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

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

A great mix of comedy (baka rangers anyone?), drama, romance, and emotive storytelling; there's something here for most everybody (including you damn loli/shotacons). This is the 'best' take on the world of magic that I have yet encountered, and definitely one of the best shounen works I've read yet.

Story arcs haven't dragged along for an infinite amount of time like in other manga (though I may be getting ahead of myself), and you see a great deal of character development in many of the characters as the story progresses. Also, the storyline becomes MORE interesting as the series progresses (unlike others), and each arc has several expository mini-arcs, meaning no '8-chapter flashback' arcs that can be found elsewhere.

Since everyone's comparing this series to Love Hina, its time for me to climb on the boat as well. I like this series far more than Love Hina, but I appreciated the mangaka's homage and references to other works, throughout the series. Unlike Love Hina, I don't find the main characters to be excruciatingly annoying. The slapstick humor is very similar, but the eccentricity of some characters in Negi make it much more enjoyable for a person like me.

This review may not make a lot of sense, and is in no way objective. But you should most certainly have a look. It was worth my while.

... Last updated on July 9th, 2013, 12:59pm

Not sure why I see so much hate for this manga. Yes - the story changes its focus from funny to serious. Yes - the ending was rushed. Yes - there are a lot of characters. Ken Akamatsu proves he's a pro and i feel he succeeded in doing what he originally set out to do a decade ago.

To address the change in tone for this story, I need to reference basic plot theory: the 3 act structure (which dates back to Ancient Greece if anyone is interested). It's comprised of Beginning, Middle, and End. To cut to the chase (dis aint a lit lesson) in the beginning you need to give the protagonist a normal/steady setting. The doorway to Act 2 involves shattering this setting in order to force the protagonist into action (which is why the story gets "serious after serious after serious.")

I felt he did a great job handling the huge number of characters introduced. This was an ambitious project for sure. Almost everyone of the the side characters get a small story arc. "Ahhhh too many characters.../Ahh too confusinggg." If you keep in mind who the main characters and the side characters are, it's really not that bad! Again, to refer to basic plot theory, one of the best ways to create a satisfying ending is to make the story as chaotic as possible and tie up everything at the end.

This leads us to the ending. Yes, it does seem like a major story arc was cut out. Most likely, my interpretation anyway, the final battle in the magical world was originally intended to be the "doorway" to act 3: set up the true villain, clear the way for the protagonist's final confrontation, force action, yadda yadda. So the story got cut short. I don't know if it's the publishers or personal life or what, but it did. What I appreciate from Akamatsu was that, thanks to his awesome skeelz in planning the plot structure and setting, he was able to pull off a somewhat reasonable ending. The snapshot of the attendance book really helped to make the ending resonate with the beginning and middle of the story. Sure some loose ends were missed. The author even indirectly apologizes to the readers by saying "this is a story for another time."

Anyway, to get to my point, besides the obviously rushed (missing?) ending, Ken Akamatsu proves that he is a master story teller. There is definitely room to make a sequel to give us the ending story arc. I will definitely be rushing to the book store if it ever gets published.

Negima was OK, it's funny, and it's entertaining but it got aborted mid-way by the publisher, the romance isn't very romantic, and the plot makes no sense and there are too many characters. By the end, I was agreeing with the guy who called this the greatest let down in manga history. In fact, if you don't want to read my rambling rant, just read his eight reviews down → ↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓


The first problem with Negima is probably that THERE ARE TOO MANY CHARACTERS, and that's not a complaint like "oh, I can't keep track of all these people" I mean Akamatsu-sensei introduced too many for himself to be able to handle, and he starts quietly killing subplots and ditching long before his publisher cut him off.

Negima starts as a sort of shotacon-ish romcom, with a ten year old teacher being put in charge of a class at an all-girls highschool. He ends up being forced to share a dorm room with a girl who hates him because he replaced a teacher she had a crush on, because this is Akamatsu-sensei you know there will be a lot of (funny) parodies of other series but also some heartfelt moments. There are a lot of good Negi-Asuna chapters early on.

The first problem, of course, is that his class is 30 students and Akamatsu-sensei makes clear he wants some sort of character-development for all 30 of them, which again, might not even have been too hard if this was a manga about a mage who was a highschool teacher.

Yes, the problems don't even start appearing until Akamatus-sensei abruptly leaves the romcom genre 50 chapters into his manga, quickly Akamatsu-sensei starts making up excuses to shoehorn his romcom with 31+ characters into a shounen action-adventure... with over 31 major characters. So everybody in this class, for a totally insane and nonsensical reason, are all given magical powers and put into one of those gumdrop-and-lollipop type shounen adventures, several people's personalities are completely revamped, and this new manga is vastly different than the first 50 chapters.

Oh, and another expansive cast of characters are introduced, including some character who is introduced as some-sort of Naruto parody that isn't funny and then somehow gets grandfathered into the main-plotline where he then spends the next 250 chapters as the most pointless character in a manga with a lot of pointless characters, aimlessly following Negi around since Akamatsu-sensei apparently forgot exactly what he was doing with him. Eventually a romantic subplot for him is introduced, that is neither romantic or has much of a plot actually.

I realize this might sound like it makes no sense, but that's because, from this point on, the manga makes no sense.

It's like that big, aggravating final battle in a shounen manga where each chapter so little happens because the mangaka has to switch between all the different characters all the time, only here we switch among 31+ characters. Crazily little happens every chapter.

The second problem is that "plot-development" for female characters, since this is Akamatsu-sensei after all, involves them falling passionately in love with the main character. Did mention there were over 30 female characters? This not only gets boring, since he recycles some version of the same thing every time, but also seems... I don't know, unfair I guess? They're romances are doomed from the start and you know, Negi is a fine chap but he's not that great. It seems cheap.

The third problem is that Akamatsu-sensei won't do Yuri, if you're going to do a romance with such a huge female to male ratio in the cast you should be prepared to do a few yuri couples. He does one, and it's mainly done for comedy, which is a shame because the lesbians are some of the nicest characters in this manga and they get treated like crap and are the but of a lot of his cheap jokes, which sells them short.

Fourth, is that he was running out of time even when he thought he had 700 chapters. For example, some characters crushes/romances/story lines are simply abandoned or cut off [looks at Ako] in various miserable ways long before Akamatsu thought he would have anything but his 700 chapters, subplots are killed [looks pointedly at Johnny], ect. et. al. because there's simply that many characters.

Eventually just as Akamatsu-sensei get into the groove of things, and it looks like things are looking up the manga is axed, a bizarre, rushed ending is shoved in which solves nothing and leaves every single romantic subplot hanging, including negis. Yes, after 355 chapters we don't get ANY SORT OF ROMANTIC CONCLUSION WITH NEGI. THANKS FOR NOTHING KODANSHA, YOU @#$%^!

.

By the end the only real thing I'm getting out of the manga is that the NEA is right and class sizes need to be reduced because not being able to finish any manga is 355 chapters is insane.

When I first started out reading MSN it didn't appeal to me much and I dropped it after about 40 something chapters. Reading about the later chapters on blogs made me interested again so I picked it up again and boy was it worth it. I couldn't believe how much I enjoyed reading through all the chapter especially after the first major arc ends. Lets just say a whole new world opens up and really gives new meaning to the word adventure.

There are many iffy parts about the manga of course one being the blatantly silly ecchi situations. But as the manga went on I didn't mind them at all, since the story actually goes somewhere I don't really care about the pantsu... ok maybe I didn't really mind them at all later on

MSN ought to be judged by being read further and not on its face value. This manga really grew one me and now I eagerly anticipate the weekly releases. A pleasure reading it!

... Last updated on December 10th, 2009, 7:47am

Please check genre next time you read manga and decide to rate it publicly, because Negima is one of the top manga in ecchi/harem/shounen genre. One of the comments makes me want to ask someone skilled to write me a script that gives 1/10 rating to all shoujo, josei, yaoi, shounen-ai, etc. manga. Because when i know its not something i would be interested in i just dont read it.

Negima is a great manga, Akamatsu did a great job drawing action based story like he wanted, even when his publisher wanted it to be some random ecchi/fanservice shit. First volumes are just to introduce characters (with a lot of fanservice), but after that, when popularity increased, Akamatsu got green light and the real story begins

Akamatsu does not disappoint with his most recent work, which starts out as an almost too cliche harem manga that quickly turns into something entirely different. As I said, It does start out in a setting that looks immediately like another harem manga: a ten-year-old mage boy that starts teaching at an all girls high school for training. 31 students are in his class. Sounds like a harem, yes? WRONG. there starts out with zero romance or any such thing. The teacher is not weak or unreliable at all, nor is he greatly powerful (initially) with some dark-past problems. as the story progresses there is a greater romance factor, as discussed by the perv-ermine Chamo-kun. However, this is mainly used for character development and comedy (and also as a kind of plot device.) Also, this manga is even longer than Akamatsu's previous mangas. Once again, I say it is not the BEST of mangas but no manga really IS the best, simply because "best" is all judged by opinion. I would definitely recommend this manga to those looking for laughs with a lighthearted overtone. While it's not overly complicated it is not very simplistic either. There is some occasional fanservice and (unfortunately) an entire chapter devoted to it. However, if you don't look at it and only watch the speech bubbles, it is very easy to ignore (except in the one chapter; it takes place all in a bathhouse, so it's kinda hard to not look. However, nothing important actually happens in this chapter; regarding the story it could be skipped.) anyway, before I go into spoilers, I'll just say that, once again, I definitely recommend this manga.

EDIT: In response to someone else's comment, no, Ken Akamatsu does NOT draw h-manga on the side.

EDIT2: In response to someone else's comment, the characters ARE PARTIALLY BASED ON characters from Love Hina. He did that on purpose. Also, you aren't supposed to be able to relate to him. Not only is he a child, he's a GENIUS child. Were you ever a genius child? I think not.

... Last updated on May 19th, 2009, 7:35am

This manga was absolutely fantastic, hands down. Rom-com, action-adventure, slice of life, this encompasses it all. To all the people out there dissapointed with the ending, take note that Akamatsu-sensei is undergoing a copyright dispute with his publisher at the moment, which is why he ended the series early (to protect his copyright). Once the dispute ends, I expect that we'll see a reboot of the series that addresses all the plot holes the rushed ending left us.

Start like any generic harem series but in actuality thing have been laid on carefully from the start (except the characters design) culminating in truly grand setting for the world, its history and subsequently the plot, the kind of planning that mindless manga like Bleach could only dream of.

Still with all the seriousness it retain all the charming atmosphere of Akamatsu's style, truly enjoyable read.

... Last updated on June 29th, 2011, 3:42pm