Funi TV Talkback: NEGIMA (9/11-9/15) *Spoilers*

[herbkir]

I didn't see any talkback thread for this show, which surprised me. So I'm starting one.

For those needing a reminder, Negima is a comedy-drama about a boy genius (approximately a 5th-grader) who is hired as an English teacher in a private girls' academy to teach a class corresponding roughly to 8th grade. He is also a wizard-in-training, and the teaching assignment is part of his training requirement. He's supposed to keep his magical training a secret or face unspecified but unpleasant sanctions. Of course the girls in his class have secrets of their own (One's a robot, one's a ghost, one's a demon-slayer etc.) And one in particular (the only redhead) really hates the idea of being taught by a kid. It runs from 11:30-midnight eastern.

Three episodes into the show, it's turned out different than what I'd expected from the promos. The promos made it out to be some kind of creepy pedo-pervy thing, but it's really not. The "romance" scenes featured in the promos ran in last night's episode and had a perfectly rational, non-pervy explanation within the context of the story as wizardry went awry. The show seems more about friendship and how friends should look out for each other's welfare. There've been a few questionable scenes, but they were like dream sequences or the results of comedic mishaps, not a romantic setup.

I actually wasn't planning to watch Negima because the promos made it seem creepy, but since there was nothing else on at the time I thought I should give it a try. It's not a bad show, as it turned out, so I'll probably keep on watching.

Has anyone here seen this show? What do you think? (^_*)

[TnAdct1]

Two things I really need to say when it comes to Negima.

First, if you're already reading the manga, I highly reccommend that you avoid this show and wait for the "alternate telling" series to come out next month. The reason why I'm saying this is that the Xebec version of Negima ignores the fantasy action aspect that has attracted many readers and instead focuses on the harem aspect, which results in a huge amount of butchery. This becomes very apparent during the second half of the series when Xebec change a storyline that is actually important in the manga into harem fluff and condensed a major arc into two episodes.

Second, Nodoka-chan is the second cutest girl in anime (the only girl that can out-cute her is Chiyo-chan from Azumanga Daioh). :anime:

[Space Cadet]

I actually saw the first two episodes a couple months back on On Demand. The dub was the only good thing for me. Otherwise, I wouldn't have watched this show in the first place.

[Ikwig]

I also saw the first two episodes on Anime Selects last month, but I'm afraid the dub really turned me off. Usually I'm happy with Funi dubs, but this one was just nowhere near what I'd imagined when reading the manga. Negi's voice especially was just wrong (no offense, Greg Ayres); I've known plenty of 10-year-old boys and none of them sounded that girlish. :shrug: Plus, at least in the manga, it is important to the story that Negi is generally more mature than other kids his age and that his students often find themselves forgetting that he's really just a little boy. I don't think they could forget it when he sounds like that. :sad:

Beyond that, and recalling that I've only seen two eps, which may not be a really fair try, the storyline just seemed to be leaning too heavily towards the harem aspects and losing some of the depth which makes the manga so much fun. So I'm afraid I'm just not that interested in seeing more. :(

[TnAdct1]

Beyond that, and recalling that I've only seen two eps, which may not be a really fair try, the storyline just seemed to be leaning too heavily towards the harem aspects and losing some of the depth which makes the manga so much fun. So I'm afraid I'm just not that interested in seeing more. :( The good news is that the anime does contain a little bit of the "fantasy" aspect with the three episodes that focus on Evangeline. However, as I mentioned before, your hunch that the Xebec version is more "harem" focused than "fantasy" focused is very much correct. Personally, taking the "fantasy" aspect out of the story is very bad move, with it even affecting the harem aspect as some of the girls who have actually developed feelings for Negi (rather than liking him because he's cute) have already made Pactios with him in the manga.

[herbkir]

In last night's Ep. 4, Asuna discovers the source of the offensive smell she's recently noticed around the dorm -- it's Negi, who hasn't bathed since he got to the academy because he hasn't been able to find the male facilities. Asuna takes it upon herself to KO Negi's B.O. Naturally, her attempt goes awry. The other girls decide Asuna failed to fulfill her duties as Negi's hostess and hold an impromptu "biggest bustline" contest to determine Negi's next hostess. Negi really doesn't want to move but his hasty magic spell to ensure Asuna is the winner only complicates things.

Okay, the situation here is beginning to really strain credulity, both on gender propriety and status grounds. I could let the gender propriety issue slide because Negi hasn't quite hit puberty yet so maybe it's still okay for him to be sleeping in the same room as the girls, from the gender perspective.

But I'm losing my "suspension of disbelief" over the status question. Negi is supposed to be the professor, an authority figure who deserves respect. Yet here he is stuck for an extended time period in a dorm room shared with some of his students, who treat him like their kid brother. How can he be seen as an authority figure? Since Mahora is a 30,000-student school, comparable in scale to a U.S. Big Ten university, you'd think the place could have found Negi a private room and bath within a day or 2 of his arrival, or at least his own private room within the dorm.

Even if Negi didn't want to move, I'd think other faculty members wouldn't accept the situation because it casts a negative light on their own status. And how about the other magicians? It doesn't say much for their status when one of their trainees can't get basic student living amenities. We know Japanese are incredibly status conscious. I mean, even the forms of speech and address in their language vary depending on whether the speaker is superior, equal or subordinate to the listener.

It might be that the status reversal between Asuna and Negi so far in Negima is a cultural in-joke that Japanese viewers would find funny. But to me from my U.S. cultural perspective on status, Negi's situation is difficult to believe in. I'd think it'd be hard for Negi to keep his students' respect for his authority when the damned school can't even find him his own private quarters. Does the manga present the situation in a more believable manner?

Also, I hope Negi's English VA gets a better handle on the character as the series goes on. Right now, Negi's voice is too whiny, even for the little kid he is. His voice should carry overtones of a maturity beyond his years, but so far that's not coming through. But until there's something better on TV at that hour, I'll probably keep watching Negima. (^_*)

[TnAdct1]

In response to a few things:

-the "boobies" incident: this whole incident was basically something Ken Akamatsu added early on in the story in order to please the publishers and their idea of having Negima being more of a Harry Potter version of Love Hina.

-Negi's status quo: when it comes to the anime, Negi's status quo would be hard thanks to the "harem" focus on the show. However, when it comes to Negi in the manga, his status quo can be split into two groups. The first one is the group that likes him because he's a child. These characters are the comical characters in the story. Then there's those people who respect them as the mature person that he is. If these characters are aware of Negi's secret, then not only are they usually more involved in the story than the comical characters, but also they have a good chance of making a Pactio with Negi (so far, Negi has made seven Pactios in the manga).

-Negi's sleeping conditions: There's two good reasons why Negi hasn't moved out of the dorm yet. First off, keep in mind that he's still just a child and thus would like to have someone close to him (in this case, Asuna, who resembles Negi's sister). Second, when it comes to the magic side of things, Asuna and Konoka are the perfect roommates for Negi since they both have connections with Negi's father (more specifically, Asuna personally while Konoka via her father).

[AstroNerdBoy]

TnAdct1 (http://forums.toonzone.net/member.php?u=4760)'s initial response mirrors mine almost exactly. I was VERY disappointed in the anime adaptation of the manga after the Eva-chan arc.

[herbkir]

In Ep. 5 last night, Negi gets reminded that while in Japan, he needs to find a partner. Negi thought he had time before he had to get into all that. A couple of the girls overhear this and think he's a prince who has to arrange a marriage to preserve his dynasty. Word spreads and shortly after, the girls put on an ad hoc swimsuit contest for Negi to "help" him decide. In the midst of this, Negi gets an unexpected visit from a lecherous neer-do-well old pal, Chamo, who's been turned into an ermine (a white weasel) because of a little peccadillo involving thousands of girls' panties. He's also on the run from other punishments and wants to hide out with Negi.

But the ermine also has picked up on Negi's need for a partner and thinks quiet, shy Nodoka would be a good partner. The ermine engineers a meeting to find out if she'd do and, sure enough, there are magical indicators that she'd make him a good partner. Negi resists at first but can't deny what the magic indicates. But Asuna interrupts the proceedings and wants to know what's going on. The ermine explains that Negi has reached an age and magical stage where he's going to collect enemies and needs willing human partners for spells that'll protect him from them, and Nodoka was quite willing to assist. Those partners are bonded to Negi for a time via a " pactio" that's sealed with a kiss. But without those partners, Negi's very vulnerable to attack. Asuna's interruption spoiled the bonding moment, though, and they leave Nodoka in the girl's locker room, where she doesn't remember a thing. There's reason for concern over Negi's welfare, though, as 2 of the girls are spying on Negi, and it's very obvious their intentions aren't good. (EDIT: Summary corrected to fix factual errors)

Okay, this was an important episode that introduced both Chamo the ermine and the partnering concept. But it also was one episode where I wished I had the subtitled version. Negi's speech was so muddy and the whiny tone so thick that I couldn't understand half of what he was saying, which made it hard to follow what was going on. For instance, I couldn't make out the ermine's name (Chamo) even though he was referred to by name at least 3 times. In fact, poor diction and enunciation seems to be a common fault with this dub, particularly with soft-voiced characters and moments. It's possible to be both soft voiced and precise with diction, but that's not happening in this dub.

For anyone who's buying Negima on DVD, I'd say to forget the dub track and watch this one subtitled. (Unless the Japanese track also has obvious voice problems and bad acting, in which case we're screwed either way.)

Also, the whole partnering idea was poorly introduced. I wonder if this was an example of something emphasized in the manga that got downplayed in the anime in favor of more harem silliness. Still, this episode indicates there may be some meat to this story after all. (^_*)

[TnAdct1]

First off, the shy girl is named Nodoka, not Madoka. Madoka is the "tomboy" of the cheerleader trio.

Second, the name of the ermine is Chamo, and he is not Negi's brother, but rather an old friend of his.


Also, the whole partnering idea was poorly introduced. I wonder if this was an example of something emphasized in the manga that got downplayed in the anime in favor of more harem silliness. Still, this episode indicates there may be some meat to this story after all. (^_*) Actually, the search of the parnter did lead to a chapter of "Love Hina" style harem comedy. However, when it comes to the "harem" aspect, as I mentioned before, the Pactio system is a huge blessing in that, when it comes to those characters that are interested in Negi, it somewhat seperates those people who like Negi because he's a child (i.e. Ayaka and Makie) and those who have actually developed feelings for him (i.e. Asuna and Nodoka). However, despite this unique feature in the story and how it plays an important role in the harem aspect, Xebec, once the Evangeline arc ends, completely ignores the Pactio system until the last episode, only for them to screw it up big time.