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Serious Frolicking posted:The second was mostly just a vehicle for Shinbo humor, and had jack all to do with the manga. I thought it was actually kind of charming.
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Feb 23, 2014 01:04
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All I really remember about Negima?! was that it was the previous title holder of ending sequence that is both super catchy and super annoying before Witch Craft Works came along to give it a run for its money.
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Feb 23, 2014 01:23
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Nate RFB posted:All I really remember about Negima?! was that it was the previous title holder of ending sequence that is both super catchy and super annoying before Witch Craft Works came along to give it a run for its money.
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Feb 23, 2014 02:10
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I tried reading Negima, but I was more put off by Akamatsu's incredibly dense art style with all the plasticky-looking people that he started off with coming from Love Hina (another manga of his I couldn't really read). By the UQ Holder era, it's improved so much, so it's a lot easier to just look at and figure out what's going on. So, ah, yeah, chalk me up as another dude who came into this not really knowing about all the Negima backstory stuff. 
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Feb 23, 2014 06:57
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The art gets better rather quickly. I remember it being mostly good once we got into volume two. One had something really weird about it. If you really want to appreciate how far he's come, go read a little of AI Love You. Hard to believe someone can improve so much.
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Feb 23, 2014 07:29
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Should really just put a disclaimer in the OP or something for people that are interested in it. Just read Negima from Kyoto on and ignore the fanservice, as it gets better. It never goes away entirely, but the focus is switched from it once you get to the festival arc I think. It really is worth a read if you're at all interested in UQ. Some of those fights later on are pretty outstanding. And it has Jack Rakan!
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Feb 23, 2014 10:05
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Yeah, volume 2-3 is where Akamatsu transitions from Love Hina art style into Negima art style. The way I see it, the early Negima volumes are really nothing more than a reassurance for the publishers that Akamatsu was writing another Love Hina, and the art--being more of the same--reflects this. However, as the battle manga aspects finally emerge, his style changes to reflect this. It's possible that he planned to draw that way from the start, but wanted to ease people in.
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Feb 23, 2014 11:46
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PerrineClostermann posted:The art gets better rather quickly. I remember it being mostly good once we got into volume two. One had something really weird about it. I was never a fan of his art style--it was always way too busy when there was action. Even UQ Holder has a bit of that sin (yes, we get it, the battle is chaotic), but it seems that he continues to thin it out as time goes by.
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Feb 23, 2014 13:02
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Paracelsus posted:I can't remember for sure, but if it's anything like the OP there are a billion different versions of it. I also remember there was a joke opening where all of the characters were replaced with their weird magical chibi versions. It was a goofy series.
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Feb 23, 2014 15:49
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Nate RFB posted:If the "1000% Sparking" box I found is anything to go on, there are 10 different versions with various combinations of the girls (one of which is everyone all together). Might be the same for the OP. Yup. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtL57XeEvyI Clearly this was all a dry run for Shaft's later works 
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Feb 23, 2014 16:22
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buzmeg posted:I was never a fan of his art style--it was always way too busy when there was action. Nate RFB posted:If the "1000% Sparking" box I found is anything to go on, there are 10 different versions with various combinations of the girls (one of which is everyone all together). Might be the same for the OP.
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Feb 23, 2014 18:52
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Seriously though, don't skip Negima if only for Jack Rakan. He is the best.
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Feb 23, 2014 19:07
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But Rakan comes in like 200, 250 chapters in. I know this forum has a weird obsession with manservice but come on, Negima is a good series well before Rakan hits the scene. Festival arc alone is worth reading start to finish and Rakan isn't so much as hinted at existing the entire time. You know what, I'm also gonna say the early chapters aren't that bad, either. They provide a pretty solid foundation for the rest of the series to be built on, introduces you to Negi and the class and the more typical shenanigans they get up to between battles to the death. Not the best part of the series by a long shot, but there are far worse ways to start a manga than a slice of life comdey with magic. Just read Negima, you're missing out on a great series and a lot of backstory for what's being set up as a conclusion to said series. SatansBestBuddy fucked around with this message at 20:29 on Feb 23, 2014 |
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Feb 23, 2014 20:02
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Yeah, honestly even the first three volumes are alright. Fanservice aside, episodic exploration of Mahora and characters was a fun part of the series that didn't overstay its welcome (or disappear completely, to be honest). It was quickly blended with action (Eva's fight arc was in Volume 3, and in Volume 2 they had a fight with the headmaster in a golem). Negima's a pretty good series in general, even from relatively early on.
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Feb 23, 2014 20:14
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The Kyoto arc is actually my favorite - we've gotten past the fanservice explicitly for the fanservice, but Negi isn't just a generic invincible shounen hero - the first fight at the gates with Kotarou was clever. As much as ADTRW loves Rakan and manly men, he's pretty boring. Also, character development stopped after Akamatsu decided that Negima would be pure shounen. Something about the early chapters and learning a little about everyone in the class was great and I wish it had continued.
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Feb 23, 2014 23:15
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pinegala posted:The Kyoto arc is actually my favorite - we've gotten past the fanservice explicitly for the fanservice, but Negi isn't just a generic invincible shounen hero - the first fight at the gates with Kotarou was clever. It kind of helped that I was a Library Club fanboy for pretty much the entire run. Here's hoping that Galactic Empress Haruna was successfully interred in her Golden Throne in this timeline 
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Feb 23, 2014 23:34
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pinegala posted:The Kyoto arc is actually my favorite - we've gotten past the fanservice explicitly for the fanservice, but Negi isn't just a generic invincible shounen hero - the first fight at the gates with Kotarou was clever. As much as ADTRW loves Rakan and manly men, he's pretty boring. Also, character development stopped after Akamatsu decided that Negima would be pure shounen. Something about the early chapters and learning a little about everyone in the class was great and I wish it had continued. What? Character development didn't stop when it became more shounen. If anything he got better at it as the series went on. Up to the end the characters, including minor side characters, were regularly being paired off with new or different people and put in a variety of new situations, learning new skills. Yue and Chisame off the top of my head were two of the biggest ones. And the tournament arc had some of the top fights in the series. The only even slightly mediocre one was Eva vs. Setsuna. Negima's tournament arc was that rarest of things in shounen: a tournament arc that was actually worth reading and wasn't blatant filler, but instead developed the characters involved greatly.
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Feb 24, 2014 00:49
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Which is funny, because I remember when we were scanlating that arc we had nothing but complaints :v
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Feb 24, 2014 01:15
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chumbler posted:Yue and Chisame off the top of my head were two of the biggest ones. You just reminded me of what happened to Chisame in the epilogue and now I'm mad about it all over again.
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Feb 24, 2014 03:29
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ActionZero posted:You just reminded me of what happened to Chisame in the epilogue and now I'm mad about it all over again. She got exactly what she wanted all along, though. Also I like to imagine that the Chisame ending is the true ending. I like to think Akamatsu favored it too, because A) she was a Naru and B) she had probably the best developed relationship with Negi. And looking at your avatar, the main character from Qualia pretty closely resembles a Negima character in appearance now that I think about it. chumbler fucked around with this message at 03:41 on Feb 24, 2014 |
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Feb 24, 2014 03:37
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chumbler posted:She got exactly what she wanted all along, though. Also I like to imagine that the Chisame ending is the true ending. I like to think Akamatsu favored it too, because A) she was a Naru and B) she had probably the best developed relationship with Negi.
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Feb 24, 2014 03:40
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chumbler posted:She got exactly what she wanted all along, though. Also I like to imagine that the Chisame ending is the true ending. I like to think Akamatsu favored it too, because A) she was a Naru and B) she had probably the best developed relationship with Negi. I'm talking about the ending where she became a complete shut-in, after all her development pointed to her finding a happy medium and the timeline where Asuna didn't come back had her working as one of Negi's advisers. (Yeah her shut-in ending had her doing that too but the other timeline looked totally different). Basically Asuna somehow ruined her life. ActionZero fucked around with this message at 04:09 on Feb 24, 2014 |
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Feb 24, 2014 04:06
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chumbler posted:What? Character development didn't stop when it became more shounen. If anything he got better at it as the series went on. Up to the end the characters, including minor side characters, were regularly being paired off with new or different people and put in a variety of new situations, learning new skills. Yue and Chisame off the top of my head were two of the biggest ones. I'll admit that the tournament arc was great but everyone that wasn't in the main cast got dropped hard.
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Feb 24, 2014 06:00
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Fun fact about the tournament arc: When Akamatsu made the bracket, he put Negi and Al in opposite blocks (so their fight would be the climax), but after that he placed everyone else by lottery. The pairings in the tournament were literally random.
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Feb 24, 2014 13:28
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pinegala posted:I'll admit that the tournament arc was great but everyone that wasn't in the main cast got dropped hard.
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Feb 24, 2014 15:39
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LanceKing2200 posted:Fun fact about the tournament arc: When Akamatsu made the bracket, he put Negi and Al in opposite blocks (so their fight would be the climax), but after that he placed everyone else by lottery. The pairings in the tournament were literally random. My favorite part about that how the assistants just sat there dumbstruck as he decided the plot of his manga by random chance.
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Feb 24, 2014 16:43
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Rodyle posted:My favorite part about that how the assistants just sat there dumbstruck as he decided the plot of his manga by random chance. To be fair, isn't Akamatsu also an old RPG player? Clearly he couldn't pass up the chance for some good ol' dice roll tables.
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Feb 24, 2014 16:47
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LanceKing2200 posted:Fun fact about the tournament arc: When Akamatsu made the bracket, he put Negi and Al in opposite blocks (so their fight would be the climax), but after that he placed everyone else by lottery. The pairings in the tournament were literally random. I didn't know that, and that's really surprising, since the pairings seemed to have been laid out in the most interesting way possible, almost to the point of feeling too contrived. That makes me respect the dude even more now.
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Feb 24, 2014 18:41
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chumbler posted:I didn't know that, and that's really surprising, since the pairings seemed to have been laid out in the most interesting way possible, almost to the point of feeling too contrived. That makes me respect the dude even more now. Seriously. All the fights in the tournament were awesome, and seemed like they were perfect fit for each fighter. I'm very surprised to hear it was actually pretty much random.
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Feb 24, 2014 19:01
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I remember that being in the after notes in the English volumes. Del Rey did a nice job with those.
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Feb 24, 2014 19:08
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PerrineClostermann posted:I remember that being in the after notes in the English volumes. Del Rey did a nice job with those. Dammit, you just reminded me that I have to go buy the last few volumes so I don't feel bad for reading them online.
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Feb 24, 2014 19:14
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Nate RFB posted:The Negima cast is big. Like, holy poo poo it's a big cast. It's inevitable that Akamatsu would have had to reduce it down to what he felt were the most interesting ones for character development. More time allocated to I don't know the cheerleading squad means less time for Chachamaru, Eva, Nodoka, etc. We saw what happens when one of the completely uninteresting characters gets some focus. (Ako sucks.)
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Feb 24, 2014 19:38
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Serious Frolicking posted:We saw what happens when one of the completely uninteresting characters gets some focus. (Ako sucks.) The thing is I don't think they would have sucked if he didn't transition to full-on shounen so quickly.
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Feb 24, 2014 22:07
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Hey, I liked Ako!
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Feb 24, 2014 22:18
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Serious Frolicking posted:We saw what happens when one of the completely uninteresting characters gets some focus. (Ako sucks.)
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Feb 24, 2014 22:22
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^^^^ Akira had 2 or 3 pretty great chapters, as I recall. Ako's problem was that she was more or less Normal Teenage Girl, and while I have no problem with how her arc played out and think she did develop pretty well by the end, it didn't have quite the same effect as watching Rakan be awesome or Yue's adventures. A side character who is aware of her status as a side character is a bit hard to pull off. Her power did lead to some funny jokes later, though. drat it I need to reread Negima now to refresh my memory on a lot of the details.
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Feb 24, 2014 22:23
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chumbler posted:^^^^ Akira had 2 or 3 pretty great chapters, as I recall.
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Feb 24, 2014 22:33
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Paracelsus posted:On the other hand, Akira's chapter was great. Akira was probably my favorite of the side-character girls, but her ending just, uh, kind of came out of nowhere for me? It annoyed me almost as much as Chisame's did.
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Feb 24, 2014 22:42
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Niel posted:Akira was probably my favorite of the side-character girls, but her ending just, uh, kind of came out of nowhere for me? It annoyed me almost as much as Chisame's did.
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Feb 24, 2014 22:58
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Just pretend everything about the ending was never actually written, and that we don't know what happened to anyone. Because the ending was something he cobbled together in like three weeks, and even he has been stated to not like it.
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Feb 24, 2014 23:01
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