I admit, the first reason why I started reading this was for the ecchi and humour ala Love Hina. But then as the plot progressed I noticed how it changed from a harem series to one hell of a kickass action storyline while still retaining the humour and fanservice. This series has been with me since my highschool years and now into my university days. A truly great series.

EDIT: And so it ends...very disappointed in the ending. Nothing feels truly resolved and a major plot point is concluded without any of it being in the manga! It was just one moment its a huge mystery and the next it's all done! We never know who Negi ends up with, interesting characters with huge storytelling potential wasted and some of them just disappear never to be mentioned even in the epilogue! Everything is just one hell of a crazy disappointment. This series, great as it was during the journey ended with a bitter taste.

... Last updated on March 10th, 2012, 11:15pm

After Love Hina, the master Ken Akamatsu decides to make a Shounen manga inspired by Harry Potter. But as his publishers wanted more cash from the Love Hina fame, he decides to cheat his publishers out by having a harem that will rival Love Hina on the outside but has enough action and character development to rival Bleach, Naruto and One Piece inside. The result is a 20% Harem, 40% Comedy, 40% Action, 100% Badass Manga Xanathos Gambit that deserves a place in the annals of the manga industry. true to the Akamatsu style of story telling, we get more characters than ever, more comedy than the previous works, amazing action and backgrounds, 30+ females and a hero so badass you'll be comparing him to other shounen heroes as soon as you reach the latest volumes.... oh and did we mention that the hero is 10 years old?

Some may not agree just because of the first 5 volumes. His publishers did want a shallow harem comedy. But this master just Xanatos-ed his publishers in the second major arc which increased the action and the development, connecting past events and building up the story past Crazy Awesomeness Levels of Badassery in line with Naruto and Bleach. Even some mangas parody to it for it's sheer Moments of Awesome: Rampaging demon god? Bring out the Evangel of Darkness! Evil descendant mage threatening society? Team up with your best students and use a time machine to kick ass! Evil kid and organization up to destroy magical Mars? Go crazy with power and figure it out!.....Past 10 volumes, you'll be shouting for more. The author is a certified master!

Also apparently different from the rest is that the hero is unlike those from before. A 10-year old with the mind of a 15-year old and the power to blast a city to bits even more than Lucky Strike. And all that Chinese, Greek and Latin....

My tip on those skeptic: read first. Sometimes it pays to just try and swallow. Some people will hate this just because and will make all sorts of ridiculous accusations. But just try! His success in Love Hina isn't just for show.

And about his hiatus once in a while..... BLAME HIS HOT WIFE..... It's a common knowledge to all true Akamatsu fans that his moe cosplaying wife will forever demand hiatus.

... Last updated on September 4th, 2010, 9:22am

i rly hate it when i finish/catch up with a good series...and this is one of em. As everyone has said, this one has it all, be it comedy, drama, romance (well, as far as a 10 year old can go with that ), action, ecchi etc etc. May not have the strongest of starts, but it exhibits great development, and the reader will soon find himself craving for more...Also, whilst it is true that the basic plot might not be that original, the character development of each individual, and the amount of characters at that, always give it a "fresh" feeling. I already miss those guys....
-.- I now have to add this to the other 1000 to the nth power series's whose weekly releases i must wait for each (you guessed it) week....but this waiting for this one will hurt >.<
P.S. Yeah, some characters resemble those from Love Hina, especially at the beginning, but, as you get further into the story, they will become their own personalities

... Last updated on January 27th, 2011, 10:38am

Yeah, ok, the first 2 volumes are... embarrassingly shallow, and the ecchi continues throughout the series, but if you dismiss it simply because of this - well, put it like this: you're not as shallow as those who would read it purely for that ecchi. But damn, you're not far off.

Not only is his art style pretty much perfected, but the humour's decent and the 'shonen aspects' of the manga (i.e. the bits that make it comparable to naruto and the like) are much better than average - the fights have structure and thought behind them (similar to sasuke's first fight vs orochimaru); and you can really tell he's using a martial art. The magic is well executed, and the incantations are interesting.

The manga never spends an entire volume or two on a fight which barely has any actualy fighting (and is mostly "i must get up", "you'll never win" and "insert tragic memory here"), and reading at a steady speed, finishing all 22 volumes of this manga would take someone twice as long as finishing 22 volumes of any other [naruto, bleach] shonen manga.

And finally, we have a [naruto, bleach] shonen manga with a main character who breaks the mold. I can't really say more than that without spoiling the plot... hey, just put some effort into getting past the first two volumes - you won't regret it.

The producers of the manga magazine had always wanted akamatsu-sensei to create another "love hina" ripoff, seeing how it got so widely accepted, but akamatsu-sensei had always wanted to draw a shonen action manga. So being like the ninja he is, he disguised Negima to be another school life harem themed manga yet hid heap loads of action potential in it. The result?
Awesome X Awesome!
Don't be discouraged just by reading the first few chps and volumes thinking: gahh! all these characters are annoying, because you'll definitely miss out the character developments in it.
Akamatsu-sensei's unique art style and his perfect amount of humor dosage would serve Negima to become one of the most memorable manga you'll ever read.

I tried the anime first and honestly thought it was TERRIBLE (although many seem to agree with me XD) but the manga however is brilliant it starts off a bit slow storyline wise but it develops quite quickly later on and frankly now I eagerly await each new chapter some of the storylines are predictable at times and the author seems to heavily enjoy putting the characters into arena type combat situations but it's enjoyable all throughout. Don't be like me and dismiss it for being such an outright strange situation for even a manga (10 year old with a harem) it has a lot of potential and I eagerly await the next chapter ever week!

It's been 9 years since this manga started, and 9 years since I started reading this. What started off as an interesting little bit, similar to Love Hina except with magic and a younger protagonist, quickly became one of my favorite manga to read every week. Akamatsu created one of the most entertaining shounen manga, encorporating both the perversion and romantic comedy that made Love Hina popular with an action twist that kept me reading. 9 years later, now that it's finished, I'm happy I've read and completed this manga, and I thank Akamatsu sensei for creating this excellent work.

i just read this manga and i think that its great!!! asuna and negi really look good together but so do all the others.... the battles are heartracing and so are the pactios!! i really recommend this manga to EVERYONE

Ken's art has improved a lot since Love Hina .This manga makes Harry Potter and any other magic based story look gay.
I bow to its Awesomeness!

Wow, akamatsu really does an amazing job with this - a very nice balance of comedy and action. Especially the recent chapters - that kind of action is not very common in manga, and I am very happy with it. And in response to the previous comment, Nodoka is currently topping his affection chart FYI. However, I'm pretty sure Negima is going to end without any pairing for Negi - perhaps, at most a sibling kind of bond.