negima!? 1
Categories: anime, episodic review
Tagged: negima
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Something new. Something old. Something shota.
Precursor
Disclaimer: I’ve never read the Negima!? manga, only the original. So maybe things are different because of the manga that I do not know about.
The Pani Poni Dash team tackles the Ken Akamatsu toriyama-style series, and, my gosh, it does look like Pani Poni Dash with a larger animation budget. Shaft’s influence on the animation and the stylization is very evident– almost to the point where I expected Becky to walk through the door instead of Neggie. And, frankly, there’s still time.
Abstract
Negi Springfield arrives at Mahora Academy and begins life as an eleven year old prodigy teacher in a class full of zany students and plenty of shota fans. Under his youth belies his heritage as the son fo the legendary Thousand Master, and he’s quickly thrust into one of his father’s old battles.
Notables
The first scene made me double check if I were watching Rozen Maiden.
Instead of an OP, we’re treated to a montage of Negi enjoying a transcontinental flight. BTW, how’d the heck did Detroit end up in this scene? Maybe Negi is going to catch a Tigers’ playoff game.
Anya’s “Muri! Muri! Muri!” brought back memories of Shana/Louise. Good times… good times… sadly, it’s not the same seiyuu. Anya is voiced by Becky’s seiyuu, which must have been a favor to her because Anya had a different original seiyuu. Pretty much all the other girls return their original seiyuu.
An onee-sama is fine too. Hawtest. Nun. Ever. Sorry Rosette.
While the animation is vastly improved, I’m not too fond of the new character design. Everything looks a bit too angular, and Negi looks more like an old midget than he does a loli. He looks kinda like a hobbit.
I wonder what school is a better example of bourgeois excess: Mahora or Ouran? Well, okay, maybe Lobelia would be a better comparision. Still, I also wonder if Mahora has a third music room.
(BTW, this montage sequence, pure PPD.)
Asuna’s sleeping is also pure PPD. Right down to her hair displaying the number of minutes. Was her hair always this long?
Setsuna’s seiyuu is the same as Satoshi’s from Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. Makes me want to root against her now.
Asuna meets Negi in this version by spying on his magic. I preferred the original version where he gets into an ecchi situation with her teddy bear panties, but that’s just me. Also, her eyes are now of one color.
Next up is the somewhat boring sequence where they try to squeeze in a line for all the characters as they discuss the vampire going around campus. Reminds me a lot of the random dialogue that occured in PPD, and it really shows down the episode. Negima!? should be about high energy– this group discussion was most definitely not high energy. Their dialogue isn’t very interesting, so I spent the time trying to see how may different voices I could pick out. First up? Makie… the easiest. (Horie Yui) Then I went cold for the next few girls… a lot of them are really obscure.
I just liked this screenshot. Reminds me of the classic TMQ quote: “I’m anti-gambling, but I’m pro-topless.” Maybe they’re cheering me on trying to guess the seiyuu… a lot of them haven’t work on anything except Negima.
Damn got this wrong. At first I thought Ayaka sounded like Orenge-sama… but she’s really voiced by He Is My Master‘s Yoshitaka.
W00t! Got one right. Natsuko Kuwatani (Suiseiseki/Asakura) as Yue. Sad thing is that Yue is never crazy emo like Suiseiseki and Ryoko Asakura can be. Kinda feels like a waste of her talents– let’s get Yue some boxcutters and a watering can. It’ll be for the best.
Reminds me of Millia Rage… anyway, I’m wondering how anyone can have an emo scream and keep a piece of toast in their mouth. Underrated skill.
(Note the bunny print on the robe’s outside. Becky had a similar one.)
(Asuna’s voiced by banana girl. Which banana girl? Does it matter?)
Second easiest seiyuu to identify. Mamiko Noto in her Yakumo/Angol Moa/Hecate/”Ippen… shinde miru?” voice as Nodoka.
Continuously changing blackboard is taken straight out of the PPD playbook once again. I think Negima!? resembles PPD a ton more than Kanon 2006 resembles Haruhi Suzumiya.
Even though there’s a complete and utter lack of fanservice this time around, and the jokes are more PPD than Akamatsu-styled, at least they’re changing costumes. Konoka’s white dress is actually fairly cute.
So Korean animators are too expensive so they’re hiring Vietnamese ones? The global economy is fearsome– I can’t wait to see the first ever anime animated in Sri Lanka.
I don’t know if this version of Negima is working for me. While animation is a big part of anime, it’s not the only part. I’m beginning to see the drawbacks of using PPD‘s wacky style in an anime that really doesn’t demand it. Negima isn’t exactly weak storywise nor comedywise, and I find the added stuff like the backboard changing or the various PPD-style montages distracting to the main story.
Minus the yaoi wolfboy, I enjoyed the original Negima manga. It had comedy, it had a story, and it had fanservice– trifecta! Now, Negima!? seems to take everything to another level animation-wise (fantastic animation, I’d put it slightly lower than Kanon… but while Kanon‘s complements the story, I think Negima!?‘s is trying to upstage the story), but it’s impacting the storytelling, comedy, and fanservice– almost regulating them to a notch below how stylistic or how many injokes they can cram into this episode. Still, it’s an improvement over the original Negima anime where the animation was an eyesore that made me not want to watch it and the plot diverged a bit too much (pulling a Sunrise on a major chracter, for example) from the manga.
I really hope that future episodes are more true to Negima‘s roots, and I hope that the preview wasn’t just false advertising. I’ll give Neggie and the gang a chance… I had high hopes.
32 Responses to “negima!? 1”
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Box cutter? Didn’t Ryoko have a machete?
Anyway, I was really hoping that they’d make something that followed the actual manga’s storyline, but that’s just not going to happen.
I downloaded and watched the first few minutes, but something about the disjointed storytelling and character design just turned me off. Nothing as bad as Red Garden, but it just didn’t click. Maybe it was the lack of fanservice. :) I may come back and give it another try, but I couldn’t make it to the break on the first try.
So far, I haven’t found a new series I like this season. :(
I think the only improvement is the plaid skirts vs. the old maroon-ish ones… u_u ()
Aww, what about the Baka Rangers spoof at the end of the episode? I’d watch Negima!? just for them. XD
Are Taiwanese animators ranked above or below Korean animators?
I see no images. I think it’s time to call in the cleanin’ crew, or at least replace each image box with a Siesta. Remember, a Siesta is fine too.
Okay, images are fixed, but I still think a Siesta is fine too >_>;;.
“An onee-sama is fine too. Hawtest. Nun. Ever. Sorry Rosette.”
Though I totally agree with you on that one.
… that’s not a Nun, IIRC. She’s a mage too, albeit one whose skirt keeps blowing up high into the air whenever any wind happens to pass through the same county she stands in.
Still, it’s not XEBEC, so we’re already a little further ahead.
Box cutter? Didn’t Ryoko have a machete?
Ryoko Asakura had a knife
Rena Ryuugu had a Machete/cleaver/bilhook thing
Kaede had a box cutter
Since Negima?! is airing much earlier than most anime most of the fanservice will not be there. The preview you linked to was for the OVA. The new series is going to focus more on the battles and less on fanservice aspects. It’ll be different, but I like the magic battles way more than the fanservice anyways.
I dunno, the screencap of the school looks kind of Ohtori-esque to me.
I thought the first ep was so-so… it’s well drawn and well animated, but it didn’t impress me much.
The 2nd ep of Negima?! has some really odd issues like continuity error right right in the beginning of the ep, changing from wide-screen format to regular format, and a sorry excuse of a OP theme (heck, I actually like the OP of the god-awful Negima TV series better).
*edit: Also, the random writings on the blackboard gag (which they still kept doing in ep 2) doesn’t really fit the show… It worked in PPD, but Negima being not of the random comedy genre, it just doesn’t work… I just hope Negi doesn’t find a cat living inside a vending machine which proclaimes itself “Kami-sama desu nya”.
Are you talking about Satoshi-kun?
ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT SATOSHI-KUN?!
Resemblances to PaniPoni are hard to criticize, since it was recently voted the third most popular anime ever in an online poll (just ahead of Suzumiya Haruhi and the original Negima). This is good explanation for why Shinbou Akiyuki got a chance to direct a new Negima, with random comedy added. And so far I’m too busy picking my jaw up off the floor at the backgrounds and animation to be worried by the disjointed storytelling.
Minus the yaoi wolfboy
^ Wait, who is this again and do you have pictures?
Kotarou. I’m guessing here, but he’s the subject person to yaoi & possesses traits of a wolfboy.
Just a postulation.
Kotarou is a dogboy and he’s not really yaoi considering that he is the plaything to what’s her name…Chikaru(?)…you know the one girl that didn’t go ga-ga over Spring_Onion-bozu
wow finally some1 share my less than satisfaction for the new negima
every1 else i know worship this remake
It’s actually “Moon Dash.” :P
But yeah. I got some hope for this, though. Even though its family friendliness will equate to the lack of panty shots. (If I wanted all that, I’d go watch hentai.)
So now it’s Neggie, huh? And I have to disagree: All nuns in anime have the potential to be hot. If Marvel can do it with the New X-men’s Dust…
>> Anya is voiced by Becky’s seiyuu,
Wrong. Go to the 22:18 mark of ep01. Anya is voiced by Hazuki (it’s written there in English!). Evangeline is going to get some competition in the loli vampire position. =P
Ahh
ANN encyclopedia
http://www.animenewsnetwork.co.....hp?id=1610
The only good thing about ANN. XD
Jason,
Onee-sama is not a nun thats her school uniform.
So Rosette is still the sexiest Non-Hentai Anime-Nun.
While I like the new animation i like the va’s form the first series better.
On the Other Hand I love the New Evangeline. Sexy Loli Vampires FTW. She can bite me and suck….my blood anytime.
The new Evangeline seems a bit angsty and tearful compared to the “call-me-mistress” S&M queen who kills the demon that the bad guys took up an entire volume of the manga to summon by snapping her fingers…
>>Xeifa
The new Evangeline seems a bit angsty and tearful compared to the “call-me-mistress†S&M queen who kills the demon that the bad guys took up an entire volume of the manga to summon by snapping her fingers…
true that
wimpy eve is no match for old school eve
ãƒãƒª with the mind of a å§å¾¡
>> Wrong. Go to the 22:18 mark of ep01. Anya is voiced by Hazuki (it’s written there in English!).
It’s actually an in-joke in the credits. Chiwa Saito was Becky. Chiwa Saito was also Hazuki in Moon Phase. And now Chiwa Saito is the new Anya.
For more information: http://tinyurl.com/yakqof
>> Onee-sama is not a nun thats her school uniform.
I think she goes to a religious school, hence, nun. Good enough.
>> ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT SATOSHI-KUN?!
Hell yeah.
>> Are Taiwanese animators ranked above or below Korean animators?
Taiwan has animators?
>> All nuns in anime have the potential to be hot. If Marvel can do it with the New X-men’s Dust…
I don’t know about nuns… meido on the other hand…
>>Taiwan has animators?
Well, some Taiwanese (or is it…Chinese?!) animation studio is listed in most Higurashi episode credits…
Not all Catholic schoolgirls (who one can argue are going into a religious school) end up being nuns either. I thought that was a Mage school anyways.
Wahahaha!!! I Like Negi The Hobbit!
i hate to say this but it seem that they are making the story darker? no idea but i got bad feeling about this negima series. (they just need to ruin us-gif me the original sotry wif the new animation!T_T)
> Sad thing is that Yue is never crazy emo like Suiseiseki and Ryoko Asakura can be. Kinda feels like a waste of her talents– let’s get Yue some boxcutters and a watering can. It’ll be for the best.
Actually, she can…
Wow, it’s like someone squeezed all the joy out of PPD. It’s all limp and lifeless.
>> Wow, it’s like someone squeezed all the joy out of PPD. It’s all limp and lifeless.
I demand a remake of this remake!
so… different… from… original… :O