38 Volumes (Complete)
19 Volumes (Shinsouban)

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I am really surprised by all the negative comments. Sure, story is long, yeah there are lots of characters, and some of the mysteries aren´t solved in one arc. But that´s not bad thing people. Fact, that Negis training takes so long makes his current abbilities and his growth more interesting to watch. I like current arc and how Akamatsu handles his characters and I really wish that he takes his time with this one, because it would be shame to rush to the end and ignore everything he´s done so far. I´m ready for another five years of Negima ^^
This manga is fairly old, so it isn't as popular as it's used to, to top it off the anime adaption does not do the manga justice as a lot of plot/character development were completely cut from the anime. Instead, UQ Holder, the direct sequel to this manga is more popular to the general public these days. I had been following this manga since chapter 10-11? I am always surprised to look back and see how much the story and plot had changed as time goes on. Most people who doesn't have the patience or dismiss the "romcom" element in the earlier part of the manga are honestly missing out on a great series, as really, it went from 0 to 100 action-wise around near the middle to the later part. The author had only managed to publish the manga by fooling everyone that it was, in fact, a harem romcom, and then completely do a 180 when he gain his traction. As such, UQ Holder have more action and plot since the beginning due to the huge amount of traction that he had managed to gain with this amazing work. It isn't an exaggeration to say this manga walked so UQ Holder can run. If you are looking for an amazing series to read, I would definitely recommend this manga. Be warned though, if you were expecting action right off the bat, it won't be there until later on (not too long, as even the "Romcom" chapter serve as a form of characterization for future character development and oh boy, what a character development they went through. You would get what I mean if you read UQ Holder first and recognize some of the characters in that work). The people that said it's "time-wasting" most likely gave up after the first 20-30 chapters. My only advice is to be patience, if you plan to read this.
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.
Mahou Sensei Negima is a reminder to us all that you never make a sequel to a good manga unless you know for sure the sequel will be better. Negima starts out slow but quickly pick up the pace as the story goes on. The manga itself doesn't differ much from any other Shounen manga. What is different though is the main character. Instead of the funky lazy personality, you have a reserve yet kind protagonist with a lot if insecurities and determination. Put it together with a good delivery and you have yourself a good manga.
Seriously, the only reason why I'm forcing myself to read UQ Holder is because I want to know who Negi choose to be his wife. The moment I know, I'm dropping UQ Holder like it's hot!
Why do the endings always suck!? The action sequences and characters in this manga are awesome, but the ending seems a bit rushed or maybe I just rushed through it. It just seems to me that the destination can not compare to the journey: The journey, trials, tribulations and triumphs the characters go through are Legen...
Come on, how often does the protagonist of a shounen manga actually choose the dark side? And it was awesome
...Dary
This manga started out well and gradualy became better and better. The high point of this manga was the Negi vs Rakan fight in the arena, the story just became better and better up to that point. After their fight the manga gradualy declines in quality. There is a huge buildup before a few chapters ends the entire fight and story.
I hate to see a good manga become so ruined towards the end, I really enjoyed my time reading it but the last chapters I only read because I felt obligated to read after following it for such a long time.
At the end of the manga it is just way to cheesy and it goes back to Negi sneezing all the time.
I love this manga but with the new Tokyo Censorship bill that just passed I can see this series coming to an end real soon. This manga has been going on for so long I just hope that if it is forced to end that they give it an ending worthy of its greatness.
This manga is the very definition of your typical shonen. The story is driven by formulaic battles, and there's plenty of training to grow stronger. There's a lot of ecchi stuff, so expect lots of panties; however, there isn't any mature content.
The artwork isn't that special; it primarily suffers from a lack of style. I didn't like the artwork very much, since most of the characters are draw kind of stiff-looking. However, the characters are fairly distinguishable. At the very least, the mangaka doesn't rely entirely on hair to give his many characters their unique appearances. Besides that, nothing looks good, but on the plus side, nothing looks particularly bad either.
This manga is an excellent time-killer. Given the massive cast of characters, I'm impressed at how much character development nearly everyone got. But make no mistake, this is your typical shonen.
I absolutely love Negima (its probably obvious by my name) and think Akamatsu-Sensi as he was called in another comment, is a Genious. The Anime and Manga have so many wonderful and colorful characters that make the anime and manga a wondeful treat. I perosnally cannot wait to learn some of the other girls pasts like zazy for example. When it comes to the dub version though i watched exactly 5 minutes of it on youtube and prompty turned it off, the voices were terrible and did not do the characters justice.. But i am getting side trackked lol Anyways point i am making is this Anime slash Manga is Awesome and most likely in my opnion with just keep getting better
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).