Mahou Sensei Negima!
Negima! Magister Negi Magi

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Mahou Sensei Negima was a decent series. Decent, but with the admonishment that it could of been better. I do adore some characters in this series, including Evangeline, a 600 year old vampire who probably was the strongest character in the entire series (save for ultimate baddie of course). I also think that I would of loved the characters even more if it were not for a few short comings.

The first big problem with it was it did not know what it wanted to be. Starting out as a seemingly harmless harem anime with a dash of magic in it, and then ... it whiplashes you with a drastic turn in direction. Characters that were worrying about school girl crushes were fighting in harrowing battles in the span of a few chapters. While I did enjoy the new flavor of the series, but I couldn't help checking the title now and again to see if I was reading the same manga.

The second problem is the trolling the writer did. While I wont go into details I warn you that their will be times when your staring at the pages/screen saying

"RESOLVE ONE OF THE QUESTIONS I HAVE, JUST ONE!"

Its like I was a donkey and the series held out the eternally unattainable carrot. Just when I think its going to give me something, a long exposition is delivered that reveals a whole knew set of questions that distracts you so much that by the end of the series you look back and realize they never answered the stuff that got you reading in the first place.

The third is what I would like to call "The DBZ complex"
This is when a series starts to do the following things
Transformations involving glowing hair and eyes
long bouts of training and learning new transformations for even longer glowing hair
Dues ex freaking strong character *Eva-chan in this one instead of Goku*
martial arts tournaments
and absolutely no consequences for everything from death and mass destruction

Its not that I don't like DBZ or Negima, its just that without consequences the journey and the fights become meaningless. Why would you worry about someone when the next chapter they are good as new like Wylie after getting smashed with the anvil.


and the fourth, usually a deal breaker for me, is copious amounts of fan service (not even the good kind). One achoo and their is clothes flying, school girls find new reasons to be naked around each other, and a host of other *sometimes very creepy* moments that make you want to turn the page faster




I don't regret reading it, there were laugh out loud moments, shocking plot twists (that at times can give you whip lash), and character development that makes you want to cheer characters on. If they do another series though, I hope they learn to edit and make it an even better read.

Usually, I don't mind a harem manga here and there, but this one become tiresome quickly and doesn't give the reader a huge incentive to continue reading, since the main romance is a little iffy. By that, I mean the age difference between the obvious love interest and the main character. Things also develop very slowly between them. Maybe I'm contradicting myself. I was sort of conflicted the whole time about whether I wanted them to get together or not. I'd say that this manga is a little bit of a disappointment. (I wish that the main character would have grown up early in the ... series.) Nothing in this manga is very strong.

It's all right

Story - 5
Starts off as pure harem shenanigans, with bits of action poking through, then a tournament arc marks changes the primary element from harem comedy to shonen. Overall, it isn't really a particularly well written story, but you probably aren't reading Negima for complex writing.

Art - 6
Backgrounds are usually pretty bland, but as the story escapes the school setting they become more imaginative.
The action starts off lackluster but again, improves over time. No blood or real meat to the action, but it is a harem comedy.
Character designs are all right for the more well developed characters, but they're are so many girls ... and they all sort of blended together by the time I was a hundred chapters in. Nobody is anything other than completely conventionally attractive or generically cute.
When I first started reading Negima, I was just entering middle school, and hadn't really seen anything really hardcore at that point in my life, so I thought the girls were pretty hot. Now, as an adult who's probably spent far to much time watching porn, reading hentai, and just generally flicking my wick, these 12 year old barbies do absolutely nothing for me.

Character - 5
Way to many characters.
The protagonist is super generic, although not offensively so. The same can be said of most of the harem, and the supporting cast as well. IF you like a character archetype, Negima probably has it.
There is some character development, but it's mostly reserved for the protagonist and the more important girls. It's also pretty barebones. By the end of the manga, nobody really looks or acts different than they did at the start, they're just more happy/friendly, and have superpowers.

Enjoyment - 4
I think I'm just to jaded and edgy for this. The art isn't really to my taste, I don't really like toothless action series, harem comedies aren't my thing, I don't like soft-core porn. It doesn't offend me, but it doesn't really engage me.