First Impressions / Negima!?

Summary:
After class one day, Takamichi asks for Negi’s help because something bad happened. During that time, Nodoka is reading a book detailing how to get the person you like to face towards you by putting a four-leaf clover in your left pocket and reciting the person’s name three times in your mind. Yue catches her reading about this love magic, but she’s actually here to tell Nodoka that she can’t go to the library today and that Haruna is still at the Chupacabra Research Society. Indeed, Haruna is with Asuna, Konoka, and Setsuna in their meeting. She recalls the vampire from last year, which causes Asuna to remember her kiss with Negi during the encounter with Evangeline. In any case, they get interrupted by Kaede and the Narutaki sisters who have seen something strange behind the gymnasium. The girls go to investigate and see something small and dark that’s moving, but when Asuna tries to catch it, it turns out to only be a tanuki statue. In actuality, the darkness is gone because of Negi and Takamichi. Those two then see a pair of red lights floating in the air and chase after them all the way to the Chupacabra Research Society’s room. The lights fall on top of some drawings Haruna did of a frog and a cat, causing them to come to life.
Negi and Takamichi bring the two creatures to the headmaster’s office where the cat introduces itself as Shichimi and the frog as Motsu. They are apparently a special envoy from the magic school who have come here to reveal that the Star Crystal was stolen. Takamichi explains that this Star Crystal is a legendary magic item that infinitely amplifies magic. It is said that even the Thousand Master was not able to master its power. Negi and Takamichi both feel that this might have something to do with the darkness they saw. In fact, Negi detects this darkness again later in a garden and uses his magic to get rid of it. However, he notices too late that Nodoka saw him do it. Nodoka, who had found her four-leaf clover, now knows that Negi is a mage, so Kamo suggests that he erase her memory. Negi once again fails at casting the spell, resulting in Kamo getting hit on the head with a pan again. And to make things worse, the scene gets seen by Motsu and Shichimi, who are ready to report it back to the magic school. Since the punishment for something like this is the offender being turned into an animal, Kamo saves Negi by declaring that Nodoka is actually Negi’s partner, so she’d naturally know about his magic.
Negi later confesses the truth to Nodoka, and she’s happy to have a secret between just the two of them. When Kamo suggests that they enact a real provisional contract, Nodoka agrees to do it, but that’s before she learns that it requires a kiss. As she is getting the courage to do it, the girls of the Chupacabra Research Society run by. They are once again going after the Chupacabra, and Negi thinks that it might have something to do with the darkness, so he goes with them. After they decide to split up to search, Negi finds himself with Asuna and Nodoka. Asuna can tell that Negi knows something, and Nodoka soon realizes that Asuna knows about Negi’s magic. Suddenly, the room they’re in starts filling with a liquid that covers the wall and transforms their surroundings into a forest. Negi recognizes this place as the Wales Forest, and the three of them then see a hostile fairy in the air. Asuna volunteers to fight, so Negi activates her contract and transforms her. Seeing her new get-up, Kamo realizes that this time she got the Cosplay card. He explains that three cards appear in a provisional contract , and each time a random one is chosen.
Before Asuna can do anything, the fairy raises up a giant maze around them and then escapes. Asuna leads the way, but she gets lost and eventually loses her powers. Fortunately, Nodoka steps up and asks Negi to enact a provisional contract with her. The two complete the ritual by kissing, though Kamo has to tell Nodoka that it’s over and she can stop kissing Negi. Asuna wakes up briefly to see the new provisional contract, but falls back asleep soon after. Before Negi can activate Nodoka’s powers, she gets attacked by plant vines that tie her up and raise her into the air. A dark bolt of magic suddenly flies out of nowhere and frees Nodoka, who gets caught by a reawakened Asuna. Evangeline and Chachamaru appear to be the ones who helped, but when Evangeline goes after the fairy, she gets shot in the back and possessed by the darkness. Speaking through Evangeline’s body, it confirms that it took the Star Crystal. It attacks him with darkness, but Negi is able to defend against it. The resulting shockwaves send the darkness out of Evangeline, causing her to fall. As Chachamaru catches her, the forest disappears and the room turns back to normal.

ED2 Sequence:

ED2: 「A-LY-YA!」 by 佐藤利奈, 神田朱未, 野中藍, 小林ゆう (Satou Rina, Kanda Akemi, Nonaka Aoi, Kobayashi Yuu)
Watch the ED! Mirror 1 Mirror 2
I’m surprised that they went with a second ending song so quickly, with the first one having aired on a grand total of two episodes. I wish they stuck with the first one because I don’t really like the new one as much. Incidentally though, A-LY-YA is the true ending theme, and what we saw before in the previous episodes was more of a special theme. At least that’s how I interpret it based on the fact that the OP/ED single has only 1000%SPARKING and A-LY-YA! on it.

Well this is definitely an original arc. It’s hard to judge how this’ll turn out, but this episode by itself wasn’t quite as good as the three previous ones. Part of it may be that the humor was a lot more hit or miss for me this week. Or maybe I was just spoiled last night by how entertaining the the Spring OVA was.
The new plot here seems to revolve around the darkness and a Star Crystal. I get the feeling that Negi will somehow come to wield this power that even his father wasn’t able to master (they must have mentioned that for a reason). And although they work in the Chupacabra again, I doubt it’ll be anything more than just a recurring motif. Or who knows, maybe the Chupacabra really is behind everything. Anyway, they do keep Nodoka as the second person Negi makes a provisional contract with, though we haven’t seen if her powers are the same yet because she got grabbed by tentacles plant vines too quickly. Actually, it seems that they added three different Pactio Cards for each girl, allowing for some more variety.
This episode also introduce two new mascot-style characters in Shichimi and Motsu. I think having just Kamo around is enough, but we’ll see how it turns out. I’m also actually a little disappointed they didn’t go to Kyoto, but given how good a job the director and SHAFT have done so far, I’m very curious to see how they develop this.

46 Comments

  3. Hudson, if you don’t like it, don’t watch it. Don’t cry about it then if you choose to keep watching it. If I think a series suck, I stop watching it, plain and simple. It doesn’t bother me that you don’t like it. I could care less. But to keeping watching a show that you deem “sucks”, then it certainly makes you look a big sucker then.

    Sakuragi
    Reply

  5. It will probably be like Pano Poni dash! and have a bunch of ending songs (maybe even opening songs) which they will change between depending on the episode.

    This episode even featured the disturbed faces and “game mode” from Pano poni, so it’s hard not to see the similarities.

    Orrin
    Reply

  7. I can’t say I’m fond of the little “balloon aminals” (at least the way they are drawn and I include the ferret in that) … but the camera angles and art are still pretty good otherwise. I must admit they appealed to the darkside of my brain with Nodoka and that plant attack (oy vey the tentacles 🙂 ) … for the plot itself, I must stew a bit before I decide what I think of it. There’s still a lot of episodes to go but I’m going to be disappointed if we don’t get *something* with the firepower pizzazz equivalent to the Kyoto arc or the Festival tourney.

    Its very entertaining but I think we’re starting to see the importance of that “?” at the end of the title. If you read Tsukuyomi Moon Phase the manga and compare it to the anime — you’ll find they are both very good… but quite different in some ways as well. Shinbo is some kind of perverse subversive 🙂

    Vexx
    Reply

  10. @Hudson, you’re not being a critic, you’re plain bashing the show because you don’t like it. A real critic would give the good points and bad points of the show, which is what Omni’s blog is about, he blogs an anime and discusses the good points and the bad points. In your case, you’re just bashing the show because you hate it, you’re not criticizing at all. If you don’t like it, don’t watch it. Nobody here wants you to come back and say the same crap every time. So seriously, you really need to stop it. I know who you are, so you better stop. And watch your damn language too. Nobody else is swearing on here, so seriously stop.

    DC
    Reply

  14. Here are my thoughts on ep 4:

    Watched the episode a couple of hours ago, and I have a mixed reaction to it. Animation and music were superb, but it looks like the animation was rougher during non-important scenes, and would pick up during the battle segments and important events. The music is still great as well, loved the theme they had playing during Nodoka’s Neo Pactio Kiss. The one thing that I am sort of getting tired of is the whole Chupacabra thing, it was great as a joke in the first 2 or 3 eps, but now there’s a research society on it? Just doesn’t mix well for me. However, the story about the Star Crystal and how someone is using it’s powers is really interesting me. Since this is the first episode of the new original arc, I can understand why I have mixed reactions to this, but hopefully we’ll learn more in upcoming episodes.

    DC
    Reply

  18. Man, I think Hudson is shit! I won’t stop until he STOPS BLOGGING HIS BUTT. OH GOD, IT’S SO OFFENSIVE TO ME THAT THIS ANIME SUCKS, ARHGGHGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHGGHGHGH I HAVE AIDS AND WISH TO DIE. GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR MY LIFE REVOLVES AROUND THE FACT THAT I DON’T LIKE AN ANIMEMEMEMEMEMMEMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE AIDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDS

    Mr LaLa
    Reply

  19. People are entitled to their own opinions, just keep it to yourself if it’s making other people unhappy. If you keep doing it, you’re only wanting attention.

    As for the episode, I really hope they animate some more of the content that was in the manga. I’d really like to see some of the battles animated =).

    Naakay
    Reply

  20. wow, Hudson’s back. Who wudda thunk the fool would come back give worthless comments after enduring 3 episode summaries of the series he hated so much.

    Though I must say, I don’t really like where this new arc is going at the moment. Need more eps to see how this’ll turn out.

    Kaito
    Reply

  22. Wow this episode looks as if it’s funny, it seems as if it is based around Nodoka(she looked so cute this episode) the current arc looks great,I really like arcs like these, I can’t wait to see more of it, it also seems that eva will play a role in this arc.

    shirousama1
    Reply

  25. Yanno, usually I like to read the comments on Omni’s blog entries and join in, but if Hudson’s going to be coming in every single Negima!? entry and rant like that, I think I’ll just stop coming.

    dkellis
    Reply

  27. @dkellis, do what I’m going to do from now on and just ignore Hudson. It’s just his own cry for attention, so don’t bother.

    @Omni, they might not go to Kyoto, but there’s always that chance that bad guys like Kotarou and Fate might show up and be involved in this somehow. They are very popular side-characters after all.

    DC
    Reply

  32. OH GOD!!
    THANK YOU FOR THE DOUBLE FAN SEVICE REMEDY THIS WEEK!!
    I AM ON NIRVANA STATE RIGHT NOW!!
    Omni I BET you´re enjoying this week´s episodes!! 😀
    5 thousand japanese guys watching the seiyuu show alive, and i think by the count, most of then from tokyo!!just one word -> ” LUCKY BASTARDS ” 😆 >>>>> 😀

    tensai_otaku
    Reply

  36. Hah, Hudson’s doing what I did with SHnY. He’ll probably give up pissing himself off and stop at episode 6(for some reason, episode 6 seems to be the break or take ep most of the time when you’re doubting a series).

    They really like that chupacabra, huh? lol

    Nodoka was soooooo into that pactio kiss~ ;p

    Jin
    Reply

  38. this episode was a dissapointment for me. Too little happened, and then when action did take place, it was sort of rushed. I think that will probably be the problem with this sereis, too much padding in the beginning to get the plot understood, and then rushing things in the climax/falling action of the plot.

    ddhboy
    Reply

  42. who’s gonna b the next one to find out about negi’s secret? i luv it when nodoka x negi kiss i hope they end up with each other,but the creator will probably make it asuna x negi in da end

    anim3guy
    Reply

  44. ignore the freak called Hudson due he is a tard to be ignored btw i like the show and plz ignore Hudson/Bigfics cause
    a.he’s a perv
    b.a stupid flammer that wants attenion *don’t worry he tends to flame on a forum im on >.>*
    so plz ignore him and yes Hudson is Don
    but the overall summery is in fact quite good ^^

    Onimaru
    Reply

  45. actully I think the first three eps was done in a OVA style set up and the rest of this is that actually series. strange way to start a new show, and Hudson like the man say if you don’t like it don’t watch it

    j-man
    Reply

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