Ten year old Negi Springfield has just graduated as a full fledged wizard. For his internship hes been assigned to leave his home in Wales to assumea teaching position at Mahora Academy... A massive Japanese school where hell be stepping into the shoes of a middle school professor. On top of this hes been tasked with recruiting a number of magical partners to watch his back and battle for him in combat... And each contract must be signed with a kiss. Unfortunately hell find out pretty quickly that hes not the weirdest thing on campus... Mahora Academy is home to vampires robots ghosts and a creeping dark shadow that threatens to consume the world around it. With so much otherworldly events happening all around him did young Negi bite off more than he could chew? Or is this exactly the challenge he needs to rise to his full potential? It really bugs me when people refer to anime in and of itself as a style. They usually say it as a flimsy justification for bringing their favorite American cartoons into otaku conversations but whatever the reason thats insultingly reductive to the medium implying that all anime look the same just because they think cartoon is a dirty word. Id actually go as far as to say there are probably more individual styles in Japanese animation than in the west since animation in the states tends to follow trends more often than not. Anime is more creatordriven and is a far more productive environment for auteur directors and animators to experiment cement their styles and stand out against the shows surrounding them. One of these auteurs who in my opinion is one of the more interesting of the bunch is Akiyuki Shinbo. Ive reviewed his titles before with my opinions being on both ends of he spectrum... A trend that has not gone away I promise. The one thing you can usually expect from him is a highly eclectic visual direction which he can use differently for a variety of different story tones. He works well with fastpaced gag comedy like Pani Poni Dash but he can also obtain cult hit status with a strange creepy and even a little bit pretentious title like the Monogatari series whose very atmosphere goes a long way in justifying the debauchery featured in the text. He basically invented the flirty over the shoulder pose thats become more commonly associated with Studo Shaft nowadays thanks to his consistent work with them. His best work however is probably shows like Madoka Magika and La Petite Cossette where his experimental aesthetic took a more serious approach with actual depth. Negima? which Im going to be calling Negi06 from now on to preserve my sanity and yours feels like an important chapter in Shinbos evolution as a director because it contains hints of all of his other work. The base is obviously Pani Poni Dash... The goofy gag comedy the quick editing and the litany of easter eggs in the background... But he also tends to frame his characters from the same suggestive angles as in the Monogatari series and I swear to God some of these fantasy set pieces feel like early versions of the pocket dimensions in Madoka. It all comes together in a bizarre sort of synergy and not just because his techniques complement each other but because it sets a tone that feels intentionally disorienting. I dont think this show was especially high budget but theres something about Shinbos unpredictable direction that makes it feel like cheap animation and extended key frames are just another part of the plan. Theres a lot of things you could call Akiyuki Shinbo depending on which project youre watching but you can never call him lazy and you can certainly never call him uninspired. Im personally of the opinion that his body of work is more miss than hit and Ive found his visual style annoying more often than not but Ive never seen an anime attributed to him that felt like a minimal amount of effort went into it. Ive accused him in the past of using obscure visuals to distract people from how boring his dialogue is but I dont feel that with Negi06. You dont have any of those awkward moments where a character is sitting down and dumping exposition all while the cameraman gets bored and just starts filming in every direction possible to avoid just having a static shot. Rather as weird and quirky as Negi06 is his direction just feels like a natural part of the universe of the story. You occasionally see characters in offcenter distance shots from behind environmental set pieces or in extreme closeups where their faces are just out of frame but it never takes you out of the moment. The music is lively and pulse pounding full of tracks that are going to be stuck in my head for weeks after this review goes live. The opening and closing themes are so fun to watch and for such completely different reasons that I maybe skipped them a handful of times. Each.song is lovingly translated in the English dub serving once more as proof that Funimation has a team of awesome singers on their books. As for the English dub itself well its time to talk about Jamie Marchi again. She wasnt the only person to work on this dub but it has her fingerprints all over it and in fact it was the first show that ever introduced me to the more slangy referenceheavy side of her writing style and Im just gonna say it this is probably the best place to experience it. Thats not to say its her masterpiece... I like to show people the Spice and Wolf dub whenever they call her the worst writerdirector in the businesswhich shes not... But its still the best showcase of her comedic writing style as it matches the material to an almost uncanny degree. Nearly the entire roster of Funimations female voice actors in the late 2000s were a part of this dub most of them reprising their roles from Negi05 and some of whom played multiple roles making it the perfect practice show for aspiring voice chasers. This series was never going to be a tourdeforce of dramatic acting but it constantly sounds like every actor involved was having a blast playing their roles and it didnt feel like any of them were phoning it in. Some highlights include Luci Christian who turned her energy and enthusiasm up to twelve to play what is undeniably a bastardized version of Asuna Monica Rial who plays four separate roles that all sound completely different from one another Laura Bailey who nails both Ayakas haughty attitude and Evangelines pitch perfect british snarkwhile also making up for Brittany Karbowskis noticeably corny attempt at the same accent and Greg Ayres the man who was born to play Negi playing his best and most sincere incarnation of the character yet. Cherami Leigh Brina Palencia Trina Nishimura and Caitlin Glass also play two distinctly different roles each although in some cases one role was way more memorable than the other and despite this material being the absolute best platform for her eccentricities to flourish Jamie Marchi reserved most of the slanginess for her own character just like she did in Strike Witches. It genuinely sounds like most of the cast is having fun playing their roles occasionally adlibbing and throwing out pop culture references most of which are baked into the original text itself. Some of these actors have become so iconically linked to the roles assigned to them that I cant help but hear their voices when I read the manga which is something I never felt while watching the 2005 series. I could never accept anyone else playing them and for the record I would have been perfectly fine with Funimation recasting Haruhi when they were dubbing The Disappearance of Yuki Nagato. Its a fun quirky dub that I highly recommend. Speaking of auteurs if youre familiar with the name Ken Akamatsu you probably know him as a manga author whose work is notoriously difficult to adapt. He only has five original creations to his name all of which arguably take place in the same universethe connections are there and they all share the same basic qualities in common... They all employ long term storytelling their narratives are constructed out of intertwining story and character arcs and theyre peppered with PG13 fanservice that shows off just enough cleavage underwear and bare butts to keep even the most immature of readers patient and mollified as the story unfolds. He basically uses fanservice as a crutch and while it does feel a bit too pervy for comfort in its presentation at times it never feels overtly sexualized although there are a few too many uncomfortable agegap romances across his body of work. I dont think anybodys ever going to adapt AI Love You... Which is fine it was kind of mediocre anyway... And his one short story Itsudatte My Santa had an anime thats been largely lost to time... So that leaves us with the big 3 which for Akamatsu consists of Love Hina Negima and UQ Holder. The first two were adapted by Studio Xebec in the early 2000s and they both suffered the same exact problems. Both series were completely sterilized of fanservice and those long intertwining story arcs I mentioned were chopped up and rearranged to fit the needs of the studio creating two ugly Frankenstein adaptations with legendarily cheap animation to match. The results were dismal but you cant entirely blame Xebecalthough theyre definitely culpable because Akamatsus work just doesnt translate well to screen. With the kind of stories he tells you could never capture them faithfully without allowing an infinite number of episodes similar to Naruto or One Piece and his work is just too niche and esoteric to support that approach especially if you remove all the fanservice for the sake of appealing to a general audience. Then again there have been several OVAs that tried to replicate the mangas fanservice and the results were extremely awkward. So has any adaptation managed to rise to the challenge? Its fair to say Im a pretty hardcore fanboy of this franchise. Ive experienced every piece of available Negima media with the possible exception of any video games or radio dramas that might be floating around on the market. Ive seen both TV series both of which had their ups and downs. Ive seen all the OVA episodes and while a few of them were of high quality and captured portions of the manga accurately they were still only fragments of an ongoing story. Ive seen the finale movie which basically shat the bed and left the party without telling anyone. Ive seen the live action series all the way through twiceokay thats not true the second time was with a Malaysian bootleg that was missing one episode and as cursed as it is its the only Negima adaptation to portray an awesome antagonist from the manga that no other titles have acknowledged as an antagonist. Ive read all three manga those being Negima itself Negima Neothe only incarnation of the story where Negi and Asuna end up together and the highly questionable Negiho. With as much of the franchise as Im familiar with its a little disheartening to admit but there really hasnt been a single entity in the franchise that has faithfully captured Ken Akamatsus vision. Hell that even includes the original manga. He was forced to rush the ending foiling a lot of his long term ideas and he was so disappointed in the way things turned out that he addressed his original planned ending as an alternate reality what if scenario in the sequel series UQ Holder. I hate to say it but when a creators vision is so ambitious that not even HE can do it justice it goes to show just how cursed any future adaptation is going to be. Its not popular or accessible enough to get the time it needs its too risque all the way down to its core to be toned down enough to market and the fanservice style doesnt translate very well to animation... Is it even conceivably possible for a good Ken Akamatsu adaptation to exist? Well going back to the first anime its been critically maligned for years but there are two parts of it that are weirdly beloved by Akamatsu fans. The first is the backstory episode for the ghost girl Sayo which is considered something of an honest tear jerker and the second is the finale the final few episodes and how they play out. Whats interesting about these two moments however is that theyre NOT taken from the manga. Theyre unique to Negi05 they werent based on anything preestablished and they werent beholden to anyones expectations. They have little to do with the Negima manga and yet they perfectly capture the Negima spirit so you have to ask... What if there was an entire season that was like that? What makes Negi06 so unique and what makes it stand out against the rest of the franchise is that it took this idea and ran with it. It takes the initial premise of Negima and its cast of characters throws them into a brand new story arc thats strong enough to stand on its own while still FEELING like a Negima story and it borrows just enough material from the manga to flesh out the world and a few crucial characters. It starts out largely the same with Negi transferring to Mahora Academy to begin teaching only to be discovered by Asuna and then battling with the vampire Evangeline and her partner Chachamaru. Its the standard Negima opening but several things are just... different. You notice them right away as the visual style is heavily reminiscent of Pani Poni Dash but the same style also translates fluidly to the magic action. Following Evangelines defeat things only continue to go off the rails. Several characters who were supposed to get the limelight much later on are included in the cast immediately. Negis ermine companion Chamo doesnt show up a few chapters in hes there with Negi from the start. Setsunas relationship with Konoka isnt explored in the Kyoto arc because in this series there IS no Kyoto arc shes just by Konokas side from the start and you can tell what shes like right off the bat. Other characters who were introduced in small arcs throughout the manga do have their introductions peppered in throughout the first half of the series but its never in the way you remember or in a way you expect. Some characters do get nerfed more than others... The most egregious of which is Asuna who went from a fantastic protagonist in the manga to a hapless idiot who cares more about random obsessions than the plot or her friends and who no longer has that special siblinglike relationship she had with Negi in the manga... But her aside most of the cast feels like themselves just without the hundreds of chapters of development that originally went into them. Some characters who would be explored much later in the manga are rewritten and used as background gags with one particularly interesting example being Misora Kasuga who didnt really come into her own as a character until halfway through the manga but in this version shes just a yoga not who occasionally does funny poses. On the flip side you have a character like Makie Sasaki who was originally supposed to be a random member of the sporty girls before her shocking domination of the first few popularity polls lead to Akamatsu pushing her into the spotlight basically giving her a role in the supporting cast that previously belonged to the underperforming Sakurako Shiina. In Negi06 shes one of the focal comedic characters and she gets a few memorable running gags of her own throughout the series. Characters like Zazie who were criminally underutilized in the manga are given small but memorable comedic background roles. The world has also gone through some unique changes. Rather there doesnt even seem to BE much of a world outside of Negi his class and his family back in Wales. There are a few new rules that are unique to this series such as the pactio cards having Dud Cosplay and Rare forms that work at random depending on how you draw them. Negi will be turned into an animal if hes discovered as a mage a mysterious darkness is being spread by malevolent fairies while girls from Negis class are being controlled like puppets seemingly at random and theres almost no fanservice outside of barbiedoll transformations and the occasional swimsuit. Im serious I think I noticed maybe one panty shot throughout the entire series and unlike previous Akamatsu adaptations it doesnt feel like anythings missing as a result. The original manga contained some questionable elements such as some of Negis students having genuine feelings for him despite him being ten years oldtechnically nine and it felt at times like if the genders were reversed this franchise would have been cancelled faster than Amazon Prime at the end of a free trial. And yet Negi06 treats all of that like a ridiculous joke making it feel far easier to swallow even for hardcore fans. Theres even an episode where the female cast gets turned into chibi lolis and Negi has to take care of them and it actually doesnt feel creepy or uncomfortable. If that doesnt sound like high praise to you than you havent read Negiho. All together Negi06 was constructed in a way that it could overcome all of the pitfalls of adapting an Akamatsu project. If an important character had a major story arc that was important to their introduction then it killed the arc and salvaged the character. Thus instead of several interconnected arcs that would otherwise need to be chopped up and rearranged to fit a 26 episode layout its able to focus on one selfcontained story. It doesnt need constant fanservice because Shinbos visual style is more than enough to keep the viewers attention. By changing the rules its able to have its own unique identity and do its own thing without feeling derivative. Manga purists will probably feel unsatisfied with just how much was lost in translation and I get where theyre coming from but it doesnt feel to me like anything was cut out of a sense of laziness or malice. I dont know if its feasible or even possible to produce a faithful adaptation of Negima so Akiyuki Shinbo went in the other direction and aimed to capture the spirit of Negima rather than the text. So faithfulness and accuracy aside is it any good? Thats... surprisingly a tricky question to answer. First off its a comedy and comedy is of course subjective. Its a random gag show full of pop culture references and a nonstop assault of blinkandyoullmissit easter eggs and sight gags and while I do personally enjoy it I have seen the same type of comedy used in anime before that annoyed the crap out of me so I cant guarantee this kind of thing will work for you. What I can say is that none of it ever feels cliched and there is genuine imagination and effort put into the vast majority of the gags. I also cant really say whether it works as a standalone or not as I already had an intimate knowledge of the source material by the time I watched it and I appreciate it largely from the perspective of a Negima fanboy and I legitimately have no idea whether or not Id enjoy it without all that context. Theres parts of it Ive enjoyed in other anime and parts of it I didnt enjoy in other anime and Im not sure how Id reconcile the two if I had to. I feel like most people who watch this show will likely already be familiar with the source material so if youre not approach with caution. In a good way. Negima? Magister Negi Magi is currently available from Funimation in a bluray combo with the first series and two OVA episodes as its previous releasesincluding the SAVE edition have gone out of print. The other OVAs and finale film are not available stateside nor is the live action serieswhich is a damn shame because that show was weird as fuck but pretty much every manga adaptation is available from Kodansha. I genuinely do not know how qualified I am to talk objectively about this show. You probably picked up some fanboy ramblings and insane levels of bias in this review so far and yeah thats all there. I do feel like I have the ability to acknowledge the flaws in my favorite media as Negima is my favorite manga of all time and it is quite flawed but Im not infallible. For example I am well aware of the fact that Negi06 did Asuna dirty with the way it rewrote her but on the other hand Ive played her in an online roleplay before and my portrayal was much closer to this version of her character than the manga version. I appreciate this series for managing to pull off what no other Negima adaptation was able to pull off... The fact that it tells a self contained satisfying story that doesnt feel incomplete or cheapened... And Id love to hear what people who went into it blind thought of it but on its own merits its too weird to work for every viewer and unlike certain other Akiyuki Shinbo projects it doesnt have the depth to back that weirdness up. I give Negima? Magister Negi Magi a 7/10.