Manga: Mahou Sensei Negima volume 1 (Ken Akamatsu)
There was a time when I liked Ken Akamatsu’s “Love Hina” because the story was somewhat cute (especially for a gal person like me who likes the idea of keeping old promises since childhood). Unfortunately, it didn’t leave a lasting impression on me and as the series went on, I grew tired of it (heck, I sort of forgot the ending of it, I think). So when we saw his latest work “Magister Negi Magi” (or Negima for short), I wasn’t very excited about it, the first reason being the fact that I saw Keitaro and Naru clones in the cover page. But for the heck of it, we decided to try it out anyway.
And I’m happy we did. Negima’s story was by far, much better and funnier than its predecessor. Though there were some flaws, it’s an overall good story. And with the right timing because of the Harry Potter hype. Negi seems to be Japan’s answer to the currently most popular boy magician. ^^;;
But Negi does not go to school and learn magic (well, he did but not now), instead he’s just in a regular school and is actually a part of the school faculty. Hailing all the way from England, Negi’s mission when he graduated from magic school was to be a Japanese school teacher. So off our 10-year-old hero to Japan where he got assigned in Mahora Academy (probably the biggest and most luxurious all-girls school I’ve ever seen).
While the class of 2-A find the idea of having a child teacher adorable, one girl is obviously against it – the Naru-clone Kagurazaka Asuna. The girl has a killer crush on their middle-aged teacher and she won’t let him be replaced by some brat. However, because of some unfortunate circumstances, Asuna witnessed Negi’s display of magic and must keep it a secret or else Negi gets in big trouble. Thus, the start of their chaotic relationship.
Ken Akamatsu seems to love putting lots of obligatory fan service shots in his work (read: panty and naked-ish girls shots) which are in my opinion, unnecessary but I guess it had become a trademark in his work ^^;;. But other than that, the whole story is quite amusing as well as the bevy of cute and unique students of Negi’s. It’s worth the buy because the volume includes a lot of extra information like Japanese/English references as well as Ken’s character sketches.
