Yes, as you can read, I’m doing a two-in-one this time around, I’ve decided to review both the manga and the anime in this particular post. Starting first, the manga:

I’ve long been a fan of Akamatsu Ken’s work – ever since I first came across Love Hina (the anime) about 3 years ago.

Negima is Akamatsu’s latest series and also his longest running manga to date ever since Love Hina ended with 14 volumes on the shelf. Mahou Sensei Negima started running in February 2003, and is still ongoing with 21 volumes on the shelf, in Japanese. Del Ray Manga has licensed the manga for English up to volume 18.

The story:

Young Negi Springfield is a ten-year old wizard who is sent to teach at Mahora Junior Girls High as a final task to finish his training to become a Magister Magi (or Master Magician). But Negi is facing a major challenge as he ends up becoming the homeroom teacher for 2-A – 31 girls of various backgrounds, nationalities, ages, languages, physical abilities and intelligence. Negi is supposed to keep his magic a secret, but the beans are spilled almost immediately when he uses it to save Miyazaki Nodoka from a near-fatal accident and gets caught in the act by Kagurazaka Asuna.

Negi has a goal, however. He is searching for clues to his long lost father, the Thousand Master – while at the same time trying to teach, keep his magic a secret and trying to manage a class of extremely energetic and beautiful girls.

I must say that Akamatsu’s come a long way since his first major series, A.I Love You. Not that the aforementioned manga is bad in any way – don’t get me wrong. But the amount of detail that goes into Negima! is astounding. If you ever get around to reading it, pay attention to the characters, and especially their clothing – the detail is almost painstaking and its apparent that a lot of effort went into this. I spend a lot of time marveling at the outfits the girls wear throughout the series.

Akamatsu also used computer graphics in this series as an aid to the backgrounds he uses in the story. Which means there’s always going to be a lot of detail. Additional detail goes into the spell-casting – you got it. Negi, Evangeline and all the allies and enemies we come across use a variety of spells in a variety of languages, including Latin and Greek. I must say, if there was ever a language meant for spell-casting, it was Latin :). Well done, Akamatsu-sensei.

The storyline gets ever more convoluted, complicated and engrossing as the story continues – starting the series gives you no idea where its actually going to end up – will it end with Negi finding his father, or perhaps fighting and destroying some superior demon. I have no idea, to be completely honest.

Akamatsu has also done a superb job with his storytelling as a whole – finding ways to involve the reader in the story. Expert use of emotion and the underlying humor which has always been one of his trademarks, along with another one of his trademarks – ecchi. Mind you, apart from lots of flashing panties and some nudity, he never goes overboard or explicit – and his drawings remain beautiful – almost artistic.

Currently, I rate Negima! as my favourite manga, with good reason. I can’t take anything away from the translators though; apart from the odd mistake here and there, they’ve done a sterling job. I know volume 16 is due out on SA shelves soon (apparently they’re already available from Take 2 and Loot) and I can’t wait to get my paws on my next installment.

Final mention – the manga is rated 16+ – there’s a good reason for this …

The anime:

Going by the notes Akamatsu left in each volume of the Negima! manga – he was quite excited about the prospect of Negima! becoming a manga series. But, if you’re a huge fan of the manga, watching the anime is likely to leave a slightly bad taste in your mouth – and rumor has it that Akamatsu wasn’t too pleased about the end result either. Maybe I’ll try and find out from him personally :)

The anime version ends up being a very watered down version of the manga. All ecchi-like content has been removed, the story’s been changed – well, let me start at the beginning.

The synopsis for the story remains the same as with the manga, at least in the beginning. The anime follows the manga relatively closely initially, with the normal cosmetic changes you would expect, but then flies off on its own tangent. Also, the anime series is 26 episodes long and if you consider that there are 31 girls in Negi’s class, you just know that most of them won’t get a decent amount of screen-time. A lot of the characters in the manga also never appear in the anime.

Given that the anime follows the manga at least as far as the Kyoto school-trip (and this is where it starts diverting), a lot of things are left unexplained at the end of the series.

Don’t get me wrong though – the anime isn’t bad at all, if you aren’t comparing it to the manga. The characters are well-portrayed and every voice suits their character perfectly. The story does well enough on its own, even though it does leave a few open ends, as stated earlier.

Music wise, the anime’s background music does a decent job of carrying atmosphere, and the opening track “Happy Material” is a catchy enough tune on its own – various versions of the track are performed by the class as the series progresses.

Animation wise, Negima! does nothing that makes it stand out above the crowd, it’s suitable for the younger level of audience it targets.

Having read this review, you would probably think I’m telling people to avoid the anime – I’m not. I thoroughly enjoyed Negima! and even rewatching it isn’t a chore at all. Hardcore fans of the manga might be disappointed though.

This was quite a nice long post – hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did doing the typing. Seriously though – I am going to try and find out what Akamatsu’s thoughts were on the anime, although there’ll proabably be an interview somewhere I can get it from. I’ll update when I do …