Negima! Review (Anime)

Negima! has been described as the Harry Potter of anime.  A stupid description, of course, because most of the characters do not use, or are even aware of magic.  The main character is a silly little kid with glasses that uses magic, but the similarities to Harry Potter end pretty much there.  Instead, it is a story of love and loss and friendship with magic stuff shoehorned in.  All in all, though, it is pretty darn entertaining.


It must be noted that Negima! starts out with 5 absolutely laugh out loud hilarious episodes and ends with 5 of the saddest tear-jerker episodes of anime I have ever seen.  The rest of the 16 episodes (for a total of 26, see) are the usual slice of life filler in other anime, but they serve to really let you get to know the characters.  This "get to know you" time is important, because it makes the shocking twist towards the end all the more meaningful.  I'll admit it, I cried.

The story of Negima! follows a little ten-year old wizard from Wales named Negi who becomes a teacher at Mahora Academy in Japan as part of his wizard training.  Mahora Academy is a normal all girls school - not associated with magic in any way (as far as the students know) - so the vast majority of the girls are unaware of Negi's real powers and purpose.  Of course, the girls themselves aren't all that normal themselves, as among their ranks include a vampire, a robot, a ghost, and one girl with a darker past than any of them could have imagined.

That girl is Asuna, the other main character of Negima!.  Asuna is notable for long red hair tied into pigtails with bells, and for having one green eye and one blue eye.  She is quite striking, really.  She is also the first girl Negi meets when he arrives on campus.  This chance encounter leads to a long and powerful friendship that ultimately drives the entire series.  Right up until the last few bitter episodes.

The strange thing about Negima! is that the kids are all really young.  Negi is only 10 and the girls in his class are all 13-14.  And for some reason, all of the girls fall in love with little Negi.  It is just strange.  Something else strange is that the series was created by Ken Akamatsu, best known as the creator of Love, Hina.  Unlike Love, Hina, however, Negima! isn't all about gratuitous fan service.  Apparently the manga did have a lot of fan service, but the anime does not.  Thankfully.  Since, you know, these are all 14 year old gils.  There are funny scenes where fan service is implied (Negi has a strange habit of sneezing and accidentally making the girls' clothing disappear ...) but you never, ever see anything.   This series is about humor, not titilation.

Something amazing about Negima! is that despite having a cast of 31 girls, they are all recognizable and distinct and they all have unique personalities.  A lot of anime, even those with far fewer characters, struggle to separate and distinguish characters.  Not so with Negima!. 

Despite being a show starring a wizard, magic takes a backseat through much of the series.  When it is used, it is almost always super predictable and ham-fisted and just plain unnecessary.  The form of magic used in Negima's world is really, really stupid since casting spells requires reciting long Latin phrases in order to do anything.  Seriously, you could take out a gun and shoot these wizards ten times before they could recite a shield charm.  Its just stupid, yo.

Something else that seems odd is that the English voice for Negi is Greg Ayers.  Greg Ayers is the voice of Koyuki in Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad.  Instead of a badass rockstar with a cool voice like in Beck, however, he's a timid, high pitched little kid with a Welsh accent.  It is kind of hard to understand what he is saying, really, but there is always that super distinct, instantly recognizable tone behind it that Greg Ayers is known for.

You can buy Negima! at Amazon.com through the link below.  Amazon is selling it for $90, but you can buy it from the Amazon Marketplace for less than $10 (I recommend buying from seller shawnek - which is actually RightStuf.com selling stuff for cheaper than it is on RightStuf).   Negima! Box Set at Amazon

All in all, I do like Negima! quite a bit.  The art is great and the characters are all completely wonderful.  I really, really like Asuna, too, which always helps.  The magic bits and Negi himself are kind of dumb, but it all does combine to work pretty well in the end.  I give Negima! a 7/10, or one dog checking out girls' butts.