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Negima!? – Review

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Negima!? - Review 1Title: Negima!?
Published by: Madman Entertainment (Australia / New Zealand), Funimation Entertainment (North America)
Based on: Mahou Sensei Negima manga series by Ken Akamatsu
Genre: Action, Magic, Comedy and Romance
Audio: English and Japanese Dubs
Subtitles: English
Aspect Ratio: Anamorphic Widescreen (16:9)
Runtime: 650 minutes over two Collections
Cost: $39.95 per Collection
Classification: This title has been classified as PG  for Mild Sexual References, Coarse Language and Nudity
Special Thanks: A copy of both collections were purchased out of my own pocket.

Let me take you back to October 2006, having been uncertain about the future of this site after a number of months I decided I would try my hand at doing episodic reviews and the only show for that first season of anime (Later expanding onto more series, dropping anime entirely and then in late-2010 picking up reviewing anime DVD/Blu-ray releases) I chose to cover was Negima!?, a SHAFT adaptation of Ken Akamatsu’s series Mahou Sensei Negima that I had gotten into the year before through Del Rays manga releases. Back then in my early blogging days I gave the series quite a glowing report but now we are more than five years down the track since those reviews… what do I think the series now? Find out in my review of Madman Entertainment’s two collections of Negima!?.

Negima!? - Review 2

Wizard Negi Springfield may be a boy, but he has a man-sized job to do! Fresh from the Academy of Magic, Negi continues his training as an instructor at Mahora Academy in Japan. But before he can get his Master’s in magic, the 31 schoolgirls of Class 3-A are gonna keep him up all night cramming for a final exam in will power. Temptation aside, Negi has more on his syllabus than flirting and spells. Darkness is closing in, and Negi is gonna need help from his student bodies to drive the ghouls from their school. These girls want to prove that they’re best in class, and extra credit is available to the cuties that aren’t afraid of after-hours phantom fighting – especially if it means more time with their favorite professor. 

As you may have expected from the team at SHAFT, this is not just going to be a rehashed series about fixing up what the original Negima! series started but instead a whole new plotline that starts off similar to how the source manga goes then starting from episode four deviates into a much more comical but darker storyline that is not so much about 31 girls fighting for their “adorable” sensei’s attention, school festivals or school trips that come with demons being summoned but instead one continuous plot that tries to establish a dark being that is taking control of students and seems to be after Negi’s blood. I openly embrace a change in plot as seeing the exact same storyline for the third time would be bland to say the least – but the series isn’t without its problems that may not appeal to all audiences or fans of the series.

Negima!? - Review 3

The series can be split into three different arcs, with the final two making up the series main plot. As with every Negima release it is vital to set up the fact that Evangeline is a vampire, and thus the series begins its first three episodes with class members being attacked by Eva and Negi slowly working out the fact that he is teacher to a robot and a vampire. While this is the cliche Negima plot it was the three episodes that showcased what they could do and proved to be highly enjoyable in both plot and art direction diving into a more realistic version of what happened between Nagi and Eva with an epic duel over say…. the pit full of garlic and a spell that the other anime series chose to use. The second arc is what I shall call the “Partner Arc” which set the scene for the main story and acted on a sort of “Character of the Episode” setting where usually the school would come under attack or students would be taken control of – resulting in Negi and his partners fending them off and him making a partner out of the innocent bystanding student. What was interesting is that while they chose the main characters initially (Asuna, Setsuna, Konoka and Nodoka) as partners, they then deviated in making Kaede, Fuuka and Fumika partners before the other characters. The third and final arc is the “Escape from the Magical World Arc” in which the entire class gets trapped in an alternate reality Mahora Academy and come under attack by the darkness more frequently.

While the plot sounds simple enough, they don’t work with it all that well and you could clump half of the episodes in as filler episodes. While this is used to facilitate a greater focus on all 31 girls and all other characters, several episodes followed the path of Filler, Filler, Attacked by Shadow, Filler. On the episodes they focused more towards the plot they did actually get a good mix of comedy, action and seriousness which was welcome. While using Ken Akamatsu’s setting and ideas as a basis, they did make a number of changes away from the ordinary plot – for example instead of the original Pactio system where each girl got a weapon, they got three cards (Rare, Cosplay and Dud) which could be pulled out at random and they introduced several new characters with several original minor characters getting a bigger role as well. Also, they didn’t limit themselves as much to the normal Mahora Academy environment, with a heavier focus on new locations such as the depths of the library and spirit worlds which gave them more freedom to show off magic and action than in other releases.

However, regardless of how I look at it, there were some innovative ideas implemented and a greater focus on giving every girl their attention (Three hundred something chapters into the manga and I don’t believe some characters have had much development yet) BUT at the same time the flow of the series was lacking with some episodes being downright bland or pointless to the main plot. It is however an improvement on the original anime release if that is any consolation.

Negima!? - Review 4

Didn’t like green-haired Chisame or many of the other odd colour choices used in the original anime? Fortunately SHAFT provides a version respectful to the original intended character appearances and does a pretty good job overall in the design department. For those familiar with their works on Pani Poni Dash, some of the more unique comedic design choices carry over in small segments and help carry across the comedy, supporting it even if the joke doesn’t go off as intended. Unlike the official plot which only used one pactio, giving the use of three mean’t that there was a much greater variety of appearances during battle even if all 93 possible pactio designs were not revealed over the 26 episodes. With environments that are nothing to sneeze at and some above average animation during the moments where action is of focus – I think design is most probably the strongest part of this series.

When it comes to the soundtrack behind the series, Kei Haneoka provides a good selection of tracks to support the fluxuating moods between episodes with some strong tracks to suit the comedic, intense and casual episodes. While most are just pure instrumental tracks some also come equipped with some what I would consider “lyrical sound effects” which were interesting to say the least. The problem was I think that they overused some of the tracks too much which was a shame considering the repertoire of tracks had enough diversity to have not resulted in this. They did however set the mood and was a collection that were enjoyable to listen to, but perhaps not as enjoyable as several of the tracks on the original Negima anime’s tracklist which Shinkichi Mitsumune was behind. In terms of voice acting, they retained the same English cast as they had in Negima and perform pretty good overall. Surprisingly considering the series contained some jokes that would have been localizing hell, they adapted them and actually worked really well – such as doing a whole Dr. Seuss themed “menu” in the Library Island episode.

Negima!? - Review 5

Ever since I first watched the series all those years ago, I was always a fan of the series opening theme 1000% Sparking but Funimation chose to do something with it most companies usually won’t even consider due to what some might consider mishandling of the element in the past – providing an English dub track for not only the opening sequence, but almost every lyrical track in the series. The English version of the opening was performed by Luci Christian, Leah Clark, Jamie Marchi and Brina Palencia and actually turned out to be respectful to the lyrical component of the Japanese song however I would have been quite happy not having the English dubbed songs in the mix. Other translated songs included Transcending Everlasting Time by Stephanie Young, A-LY-YA! by Caitlin Glass and Cherami Leigh and Love Sentation by Laura Bailey. None of these were bad and were fully respectful to the source tracks (No Americanizing the tune or anything) but I just found it an odd decision.

In terms of extras, there is nothing overly special but provides enough if you want to go through them. These include:

  • Notes from the Classroom (Cultural references from the series – an expansive and nice collaboration of information)
  • Go Mahora Rangers! (A look at the faces behind the voice cast and other team members)
  • Textless Songs (English dubbed versions)
  • Episodes 12 and 19 Commentary
  • Trailers

Negima!? - Review 6

So how did I feel about this series in the end, after not having touched it for many years? While it reminds me of how I seemed to have matured with my reviews as the number of series I have watched over the years has given me a refined view on what a good and not so good anime is (Check out my Blog Carnival post HERE for more on that), I still think this is a pretty good series and while there are several areas that could have used improvement it should provide you with an adequate plot and a few chuckles here and there. Those who are waiting for the accurate Manga to Anime port however will be left wanting more.

Final Score
Storyline / Character Development: C
Design: 
B
Music/Voice Acting: B
Packaging/Extras: 
B
Personal Preference: 
B
Overall Score: B-
Sam
Sam
Founder of The Otaku's Study. I have been exploring this labyrinth of fandom these last fifteen years, and still nowhere close to the exit yet. Probably searching for a long time to come.

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