First Impressions / Negima!?

Summary:

As she hangs on a rope over a large body of water inside the library, Yue thinks to herself that she’s been hiding her feelings. She knows that in reality, she’s been pretending not to notice because she didn’t want to admit them. Before she can think too much more about it though, her rope breaks, and Yue falls down towards the water. Negi is luckily there to catch her, and he’s concerned when she hurts her arm. Though Haruka suspects that Yue likes Negi, attention soon turns to the juice that Yue’s drinking. Negi has a drink of what turns out to be flatfish juice, and afterwards Motsu points out that Yue using the same straw makes it an indirect kiss. It is Motsu’s accusations that she fell in love with Negi that get Yue thinking about her feelings again. She then finds a four-leaf clover and wants to give it to Negi, but she doesn’t get a chance to get close to him because all the other girls in the class keep approaching him. Things are made worse when Haruka reminds her that Nodoka likes Negi, and Yue feels like she can’t do anything since Nodoka is her best friend.

When they’re reading together in the classroom later, Yue suddenly asks Nodoka why she likes Negi. Nodoka lists off several reasons, but she feels it doesn’t matter because you don’t need a reason to like someone. Yue can’t come to terms with this because it would allow her to like Negi too, and when Nodoka notices that something is wrong and tries to get Yue to talk about it, Yue says that it has nothing to do with her. Nodoka starts crying because of this, and it causes Yue to run away. She ends up heading to the banks of the lake where she sits alone until Nekane comes by to see what’s wrong. Nekane understands the pain Yue is going through because she also cannot tell a secret to someone important to her. On Nekane’s suggestion, Yue repeatedly yells at the top of her lungs that she loves Negi, and then she cries to Nekane. Feeling better, Yue finds Nodoka to apologize for earlier. She also gives Nodoka the four-leaf clover to give to Negi and decides that her feelings will stay a secret.

I thought this would be about Takamichi based on the ramen title, so I didn’t expect to see another Yue episode – especially not one with such relatively good animation quality. And while I’m frustrated that nothing happened again plot-wise, I did at least really enjoy the Yue and Nekane scene, and the Eva/Chachamaru-being-stranded part was amusing. I guess I just have to keep my expectations low, but it’s hard to do when I rewatched the first few episodes again the other night and realized how much better they are than anything recently.

23 Comments

  11. Early on, I characterized as “Negima!?: Big Freaking Pile of Omake” … and thats pretty much what it has been. It really isn’t even “negima alternative” but just a lot of interesting pictures, bits of art, comedy moments, random satire, and nonsense… in a good way.

    Vexx
    Reply

  12. The only thing I can consistently say that I don’t like about this series is that it led you to believe early on that, despite being simple, the plot would matter, especially considering how tense Episode 13-14 were. Then after the Black Rose Baron fiasco the series basically says LOL HUMOR and gives the finger to the plot.

    Everything else… is comedy gold. In a good way.

    Sin Ansem
    Reply

  13. @Don: Vexx said already everything about this show. Just forget Negima and watch it for fun. Except the characters and some (small!) story parts there are no similarities to the original series.
    If you don’t watch this series, fine. Omni blogs what HE wants to and not what YOU want to, to make points clear here. It is HIS work, HIS time, HIS spirit which are forming this blog. If you can’t accept this I don’t understand why you are still reading this blog, honestly -_-

    Mutio
    Reply

  15. I’m also not expecting much plot-wise out of this series. It’s just for comedy. With all the shows out there striving for “TEH UBER PLOT!!!!” and some-such, it’s nice to have something that doesn’t seem to care for plot at all and just gives us comedy, just like ToLoveRu. 🙂

    Shinji103
    Reply

  17. Just when you think a show that’s already a piece of crap can’t get any worse, it does. Yet another waste of 30 mintues of air time.

    Just stop blogging this thing. It’s going NOWHERE but downhill.

    Hudson
    Reply

  19. To Hudson: I’m getting mad at your deriding remarks. Omni says that he watch and blog it, he watch and blog it. I don’t think he’ll drop this so stop yapping! You and your “friend” Don just keep quiet!

    For the Eva/Chachamaru getting stranded, how did they get themselves stranded in the first place?

    Nanami Kamimura
    Reply

  22. I hear the plot is supposed to return next week.

    After Chao’s “ZOMG I THINK THE WORLD IS GONNA END” Ep, we’ve got “Oh no, don’t do that Negi!” and “We’re your partners!” (that’s one episode) and then the “Climax”.

    Sin Ansem
    Reply

  23. I’m wondering if the fan polling brought on this “out of sync” Yue episode…. it is actually semi-serious and involves character exposition of Yue and Nodoka. No overall plot mind you… but a fragment. The very low level of merchandising has me wondering just how this is doing with the target audience (japanese fans). Anyone got rating stats, recent production comments, or some anecdotal noise from the *chan forums?

    Vexx
    Reply

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