Please ignore all the negative comments. This manga is simply amazing. Basically, it's so far been seperated into two parts - the first part being more romance/side character introduction, and the second part (starting at chapter 169) being more shounen/main character introduction. If you haven't read past chapter 170, please do not feel that you can give this manga a fair score.

Also ~ the ecchi and sex-related scenes in this manga are meant for nothing but comedy, as it is obviously portrayed, because the main character IS a 10 year old boy. He doesn't get nosebleeds, or embarrassing hardons, he simply blushes and laughs a bit. It's enjoyable.

Also, for those saying it's obvious that main character won't die and it's simplistic - read up to chapter 220. You are waaaay off. Not saying Negi dies, which he doesn't, but still. This turns into a much darker and somber manga than one would expect.

I was extremely skepitcal about reading this at first based off the brief explantion of it given on the site that i read it on. Once i got in a few chapters i couldnt stop, i only picked it for the first time a few weeks ago but i read from chapter 1 to 217 in 2 days, i just couldnt stop reading. The story definately draws you in the more you read. So don't be scared off by a 10 year old with his own harem, you will just miss out.

I put off reading this manga for a while since I saw the plot and thought, "How can a 10 year-old be a harem lead?" It's a fair question, and it should be enough to make people want to put off reading this manga. However, soon after I started reading it, I realized that this isn't a typical harem manga. This isn't like Love Hina. The main focus in this manga is not a character (or characters) falling in love, but rather a boy (who is obviously mature for his age, but not in the love department) who goes through the trials of trying to obtain his goal. Like many other manga, there is a side story of love, but this is barely touched up on. There will be chapters, or maybe multiple chapters, dedicated to developing this aspect, but other aspect of the story (gaining strength to obtain one's goals) takes up many more chapters than the love chapters.

Now as for the criticism I've read so far, I have to say that this is mainly due to people always wanting to read the greatest thing ever when they pick up a new manga. People say the story is simplistic. I have to say, so what? I mean, there are manga out there with philosophical meaning behind the story, or that contain many twists that will make the reader have to step back and say, "Damn. That's crazy." However, not to come off as a jerk, but if every manga was complex like that, there will be fewer manga readers than there are now. People like simplicity. It's straightforward and doesn't require you to take a step back and think about what you just read. I mean, if you want to read philosophical manga, or things of that sort, than you should read them. Don't try to put other people off from reading a manga because it doesn't fit your tastes. It's easy to say, "This manga won't make you think. It's all straightforward. It doesn't suit my tastes, but it might suit yours." That comes off much better than, "This is the worst manga ever. Don't even bother reading it." What may be the worst for one person, may be the best for someone else.

People seem to unfairly criticize fan-service. BTW, fan-service does not only refer to ecchi scenes (although that is a majority of fan-service). I mean, if you really hate fan-service to the point where it makes you hate a manga, than you're going to have a hard time reading any Shounen manga. Yes, there are ecchi scenes in this manga. Is it so overbearing where you can't go a single chapter without one? No. They give you plenty of time to breathe. Believe me, I have read manga that are much worse in terms of the amount of ecchi scenes.

So, lets wrap this up. Overall, I would give it a 10. It's not the greatest thing I've read by a looooong shot. However, it is still an enjoyable read and many people can find this to be entertaining. There are ecchi scenes, but not enough to make it overbearing. It is not very deep, and it will not make you sit back and say, "Hmm, that was quite an interesting chapter. Let me discuss this with the rest of my pseudo-intellect companions." However, it will make most people laugh and the fights will make most people say, "That was pretty cool." I recommend you read it before you let someone's opinion put you off from reading it.

... Last updated on July 4th, 2008, 1:01pm

1. Terrible little kid harem with ecchi (they look like little kids, claimed ages: 11 yo male protagonist, 9-13 years old girls)
2. Weak, broken, time travel plot. (for last arc)
3. Real world politics (they even directly discuss the war in iraq and president bush)
4. Tournament arcs (they suck, a cheap pointless excuse to not have character development).
5. Stupid cliches

I think there were a few other things. I read this one from begining to end, it started interesting but quickly deteriorated till it was unreadable. Terrible manga!

... Last updated on July 2nd, 2008, 8:04pm

This series is just a rehash of the harem Shounen story: innocent boy becomes powerful and gets all the girls. There's no risk of anyone getting hurt, dying, or having to make hard choices because everything just magically works out and everyone lives happily ever after.

There's a ton of characters, which would be impossible to development through good storytelling; so the manga just skips all of that and uses walls of text to tell you about huge shifts in a character's personality/outlook. Most of the dialogue/scenes are completely pointless filler, I was skipping 3/4 of the chapters and could still follow the main story.

... Last updated on June 7th, 2012, 12:24am

I started this because I had a hard time finding some of the later eps of the anime. The animes vertion barly comes close to being the same series as the manga, so many things are diffrent and a whole lot more detail. If you have watched the animes, read the manga it's 5x better.

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.

I tried so hard to continue reading this manga hoping for some kinda captivating plot or deep emotional trap to reel me in but I felt like I was gasping for escape from this repetitive manga. How can people say the art is great? it is mediocre, come on there is much better out there and its not hard to find. I might have read too many great manga in the past that this one doesn't interest me, maybe if I had read it earlier on it could have keep me reading. Oh well too late for that now.

Shavone

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 heard about this series several months ago and the premise sounded interesting, so I picked it up. I've been very glad that I did. I base my ratings on a few criteria, so I'll talk about each seperately.

Story (8): I've enjoyed the story a lot, even if the overall plot of "a boy seeking his father" is relatively straightforward. There are some cliche'd elements, but the constantly evolving subplots and good presentation have kept me interested for the ride so far. My biggest complaint would be the plot progression sometimes seems very slow (for example, you won't get into any really good stuff for several *volumes*), but that's mainly due to my next topic...

Character (10): The author takes a lot of time to develop tons of characters in this manga. It's, in my opinion, one of the reasons the plot can sometimes seem a bit slow. Since there's 31 students with unique personalities and backgrounds who (mostly) have had considerable exposure plus all the extra characters outside these students, it takes a while to get to know them all and can be overwhelming at first, but it's worth it in the end.

Art (9): What can I say? The art is great. All the characters are well designed and though there are similarities between some, no two are indistinguishable. Scenery and magic are both well-drawn too, and the action is satisfying. Sometimes the art and dialogue can get a bit dense on the page, but I never find it bothering me.

Enjoyment (9): Great characters, story, and art don't always make a manga enjoyable if the presentation is poor. With that said, the fantasy elements set in real-world times make this a fun read for me, especially since the manga has a health combination of action, comedy, and drama to back it up. I've read several chapters (and volumes for that matter) multiple times just because I enjoyed them so much. That's a good sign.

There are definitely ecchi scenes as others have said, but let me make it clear that they are usually there for comedic effect and that I don't read this manga for the ecchi itself (I have hentai for that if I want it). I read it because I enjoy the many other elements of this manga and I would strongly recommend that anyone looking for a good fantasy/magic-based manga of the action/comedy/drama variety try it out.

Hopefully someone finds my comments helpful.

P.S. If you've seen the anime that is based off this manga and pass it up simply because of that, you're making a mistake. As is often the case, the manga is far, far superior.

... Last updated on May 5th, 2008, 1:39am