Customer Reviews

Negima!?: Season Two, Part One (Re-imagined and Uncut)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Technically, there's already been an anime series -- "Negima" -- about preteen wizard/schoolteacher Negi Springfield.

But apparently that isn't stopping them from creating another parallel series, rebooting and revamping Ken Akamatsu's bestselling manga into the visually lush, fantastical "Negima!?" (see, the question and exclaimation mark mean it's a different show!). And this series is a vastly different creation -- while it's rarely faithful to the original manga's storylines, it's still a solid fantasy story sprinkled with some fun comic relief. And chupacabras.

Negi has been assigned to a vast all-girls Mahora Academy in Japan -- but things start going wrong before he even starts. Half-asleep student Asuna witnesses a small magical display, and a vampire is attacking students. A vampire who is also his student.

Even worse, the vampire Evangeline and her robotic partner Chachamaru are targeting Negi, since the boy is her only ticket out of a curse that binds her to Mahora. Even worse, her suppressed superpowers come back at the full moon -- and soon Negi's only hope of defeating Evangeline is by forming a Pactio (a magical contract). Asuna is the logical choice since she already knows about his magic, but will the stubborn girl agree before Evangeline's icy magic smashes Mahora?

But there's more trouble when a pair of disguised wizards bring news -- the legendary Star Crystal has been stolen, and it may be related to odd happenings at Mahora. As Negi tries to avoid erminehood, he must deal with a kindly resident ghost, the dangerous Library Island, camping trips with his Pactio partners, and an evil fairy that is attacking the school -- and even transports them to another dimension. Can Negi keep his class safe from whatever has stolen the Star Crystal -- and avoid being turned into an animal?

For the record, "Negima!?" isn't very faithful to Ken Akamatsu's original manga -- the first few episodes loosely follow one of his storylines, before spinning off in a totally different direction with the whole Star Crystal storyline. And rather than use the comedy and romantic woes, the first thirteen episodes choose to focus on all the magic that can be crammed into thirteen episodes -- transformations, spells, enslavement, vampires, aerial battles and chupacabras. Well, sort of.

Fortunately "Negima!?" never feels overstuffed, even though there's plenty going on here on many levels (personal, magical, and Pactiowise). The various subplots mesh together very smoothly right up to the cliffhanger, and the writers patch in stretches of quiet time where the characters talk, plot and occasionally go to class. And of course, we get some spectacular magical battles and creepy magical creatures, with one highlight being the flashback of Negi's father battling Evangeline in a ruined city.

And though the focus is on magic and action, there's still plenty of comic relief -- chupacabra clubs, meatball-shapoed spies, goofy Pactio transformations, and a hilarious scene where Negi tries fruitlessly to erase Asuna's memory. His life becomes entertainingly chaotic as more and more girls learn of his magic powers, and he's forced to make more and more Pactios.

Even if "Negima!?" had a really rotten storyline, it would be worth watching for the simply stunning animation. The entire series is soaked in dark jewel tones and swirling magical spells, with erupting jungles of ice and hedgey mazes where evil creatures lurk. Mahora is a shadowy, vaguely gothic place with lots of dim streets and a city filled with starlike lights. And the level of detail can be breathtaking -- while casting one elaborate spell, Asuna can be seen clearly reflected in Negi's glasses.

Negi proves to be a likable little hero -- earnest, courageous, unselfish and a bit tightly wound, while Asuna proves to be stubborn, brash, eccentric and almost superhumanly strong. And though there's a vast cast, they all get a measure of fleshing out -- Konoka and her hard-nosed bodyguard Setsuna, serene ninja Kaede, bookish Nodoka, and even a ghostly student who's still hanging around. The best is undoubtedly Evangeline -- especially since the writers pause to reveal what a tragic, lonely life she has.

"Negima!?" is a stunningly animated revamp Negi Springfield's adventures -- and while not terribly faithful to the manga, these dark-edged magical adventures are definitely worth watching.

This season was great. It contained more action and a better plot line than its counterpart. It was funnier and a lot more fast paced. Overall I think it's a great addition to any Negima lovers collection.

First of all, I love the Negima manga series. The U.S. release is now up to volume 20 and it has been a fantastic ride the whole way through. The first anime series was ok. For the most part it followed the stories laid out in the first few volumes of the manga pretty accurately. Then for the final few episodes they created original material to wrap up the series. Overall, it was fun to see a great manga series in animated form with voices and music, but they really only scratched the surface.

This second Negima anime series starts over and pretty much tells its own story. Some might complain because they want to see the Manga better represented, but I see no need for this. I can enjoy the anime series as an alternate storyline, and this one is just all around fun. The animation is fantastic and the characters are well represented. Since it's a new story I get the same sense of wondering what will happen next that I do when reading the manga.

One bit of advice. Going into this series it would help to be familiar either with the manga or the first anime, because this series spends a lot less time explaining things. I would probably be confused if I had just jumped into this series without my previous knowledge of the Negima universe. The creators really seem to assume the viewer already knows thw who's and the what's of it all. So it's not truly a sequel because it starts over, but it's not completely independent from previous versions either.

I look forward to the next DVD release continuing this series, as well as the hopeful eventual release of the live action Negima series.

Negima!? is pretty much a brand new anime, but includes the same characters as Negima! (Note: Negima! is Season 1, Negima!? is known as Season 2, though they are entirely different)

Season 1 was based on the manga, where Negi needs to teach at an all girls school to complete his magic training. The whole series seemed to rely on fan service to me, but was also quite funny.

However, this version of Negima is nothing like the manga (after the first 3 episodes). This series relies on complete randomness to be funny. If you don't like randomness, stay away! There is pretty much no fan service in this season, making it much more family friendly and fun, though there is still plenty of romance (including a girl girl one).
There is a story, but its confusing and seems to only be brung up when the writer couldn't think of something random to add.

The characters mostly have the same personalities and traits as the manga/Season 1, though Asuna isn't as smart and has become obsessed with Chupacabras and is often portrayed as being an idiot.

Overall, I loved this season much more than Season 1.
(Though this is just the first part of the Season. I don't know what the last reviewer was complaining about pricewise, its the same price as other anime part 1 sets such as Ouran High School and School Rumble)

I bought this anime with a few fears in mind but I have to say it is simply amazing. The Show is ridiculously well animated, it has great humor that isn't forced to vulgarity or sex to make it funny, a deep story line, and unlike a lot of animes everything meshes together very well. The plot starts out similar to the original before bending off into its own little story (and for some reason skips to year 3 after the 3rd episode) and like an above review mentions it does seem to assume you know a lot of things about the series. As I've mentioned before the plot is simply amazing all the characters are really fleshed out and seem so much deeper then they were in the original with a lot of things going on but they all work together very well but now I'm just rambling I guess the bottom line is if you were a fan of the original DEFINITELY buy this.

One more thing DOES ANYONE KNOW WHEN THE SECOND PART COMES OUT THE CLIFF HANGAR AT THE END IS DRIVING ME NUTS.

Negima!? is the second series loosely based off of Ken Akamatsu's manga of the same name (thought without the question mark). This series is a complete reboot, beginning anew and taking the plot in a totally different direction than the first anime.

This time it's brought to us from the fine people at Studio Shaft, makers of such anime as Pani Poni Dash, Maria Holic and Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei. As any viewer of these series can tell you, they have a very distinct animation style which often features stylistic changes during specific events which could be anything from a color change to complete transformation of the drawing style. This may annoy some viewers, but fans of the studio would be disappointed without it (I know I sure would).

I won't go into much of the details on the plot, as it has already been well described by another reviewer, but I will say that the series is very funny, enjoyable and at times rather clever. Having never read the manga, but knowing that many details were changed, I can not say whether this is due to Ken Akamatsu or the studio. Probably a combination of the two.

The high point for me though is actually the ending theme song. I've honestly put on the DVD just to listen to it again and it's interesting to compare the different versions (each closing credits is sung by a different group of students).

So in closing, fun show, delightful ending theme... though I would suggest avoiding the dub.

Well, a lot of people critisised the first anime about it's crappy animation and bland artwork. The exact opposite of that is displayed in Negima!? though. Negima!? is packed full of vibrant colors, and precise animation. The artwork is spectacular, and the humor is absolutely spectacular.

Then there's the plot. It's a but hard to follow every place this anime jumps to, and trust me, it jumps around ALOT. You can randomly go from a class to some weird place in the middle of England, where you see a bunch of characters that don't make any sense at all. I suppose this is the biggest fault to the anime.

Also, they added 2 new characters, which I thought were absolutely adorable. A little cat thing, and a frog, both of whom are mean, stuck up, and strict. They follow Negi around trying to get him to spill the beans of his magic to anybody he can so that he'll be turned into a Chupacabra.

Most of the humor is during the Chupacabra club lessons taught by Asuna, who is absolutely obsessed with them. She buys hundreds of shirts which she finds out later she doesn't need, and tries to get anybody she sees to buy one.

Unlike the first one, this anime doesn't really follow the manga at all. What people should understand though, is that if it did, we would have just had an amped up version of the first one.

One more thing I feel like I should add is that they totally switched around the style of Nodoka's hair. Not sure why, but everytime I see Nodoka on this I feel like shouting "Use a cob, stupid!".

Overall, I give Negima **** out of five, one missing due to the crappiness of the plot.

Technically, there's already been an anime series -- "Negima" -- about preteen wizard/schoolteacher Negi Springfield.

But apparently that isn't stopping them from creating another parallel series, rebooting and revamping Ken Akamatsu's bestselling manga into the visually lush, fantastical "Negima!?" (see, the question and exclaimation mark mean it's a different show!). And this series is a vastly different creation -- while it's rarely faithful to the original manga's storylines, it's still a solid fantasy story sprinkled with some fun comic relief. And chupacabras.

Negi has been assigned to all-girls Mahora Academy in Japan... but things start going wrong before he even starts, since his half-asleep student Asuna sees him doing magic. Even worse, the vampire Evangeline and her robotic partner Chachamaru -- both his students -- are targeting Negi, since the boy is Evangeline's only ticket out of a curse that binds her to Mahora. And at the full moon, the vampire will come back into her magical powers...

And there's another problem arising -- the legendary Star Crystal has been stolen, and it may be related to happenings at Mahora. While dealing with weird problems in his class (ghosts, camping trips, Library Island), supernatural goings-on plague Mahora -- and the school is shifted into a series of surreal other worlds, where "Dark Seeds" attack on a regular basis. The Star Crystal is being awakened by a sinister force, and Negi may be the only one who can stop it.

For the record, "Negima!?" isn't very faithful to Ken Akamatsu's original manga -- the first few episodes loosely follow one of his storylines, before spinning off in a totally different direction with the whole Star Crystal storyline. It's basically split down the middle between fantastical goings-on and slapsticky comedy -- transformations, spells, enslavement, vampires, aerial battles and chupacabras. Well, sort of.

Fortunately "Negima!?" never feels overstuffed, even though there's plenty going on here on many levels (personal, magical, and Pactiowise), although a few feel like they were made just to fill a quota (the giant Evangeline episode). It's full of spectacular magical battles (ice tsunami!), goofy comedy (Setsuna skids right into a dish cupboard), and the occasional bit of romantic entanglement. But we never quite forget that there's something malevolent is approaching -- and the ending is nothing short of brilliant.

And the animation deserves a special shout-out -- the entire series is soaked in dark jewel tones and swirling magical spells, with erupting jungles of ice and hedgey mazes where evil creatures lurk. Mahora is a shadowy, vaguely gothic place with lots of dim streets and a city filled with starlike lights.

Negi proves to be a likable little hero -- earnest, courageous, unselfish and a bit tightly wound, while Asuna proves to be stubborn, brash, eccentric and sometimes quite ditzy (chupacabras!). There's also a wide cast of likable supporting characters, including the sweet Konoka, hard-nosed Setsuna, the serene ninja Kaede, bookish Nodoka, and the tragic child-vampire Evangeline (whose sad, lonely history is briefly explored).

"Negima!?" is a stunningly animated revamp Negi Springfield's adventures -- and while not terribly faithful to the manga, these dark-edged magical adventures are definitely worth watching.

I liked the animation style better than the first show, and I don't mind the faster pace of this new one. The art and story are closre to the books than the other, but the grafitti in the back round confusing and distracting.

This go around for Negima...the show focuses more on the comedy & less on the fan service. There's little to no fan service (not counting the scenes when the contracts are activated). Even though it has a TV-MA rating, to me, children can watch it. My 9yr old nephew loves the show just like me. It's consistantly funny. I can watch this over & over mainly because there's a lot of stuff that the characters say on the sly.