Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
When anime meets Harry Potter..., 4 Dec 2008
You may think that Negi Springfield could be a character straight from the pages of Harry Potter as he is a bespectacled 10 year old wizard attending school. However, he is not attending school to learn magic...on the contrary he is the teacher!!
Negima is a magical harem comedy originally concepted as a manga by the writer of Love Hina, Ken Akamatsu. In the first episode you see Negi introduced to his non magical, all female class at the Mahora Academy. The series progresses through 26 episodes that last around 25 minutes each. Most of the episodes are lighthearted and fun that have some good comedy and at the same time the series creates some likeable and entertaining characters...even if most of them are bonkers. I particularly liked how each member of the class have been carefully and individually designed. Sometimes in anime, you notice that alot of the sub characters look quite stock and unoriginal, but the same cannot be said for Negima. Even though there are so many characters to take into consideration, each of them is giving some screen time at some point in the series. However, the story itself sometimes comes across as very un-original and it feels as if I've seen the same sort of thing before in other animes. Furthermore, even though the characters are nicely designed, and create some decent comic relief, the majority of them seem very shallow and stupid, and only a handful are fleshed out...I guess that's the harem genre for you.
Like Ken Akamatsu's other works, Negima also pays a fair amount of attention to fanservice...For some bizarre reason most of the class that Negi teaches have crushes on him despite him being 10 years old. Sometimes it can get a bit strange but it never goes too far to the point of being just plain wierd. When Negi is not teaching his all-female class, and when their not trying to win his love, he is usually engaged in magical battles which range from a vampire Schoolgirl to a missile shooting, kitty cat loving robot. These magical action segments of the story are entertaining to watch even if they do seem slightly random at times.
The animation is pretty impressive with some decent CGI that goes seamlessly with the traditional 2d animation. The music is a bit of a hit and a miss. The opening song is just too addictive, as soon as you've heard this insanely catchy J-pop song a few times, it's going to be stuck in your head. The ending theme isn't quite as catchy but is still okay. As for the in-episode tunes, some of it is okay, but most of it is quite stock and un-original. This DVD boset contains six discs that are presented in a fold out DVD box. Each disc contains the Japanese and English language tracks as well as english subtitles and some special features. Some special features include commentaries from some of the English voice cast, trailers and some some amusing bloopers.
If you are a fan of Love Hina and the harem genre, then Negima may appeal to you, just don't expect anything new and original that's going to blow your mind. The series as a whole is fairly enjoyable but it offers nothing that we haven't seen before.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful series., 24 Oct 2009
"Negima" tells the story of Negi Springfield, a ten-year old Welsh prodigy who is sent to teach at Mahora Girls Academy. In addition to being remarkably intelligent and mature for his age, Negi is also a wizard hoping to find his father Nagi, also a wizard.
The series depicts the exploits of Negi and Class 2-A that he teaches. Without giving too much away it is an amazing series. It is funny, uplifting and highly enjoyable, with plenty of humour and feeling.
The characters are interesting, well-written and likeable. Even though the cast is quite large, the show does a fine job of giving each of them at least some time in the spotlight.
My only criticism is the use of 'fanservice' (underwear shots and the like) which I dislike. However this is only a very minor complaint and there isn't even that much of it anyway.
The final story arc in particular is very powerful, emotional and provides a great feeling of closure while still leaving plenty open to the imagination. The closing scene is one of the most beautiful I've ever seen.
All in all a splendid series that I highly recommend.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Negima!, 26 Aug 2009
This series follows ten year old Negi Springfield from Wales who gets a job teaching a class of teenagers at Mahora Academy an all-girls school in Japan. This is the final test for the young wizard in training as Negi must try to be a good teacher as well as keeping his magic secret. Negi isn't the only one with secrets though as many of the girls in his class and the Academy itself have their own secrets.
I am quite a fan of the `Negima!' manga and although this anime series doesn't live up to the original quite as well as it could, it does have its moments and is enjoyable in its own way. The series doesn't really find its feet for the first few episodes but once the Evangeline story arc starts the series does seem to settle down somewhat.
The series does have quite a few problems but the worst has to be the quite poor English dub which has some truly awful British accents and can be quite annoying at times and although the animation is generally okay there are a few annoyances.
Although some parts are out of sequence and others are greatly curtailed storyline is good and keeps reasonably close to the manga until the final few episodes of the series. The final four episodes, although they do deviate from the manga storyline heavily, are actually quite good and surprisingly emotional in places even if the series finale does go a bit over the top in places.
Overall this series is good but doesn't live up to its potential the series is nonetheless quite entertaining although, as with many anime series, the manga is far superior. I feel that the series disserves somewhere in the region of three and a half stars.
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