Uwaaah! Negima!? Freaking awesome!

October 26th, 2006 by Shirukii

I concur

Despite, what I thought to be, a slow start, Negima!? is finally living up to the expectation I carried into the beginning of this season. Episode 1 and a fair bit of 2 were concentrated on character and arc introduction, with that out of the way, Negima!? really begins to shine.

Episode 2 was expected, with Asuna learning Negi’s secret and the resulting hilarity. Some rather major changes from the past season though, Asuna seems to be much less interested in Takamichi this time around and showing immediate and obvious attraction to Negi. Also, her tsun tsun : dere dere ratio got a huge boost on the dere dere side, this is sort of disappointing as I tend to enjoy the tsun tsun phase more.

The story, so far, seems to be centered around Evangeline and her mission to suck Negi’s blood and free herself from her loli form (why she would want to do this is beyond me ^^). And so the assaults on our lovable chibi sensei commence. Before an all out fight erupts, Negi tries to reason with Evangeline, offering to set her free if she promises not to attack anyone. Being a vampire, Evangeline promptly refuses and goes for Negi’s neck, only to be stopped by…a shoe?

Enter Asuna! Throwing all nearby objects (shoes and a boat) at Evangeline, she buys some time for Negi to escape. Evangeline goes psycho, freezes the lake and hurls shards of ice at the two. Asuna takes it in good humor, but not to be outdone picks up one of the shards and prepares to return fire, only to be stopped by…a tsukaima android.

Some explosions, a provisional contact, Cloud’s buster sword and slapstick comedy later, Evangeline lays in defeat, Asuna lays in hunger and the animation team gets lazy and decides to use paper cutouts…freaking awesome indeed

Thoughts

I was wrong in expecting a deeper, more plot centric version of the original from Negima!? Under the influence of PPD’s creators, episodes have become 20 minute long YTMNDs. And I love it! The complete randomness and unexpected comedic elements has made the show unpredictable and utterly hilarious.

The main story is still there of course, but they seem to be using it as a catalyst for hilarity, rather than the central focus. It seems like the Evangeline arc has been wrapped up for now so I’m curious to see how much they plan on covering, the plot pacing looks to be going ridiculously fast.

However, plot and randomness aside, the real reason why I’m loving this show so much right now is…

Makoto Asuna ftw!

Standing atop the list, in front of Nadoka and Set-chan, Asuna is made of so much win this time around. Usually when I see a fiery red-head tsundere, Asuka pops into my mind along with “been there, done that, next!” and that’s what I thought of her in the first season. But this time around, Asuna = winnage, her hyper-idiosyncratic behaviour and greatly improved dere dere mode made her my fav character (previously Nodoka).

The technical aspects of the show continue to excel, but I think the impact of the beautiful animation is being undermined by pixelated source files and my screen stretching the 480p resolution to fit my 1680*1050 native resolution.

So it looks like I won’t be dropping this, and if time permits, I suppose I’ll continue to blog it as well. I may be dropping YoakeYori though, if episode 4 doesn’t wow me.

Needs more tsun tsun =(

ROBE.SAPPHIRE - Materialize!

Load silver cartridge…

Lute!

Zangetsu o.O?

lawl, poor Makie

~ Shirukii ~


21 Responses to “Uwaaah! Negima!? Freaking awesome!”

  1. on 26 Oct 2006 at 11:40 pm1 wererat42

    The biggest difference is that Asuna got her ‘true’ pactio on the first go whereas in the manga she botched it by kissing Negi on the forehead. The costume is also new and pretty cool (I can see major Nanoha influence there), though Knight-mode Asuna unfortunatly had too little screen time. And Chamo taking down Eva was just plain… wierd.

    Still, Negima!? is quite awsome.

  2. on 23 Jun 2007 at 11:03 pm2 Striker

    uhh wait, whoa, i own the 6 negima dvds out…..these scenes aren’t ringin any bells, i dont ever remember seeing her get her sword. Course, might have something to do with the fact that i live in the states.

  3. on 24 Jun 2007 at 12:08 am3 Shirukii

    There are two Negima anime series, the original Mahou Sensei Negima and the remake, Negima!? directed by SHAFT, this is the latter, I’m guessing you have the former.

  4. on 24 Jun 2007 at 11:30 am4 striker

    yeah, i got the one made by funimation or something. thanks, didn’t know there were 2 series, off to talk to my anime supplier *ZZZZZOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMM*

  5. on 24 Jun 2007 at 11:58 am5 striker

    oh yeah, quick question. how many dvds or episodes are there, or are they still making them.

  6. on 24 Jun 2007 at 12:14 pm6 Shirukii

    26 episodes, up to 16 have been fansubbed by the group Mahora, progress is slooooooooow.

    It hasn’t been licensed by any NA distributors, so no DVDs yet.

  7. on 24 Jun 2007 at 2:19 pm7 Striker

    ahhh, that explains why i haven’t seen the dvds in the US yet. any idea when they might be made into DVDs yet?

  8. on 24 Jun 2007 at 2:30 pm8 Shirukii

    No clue, keep your eyes on ANN for licensing announcements, maybe Funimation will pick up this one as well.

  9. on 01 Jul 2007 at 4:13 am9 Sagitta Magica

    piff. Funimation murdered what little good was in the original ‘Negima!’, fansubs FTW. However, I have to agree that while this version is vastly different from the original manga’s storyline, I find myself enjoying it. Unlike the rather irritating and…well…-common- transition for the series Samurai Deeper Kyo from duel-style combat to man-vs.-monster that made it so frustratingly unappealing despite the win of the original manga, I find that ‘Negima!?’ has surprised me with it’s likability and crazy-good animation.

    In the original version, colors were without depth and there was little detail. Hell, you’d be lucky to find a shadow in that series so lacking was the color scheme, and I wasn’t all that crazy about the ending.

    This version, despite showing itself to be a somewhat severe departure from the original story, captured my attention and interest, and I personally like the soundtrack a whole lot more. I’m a huge fan of the Negima! manga (hell, I love most of Akamatsu’s work) and while the original anime stuck pretty strictly to the storyline of the manga, it was also rather disappointing in its lack of attention and detail. Everything about ‘Negima!?’ is fresh, from the colors and detail level to the storyline…and I have to admit, the contrasting color scheme between serious and comedic moments make the show that much more intense and enjoyable.

    All in all, this show is made of so much win it’s unbelievable…and I can’t wait for Mahora to finish the other 10 episodes.

  10. on 11 Jul 2007 at 10:57 pm10 Sagitta Magica

    Well folks, word’s out.

    The announcement was made, what, last week? FUNimation has picked up Negima!? and because of it I believe Mahora has stopped subbing it, as it’s been licensed.

    It was a good run, Mahora. Now we just wait out FUNimation for them to get into gear and hopefully not slaughter this series as they gear up to release it in the United States, though a release date is currently unnanounced.

  11. on 11 Jul 2007 at 11:38 pm11 Shirukii

    Anon is still subbing it though, they are truly the rising gods of the fansubbing scene.

    But I second the hope that FUNimation doesn’t screw it up.

  12. on 10 Aug 2007 at 3:48 pm12 blackcat 1000%

    I second that I have been searching all over the web to find the subbed version of Negima!?, I’m searching for the release date but as far as I’ve looked no luck :(. Does anybody have and websites that I can check out to make this search come to an end?

  13. on 10 Aug 2007 at 4:21 pm13 blackcat 1000%

    Oh yeah, my regular anime supplier is Roberts Anime corner store. Will the Negima!? series be sold in most anime stores?

    P.S: sorry about the spelling errors in my previous comment I was in a hurry.

  14. on 10 Aug 2007 at 6:22 pm14 Shirukii

    No idea when the official DVDs will be out, but when they are, I’d expect most online anime retailers to have them.

    As for in store sales, that really depends on where you live and what stores you have around your area.

  15. on 11 Aug 2007 at 4:15 pm15 blackcat 1000%

    I’ll take down that note, Thanks!!!
    I’m uncovering information word by word, just yesterday I found a site that sells the Negima!? series. But the bad news was the dvds did not have English subtitles, but maybe later in the year they will sell the subbed version of Negima!?. The website is www.cdjapan.co.jp but some of the dvds aren’t in stock yet. Roberts anime corner store already has the Negima!? soundtrack so maybe they will get the subbed version of Negima!? soon. I’m just hoping it comes out this year.

  16. on 11 Aug 2007 at 4:38 pm16 blackcat 1000%

    Oh yeah, is funimation English dubbing it to, I hope not beacause if they get the power to do that they will most likely change up the whole story of Negima!? and it will end up like the water down Mahou Sensei Negima :(.

  17. on 11 Aug 2007 at 4:39 pm17 blackcat 1000%

    sorry I ment watered down *^0^*

  18. on 22 Aug 2007 at 1:35 pm18 blackcat 1000%

    are there any updates on when the subbed version of Negima!? is coming out on DVD?

  19. on 22 Aug 2007 at 2:07 pm19 Shirukii

    ANN, FUNimation’s main site and wikipedia all say nothing about the DVD releases yet =(

  20. on 01 Sep 2007 at 8:13 pm20 blackcat 1000%

    Do think their going to edit the two OVA’s Nastu and Haru too?

  21. on 02 Sep 2007 at 12:06 am21 Shirukii

    Do OVAs even get DVD releases? I don’t know how heavily FUNimation edits their anime, but I do remember that those two OVAs had a ton of fanservice, I believe natsu had Asuna getting violated by that cleaning machine lol

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