Summary:

When they go to harvest some of the vegetables in the garden, the girls find the potatoes, carrots, and daikon in the shape of hands playing jankenpon. While the group is trying to figure out this abnormality, Hakase and Chao burst into the room to warn everyone about the Mecha-cabra that’s suddenly started moving on its own. Negi realizes that it’s being controlled by the darkness, and to combat it, he activates his provisional contract with Chao. Because Negi gets her armor card, Chao is able to defeat the Mecha-cabra and shatter it to pieces. Afterwards, Chizuru gathers everyone to inform them of the pattern she found in the girls who got controlled by the fairies. Yuuna, Kaede, and Chisame are all Sagittariuses – not by sun sign astrology but rather by moon sign astrology. Makie, Mana, Ayaka, and Natsumi are thus all Pisces, and Ako, Sakurako, and Satsuki are all Aries. What this all means is that the person behind all this is someone specializing in fortunetelling who has extensive knowledge of astrology. Upon learning this, Negi gets a serious face as he starts to realize something.

As the day goes on, the darkness starts to control various things around school that terrorize the girls. When Motsu and Shichimi privately decide that it’s time for them to contact someone, Nekane catches them in the act and transforms into the Black Rose Baron. She initially accuses them of not actually working for the Magic Academy and thinks that they were contacting the master of the darkness, but after grabbing them, she realizes that she’s wrong. Negi then comes onto the roof to ask the Black Rose Baron about who he suspects is the person behind all this: Anya. The Black Rose Baron tries to tell Negi that he’s mistaken, but Takamichi and Chachamaru then come up to confirm that the master of the darkness is indeed Anya. With the secret out, Nekane takes off her eyepiece and hat and notices that Negi’s not surprised to see her true identity. She goes on to explain that if the remaining fairy fragment is found and the Soulshriek is completed, then the Anya inside the Star Crystal will awaken. The reason that Anya got involved with this was because she was lonely and wasn’t doing well with her training. Since she always thought about Negi and didn’t want to lose to him, she had reached out to the Star Crystal. Nekane blamed herself for this and wanted to save Anya.

Their conversation is soon interrupted by the arrival of the Bonge Bonge. Hearing the cry that it makes, Takamichi realizes that this is the final fairy. After Negi uses his magic to defeat the Bonge Bonge, the fragment from it combines with the other fragments to form the Soulshriek which then turns into the Star Crystal. Flying towards them now is Eva, whom Takamichi sees is being possessed by the darkness, and the Star Crystal gets absorbed into her head. After Eva gathers up all the darkness around the school, she transforms and declares, with Anya’s voice, that she won’t lose to Negi.

The story took off!. I like where it’s going, though that very well may be because there’s been such a lack of any direction until now, so anything is better than nothing. For starters, I found Chizuru’s initial explanation about moon sign astrology rather interesting since I didn’t know such a thing existed. After researching it a bit though, I found that all the birthdays do line up exactly how she said, give or take 24 hours depending on which hour of the day the girls were born. This ultimately led Negi to realize that Anya was behind it all, and everything now seems to be coming together at the end of the episode with Negi having to face off against Eva as the evil avatar. I don’t really care for Eva’s new look (it makes me think of her as some teen superhero), but I did like how they animated the rooftop scene with the moving sky.
In any case, I’m interested in seeing where they take the series now with only four episodes left.

59 Comments

  1. i just finished watching negima and i dont remember any of these scenes are these new episodes or what cause i love negima and it sucked when my friend told me they werent makin new episodes can someone tell me where these are from

    negimaFan
  2. right.. whatever… like Shinji says… powerful vampire gets sucked in by bigger darkness.
    This is getting to be like “we’ll have the alien smack Worf to show how strong it is” so every couple of episodes Worf got smacked. Frankly I prefer the ramen and green tea scenes 🙂

    Maybe for a few episodes we’ll get more action than just scene cuts though??? As our blogger says — after 10 episodes of no direction, even minor direction seems large.

    I do find it interesting that only one fansub group ever picked this up (hey, its Shinbo, where’s all the slavering Shinbo-is-god groups?). Mahora seems to be having real life difficulties that prevent consistent time applied to the series (though the 4 eps at once drop pattern was kind of nice).

    Vexx
  3. Gil:

    I forgot her myself. She’s Negi’s childhood friend. She appears only in the beginning of the manga (I think she appears in the first episode of this series), she’s also Nekane’s friend. Anyway she never had a role like this in the manga.

    Avisch
  4. @ O_o – I don’t think the original series sucked. I wasn’t too sure when they went away from the manga near the end of the series but I thought it was a nice, fluffy anime. I enjoyed it enough to buy all the Japanese DVD releases, which if people didn’t know were released to showcase the re-done first ten episodes of the series. I know this isn’t a reason to buy them, they should have done better animation to start with blah blah, but I still think the original was alright.

    @ Vexx – Worf never beat anyone. He just absorbed a lot of punishment…

  5. Negima seems to be a hard manga to adapt well. The manga itself gets alittle sidetracked on things.

    Can anyone list how many story arcs the manga has? I just want to know what I’m missing.

    Avisch
  6. Consider the fact that, because of Nekane’s appearance as the Black Rose Baron, it was only logical that Anya was not far behind. Furthermore she was hinted at suffering problems beforehand, so Anya behind everything was more or less a “I KNEW IT!” or “I saw that coming a mile away” than the shocker of Nekane showing her face and being the BRB… or the whole “what you thought was filler ACTUALLY WASN’T LOLOLOLOLOLOL”

    @Avisch, I’d take a shot and say about 5, with the last one easily divisible into two or three parts.

    Sin Ansem
  7. heh.. you’re missing basically every story arc from the manga outside of bits and pieces pulled in (like the initial Eva arc or an odd re-interp of Kaede’s forest arc). Negima!? is just the characters pulled into a completely different universe with a bit of the familiar premise of the school and the idea of pactios.

    It isn’t that the manga is hard to adapt (the stories are pretty straightforward even if there are a lot of arcs) — its just that the first series was developed early in the manga releases and suffered from producton problems as well as deviating from what would have been a pretty good climax (Kyoto arc) into an arc that, while interesting, ended in an exceptionally sappy way. This series, while an interesting excursion into the boundaries of omake as we know it — also leaves the manga fans in limbo waiting (probably forever) for someone to take a serious stab at doing the story.

    From a Shinbo worship standpoint, though it took off quite nicely — it hasn’t been what I’d call Shinbo-rific for about 10 episodes. It may be that some discontent has reached his ears and he’s reacting.

    Vexx
  8. Vexx: I actually don’t watch Negima!? I only read the original manga now and then.
    Arcs I know are.
    Intro
    Giant library
    Evangeline
    Kyoto…long stuff
    Island
    Training
    Festival (just ended)

    Avisch
  9. If anything, this series is going to be known for rubbing some people up the wrong way. I can’t believe some of the arguements that have gone on.

    Personally, I really like Negima!? It’s been really fun and I like the randomness of the anime. Sure, the manga is good as is, but it is nice to see adaptations that aren’t just a straight port of the manga.

    Now if only Mahora can catch up with the episodes….

    Aya_s
  10. So the shitty story line returns after giving us 12 episodes of filler hell. Heh the story line is hell too you know. This show still sucks. There is NO WAY this can ever be any better than that.

    Hudson
  11. LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLL 😀 the green little guy rocks man!!!HE IS FUNNY!!
    Also if you take a close look at the end you´ll they are joking around with
    SPACE GHOST COAST TO COAST!!!And yes we do have that shit on Brazil too (LOL)
    cartoon cartoons!!!

    tensai_otaku
  12. ANYA-CHAN?! Was Anya-chan all this time? Well, this is more than she played on manga and the anime’s first seasson. But still is a little unexpected. I don’t care at least, since we have only 4 episodes until th great final! Maybe with an Eva and Chachamaru’s pactio with Negi to solve this!

    dukemon
  13. …awww…

    …why does Shaft have to always give Eva the shaft…

    …she’s the only thing I liked about the Manga…

    ..and now she’s just a pathetic, tea drinking, ramen scarfing, emo weakling…

    …*sob sob*…

    …shut it Don…

    Zzz...
  14. If by that you mean, “when is it licensed for DVD distribution in America?” …. no one has picked it up yet (though I’d guess Funimation is a likely candidate since they did the first series nicely).

    If by that you mean, “where are the fansubs?” … they’re lagging behind the series by a few weeks (but nothing ruinously late yet).

    If you mean “will someone broadcast it on cable/tv?” … probably not.

    Vexx
  15. …I truly hope that Funimation does not pick this one up…truly truly pray to God that they don’t…unless Monica Rial, Greg Ayres, and the rest of the main Funimation VA pool all simultaneously die…

    …now I know everyone will be saying ‘Well dubs suck ass anyway’…but I’m just the type of person to watch it if it becomes available…even if it hurts…and hearing the dubbing on this one will be vomit inducing…besides…Funimation isn’t exactly the best when it comes to subs or pointing out cultural details in the show…just watch Pani Poni Dash! and you’ll know what I mean…

    Zzz...
  16. ^hit submit too early….^

    That is the dumbest thing i have ever heard yet. There is no way this will ever be good here in America. It’s lost alot of support in Japan as it is.

    Hudson
  17. This is a direct copy and paste e-mail I received last week a Mr. Miyagawa from TV Tokyo.

    “Dear Mr. (I’ll not mention my last name)

    We thank you for your interest in our company and programming. We appreciate your e-mail and wish for you to contact us anytime your need to.

    As for your question about the show Negima!? I am sad to say that yes the ratings for it have dropped dramatically. It started well placing sixth in overall animation programming but has since dropped to 34th overall. We have also indeed received e-mails from Akamatsu-san about his displeasure with the way the show has gone.

    As for info about Shaft and what they plan to do, I am afraid you will have to contact them yourself.

    Thank you for your interest and we hope to hear from you again in the future.

    Signed
    Mr. Miyagawa”

    end of e-mail!

    I hope this clears up any doubts! If you don’t believe me then go and e-mail them yourself!

    Hudson
  18. Hudson, you should open up a comedy stand. I like the fact that you got a JAPANESE speaking person to send you something in PERFECT ENGLISH.

    Dude, your circle jerk is amazing. I’m still rolling on the floor in laughter.

    Sin Ansem
  19. It’s not perfect English, it’s actually the exact same style of English that Hudson uses himself. With mis-spellings of words such as “you” (Hudson always adds stray “r”‘s to words) and the use of commas in the wrong places. He also fails at content, as programme ratings do not work in the way he has said, an anime airing on the channel that Negima!? has done would never be able to have the “positions” our friend Hudson has touted here, and of course, it’s unlikely Akamatsu would simply e-mail to discuss a programme. Oh yeah, one I just noticed, no Japanese person would ever type “info,” as its a shortened version of the word “information,” and the Japanese don’t shorten our words to fall in line with lazy dialect. Neither would they use a heavily dialectual phrase such as “I am afraid you will have to.”

    Try harder.

    Durrr
  20. Hudson: Even your lies are laughable. First of all, there’s no way a show like Negima would even be in 6th place among anime programming. The top 10 consists of mainstream series airing on primetime TV. Negima wouldn’t come close to cracking the top 10 in the first place. Please don’t make up stupid stats that anyone here can easily look up. If you’re going to be a troll, at least use your brain a little.

    Sakuragi
  21. I am almost agreeing to every crappy thing Hudson says abot Negima 2006, ALMOST.

    The thing is 12 eps of fills are unbearable… I might just shove my whole Negima 2006 cosplay project because of this… AND please Hudson, not everyone is an addictus that we can’t see Negima 06’s faults….

    Sakuragi and Ichigo is right though. You don’t have to put lies Huds. We know what you mean.

    So it’s all 4give and 4get, OK?

    moondoggiebuiscuit
  22. LOL at 12 eps of filler.

    There are three filler episodes AT MOST. As far as important episodes go though, those are a bit more spread out. Then again, Shaft did kinda screw up with the pacing.

    Sin Ansem
  23. Since it is an “anime-original” … ‘filler’ is highly subjective, especially since the show’s plot is about 1 inch deep and relies more on random humor, parody, satire, inside jokes, and such. I just don’t think it is one of Shinbo’s best efforts so far compared with his previous and concurrent work.

    Vexx
  24. If I were the one to direct it in a remake, I would go for plot rather than comedy. The pacing too. I consider the pacing of the plot to be important. And then there is the post of TNAdct1 in the animesuki forums. The mess ups of negima 06 is quite… how to say… messy? TNAdct1 said that they could have made the plot better…

    If you don’t get the drift…
    (is this ok?)
    http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=43635
    I’m djmaca there btw….

    moondoggiebusicuit
  25. Quina:
    >errr, I do not recall this in manga.
    >welcome to anime pure made up.

    PERHAPS THE SAME CAN BE SAID ABOUT ALL WORKS OF FICTION.
    WHAT IS AN ANIME? A MISERABLE LITTLE PILE OF FANSERVICE. BUT ENOUGH TALK… HAVE AT THEE!

    Anonymous

Leave a Reply to Avisch Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *