Negima : My Review

My Rating

As an anime fan, I tend to find myself interested in the more serious shows. I’ll pass over a romantic comedy for an intense drama almost every time. Still it is nice to sit back and have a good laugh with some simple “situational” comedy. At the time I got around to watching Negima, it had been a while since I had seen a good harem anime. I had read several reviews and from everything I knew about Negima I expected it to be just what I was wanted. I was totally ready for a good comedy with heavy fan service and devoid of seriousness. I have to say I didn’t quite get what I thought I was buying.

Some of the characters I liked, and some I didn’t. One character that I immediately felt a sort of bond with was Asuna Kagurazka. I didn’t have any problem relating with her. Right from the start and through the end her character really made the show worth watching. Her conflict and friendship with negi the main character was interesting, and even more so was her relationship with Ayaka. I also can’t seem to get her little love spell chant from the first episode out of my head.

profess-a takahata no one else is hot-a… Be my homeroom teach-a…
Asuna Kagurazka

I did get the distinct feeling that there were altogether too many characters in the show. It was almost like they had written in a few extra people so they could have a fantasy girl for every fan boy’s twisted ideal. (Thats not entirely a bad thing…) Nodoka was the textbook harem anime shy girl, and I admit I found myself wanting to like her character. Still, As much as I wanted to like her character, nothing in the story ever developed enough to really make her really enduring. By the end of the series you kind of have a hard time remembering who was who because enough of the characters just arent that memorable.

It was obvious that the plot was well thought out. There was a character who kept popping up in the background of the first few episodes that wasn’t even introduced until the third disk. I kept seeing her and wondering when she would come into the story. I know it had to be well planned from that alone.

Where I think they missed the mark, is that as a harem anime Negima falls flat. It has all the potential to be great, but does nothing with it. This type of show has a demographic of older teens and young adults. They dumbed down the comedy in Negima to the point where I wouldn’t find it unreasonable to let a child watch. Nothing sensual ever got shown, and I’d dare venture almost nothing was even inferred.

As for the well thought out plot, well it was thought out well, but they missed a bit in the execution. The main storyline starts out right at the first, then by the third episode is basically forgotten. From there up until the last four episodes its all just filler. The episodes aren’t uninteresting, but they really don’t advance the story. I did find the last four episodes to be really good. In fact I was surprised at how good they were after somewhat of a let down through the rest of the series.

As to the main character Negi. I don’t often find myself talking about the voice acting in my reviews. Even characters most people hate the voices of I don’t usually mind. For some reason I can’t quite define I found negi’s voice to be unbearable. So much so that it made becoming absorbed into the show all but impossible. Negima isn’t the first or the last show to put a kid in a role as a professor or figure of authority. It is however the most absurd and unbelievable writing I’ve seen so far. Negi’s lousy character would have been totally acceptable if negima was the situational comedy that it was touted as. Without the fan service and adult situations though there really wasn’t enough to carry an interest.

There is bound to be a sequel to Negima because they left much of the story on a cliffhanger. I didn’t find the show so bad that I won’t watch the sequel. In fact with the ending of the first season bieng so good I’m pretty much bound to. I just find myself wishing there was a little more content and not so much fluff. Negima just seemed to need a little more of something to make it past average into great.

As an overall rating, I couldn’t reccommend Negima as anything but a rental. There are plenty of anime series I can think of that I wish they had taken a few extra episodes to really fill in the story. Negima is one of the few where I can honestly say I wish they hadn’t. Its not a bad show, and its worth watching. Its even tame enough that you can watch it with a younger audience. It just fell short of all the hype, and its of own potential.