Toon Zone Talkback - "Negima!? Season 2 Part 1" Casts a Spell on Me

I hear that the second half of Negima!? goes way downhill from the first half. Either way, though, the best bet is still to go with the manga. Since you enjoyed this series, you should definitely check it out. It takes about 30 chapters to get to point where it starts getting really good, though.
 
Negima!? is an absolute Abomination. Do not Buy it. Negima! (the manga) is an ecchi shonen action with a plot. The first (admittedly weak) anime series (Negima!) shares those properties with the manga. The second series (Negima!?) does not. The Second series is random joke / reference fest that just uses the characters from Negima! (the manga), without adapting anything from the manga. The system of magic is completely fabricated, and works nothing like in the orginal manga. The primary characters act out of character and do things the original manga characters would not do.

Random references and made up characters and random made up plot, seems fine for a show like Pani! Pony! Dash, but for a show that purports to be Negima, it's an extreme disappointment. Really, Chupacabre's? Really?

F-. Do not buy.
 
^ Well, like I said, I've never read the manga. The first four episodes of the Xebec version and these 13 are all I have to go by.

But even so, F-? Isn't that a little harsh? I mean, I'd reserve such a grade for total failures. Obviously what constitutes a total failure is different for every individual, but even in a really bad series I can usually find SOMETHING about it that I like. So there's literally nothing about Negima!? that would make you raise it about an F-?
 
Some early episodes seem amusing, although I have problems with the, ahem, reactions that seem to go hand-in-hand with the activation of provisional contracts. Nope, there's definitely nothing suggestive going on there, oh no.

Negima also definitely has issues with having way too many characters, I agree with that. That said, I also agree that the art style and direction seem considerably improved compared to the Xebec version. I've seen enough episodes of both, for example, to see that the early Evangeline story is better in this version.

Alas, dedicated manga fans seem to be constantly frustrated by the odd tendency of the anime to not stick to it, so I seem to be better off for not being one of them. Last I heard though they were starting to adapt certain manga arcs in special OVA's, sort of like what's happening with Tsubasa, so maybe there will be some rays of hope for you serious fans yet.

Ultimately, this is something that I find "acceptable" but I'm probably not willing to make it a permanment part of my collection considering the alternatives I have to choose from. If you really really like anime comedy though, this is not a bad pick. I'd take it over others that try to get a laugh by being as over-the-top wacky as possible.
 
Still, even if relatively shoddy, the first series is 100 times more representative of the manga (up to about volume seven, with large parts cut and rearranged).



I don't give out that kind of rating easily, a show really has to earn it from me.



It's OP is the only thing about it with any quality. I give a pass to music, since that can easily be divorced from the rest of the production.



Better art/style is one thing. The Xebec version (of the Evangeline arc) is pretty close to the actual manga version. The Shaft version makes stuff up, like Chachimaru being severly damaged, and pretty much everything else.
 
A few points to be made.

First, the manga version of Negima is indeed a must-read, although it takes a while to get to the good stuff. Personally, the first manga volume of Negima I read was volume 5, and that was due to someone hinting me about a certain event that happens in that volume which is all but ignored in the first series, but finally gets some justice in the second series (a hint of the event I'm referring to can be seen in the first post of this thread).

Second, keep in mind that this is a DIFFERENT telling of Negima than the manga, and given how this show was originally targetted towarRAB a younger audience in Japan, the personalities of some of the characters are going to be different than the manga (the big examples are Asuna and Makie).

Third, add me to the list of people who feel that there are way too many characters in Negima. Must... resist... mentioning my solution to this problem.

Finally, SigmasonicX hits a big point. The show goes downhill in the second half, thanks in part to a nuraber of reasons. However, I found the first half to be enjoyable and well worth watching.
 
I think the only way for Negima to get an adaption that really keeps people happy would be to hand off to a studio and network that intenRAB to give it atleast a couple years of run time. You can't just grab some choice bits out and stick them together; you have a good nuraber of arcs, and there could be more to come. Negima is really as much a shonen battler with arcs as it is a fanservice fest, so if you're gonna make that work, then you need to commit to throw a good nuraber episodes at it, and you have some kind of denouement (which may mean if you want to make Negima work, wait until it's concluded or atleast near conclusion.)
 
I don't care about the missing ecchi.

What bothers me is that Negima was given two chances to be an anime, and both just fail. Perhaps Japan is too stuck on "this is for girls, this is for guys". This series has a lot of action, and half the time it's not given a chance to show that part.

The only thing you can really enjoy is the Actresses (both eng jnp,IMO)

Even if this is a spinoff, the first half is all...on point and a mix of fun and serious. After that it becomes Pani Poni part Deux. I find Shinbo Akiyuki to be unfitting choice in directing - especially when it comes to manga to anime transitions. The guy comes off as a one-trick pony and his "OMG DIS IS SOOOO FUNNY!!" Becomes really annoying.

SHAFT is a good studio for animation, just when they are not messing with the original designs of someone else's work.

At least I can enjoy the Manga and try to amuse myself with the anime. Though I do thank Funimation greatly for bring the spin off and OVA's over to the USA.
 
Two problems that I found when it came to the second half of Negima consist of the following:

1. Having done some research online, I found out that they could have had enough "possessed student" battles to last until episode 19/20 if the following happened:
Konoka's Pactio was delayed so that way she can be part of one group of possessed students;Before she Pactio'ed, Haruna was part of another group of possessed students;The show didn't make one of the big mistakes that led to the show going downhill in the second half (it's a spoiler to the second half, so I don't want to mention it).

2. Around the same time that the second half of Negima!? was running, Shinbo Akiyuki was also working on Hidamari Sketch. While his task in Hidamari Sketch wasn't as big as his task in Negima!?, my gut feeling tells me that Shinbo spent more effort on the other show than Negima!?. Of course, that is just my opinion (and I'm not trying to bash Hidamari Sketch, as I happened to like that title).
 
Basically SHAFT did the same thing Xebec did when it came to the Pactio.

The series seemed to drag, until it was decided that there would be a story.
 
There was a story?

You know, I didn't have a problem with SHAFT deciding, "We are going to do our own thing." Once divorced from the most excellent manga, I could then watch this without thinking, "Why'd you change this or that?" Indeed, I had some small hopes after watching how Eva was brought in from the start.

Then, the pactio system was revealed and I knew having a good series from story perspective was over. Clearly, having so many pactio carRAB was done to (1) give the otaku carRAB to buy, especially those who missed out on the Akamatsu-sensei carRAB and (2) provide "you fail" comedy moments for characters.

Some episodes I found funny and some I found absolutely tedious. By the end of the series, I no longer cared. I just wanted it to be over.
 
I never found the appeal of this series personally, I like love hina, but this is one of Akamatsu's most dissapointing works ever. I mean, what is the appeal of a 12 year old wizard getting molested by magical girls around every corner, is it some fetish thing or something, some sort of Shota fantasy. The main female is to cliche for me, and she's annoying. Tsundere's just turn me off. I can spot about four exact clones from the Love Hina series. The attacks are predictible and the action, well I like the ninja fights. But meh, seeing older girls kiss a 12 year old dude just screams fan service gone horribly wrong.
 
I guess I'm the only one who likes all anime versions of Negima!, including the manga, and I liked this series too, (sigh) I guess I'm the black sheep around here

My opinion:
Negima! = O (Yay!!)
Love Hina = X (I hate Love Hina just as much as I hate Suzuka)

Ken Akamatsu's other works are fine, but Love Hina (gagging) *cough*especially Naru*cough*
 
SHAFT is an odd company to me. They're my most favourite Japanese animation company (in front of Studio Deen, Dogakobo and Studio Barcelona), but, the fact that they love cultural jokes on their shows seems a bit risky to me.

What I'm trying to say is...Pani Poni Dash syndrome.
 
SHAFT is my favourite too (next to KyoAni, Madhouse, Sunrise, Production I.G. and GAINAX), and I like when they put pop culture references or references to other anime in anime, it makes it seem more real world.

And I also have Pani Poni syndrome
 
First, Negi isn't 12 -- he's 10 (actually not quite 10).

Second, everyone has their own tastes. I don't care for all the fanservice but the story is quite, quite good. Indeed, for having so many characters, I'm impressed that Akamatsu-sensei not only keeps up with all of them, but hasn't fallen into any trap of needing to retcon things or the like. Instead, Akamatsu-sensei has shown an amazing ability to table set, placing elements here in there sometimes YEARS before those things come to fruition (in real time, not story time mind you).

After volume 3, I stopped seeing Love Hina characters. Asuna isn't tsundere. The action is what it is, but "ninja fights?" Kaede is the only ninja character with Kotaro knowing some ninjitsu as well.

Regardless, the manga is good stuff. The Negima! adapatation was highly disappointing and the Negima!? reimage failed because SHAFT's attempts at humor were hot and cold and its plot was tedious and "who cares?"
 
Hmm Nooo

I enjoy both to a degree, but they just didn't come out good.
The direction (to me) is just off, for both series.

Negima as an anime really could have been something, if they didn't stray so far from it's origins.

I understand that manga to anime can work when some things are changed, but when you completely rewrite things, it becomes just bad, even as a spinoff.


I only knew of a few anime that manage to be more entertaining than the manga.
 
You don't understand what I'm talking about.

ChalkboarRAB gags are nice and all, but characters actually making refereces to stuff is nicely inducing.

Unfortunatly, their laws of "not actully referencing another show by mouth" annoys me, as when characters do try to reference something, it gets bleeped (Lucky Star had the same effect, with a Code Geass reference, which makes no freaking sense because both are freaking Bandai prperties), which is ANNOYING.

Better stop ranting.

What I'm trying to say is, maybe SHAFT should slow down with the pop culture references, by chalkboard, (which seems to be showing in Maria+Holic nicely), and maybe break some laws a bit, oh, and exploding even more stuff (for those who don't get the reference, good luck having it to get off your minRAB).
 
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