(L) Negima Manga Discussion

[Master Chibi]

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

I'd even have been fine with him not liking anyone in particular. But first he says there is someone, and then refuses to say who it is? The hell?

Yeah it's a pretty dick move.

I mean the entire premise of the series hinged on that concept and then they just threw that to the wayside.

Someone clue me in on the stuff the ending is really missing, even if it was handled 'off screen'. I want to blog about it later and I dont want to miss anything lol

[HinataShou]

New Manga ???

[TnAdct1]

Originally Posted by Master Chibi

Someone clue me in on the stuff the ending is really missing, even if it was handled 'off screen'. I want to blog about it later and I dont want to miss anything lol

Among some of the big ones:

Spoiler for The big things that were missing from the ending:

-Which student Negi has feelings for;
-The whereabouts of Arika;
-Information about the Gravekeeper (aka that person who assisted in the Gatepost Incident and knew Poyo);
-The importance about Istanbul (given how Fate supposedly belonged in their Magic group and that was where the last known picture of Nagi was shown);
-The final battle spell that Negi learned before becoming a teacher at Mahora;
-The final battle between 3-A and Cosmo Entelecheia.

[Village Idiot]

Originally Posted by HinataShou

New Manga ???

Assuming what I read is the title, its called

Gyakuten Meiten

[TnAdct1]

Originally Posted by HinataShou

New Manga ???

While the character designs look a lot like Ken Akamatsu's, I doubt it's by him, especially if this is an on-going manga.

Keep in mind that it took over a year after A. I. Love You was done before Ken Akamatsu started Love Hina (and over a year after Love Hina before he began Negima).

[APNki]

Originally Posted by HinataShou

New Manga ???

Spoiler for size:

It's an old image from the looks of it, oldest date of it appearing is around 2007 using google reverse image search.

Screen cap of search results here: http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/4677/77658164.jpg

[amatakamata]

Originally Posted by HinataShou

New Manga ???

It's Gyakuten☆Maiden by Yuzuki Ryouta, it's pretty old too btw. It won GI Gangan 2007 award but was never serialized and criticized heavily because of the resemblance to Akamatsu's Negima. Heck, the mangaka was flamed so badly that he even changes his drawing style.

[Roger Rambo]

Yeah Negi...might wanna be more careful about this kind of recommendation in the future.

[RRW]

hey it actually not bad as expected

[Von Himmel]

So he did gave hints for Hakase's epilogue I thought it was pretty random

[Blank-Mage]

Well, my Nodoka ship was shot down, as was my back up Yue ship, we still don't know where Arika is or has been for the last decade, and Shiori wasn't even mentioned. My world is slightly darker.

*Shakes fist*

[Tiresias]

Originally Posted by OverMaster

Found in the Net:

That made my day.

Originally Posted by Klashikari

If it was really the writer's fault, I doubt the latest arcs would actually manage to keep up with the steam.

It's a matter of personal taste I guess. And everybody's entitled to their opinion so I'm not going to force you to agree with me or anything.

I will, however, at least explain why I think the later chapters suffered from bad writing.

Simply put, there's one rule that goes for every story, whether it is in literature, manga, or movie form. That rule is "Show, Don't Tell", also known as "SHOW ME THE MONEY!", which basically translates as "If it's important enough to be in the story, the writer better have the fortitude to actually show it, rather than force his reader to do fill that part for him."

Now obviously we can't show all things. That is why we limit it to the important bits. for example, the "where they are now" scenes for side characters who barely have any relevance to the story doesn't need to be detailed, and some short description will suffice.

The important bits, however, have no excuse. I'm talking about Nagi - despite being absent for the majority of the story his existence and disappearance had left a great mark on Negi's character, so much that it defined his entire childhood. It was then logical for us to assume that Negi's quest to find him, to really find him instead of getting distracted by the "saving the Magical World" bit, as well as their eventual reunion to get a major focus.

Instead, it got resolved off-screen. We never knew what happened to him. Worse, We never saw what happened to him.

Same thing with the Lifemaker. Despite still being a threat at the end of the Mundus Magicus mega-arc we never saw his defeat, only a text describing that he lost and they win, parties for everyone!

But those two had it better. Arika didn't even get a slight mention. It's as if Ken purposely avoid mentioning her just to ship him with Eva.

In the end Negima Told, not Showed. So there, my 2 cents on why Akamatsu's writing plummeted near the end.

The whole issue is basically a lose lose situation anyway: Akamatsu had a certain period of time to wrap up Negima, and still under Kodansha directives regarding content that should remain prevalent. Surely enough, you expect Sport festival gimmicks while Negi is saving Nagi? Doubtful.

It doesn't need another hundred chapters. He could have resolved the whole Nagi thing back at the Mundus Magicus Arc. Instead, we merely get yet another mystery surrounding his disappearance which never got resolved on-screen.

He could have tidy up all the loose ends there. That couple of chapters of "Who Negi Loves" which in the end went nowhere? Yeah, he could have allocated those to the Mundus Magicus Arc and let the Nagi, Arika and Lifemaker issue get resolved right there. Done - no more important loose ends. Instead, the Lifemaker somehow has Nagi's face, and then that guy drops more hints on Nagi's fate. Hints that never went anywhere!

If he knew the contract was going to end, why bother adding more hints and mysteries?! Start resolving them already!

...instead, we got several chapters of aimless harem hijinks, as well as Asuna's "heyguyswhatareyoucryingfor - TIME TRAVEL SOLVES EVERYTHING!"

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

I'd even have been fine with him not liking anyone in particular. But first he says there is someone, and then refuses to say who it is? The hell?

Akamatsu chickened out. Either that, or he never knew what to do anyway. And Isn't it Sad, Anya?

[Kurush]

Well, it would seem that the endless scenarios of how it could have turned up are going to pile up immensely on the Fanfiction sites.

I got no comment on how it ended. You all made that in ways I couldn't. Just disappointed in that the flotilla of Nodoka shipping got nuked.

But now I can at least see how things turned out in canon so I don't have to worry about how bad I'll make mine.

[Roger Rambo]

Originally Posted by Von Himmel

So he did gave hints for Hakase's epilogue I thought it was pretty random

Perhaps not as overtly as with the twins (since we had the photo album dug up featuring the twins with the *studs*).

Perhaps she'd have noticed something about Satomi if she'd looked more into the orbital elevator?

[TnAdct1]

Originally Posted by Kurush

I got no comment on how it ended. You all made that in ways I couldn't. Just disappointed in that the flotilla of Nodoka shipping got nuked.

That's only if you consider the last two chapters as canon, which will probably not be the case for a number of readers (heck, expect some fan discontinuity when it comes to the last two volumes of Negima). :P

[Klashikari]

Originally Posted by Tiresias

I will, however, at least explain why I think the later chapters suffered from bad writing.

You really didn't get the point I made across: I never stated the last chapters were "good" or anything (save the mood/touch of the last 2). What I do not agree though is your claim that Akamatsu became a bad writer, despite the whole problem with the recent chapters was so brutal that "simple bad writing" is something I hardly can imagine with Akamatsu.
I don't imply that he has made no mistakes so far, however, the brutal shift by the end of MM arc is, to me, a glaring proof that Akamatsu could not continue what he had planned, despite the biggets chunk of MM arc had a similar pacing than the other major arcs, albeit longer due to obvious reasons.

To me, bad writing would be an -extended- period of time where you have contradicting or nosense elements being thrown in the main plot, spiraling into the main story being hardly making sense by its own standards. You may think the sport festival is within such criteria, but I don't think so: surely, it sidetracked the main plot, however it didn't affect the main story, past shortening the amount of available chapters.

I really dislike the off screen stuff as much as anyone do, but frankly, suddenly bashing the author and the series -as a whole- is a bit too much, but that's just an opinion among many.

It doesn't need another hundred chapters. He could have resolved the whole Nagi thing back at the Mundus Magicus Arc. Instead, we merely get yet another mystery surrounding his disappearance which never got resolved on-screen.

I really doubt he could, otherwise it would be a nearly bogus plot device to suddenly "cure" Nagi from his predicament. Clues were present and obviously indicated quite well that Nagi was really in a very bad situation, so I trust Akamatsu did plan Nagi to be entangled by the Lifemaker (to the point it required Negi's team, including Eva, Setsuna and Konoka for the last push, as implied by the last chapter).

I don't think the off screen was a solution, yet I don't believe the situation could be solved "with few chapters" only, considering how Akamatsu was crafting the issue surrounding Nagi for a huge number of chapters, prior and during MM arc.

Frankly, I really believe that Kodansha was pressuring him to shorten MM arc, considering the pretty variable amount of fanservice in MM arc, which is quite weird if you consider how Akamatsu wrote the previous major arcs.
Simply speaking (and call it naive or whatever), Akamatsu wanted to wrap things by the end of his contrast with Kodansha, but even while the contract is about to end, Kodansha made sure Akamatsu doesn't go against the said criteria they have apposed for Negima.

If he knew the contract was going to end, why bother adding more hints and mysteries?! Start resolving them already!

Because it would simply goes against what he had in mind for LM/Nagi? Look, I don't think it was the best situation in the end, but from a narrative perspective, there would be very little plausible explanation to add Nagi -without- being assimilated by LM, without adding some bogus things like "well, I was sealed, lol!" or "I was hiding myself, teehee!".
There were various onimous stuff regarding Nagi the very few chapters after Rakan has explained Ala Rubra saga, and suddenly shifting Nagi's whereabouts wouldn't be any better.

[Shadow5YA]

Originally Posted by Tiresias

If he knew the contract was going to end, why bother adding more hints and mysteries?! Start resolving them already!

Foreshadowing potential story arcs is not a new strategy. Nisio does it with his Monogatari series. There were several earlier points where he could have ended it (like after Bake or Kizu), but chose not to. The same goes for Akamatsu.

When a work is partially influenced by the editor and publisher, the liberty to continue or end the work does not fall on the writer alone. The writer has to keep both options open: keep the world expansive enough to write more on it later, but also limit the story into separate arcs so that it can end if the time comes.

Again, it's not new. Wakaki did it early on in The World God Only Knows: the early story arcs were short and episodic, in case he had to end it soon, but there were several points that he could pick up later if he needed to, like the nature of Old and New Hell, the Weiss, Majima High's founding, etc.

[Blank-Mage]

My questions that will never be answered are now "How did Nagi show up to save Negi's ass six years ago" and "WHAT THE HELL ARIKA". I also could have handled not knowing who Negi ends up with if it wasn't for the brutal tease that he does in fact have someone in mind.

Arika, though, isn't something I can just shrug off. Is she dead? There must be some reason she didn't stick around to help her quietly desperate and lonely son save her world. Or try to free the love of her life from his imprisonment. Or anything. The fact that Negi has absolutely zero interest in her whereabouts is frankly infuriating.

Also, our finale was Yue getting raped. I'm not sure how to handle that.

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by Blank-Mage

Also, our finale was Yue getting raped. I'm not sure how to handle that.

three guesses

[osorito]

With any luck well get an OVA that explains the off screen part.