which while they were definately exciting, awesome, fun as hell (gosh see this is why you'd love this manga, lots of emotional mix, then again thats me) - it was already established that these events have happened, with foreshadowing/story hints here and there. Whereas with the final chapter, its just "This is what happened" blurb/summary. The real feeling in the end is that of sadness + greatfullness to Akamatsu-sensei for writing one of my most favourite manga's for over the course of 9 years, despite the ending. At least this ending wasn't as weird as the anime final....which the only reason you'd accept that ending is the chance for a sequel. |
2012-03-13, 13:33 | Link #8363 | |
Zok, Biff, Pow, Wham.
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Valencia, Venezuela
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And it's shocking to see the lenghts some people will try to go to justify the unjustifiable. |
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2012-03-13, 13:38 | Link #8365 |
阿賀野型3番艦、矢矧 Lv180
Graphic Designer
Moderator Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Belgium, Brussels
Age: 37
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Many mangas were canned in a worse way (Mz0 anyone?), and still were "justifiable". To consider Negima's situation as unjustifiable is quite an overstatement, but that's just me I guess.
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2012-03-13, 15:55 | Link #8367 |
Honya-kun
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Clinton, Maryland
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I think the best way to describe the problem with Negima's ending is this: instead of deciding on one or the other (i.e provide proper closure for either the "romance" section or the "Lifemaker possessing Nagi" situation), Ken Akamatsu ended up deciding to focus on both, resulting in the "romance" aspect being nothing more than Ken "teasing" the audience, while the "Nagi" situation was badly in need of real closure (rather than just "hey, Nagi's been saved, with some of 3-A meeting him in the final chapter").
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2012-03-13, 15:59 | Link #8368 |
Banned
Join Date: Nov 2010
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I'm just going to say that such a statement seems to have come from someone who had been pampered too much by the overall high quality of the series. I don't blame people if they feel as such, but still, Ken-san did magnificently considering the length constraint he was under, especially when compared to almost any other series.
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2012-03-13, 18:17 | Link #8369 | |
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2012-03-13, 18:26 | Link #8370 | |
Not Enough Sleep
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: R'lyeh
Age: 48
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What is so hard to understand that Akamatsu is leaving his publisher which is why all the important stuff got skip?
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2012-03-13, 19:20 | Link #8371 | |
Labda Prakarsa Nirwikara
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Pekanbaru (UTC+07:00)
Age: 37
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Let's say that he's obliged to keep drawing Negima 'till chapter 355. Thing is, there are several useless chapters that could have been allocated to resolving the story: - Chapter 341-343: They wasted three chapters talking and fighting about how great Negi and Asuna's sacrifice and yada yada and for what? Asuna got a Deus ex Machina that practically made all the surrounding drama meaningless and Negi wasn't shown with any side-effect in the ending. - Chapter 344-349: Six chapters of teenage girls trying to pry on the private life of a freakin' ten-year old, with character derailment on several people just for good measure. What did we get out of that? Only Akira's pactio, which never got used in a serious story. What's the point of giving new powers when he's already planning on abandoning this story? - Chapter 350-353: Oh noes, Asuna's going to stasis for more than a century and now she's alone. My gawd, that's so sad....wait, here's Chao to the rescue with a time travel machine to give her a super happy ending! Never mind that there's two Asuna now, and the other one still won't get lucky when it's her time to wake up in the future. Thirteen chapters. Shoehorn those to the Mundus Magicus Arc to resolve the question of Nagi and Arika and there wouldn't have been a major loose end (it's inevitable that the minor things would be abandoned). Or make it thirteen chapters of people finding hints beneath the Gravekeepers Palace resulting in them finding Nagi, whatever. The resolution may end up rushed compared to the rest of the arcs, but that would still be much better than having it resolved off-screen Instead, he made... the above. You know what's even more sad? Anya didn't even got mentioned and Chisame became a hikkikomori. They got luckier on the supposedly Bad End
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2012-03-13, 21:17 | Link #8372 | |
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Location: Brazil
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If he is leaving the publisher, this means a sequel would be released somewhere else, so not necessary all who read Negima would be able to follow it. So that would be a reason to give Negima and end, even if he is going to continue, instead of leaving it at a point like ch 355. Of course this is assuming, like you did when you wrote your post, that is the reason the manga ended at that point and that he will indeed continue it. Which are things we don't know.
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2012-03-13, 21:26 | Link #8373 | |
Honya-kun
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Clinton, Maryland
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2012-03-13, 22:18 | Link #8374 |
HI, BILLY MAYS HERE
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Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu~.....
I was a little disappointed with the ending since it still left a lot of goatse-gaping holes throughout the plot for most of the characters, and I hope it's not too late to blame the publisher for their hand in this...But I can't be arsed to complain; It was a good 9 years, and at least it actually came to an end instead of dragging on forever lost... If I can salvage anything out of the final chapter, it would be my interest in the changes to character design to reflect respective aging/maturity (Though dammit if as a Shinobu fan from Love Hina, I can't help but find it extremely coincidental that Nodoka pretty much evolved into a near-copy of Shinobu, lastly in the looks department by the end; Reduce, reuse, recycle)...A concrete time frame wasn't given for the skip, was it? Oh well; Fanart material begins again
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2012-03-14, 15:50 | Link #8375 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Mar 2012
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I have to agree with all of Tiresias's points.
IMO, it would have been better if the manga had a "Negima: Anime Final movie"-like ending right after the MW arc instead of this pseudo-arc that didn't solve anything and didn't make any point. In other words, the movie had actually a better ending than the manga. I found the last chapter pretty enjoyable to read though, and kinda liked the idea of a "open to speculation" ending to troll fans, regarding who is the person who Negi likes. Also, I wasn't really sure of where should I post this, but this is a negima/megaman crossover game I've been working on, and tried to release the trailer before the end of the manga: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDhjf4hFZPk |
2012-03-14, 17:00 | Link #8377 | |
阿賀野型3番艦、矢矧 Lv180
Graphic Designer
Moderator Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Belgium, Brussels
Age: 37
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You must be joking: while it uses a copout harem ending that smell laziness all around (which can be acceptable to some degree due to negima genre), it does not solve anything to the slightest, regarding the main plot. Instead of adding points of the main plot, the movie literally ignore them, mixing with non sense (complete memory wipe? really?) and -also- bring offscreen stuff (hello Nagi and Arika showing up out of-NOWHERE-, worse than 355 chapter?) I can understand to some degree that the manga ending disappointed people, but to compare it with the movie is just ridiculous.
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2012-03-14, 18:35 | Link #8378 |
Adeptus Animus
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Join Date: Jan 2007
Age: 36
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I can understand leaving side-plots unresolved, since they are by their nature more easily left there, but the lack of resolving of the main plot threads (Lifemaker, Nagi, Arika, etc.) is what disappointed me the most. Off screen resolving doesn't cut it, resolving a plot includes answering the questions raised, not just showing the ending.
Though I do agree, comparing it to the movie is just ludicrous. The manga doesn't resolve plot. The movie takes plot, shreds it to tiny pieces and replaces it with a mockery of what it was. |
2012-03-14, 23:08 | Link #8379 | |
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Join Date: Mar 2012
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Oh, and by "ending" I'm actually counting everything since the manga and the movie split, in other words, everything since chapter 335. If you consider that, both endings are equally terribly written and forced IMO. It's bad storytelling. No pacing, no foreshadow, not a single sign that the story was slightly planned. If you're not going to explain any mysteries or give the series a proper climax, why strech the series for 20 more fan-service chapters with nonsense stuff like Fate becoming a teacher and stupid mini-arcs filled with out-of-character actions? Sincerely, I'd rather have 3 rushed chapters that focused on Negi finding his father then 2 whole volumes about new stuff that's gonna be thrown away forever when the author abandons the story (ex: space elevator, Akira pactio, drama because of Asuna's sacrifice etc). |
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action, fantasy |
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