Negima!?: Magister Negi Magi (2006)

I got through season one of a series whose level of intensity has left me uninterested in watching season two. So much for Negima!?: Magister Negi Magi. And what’s with all the punctuation in the title?

So here’s the premise. Not the plot, just the premise. Negi is a 10-year-old boy who just finished the wizard academy. His final preparation is to be sent to Japan where he would work as a teacher in a school for young teenaged girls. Makes sense? I don’t think it is supposed to.

Anyway, Negi can’t use his magic publicly, or else he will lose his powers and be turned into an animal. When the girls start catching Negi using his magic, to cover up he must make them his partners. When the partnership contract is invoked, the student or students turn into what are essentially magical girls. And naturally they get naked while undergoing their transformation, so there is a lot of underage jail bait fan service. Add in a vampire, an evil fairy, and some guy with a woman’s voice who says he is the Black Rose Baron, but who seems to have no relation to the story, and you have one hell of a mess.

This anime goes all over the place in avoiding a coherent story-line. I guess they are too busy trying to be clever. Give them an “A” for effort, but an “F” in execution. I was totally bored. And I had such high hopes knowing how popular this series is supposed to be. Curious.

Yeah... That manga had two adaptations, Negima! and Negima!? The former being a more direct adaptation of the story and the latter being more of a aimless comedy. The manga itself ended up going through a couple of iterations and got really good, switching genres along the way. The first anime was decent enough as I recall, the second mostly just didn't go anywhere.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kaitou Ace

Yeah... That manga had two adaptations, Negima! and Negima!? The former being a more direct adaptation of the story and the latter being more of a aimless comedy.

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I guess that explains the ? in the title. The second series, which is the one I reviewed, had no idea where it was going. Maybe I will get to watch the original someday.

The basic premise is the same in both, but the second series has no plot and is mostly random hijinks, while the original one had some of the story in it, and was better for that. I can see the second series being completely baffling by itself.

Unfortunately, Netflix seems only to have #2.

A little joke in there -- somewhere.