I recently re-read some manga because I couldn’t sleep.  One of them was Negima!  The other was Tenchi Muyo.  For now I’m gonna talk about Negima!

I’ve had a lot of different reactions to this series as it went on.  As of right now I think I’m caught up to the U.S. release, which is at Volume 22.  Negi is training for the upcoming tournament with Jack Rakan.

Let me start things off by confessing that at the beginning, I was supporting Konoka x Negi.  Nodoka was always high, but Konoka was the highest until Setsuna came in, and it became Nodoka all the way until Anya came in so now those two are about dead even.  Continuing Asuna teasing pisses me off.

I always liked the ecchi / harem style that the series promised to be in the beginning, but it soon became obvious that it was going to be action-oriented, with some really good magic battles.  I love both aspects of the series, but there’s one major beef I have with the increasing focus on action.  That’s the lack of Nodoka.  Even though “New Contenders” show up from time to time, Nodoka is always going to be very high on my list, and at the moment she seems to have the best shot at Negi if Akamatsu decides not to be a jerk and go the retarded Asuna route.  It’s been 10 volumes since the last major Nodoka x Negi moment, and as a raving shipper, I must object.  Nodoka hasn’t even appeared at all in the most recent volume.  *sigh*

Another thing I’m gonna rant about right now is the sheer lack of decent villains.  Evangeline is the ONLY good villain with his/her own arc in the series, and well, we know how she ended up.  Kotaro wasn’t a main villain, but he was a damn good opponent at the time of his debut.  The other two chicks introduced in the Kyoto arc were utter trash though.  I hate that one of them, the worst of them, has reappeared to waste panel space.  The main villain right now is Fate Averruncus, who pisses me off for various reasons.  I personally think he’s an interesting character, but I hate him as a plot device.

Things we know about Fate?  Well, he was in that picture with Nagi and Gateau, so we at least know he was part of the group before Asuna was.  And he doesn’t know who Asuna is, so we can assume that he left the group before they met Asuna.  Considering this, he must also be older than Asuna and Negi, so he’s definitely older than he looks.  Perhaps immortal?  Who knows.  Even though he’s the villain right now, the fact that he was with Nagi means that at some point he was a good guy.  So there’s a ridiculously high chance that whatever the hell he’s planning will turn out to be with good intentions.  Just like his predecessor, the absolute worst villain of the series so far.  I… forgot her name again, it’s like my memory is preventing me from remembering anything about her horrible arc.  Actually, I liked that arc because that gave us the last known decent Negi x Nodoka moment.  But I’ll touch on that later.  The worst thing I hate about Fate is how he shows up at around volume 4 or 5, and Negi struggles to land a blow on him.  Nearly 20 volumes worth of powering up later, Negi gets one-shotted by him and is EVEN MORE OUT OF HIS LEAGUE.  Seriously, that is the one thing I hate most about Fate.  Pisses me off.  Wondering who the hell he is though.  Considering a 50/50 chance that he and Negi are closely connected somehow.

Now that that’s off my chest, let me go back to the harem elements.  I said I didn’t like the action elements because it was overshadowing what the series originally started out as, but the harem-ism isn’t completely flawless either.  For instance, there’s still the whole Asuna thing.  But something much worse than Asuna has come around from this, and it’s Yue.  Don’t get me wrong, I like Yue.  I love Yue.  But having her like Negi has utterly ruined her.  She used to be a quirky character that sounded mature for her age, and nothing could shake her.  But now that she likes Negi, she’s easily rattled by minor things as long as they involve romance in the vicinity of her and / or Negi.

Despite all my complaints, the series all-around is entertaining enough with enough interesting characters in the mix to keep me interested, and I’m digging Ako x “Nagi.”  Hell, teen Negi in general is pretty awesome and I’m savoring it as much as possible while it lasts.

Ranting mode over, now into insane speculation mode.  One thing I neglected for a long time was Chamo.  It was established that mages that screw up (forget what exactly) get turned into ermines.  Chamo is an ermine and obviously, probably an ex-mage.  He also acts like an old man… Hard to believe I haven’t suspected much from him for a long time and just “accepted” him.  However I’m still not sure what to make of him.  I’m sure something special’s lined up for him.

Oh, and I’m still sticking to my “Negi and Asuna are actually brother and sister” theory.  It’s been going on for at least 5 years now and I’m not backing down.