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| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
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| Buy | 8 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 0 | KBanger1 | # |
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I just finished this series and I enjoyed almost every bit of it. It had some lackluster stuff, but still peaked my interest to get me to buy it after renting the first 3 discs. Here's a quick breakdown: The lead character (Negi Springfield) is a 10-year old sorcerer who has to teach in an all-girl school. Little does he realize that from the time he steps into the classroom, everything goes out of control. Short, simple, and right to the point. This review will be based on the english dubbed side of the series since most of the reviews were based off the original jap dub. The series story itself is that for Negi to become a full fledged magician, he has to fulfill a requirement to adapt to the outside world. He was then given the task to teach in an all-girl school, Mahoro Academy. Even though the story begins with Asuna (another main character who gets involved with aiding Negi) it really boils down to Negi and his situation throughout the series. Now, for those who are into the harem/Tenchi clone series, I believe that this is a close to true harem as you can get. It is kinda creepy though to see a 10-year old kid getting into really hot situations with his students (especially in the girl's dormitory bathhouse). Therein lies the comedy to the series. Almost every bit of comedy has to be with him, his students, and how his students try to get Negi for themselves in one way or another. For myself, I like the idea of a kid teacher having a class only of girls. This could easily be a hentai if Negi and his students were older (but that's another story). The thing that hooked me in was the fact that every girl in there had a story or some background which made the series unique. On the plus side, most of the girls who had speaking parts weren't covered by 1 or 2 voice actresses but the cast was pretty big (especially for the japanese dub since all the girls who spoke were covered by an actress). Not all the girls were smitten in love with the little professor (especially Asuna, Evangeline and some other girl) which gave it a bit of reality. Every girl respected Negi towards the end of the series and a nice handful really were in love with him. Here's what I didn't like about Negima. Most of Negi's past weren't revealed which made it kind of hard for me to relate to the kid. All I was seeing was a kid teacher who's students wanted to get some play. Going towards the end of the series, it took a major about face and went to a serious tone. I know most anime do this anyway, but it this case it was more forced than developed. Instead of the series gradually getting serious, it took 1 or 2 episodes to do a complete 180. Plus, most of the sub-characters in the series had little or no background information so it took a while to understand their place in the series. I know that this was a remake of the original anime so I couldn't make a fair assessment of this series. I only saw a few mins of the original Negima and left it at that. It could be just me, but I rather you watch it and see for yourself. Overall, I did enjoy the story enough to get the series. I may watch the original jap dub to see what was cut out as far as original dialog, but that may take a while for me to want to do that. For those harem/Tenchi lovers out there, this is a nice series to get. I would like to see Funimation release the original anime, but I'm content with this adaptation. Last updated Wednesday, February 21 2007. | ||||||||
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| Watch | 7 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 6 | AstroNerdBoy | # |
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Note: This review was made upon watching the version that was shown on Japanese TV. The DVD version reportedly will improve art/animation/charac When I began purchasing the Negima! manga, I did so because I'd been a fan of Love Hina and knew that Akamatsu-sensei could weave a good tale as well as draw attractive young ladies. The first volume of the manga was so-so, the second got a little better, and by the third manga volume, I knew this was going to be a really enjoyable series. Thus far, the manga (through the 14+ volumes I've read) has failed to disappoint in that regard. Unfortunately the same can't be said of the anime of the same name. While the anime writers use the manga as source material, apparently they didn't find the same level of enjoyment from it or else they didn't think it would work as an anime. The first couple of volumes could be made into a few stand-alone episodes. OK, that works as the anime does this. However volume three is all about Eva-chan and what did we get? We got three episodes, which wasn't bad. There were changes from the manga, but that's to be expected and didn't trigger any problems. It was what happened next that began to drive me spare. Volume 4-6 of the manga are the "Kyoto-arc" in which the class takes a field trip to Kyoto and spends a few days away from school. It is a really good story with the "filler" chapters making smaller contributions to the bigger story. However for some reason, the anime writers avoided the this story arc. Instead, they pulled a boring story from the first manga volume. Then they extend a single chapter about the class's net-idol and turn it into an entire episode. Then they decide to pull a story from the 2nd volume where the "Baka Rangers" go on a trip through the library. I gave the writers a pass still because I'm sure fans for sure wanted the "Baka Rangers" story. It was episode 14 that I realized that the writers were officially avoiding the Kyoto-arc. They took the story of Konoka-chan and Negi-sensei on their "date" as they shop prior to the trip and remove the trip references. Then they went back to the 2nd volume and pulled a neat Asuna-Class Rep-san story, but modified it to make it less intimate by having ALL of the girls from class in it. Then they took the pillow-fight story from the Kyoto-arc, and made certain changes (aside from removing it from Kyoto) to force the story to work. However, considering how much more enjoyable this would have been if it had been in the Kyoto-arc, I was irritated because now Negi wouldn't use a new magic skill. Episode 17 was an all-new story not in the manga. Ditto episode 18. I was REALLY getting ticked because the Kyoto-arc, which was VERY good in the manga, was being avoided at all costs by the anime writers. So do we get to the Kyoto-arc? Yeah, but sans the build-up and stage-setting of the manga. Then the 3-volume story-arc is compressed into TWO EPISODES! I really couldn't believe it. All of the time that was wasted on crap all so the writers would only spend two episodes on the Kyoto-arc. I was very, very angry about this. Episode 22 leaves the manga for good and this is where the story became somewhat interesting. Instead of raping great stories, the writers decided to come up with their own ideas on Asuna. Episode 22-25 end up being fairly enjoyable episodes as the writers do something I never expected (I can't say more because it is a big spoiler). I began to think that maybe the series would redeem itself to the level of "rent." But then episode 26 aired. Talk about a fast-forward episode, this was one for sure. The writers took an important element from the Kyoto-arc and used it here. Then all of the girls get to kiss Negi (as you'll see over and over again in the opening) before the most clichéd good vs. evil battle ever seen. I think it would have been less painful to eat a bowl full of shredded glass and have that pass through my digestive system than it was to force myself to witness this tripe. I won't make any comments on art/animation other than to say they were substandard and didn't improve until the end. However, since this will supposedly be fixed with the DVD version, there's nothing more to say there. The ecchi-factor of this title is about 0 with very little fanservice to speak of. That will be a real shock to those who know how ecchi the manga can be at times. Bottom line -- not bad enough to say "avoid" but not good enough to "rent" either. Fans of the manga will come up mostly disappointed with the story and some of the seiyuu choices for characters. Even though FUNimation has licensed the title and will have superior subtitles (I don't watch dubs so I can't speak to that), it will never make my collection.Last updated Sunday, December 31 2006. | ||||||||
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| Watch | Forbin | # | ||||||
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Gah.... I have the first R1. And what a terrible job Funi has done! It's almost as bad as the original broadcast. I don't see any real improvements in episode 2 that is mentioned. It must be there but I don't see it. Negi's VA is so horrible that I cringe every time I hear her (It's a she right?) talk. This person can't hold a tone properly and it sounds like they are a smoker (In a way it's like the R1 of Digi Charat). Episodes 1-3 do not feature any real background noise at all and you can hear the VA's voice echo in the sound room. The American VA's don't have ANY emotion behind it (even Asuna sounds like she is deadpanning it.) Edit : Correction, Nodoka and Konoka's VA's are nice. What's the only thing good that Funi did? It has 6 episodes. I have to check the extras for episode 0 which was part of a promo and features scenes not found in episode 1. Funi didn't even change the song to an American one like all their other titles including Desert Punk. Bad Bad Funi! Did Gen Furukana leave or something? All in all Negima is not an avoid but it doesn't make me want to run out and get the next volume. Edit : Disc 2 has arrived! And except for Negi all the VA's have cleaned up their act. I guess Gen Furukana (CEO of Funi) stepped in and now we have a quality product. I don't know if I liked Kaede's VA but since she is TweedleDee of Kiddy Grade I'm ok with it. 4 Episodes only on this disc but it is at least rentable quality now. Last updated Tuesday, September 26 2006. | ||||||||
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| Buy | 10 | 9 | 10 | 10 | Anonymous #2188 | # | ||
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all 26 eps. I really liked the manga. I can't wait till the 9th one comes out... I thought it was really entertaining. The anime was a delight. I did not really like the hair changes... if we could follow who trhe people are then why shouldn't the editors??? Although, i cried at ep 23- on... it was so sad... now when i hear a bell like asuna-san's i think of her... it was too short of a series... but i really likes it. the songs get stuck in your head >< i did like the fishy thing in the begining Last updated Monday, February 20 2006. | ||||||||
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| Buy | 8 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 9 | Urmelis | # |
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Well thou it is ecchi and stuff, but the story is really interesting and thrilling. If you like harem animes, magic and al kinds of kawaii stuff so this is anime for you. And if you don't like to wait for series to be released you can always read manga, but manga isn't completed yet
Last updated Saturday, April 16 2005. | ||||||||
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| Unevaluated | Alexander | # | ||||||
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2 esp. out. pretty good, i saw the promo, and i had to dl it. Its moving along slowly but so far so good. pretty funny, i look forward to the rest of the esp. right now, i'd give it an 9 Last updated Wednesday, January 19 2005. | ||||||||
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Other Sites
| Name | URL |
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| Japanese Series Web Site | http://www.starchild.co.jp/special/negima/ |
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