PLEASE DON'T READ THIS IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE LATEST CHAPTER OF MAHOU SENSEI NEGIMA. PLEASE DON'T. I'D HATE TO RUIN SOMEONE'S READING. AND IF YOU HAVE OR JUST DON'T CARE, PLEASE DON'T SPOIL SOMEONE ELSE FOR ME. THAT'S JUST NOT COOL, MAN.
OK, so. If all the Magic World inhabitants are getting erased, but people in the 'real' world are not, DOES THAT MEAN THAT SETSUNA DIES? IT DOESN'T, RIGHT? RIGHT? Right? right? ...right? T_T Gah, if my favoritest of favorite character dies, I don't know what I'll do...
OK, so there's this kid teacher Negi, who, after a whole bunch of mishaps, finds himself trapped in the Magic World supposedly on Mars with about half of his class. They're fighting the Big Baddy Fate (no, not Fate Testarossa, but if she turned evil, that'd be interesting...) and BB!Fate and his team are erasing everything. There's some speculation that this erasure of people and things only works with the Magic World inhabitants, as Yue, one of the students, was shot and pierced by an erasing projectile, but she was not erased whereas the person who was protecting her was. Plus a whole bunch of other Magic World people have been erased. Of course, this is an incomplete theory, because one of BB!Fate's main erasing guys is tracking down Nodoka, another of Negi's students, with his erasing techniques, and he seems completely sure that Nodoka will be erased. So, we, the fans, don't know if this erasing thing will only affect Magic World people or not. BUT ANYWAY.
Setsuna is a half breed, half crow demon, half human. So if she gets hit with one of those beams (which is doubtful, but we're going by worst case situation here), would she get erased? Would she just lose her awesome, beautiful wings? WHAT WOULD HAPPEN???? Gah, it worries me much... And the manga isn't getting released as periodically as it used to... T_T
And I suppose since I'm at it, I might as well write a little about this manga.
Mahou Sensei Negima, by the wonderful Akamatsu Ken, is an ongoing story of Harry Potter-like proportions. Well, OK, not really. The only thing they have in common is magic, and even that isn't the same. But anyway. As it is written by Akamatsu Ken (who, for those of you who don't know, also did A.I. Love You and Love Hina), this does have the requisite 'Harem' genre. While I'm not a fan of this genre, the only thing it has going for it is that the male in the middle of it all is 10 years old. A sometimes REALLY FUCKING ANNOYING 10 year old, but still. Any romance is out of the cards for him. But what really keeps me reading are two things: Setsuna and the action scenes. Let's go into action first, as I tend to over talk the characters.
SOME OF THESE IMAGES ARE DOUBLE SIDED. PLEASE CLICK TO ZOOM IN AND SEE THE ENTIRE THING.
Sorry for the bad scans, but I just went and picked up the easiest to find images instead of downloading it. But anyway. The action scenes in Mahou Sensei Negima are typically pretty clean. It's pretty easy to at least sort of figure out what has happened in the battle, which is better than most other manga. There's also a lot of explosions, which, aside from being drawn amazingly, I happen to like. But yeah, that's part of what has me hooked. Now to the other part!
As there are 31 kids in Negi's class, plus Negi, plus some of his friends, plus the bad guys, I'm not going into a detailed introduction to each character. Instead, I'll only go over my favorites. But here's a picture of everyone in the class, at least.
But yes. On with the Characters! Today, I'll be going over my favorite characters, plus some people that I guess are important.
Aside from having a name that reminds me of the capital of Illinois, this kid is the hero of the series. He's pretty much a token hero, with the painful backstory and stuff. The only that's different about him is that he's actually a genius, though that doesn't really translate into his fighting. He ends up overthinking things and getting into trouble. He's also nice, not a jerk, and not completely incompetant, which is a nice change. Of course, this leads to the problem of him being perfect, but I don't really care about him anyway, so let's stop now, shall we?
I wasn't originally going to talk about Asuna, but she's pretty BA, so I guess I will. She's the main heroine of the manga, as she is the first one to find out about Negi's magic. The Dumb!Tomboy!type, it could be argued that the only thing she's good for is physical abuse, but I happen to like Asuna and not only for her huge sword either. She tells things like they are and really uncomplicates things for me sometimes. Also, she can be funny.
You can always tell when I get to a character I like because I start adding more pictures of them. XD But yes, Setsuna. She really is my favorite character. Loyal, strong, fights with a sword, has some AWESOME wings, and has a haircut that I can at least try to imitate. Of course, she has some faults, especially being really insecure when it comes to not protecting her Ojou-sama, but that's OK. Perfection means a Mary Sue, and those need to die a horrible death. Sometimes. But I'm not going to go into how some Mary Sue's can be cool, because I don't remember which ones I thought were an exception. XD But anyway. What really made me fall in fan idolization over her was chapters 26-53 (volumes 4-6). I'd post it here, but, 1) most people have already read it, and 2) if you haven't read it yet, I'll let you see how awesome she is by yourself. She also kicks ass at the Mahora Budokai (some of which was shown above) and during the Chao arc. She is pretty much the only character I read this series for. Well, there is also...
Bah, I couldn't find a good picture of her that I wasn't saving for something else or didn't have someone else in it. But anyway. Konoka is the daughter of a long line of magicians, and is Setsuna's Ojou-sama. She wasn't told about her magic, as her father wanted her to have a good childhood before being thrust into the politics of magic (in her case, western magic vs. eastern magic). She's the healer of the group, and generally shows a Dumb!Brunette kind of attitude. She is actually smart though, something like top 5 in the class? She's very kind and doesn't want Setsuna to just guard her because she wants to be friends.
This is really the only pairing with substantial subtext in Mahou Sensei Negima. I mean, sure, there are other yuri pairings out there, but you don't really see a lot of subtext with those, as half of the characters think they're in love with Negi. Nevermind the fact that he is 10 and the majority of them are only 14. But anyway. Those of you who have seen the anime will have recognized this, but I don't believe I've actually said it. This pairing was pretty much my first serious foray into yuri, so my banner reflects that. If you look at the top of the page, you'll notice that the arms have numbers on them. These numbers are the seat numbers of Setsuna and Konoka. Here's the video, if you want to watch. Oh, and a warning, if you haven't seen this before: This is from the second season which was produced by SHAFT. What this means is that it's full of CRAZY RANDOM STUFF. So please don't worry too much about some of the things that happen in the video. Banner and video aside, this pairing really is one of my favorites. One reason is because Setsuna is my favorite character, but I also think that the characterizations of Konoka and Setsuna can work out pretty well. As it is pretty popular, have some of what I think is well written, fic-wise. First, there's the beautifully written Around the Clock. And of course, there's also my favorite author for this pairing, Cloverfield. The way she writes is just...! If you think her name sounds familiar, I actually recommended her latest fic a little while back. But don't just read that! Read all of her stuff! It's good. For those who have a sweet tooth, there's also Ryûchan and her amazing stories. Not only is her Negima stuff good, her original work is also amazing! And now, I'm going to reread this stuff, because I love it so much. See you next time!
This series looks REALLY cool. I'm a sucker for those wings...
ReplyDeleteHaha "not Fate Testarossa". I lol'd.
(Also, I spy boobies.)
Yup~ The only problem is that since there's so many people, Akamatsu has to have at least one chapter or arc focused on each person, so there's a lot of extraneous stuff that you don't want to read. And fanservice. LOTS of that.
ReplyDeleteI'm serious! Since I've entered the fandom for Nanoha, every time I read Fate's name, I think of Fate Testarossa! It's actually kind of distracting, because I start thinking about what would happen if she went evil...
(Yes. Because this is by the man who did Love Hina, which was set at a converted BATH HOUSE of all things.)
Nothing 'bout Nanoha movie?
ReplyDeleteNope, unfortunately not. I've heard good things about it, but I want to watch it first before I post something about it. Actually, I haven't even found a subbed version. Are there any out?
ReplyDelete