This was a wonderful manga series. I am not one of the people, that if they find flaws in a manga/anime they give it less than 10. I say that mostly for people that will read the review and wonder why the heck I gave it a 10. The main reason is simple; it satisfied me all the way to the end.

I started this manga back when it started, or more like when it first reached me in 2004. I followed it over the years, but at volume 22 I just reached the point of my life, that I lost absolutely every bit of patience on waiting new chapters (I always waited large gaps of time anyway before picking up stuff). Finally 13 years after I first started it, I finally finished it.

But to get into why I loved it, it is because it offered me exactly what I always thought it would! Lighthearted, nonsensical, at times tear-jerking (if this kind of "story" can move you), funny and totally disconnected from realism, this manga gave me a lot of joy as I was reading it from the first page to the last. It did not make sense (much) a lot of times and it made fun of itself quite a bit (although this can be seen as bad at times), but either way it was fun for me.

The genre seems to jump around a bit, but I do not think that is bad. It is after all 36 volumes they had to keep going and entertain the audience, keep them interested and of course what moves the real world; make money. It is obvious that since this was making money, the creator released more of his imagination, trying to keep the story going and honestly it was really nice.

After a point the manga feels like it is trying to create and hammer in a lot of ideas and eventually as it reaches the climax, which in my opinion came at volume 36, everything feels like it is going faster and faster, as if they know they do not have much more leeway and they have to wrap it up. The only time it feels very strong though or at least it felt to me, was the last couple of chapters of volume 36.

In the next two volumes there are actual 2 afterstories. One usual that you see in manga/anime, which shows what happened right after and one that moves a bit to the future, showing what happened even after. I have to admit that actually these did not really feel rushed to me. They were more or less closure. I loved the first after story, but the second one was a bit of "ehh". Not because it is bad or anything, but because at a point it actually gives a sum of what happened with everyone. For some reason it reminded me of Breath of Fire 3 ending that says what happened to each of the characters. It was ok, but I do not know why it made me feel that "ehh".

So with all that said, I thought the ending was.. well ok. Not ok as in good ok, but neither a bad one. Things are more or less wrapped up and actually I was expecting an even more open ending. Considering that the manga was going all cliche (anyone who read the manga, will know that me saying that is not something offending, but funny) the ending was enjoyably quite a cliche, where everyone ends up happy (sorry people that love more drama, I prefer this).

For the people that like stories that are light hearted and do not know how to be serious, this is perfect. If you are looking for a serious love/drama/fighting story, better look elsewhere.

So to wrap it up, got fast in volume 36 and maybe a couple of volumes before that. Totally unrealistic and it strives to give happy endings all the time.

Watch the anime after you read up to volume 6. Seeing how crappy the anime is will DEFINITELY make you appreciate the manga 100 times more.. then again I regret wasting my time with the anime.. but it did make me appreciate the manga more!

PS: While reading the stories of the girls at the end, I suggest playing some nice Jazz. I enjoyed reading them, listening Hyadain no Kakakata Kataomoi-C Jazz with Vocals (not it's pop version).

... Last updated on November 25th, 2016, 9:16pm

i read this because i love cute little kids saving the world, and im not dissapointed at all. its not always you find a manga where 10 year old boy get molested by hoards of 15 year old girls and not a hentai, so im very thankful of this manga.

the first 250ch of this manga is a blast. i love the interactions between negi and the girls, and their countless struggles for his lips. the craziness of mahora academy and the diverse stories for every one of the girls make me respect the mangaka in being able to keep track of every single one of them. im not gonna lie, until the end im unable to separate some of the girls from each other, their hairstyles not enough make me notice them. around ch 250 to 310, the battle is too intense, i get quite bored with the story. to anyone who love battle manga, this will be great for you, but for me that prefer the interactions of negi and the girls this is quite a drag and i have to force myself to read them. in the end i do not think anything is properly explained. but the last chapters are very cool. i love the 'after the end' chapters, because it shows how close is their relationships! i wish negi stay a shota forever. i love that the various characters are given proper ending, it bring somewhat a closure to me after these 38 volumes.

read this if you love shota, combat, magic, panties and more!

THIS IS SO GOOD. It started off really shallow but the characters are explored deeper and the plot develops into something more. The art is just...WOW, and the action parts are so entertaining!! >u< This series kept me on my seat for the whole day, really wrapped me up the the magical world of Mahora.

The only problem I have with this is how the romance can't really be taken seriously. But if you're looking for some intense and interesting magic battle, mixed with a wide array of interesting (and hot >u>) characters and situations, this manga's for you. (^u^)b

The beginning of it focusses mostly on the "harem, ecchi, shota, relationships" type of stuff, it lacks in plot and is kind of predictable, even to that point it was still interesting enough to read, but nothing great. I'd rank it at either a 6 or 7

About chapter 40~45 and onwards it becomes much more focused on "action, adventure, martial arts" and above all else- "plot", the art gets better as it goes on as well. there still is ecchi/relationships stuff, but just not as much

... Last updated on September 10th, 2010, 12:42pm

Ok, so after 9 years we are at the end, the manga its fkng awesome, i do not deny that, but the ending was rushed, A LOT of things were not resolved and most important of all, who negi loves in the end its not mentioned, not even hinted, we can only conlude that the ones rejected and those who married are not in the negi's route anymore. I personally didnt enjoy this ending

... Last updated on March 10th, 2012, 4:06pm

I think a lot of people are bit too positive about the manga. It is good but not a perfect 10 that's for sure.

The artwork is top notch and the characters - are pretty interesting to behold.

However the story gets dragged bit too much and there is no real romance in the manga too, just random ecchi shots. As far as I understand romance it needs two person who would be in mutual connection with each other, yet I haven't seen it in there. Just few girls having crushes on Negi but it doesn't count as romance. So in this terms and also in plot terms I find Love Hina superior.

O give it a shaky 8 for now, but if it continues for few more volumes it will drop to 7 or even lower. A good thing is good, but when you are having too much of it it turns into bad one. I hope Ken will make a healthy decision and will end it soon enough.

I strongly disagree with all the negative comments posted up in the manga. Some of the comments were good negative comments. Most of them were just carelessly saying it's bad without a reason. I say they didn't properly read the manga, judged this manga by of the author, thought this was another "just perveted/hentai" manga from reading "Love Hina." This manga is not the same as Love Hina. I'll admit that it has perverted scenes, but it fits in well with the flow of the story. The plot makes up for it.

Like what Anabiotic_Pineapple wrote, solid character development is a huge part of this manga. It is definitely worth reading.

... Last updated on April 19th, 2008, 11:38am

I would have to disagree with all the hate going around for this manga, it's actually pretty solid and waay better than love hina. As other have pointed out though, the story does seem to drag, but even still, it has some pretty solid character development. If he lowered the amount of fanservice chapters, or filler as I'm pretty much going to call it, the story would have progressed much faster. It's kind of a shame when your story doesn't end before the target demographic grows out of it.

Long story short, I wouldn't recommend waiting each week for this to be released, more like once a month, check to see what's released and read that. The current arc is actually pretty interesting and we see Negi grow more, even if the scattered warriors and having to find them theme is a tad cliche.

On first glance you can notice the nice artwork rich with detail, not to mention the thirty plus characters introduced into the story, each with their very distinct traits that makes you remember who is who. The storyline is filled with keen background of the characters shown, one by one, each character is put on the spotlight diving deeper into their story, leaving you with not a single dull moment.
The complexity of the magic society, along with very detailed action packed fight scenes, make this a must read for anyone into either action, harem, romance, drama or ecchi.
The only down side is the main character happens to be a ten year old boy, but that can be easily overcome by the breath taking storyline. The good thing about negi being ten years old is that it leaves plenty of room for imagination, for instance thinking about how powerful a mage he is gonna become, along with what spells you would like to see him use or how much of a mack he would become after he grows a little older and starts looking like his father, if your like me then you can spend hours entertaining yourself just thinking about how negi along with the story would progress.
Definetly a favorite on my list.

ps. to the people who gave this a bad rating please read this manga to at least volume seven before you can make a judgment on this, after then if you still feel you didn't like it then I respect your oppinion

... Last updated on March 21st, 2007, 6:58pm

Well, I'm not sure if I missed something from the others. But I think this manga was pretty solid. The story gradually became better and better. The ending was pretty good as well.

Anyway, truth to be told, I loved this manga!

... Last updated on June 8th, 2014, 1:46am