Don't bother.
Love Hina had something. This manga is just fanservice.

Iv'e never read Love Hina before, so I'm not gonna compare Negima to it.
Negima is an excellent manga: It has a mixs of ecchi, fantasy, romance and comedy altogether, which is not a common thing.
I began seeing the anime because it looked funny, and it was. Then I read the manga and it's even better - The storyline is great, The drawings are awasome....
I really recommend Negima to any fan of Fan Service / Comedy... It may not be the best ecchi, but it defiently worths reading.

At first I thought, "too much fanservice for a manga w/ a 10-year-old main character!

And then I thought, "too many characters!"

Later, I thought, "too many fight scenes for a manga which (seemed as if it) primarily started as ecchi!"

The thoughts pile up, primarily because there's too much of a mix of everything, from fantasy to ecchi to adventure to shounen to comedy to romance.

This one is a primary example of how too much of everything can become a good thing, or in some cases, a bad one.

Very good art, some good ecchi scenes too. The thing that gets to me the most are the fighting scenes, where everyone looks so cool casting spells and such.

Its simply one of the best mangas around in its genres but its far from perfect. Love Hina was good, but this is simply Akamatsu's best work so far. Comparing it to Love Hina is simply pointless since they have different targets. If you're looking for a romantic ecchi shounen manga, this isn't you're cup of tea. Love Hina really is a romance + Akamatsu manga while Negima is a fantasy manga Akamatsu style. Its an incredibly fun manga, good concepts and character development, at least for Negi and some students.

Its about a 10 year old mage sent to an all girls school to be an English (?) teacher. Some would eventually develop feelings for him (personally I prefer Honya), some would just admire his strong points. Negima's most noticeable weak points would be its roster of characters. while most mangas don't usually have 30+ characters, Negima has to have more! Everyone of his 31 students has a purpose but some are so minor that they could've been easily taken care of by other characters.

This is my first manga collection in my life. It reminds me when i need to get out of stock volumes (12, 14 and 16) that i found either on bookstore's floor or barely empty-return-list book where i had to ask the information center to find it and wait (by going here there to look it out). It is all collected with dramatic feelings, granted prayers, and luck efforts. T_T

So it is always red with meaningful mind, heart, soul, and spirit. What a fulfilling dreams, that mahou sensei negima really is.

Update June-2020:
This series has been released again in a newly-fresh edition, ongoing 19 shinsouban volumes since December 2016. That is four (4) years since the final 38th volume on May17th 2012 (in its origin, Japan's digital records).

... Last updated on June 17th, 2020, 5:31pm

I read the manga back in the day where i forced myself to keep up with "popular" series and have to get this off my chest after years of silence. I dislike Akamatsu(only the first half of Love Hina is ok in my book) and this manga really pissed me off. The world rules and random development made no sense.
How often did Negi change his age, how often did the genre shift on a whim and how little time did pass ?
Then the vast harem elements which make up 50% of the story in form of filler and the ending are a joke(one point deduction). I read that he fought the publisher(but still works for them ?) or something and the readers lost i guess.
It least i could jump off. The ecchi elements were downright unreadable to me(loli rape jokes really ?) and are especially problematic if you know that the author does lolicon porn in his free time. Which is of the yuri variety so why he messed up so badly here i don´t even know. It´ like Sailor Moon never happened.
The art is technically well done but the designs are all to similar and bland to be remembered. I read 3 random chapters of the "sequel" for reference and expect no review for that one because i found it a money grabbing joke and stopped reading garbage thank to manga´s like Negima. Akamatsu may be a friend of Miura but he and i will probably never meet again. Read Ran to Haiiro no Sekai for a magical manga instead.

... Last updated on December 31st, 2014, 2:27pm

The manga was great and fun from start to finish, Character development, especially emotion-wise, was portraited detaily. I like the ending too, it was not rushed like most other manga, ending in 1 or 2 chapters, this one has enough chapters for closing most, if not all the loose ends.

Overall, a great fantasical adventure, with lighthearted but emotional friendship, and love comedy, without being too forcefull, typical of a harem story.

Give it a read if you haven't, it's an experience totally worth your time!

... Last updated on December 21st, 2014, 7:44am

Thank you very much for this enyoable 9 years. Thank you Ken akamtsu, this was a nice manga and i enyoed it every week. Every week i was looking forward to read the manga. And it is the first manga that i have followed for so long time. But after love hina i knew that evertying this mangaka comes with will be a good manga. Altough i am a bit dissapointed with the ending, i realy realy enyoed reading and THANK YO KEN AKAMTSU. looking forward to a new nice story.

Lots of pretty girls. Very good art. The story isn't so hot though. At times it is hilarious, especially early on, but later I just felt annoyed with the series.