January 18, 2007
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crazy manga
I recently read the first twelve volumes of a Manga series that is
quickly becoming one of my favorite Manga series of all. True, I
haven’t actually read a whole lot of Manga, I mostly just watch the
anime and maybe read a little of the Manga after the fact. Still, this
series, I believe ranks right up there with some of my favorite Anime
as well. It’s just good stuff.The series is called Negima! and it’s from the creator of Love Hina
(Ken Akamatsu). Love Hina was pretty good too, not my favorite but I
enjoyed it enough. I only saw the anime of that one too so the Manga
might well be considerably better but the anime I enjoyed. I think
Negima!’s even better.I
really don’t have much to say about the series that wouldn’t constitute
spoilers. Just a small word of warning, if you look up information
about this series you will find a lot of people who have a very
negative reaction to it. Some people even consider it to be “immoral”
and most discussions about the series tend to revolve around
differences in cultural attitudes between the US and Japan. Some people
really really hate this series. Others just think it tries too hard to
be extreme in certain respects and should try to be more mainstream.
The only thing I hate is that this discussion so frequently drowns out
discussions of the merits of the Manga’s story and characters and other
aspects. Why is the age difference between the main character and most
of the secondary characters such a huge sticking point for so many
people?Largely the parts of the story that garner such
controversy aren’t the parts of the story that I most enjoy. They don’t
bother me at all and I’m not one to tell an Artist how best to present
his or her art though oft I wonder about what motivates artists to do
so. I think in order to appreciate a presentation truly you have to
take into account all aspects of it even if there are components that
you would probably have done differently.Anyway, I mostly read through that stuff, laugh at the gratuitous
fan-service as is intended and get on to the parts I like more, that is
the parts of the series that are devoted to character development and
the pure action-packed Shonen fight sequences. If you’re just reading
the beginning you wouldn’t believe that it’s going to be such a series,
but trust me it does. Like so many series I didn’t really like it all
that much from the first volume but by the time I got to the sixth and
seventh I can say that I was thoroughly enjoying the series and by the
12 I was in love with it. Although it does share some substantive
similarities to Love Hina, it’s just never exactly what you’d expect.
In the end it ends up reminding me more of series like Naruto and Yu Yu
Hakusho except for the fact that almost all of the fighters are female.I did hear one weird description of this anime that is probably not at
all useful but I’ll mention it just in case someone contemplating
reading this series as heard the comparison before. People have called
Negima! a kind of “Harry Potter” if done in the anime style story.
This absolute nonsense so far as I can tell. The only similarities are
that the main characters of both series start off young, wear glasses,
use magic, and occasionally fly about on a stick of some sort. If
that’s your definition of two stories being “alike” then you must be
reading both stories very shallowly.Another word of caution must be said about the anime version of
Negima!. Amongst the forums I’ve read most readers of the Manga don’t
seem to like the main anime at all. The main anime follows the Manga
but diverges considerably from what I’ve heard and in a manner many of
the viewers didn’t like at all. There’s a second anime series as well
called Negima!? which is a re-imagining of the story not written by Ken
Akamatsu and thus not really the same Negima at all. It may be good, it
may not, feelings seem to be split, but regardless it is clearly not
what you want to be watching if you want to watch the Manga brought to
life. I haven’t watched anime of the anime versions of the story so I
can’t really give you my personal opinion on them.I strongly recommend just reading the Manga. Manga is also useful since
you can snag a chapter here and there without having to devote as much
time to it. Thus did I read these manga though after I got hooked I
spent pretty much a full day reading like that last six volumes.
Still, it *can* in theory be a more efficient means of distributing
one’s time.The story isn’t complete though. There are 12 volumes available in the
US and one more coming in February and the story is still going on in
Japan so be forewarned if you choose to read this that you will
probably have to deal with large cliff hangers and long periods of
waiting to see what happens next. I think it’s worth it though. It’s
just such a good story.
