Anime: Mahou Sensei Negima!

- Animated by studio Xebec, notorious for being unable to produce a single above average show besides Love Hina.
- Directed by Habara Nobuyoshi, who also did DNAngel, Fafner, and Broken Blade. This guy is really good at taking interesting premises and making very little out of them.
- Based on the manga of Akamatsu Ken, who prior to this had done a sci-fi romcom called A.I. Love You, which was not bad but surely felt standard, as well as the smash hit Love Hina. This was his next project which was hardly as good.

Negima is yet another fan catering harem show with a far fetched premise that does very little other than offering poor excuses for one ecchi scene after another. It is rather saddening to see the maker of Love Hina producing such an inferior series, since that one was a legend in the genre and one would expect far more from the guy who set the bar for modern harems. I mean, ok, it still has far more context than most other harems but it’s all one big mess of ideas thrown randomly at your face. Love Hina was kind of like that too but it surely didn’t have more than a handful of girls living inside a house, so it was very easy to focus on them. Negima on the other hand is about 50, I repeat, 50 girls and the setting is one huge school, plus its various secondary buildings, plus hidden ruins, plus traveling all over the world and battling all sorts of monsters. Sure, it sounds far more interesting but it barely manages to focus much on anything before it shifts to a different girl and a different story. There was absolutely nothing to care much about here.

I keep on hearing how the manga version is ten times better and how the ratings of the anime were so low they cancelled the continuation but frankly this doesn’t excuse anything (other than how adaptations suck). The story is simply not cut out to fit in a harem, and the anime as a whole is plain mediocre and forgettable for various reasons.

The premise of the show is indeed a catchy one, as it leaves room for practically any stereotypical romcom and ecchi situation possible to happen. There is this teacher in an all-female school and he is in secrecy a wizard. He has no experience and needs to learn along the way how to cope with a class full of hormone-crazy chicks, who find him cute and try their best to get all intimate with him. And since this is a harem show, every step of the way is oozing with misfire of spells that always magically rip clothes, enlarge boobs, create love-struck fangirls, before everything is magically restored with brainwashing.

Things are too crazy to take seriously, as the teacher is only 10 years old and every girl in the class is practically a harem stereotype, filling any possible erotic fetish you can imagine. From witches, to androids, to gymnastic athletes, to samurai girls, to tsunderes, to… Oh hell, you see what I mean. He is even allowed to live in a small apartment with two hot chicks like nothing matters. I know harems are notorious for their far-fetched excuses for a story, but this was simply too much to even pretend it doesn’t matter in such an anime. Especially when the show keeps insisting it has a serious backdrop plot.

Although it is episodic randomness half the time, the other half is a loose arcing of various events slowly building up towards some really spooky stuff. Many girls are a lot more than they seem and keep on putting cute shota teacher Negi to some really dangerous situations… before some magic panacea undoes everything and he finds himself naked and with his face on some girl’s privates that is. And it is interesting in a way to see how he keeps trying to find excuses for all the things that are happening in his life, like WHY DON’T YOU JUST GO HOME or WHERE IS THE POLICE TO ARREST THE PAEDOPHILIC BITCHES AND THE OTHER TEACHERS FOR ALLOWING A KID TO TEACH? And it is also silly how he aspires to become this super cool wizard like his late father, and keeps making contracts with the girls in order to use them as his bodyguards while casting the spells. And of course we can’t have a contract without some ecchi scene like kisses and nude or this would be a show with actual context.

Anyways, there are lots of missions that vary from plain ridiculous to life-threatening, brimming with fan service and stereotypical ero jokes without ever going for something concrete and meaningful. So ok, this is a harem and you are watching it for the erotic humour, but they keep trying to make it feel like it’s a lot more than that and it becomes kinda insulting to the audience’s intelligence.

The production values are rather run down so despite a setting that would demand heavy work on visual effects in the magic battles, the whole thing remains way to crude and unexciting to watch just for its looks. Soundtrack and voice acting are ok, although there are no memorable songs or voices. Plus I really dislike silly jpops and tired erotic punch lines.

The characters show a lot of potential at first, for having a lot more in hide than a vague erotic fetish to define them, but their sheer number alone is enough to deem them impossible to remember as anything more than random ecchi archetypes. Do you believe there are initially 31 girls and they all interact with Negi all the time? How can there possibly be enough room to advance them properly? Well ok, there are a handful of girls that are fleshed out nicely, like the tsundere-with-bells-on-head Asuna that along the way gets more and more intimate with Negi and even ends up being the core issue in the finale. There is also the Shinobu-wannabe Nodoka for being the super shy girl living with Asuna and yet another girl who tries to grab Negi for herself. And in a similar simplistic manner there are a few more whose names and role in the series I have forgotten because there are 31 of them in a chaotic plot of superficial conflicts and tired ero humour. Man, this is Naruto all over again. So many characters, so little to remember them for.

There is practically very little value and enjoyment in this show. It hardly makes use of its premise, the production values are bad, the humour is tired, Love Hina by the same guy was better, and when it comes to comedy and teachers, Great Teacher Onizuka and Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei kick the crap out of Negima with their hands tied behind their backs. Now those are shows that actually leave a lot more behind other that shallow fan catering.

And now for some excused scorings.

Maho Sensei Negima is a story about a 10-year-old magical student named Negi Springfield who is assigned to teach a class of girls at an isolated ancient and private girls' institution in Japan.

This is probably the wierdest and most awkward harem anime I have ever seen. The characters' personalities are pretty much cookie-cutter Love Hina-esque personalities (see other reviews for more in-depth analysis of this; just know that if you have watched "Love Hina" many of the characters' personalities seem based off those of the "Love Hina" characters). One of the problems I have with the whole harem aspect of the anime is the fact that the characters are so young (Negi is 10, the girls are 13-14); however, the anime deals with that hurdle pretty well by not making the harem aspect too serious or perverted (though there are definately some scantily clad 14 year olds who could be mistaken for 21 year olds) and allowing Negi and the girls to deal with it (for the most part) as kids that young would deal with "love" of that kind.

If you're looking for a story in this anime, you will have to wait until about episode 21 or so; the first 19-20 episodes are almost complete filler and have nothing much to do with the plot and are fairly episodic (the story only lasts one episode). I was barely able to keep my attention during the middle episodes; they were all fairly boring. However, I did enjoy the story from episode 21-25 (the ending, episode 26, wasn't too great).

Had this anime possessed the complexity of plot that the final few episodes did the whole way through, I think this anime could have been a lot better. I would have loved to see more about the Kansai Magical Society, and see some more explanations about the magic world of "Maho Sensei Negima". As it stands in this series, the main focus is on the love interests and relationships of the characters, which really arn't that interesting and get fairly cliche and redundant after the first few episodes.

The characters were, as I stated, fairly generic for the most part. Those that weren't, like Evangeline, were fairly interesting, and I wish we had seen more of her, and of the older magic users in general. However, partly due to the sheer volume of characters, many of the characters are under-developed. The main characters are given a bit of background and development, but not much.

Negi is completely unrealistic as a "teacher"; it makes you wonder why magicians are required to teach classes (never explained) especailly since he is so young. He is fairly lacking in common sense, authority, and self-confidence, and while those are realistic traits for a 10 year-old, I would think that the genius graduate of a magical school and university would be a bit more self-confident. Teacher-student love is also flaunted in this series, with the main girl character having a crush on the old teacher, and many of the girls having crushes on Negi himself.

The animation is fairly average; the scenes involving magic were fairly good but the colors and overall animation was pretty bland and the character designs were fairly generic. The soundtrack isn't too great either, I didn't really like the OP/EDs or the music during the show. The voice actors were fairly average; they weren't asked to do much and the stuff they were asked to do they didn't act too great, but they were ok.

I wouldn't reccomend this anime to anyone but fans of harem anime or magical children; not much of a story going on in this series, and not much character development until the last few episodes of the series. Most of the story is about the puppy love of young girls, which wasn't too interesting to me. I enjoyed some parts of this anime, but the overall amount of enjoyment I got wasn't enough to cure me of the boredom I felt for the majority of the series.

At first i didn't think it be good seeing the main character was 10 years old only. I started watching the anime series first before reading the manga. After finishing the anime I wanted more of Mahou sensei negima! so i went ahead and got the all the latest release of the manga. I gotta say i would prefer the manga then the anime. A bit disappointing since many scenes that was very amazing in the manga was never in the anime. Not only that this was coming from the creator of Love Hina series. Just like mahou love hina manga was lot longer. If u ever seen Great Teacher Onizuka and compared the events in the anime and manga. The manga had way more events. Like gto this was the same problem with love hina and mahou sensei negima. I think people would like the anime more if it actually FOLLOW the manga. Important event that wasn't shown in the anime was the Mahora School Festival Event. A flashback of 6 years ago when Negi meet his father. More details of Negi's training after the school trip to Kotyo(sorry i forgot its spelling)Yes Negin learns Chinese Kenpo from his student Kuu Fei-kun. A new character that wasn't shown in the anime is Kotarou. A evil plot to expose the magic to the world. Well to concluded I do recommend watching the anime. I believe you would like the anime but for those that also read mangas I EXTREMELY recommend gettin Mahou Sensei Negima manga. It is The SH*T. I can't stop reading it over and over and over again.

Animation 8 Of 10
OK well the animation isn't like CG like Advent Children. But its still good. But i like the remake of Negima! animation alot better. Their eyes goes white and looks like this when their surpries. O O Sometimes their eye does this ><

Sound 8 Of 10
The sound is not that special. Its good. The voice actor were great. All the voices for the character fit perfectly which is surpisingly good since there are 31+ girls. None of them are annoying. You'll grow to love them all.

Story 9 Of 10
Now the story is about Negi Springfield who has just finish mahou(magic) school at the age of 10. To become a full mage he first must complete of task and that task is... TO BECOME A TEACHER AT A ALL GIRL SCHOOL. He teachers english to 31 middle school girls age ranging from 13 to 15 and one thats 100+ years old. Negi wants to become strong so he can meet his father, The Thousand Master. He got the nickname Thousand Master because he was said to know about one thousand spells. Rumor has it that he has one thousand partners. O_O You'll probably won't hear this in the anime but its in the manga. His father is said to had died before Negi was born but one snowy day. Negi's village is attacked by Akumas(demons) and that Negi was about to be killed by a akuma when his father saves him. It happen when he was 4. Negi was then resuce and moved to a town in Wales and becomes to mage to find his long lost father. Sorry for spoiling but it was a event that was only in the manga and left out of the anime.

Characters 10 Of 10 Perfect score
The best think about Mahou Sensei Negima! of all others school/magic genre animes is because Negima has 31+ characters that has character development. Which is very amazing and its what make this anime special. All of the characters are one way or another important to Negima's plot.
Negi Springfield - A 10 year old english teacher and mage. His class loves him every much, some have a even more deeper Love for him. He is every strong, good willed and every much Loveable. Because of him, he makes this anime every interesting and enjoyable. One of my favorite.
Kagurazaka Asuna - She loved Takamichi since she was litte despite of their age. She finds out about Negi's secret. Part of the art club and is a Baka ranger. The baka rangers are a group of girls that is err... stupid.. they get bad grades.
Konoe Konoka - Asuna's roommate and close friend. She is the grandaughter of the school's princlpe. Secretary of the class and is part of the Fortune telling club.
Sakurazaki Setsuna - One of my favorite character. She has been Konoka childhood friend. She is part of the kendo club (kyoto shinmeiryuu) She protect Konoka from danger.
Karakuri Chachamaru - MY FAVORITE CHARACTERs. SHES AWESOME. Chachamaru is a robot that was created by Hakase Satomi. She serves Eva-chan. Part of the Go and flower arrangement club. She has a screct crush on Negi-sensei, yes a AI that developed emotion.
Evangleline A.K. McDowell - A 100 year old vampire that was cursed by Nagi and is stuck in the Mahora Campus. She fights with Negi and then becomes Negi magic teacher. Might possible developed a crush on Negi.
Miyazaki Nodoka Or Honya - She is called Honya because she is part of the book club. Honya means Bookstore. SHE is in LOVe with Negi-kun and is every shy.
I will only mention these as they have a every good inpact with Negi. They are more and at least all of them have a scene, some with Negi xD.

Value and Enjoyment 10 Of 10
I enjoyed it every well. Love the manga, and both the Negima series. I Do recommand every to either watch the anime or read the manga. I love it to death and can't stop watching and read it over and over and over again.

MAHOU SENSEI NEGIMA is from the same guy who did LOVE HINA; they are similar in style and tone. If you hated LOVE HINA you probably aren't going to like NEGIMA. Just like LOVE HINA this is a harem comedy; except this time the number of girls in the harem is likely an anime record: Negi Springfield has an entire classroom -- 20 or 30 girls -- nearly all of whom develop some level of crush on him.

Animation: about what you'd expect from a modern anime series. Very little to make your jaw drop but nothing that makes you think "that's the fifth time they've recycled that footage this episode", either. My "7" rating doesn't mean it is bad, only that no TV series is ever going to have the level of animation that OVAs and movies get. I particularly like the vibrant colors used.

Sound: no surprises with the sound: it is bright and bubble-gum laden. The music chosen fits in with the series pretty well. However, the series completely overuses its music. They need to learn restraint; there is background music playing nearly every second of the show. It is more noticeable, and more annoying, than in any other anime I can ever recall seeing. Like most other TV shows, NEGIMA has only a limited musical repertoire; this means that after only a half dozen episodes you're likely to find yourself hating music you liked prior to hearing it 5000 times.

Story: While LOVE HINA certainly wasn't shoujo, NEGIMA is even more shounen: fights, monsters, ninja, robots, samurai, vampires, demons, and magic all contribute to make it a more action filled series. It all fits together pretty well but I couldn't shake a vague feeling of unease, as if the mangaka was throwing in everything but the kitchen sink in an attempt to be able to market "the perfect series" and rake in the dough by having a little something for everyone. Negi's quest for his father, and the mysteries around the campus, provide nice fodder for storylines that are explored in typical anime pacing (i.e. slow). Where the story really fails, IMHO, is the attempts at "romance". I can suspend my disbelief when it comes to vampires and robots attending middle school. But having dozens of 14-year-old girls fall in love with a 10-year-old boy was just more than I could swallow. I mean, when YOU were in 7th grade did you have any interest in kissing or dating 4th graders? That's just stepping too close to weird pedophile territory for me, I guess.

Character: All the main characters are just recycled from LOVE HINA. Of course, there is some variation -- especially in the Negi character --, but as a pretty accurate rule-of-thumb: Negi=Keitarou, Asuna=Naru, Setsuna=Motoko, Konoka=Mutsumi, Nodoka=Shinobu.

Value: How much enjoyment you get from MAHOU SENSEI NEGIMA will depend on your tolerance for its kind of comedy. If you can't get enough of girls beating up guys for "misunderstandings", guys tripping and accidentally disrobing girls, and so forth then you'll find a lot to like in NEGIMA. If you're burnt out on that kind of thing and decide to pass on NEGIMA then you really won't be missing out on much. It is a serviceable series, in a somewhat novel setting, with a decent -- albeit slow developing -- back story. But it is, at the end of the day, another "by the numbers" anime that lacks that necessary something to propel it out of mediocrity.

With the large amount of groups releasing Mahou Sensei Negima, I’m astonished that no one has even previewed it yet; none of my favorite reviewers like Gambit or Requiem have touched the show...so I guess I, a random user, will have to take the reins on this one.

Animation
It wasn’t exactly high tech, in the sense of 3D modeling and digital explosions, but I really liked how clean and smooth the animation was. The colors used were vibrant for the most part, and really gave the show a sugared-over feel, that I for one, happen to like. -- At the risk of being obvious, I would have to compare the visuals of this show to Love Hina. Very well drawn during serious scenes, and very basic and poorly drawn during silly scenes. I'm not saying that this detracts from the visual enjoyment, and it's a common trend to do this in comedy anime, but if it bothered you in Love Hina, it will probably bother you in this show.

Music
Although most school-girl anime use the same kind of up-beat happy songs for their openings, I happen to enjoy those done correctly, and fortunately for my ears, Negima did a great job. The OP has great kawaii vocals and a buoyant tune. The ED is just as superbly upbeat and charming with a great rhythm that gets you in the mood for watching another episode.

Sound Effects
Nothing was overused and all the sound effects really fit in with the atmosphere, from the silly prat-falls to the amusing ‘wind’ the Negima would emit when he sneezed. Confused? You might be, but once you start to watch the series, chances are you’ll understand and enjoy the effect.

Story
Herein lies aspect of the series that most shows like Negima fail at. Either they use too much comedy, and lack in any narrative value. Or they prattle on too much about historical significance or a character’s inner monologue. Once again, Negima fortunately was spot on with story. The beginning was fairly original, but towards the middle of the first episode a cliché plot started to develop…However! By the end of the first episode, you got an idea of how the main character Negima, might just have a method to helping his students as their homeroom teacher.

Characters
The characters of Negima are the ONE possible area that I feel was a bit shabbily put together. While each character is given a distinct personality, some of them felt like filler, created only to add to the class size. Luckily though, Negima managed to produce some characters I have grown attached to as I watch the series. The main female character Asuna and her roommate/friend Konoka were extremely fun to watch on screen and provide just the right amount of comic relief for me to ignore the mild 'cookie-cutter' character theme, revealed throughout the show.

Plot Summary
Overall, Mahou Sensei Negima is about a nine and a half year old 'magician-in-training' from Europe who's goal in life is to be a fully certified magician, just like his father was. The person in charge of Negima’s magician school requires that all magicians-in-training teach at a school of his choosing. Negima is chosen to teach at a girls school in Japan. The sub-plot is that that Asuna loves her old homeroom teacher, who Negima replaced when he came to teach.

Re-watch Value
Though not too deep in significance, I would definitely re-watch Mahou Sensei Negima, just for the fun of the characters’ combating and the satisfying music, if nothing else.

Recommendation
Without a doubt, this is a show for comedy fans, and though there aren’t any real pantsu shots, there is a definite amount of echii-type events that go on. For that reason among others, fans of the Love Hina anime, will probably take an instant liking to this anime, seeing how many similarities to it are hidden throughout Negima’s plot and character structure. Kawaii anime fans should also take a fancy to this show. But at the same time, just about any anime fan that enjoys a fun ride, and some entertaining characters should at least give this series a couple episodes before passing judgment.