Negima!? - 05 November 1
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OP: 「1000%SPARKING!」 by Hazuki, 堀江由衣, 皆川純子 (Hazuki, Horie Yui, Minagawa Junko)
The OP changed with some new shots and a new set of quotations by Ku Fei, Makie, and class representative Ayaka.
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Summary:
Negi is worried about Evangeline, who didn’t come to class the day after the previous incident. He thinks that the power of the fairy must be connected with the robbery of the Star Crystal, and goes back to the room where everything occurred. Asuna meanwhile is excited about going to the Chupacabra research society, but Setsuna reminds Konoka that she has the fortune-telling research society today. When he gets to that room, Negi is surprised from behind by Nodoka, who wants to know what she can do to help now that she’s his partner. He brings out one of her cards, which Kamo identifies as the cosplay card. It grants her glasses and a book, and she quickly figures out that the book allows her to read people’s thoughts. She realizes that she can read Negi’s feelings too, but her powers wear off soon after, leaving her hungry.
Around this time, Hasegawa Chisame returns to her room and takes on her other persona: the popular net-idol Chiu. She loves the attention, but is shocked to learn that she’s dropped to second in the rankings. It turns out that number one is a page set up by someone to idolize Nodoka. Unaware of this, Nodoka is now eating melon bread because of the hunger that comes after invoking the contract. Negi suddenly senses something and runs off, so she follows him. They find that a rapidly growing tree has captured Konoka in the graveyard. Since Asuna is at the scene, Negi invokes her contract and brings out a card. Unfortunately, he draws the one botched card out of the three possible choices, meaning that Asuna can’t fight. What ultimately saves Konoka is the arrival of Setsuna, who quickly destroys the tree. But because the tree explodes, Konoka is dropped into free fall with Setsuna just out of reach. Negi manages to catch her on his flying staff, however now Konoka knows his magic secret. To make matters worse, Motsu and Shichimi show up and think that Negi’s been exposed.
In order to save Negi from being turned into an animal, Kamo once again uses the excuse that both Konoka and Setsuna are Negi’s partners. Shichimi asks to see the abilities of his partners, and surprisingly, Setsuna is able to display a flame from her finger. As Negi learns later, Setsuna used her own spiritual energy since her Shinmeiryuu style doesn’t have anything to do with magic. At the same time, Kamo fills Konoka in on the situation, making her want to be Negi’s partner too. Setsuna objects because it is the Sakurazaki mission to protect Konoka with her life, so there’s no need for Konoka to obtain power. Despite this, Konoka surprises everyone by kissing Negi, allowing Kamo to provisionally contract them. She doesn’t want Setsuna to face the dangerous things by herself, and so Konoka wanted power to protect her. The group is suddenly interrupted by an explosion of light that transforms their surroundings into a forest. Perched atop a large tree are Kaede, Chisame, and Yuuna, all dressed in similar outfits. After Yuuna fires a magic crossbow that Negi successfully defends against, Kamo recognizes that the three are being controlled by subordination magic.
This episode gets a little crazy at times with the pacing. That action sequence with Setsuna and Negi saving Konoka was over before I knew it. There were also some seemingly abrupt scene transitions, such as the one between Chisame and Nodoka eating melon bread. I attribute all of this mostly to me still getting used to the directing style.
I like this original story though. The Chisame parts were great, as were the SetsunaXKonoka parts. I found myself hoping that Konoka would kiss Setsuna too or something. And by having Kaede, Chisame, and Yuuna as opponents (for now), they’re allowing more of the cast to take larger roles early on. On that note, I’m still a bit apprehensive about Motsu and Shichimi’s roles in this series aside from confronting Negi every time his magic is supposedly exposed, but we’ll see what happens.
kacper at 11:01 am on November 1st, 2006
Looks cool.
akurashy at 11:12 am on November 1st, 2006
they changed the style of the OP again, still same rhyme though XD,
Show Spoiler ▼
man i love this episode XD
NetNN at 11:21 am on November 1st, 2006
From the screen shot, there will be three crd for each girl. For Asuna, there Sword, Paper fan and the SD. I highly curious that what the SD one could do.
Naakay at 11:23 am on November 1st, 2006
Uaaahhh~
Negi does not look like Negi in screen cap 6. That looks so hot though
dukemon at 11:53 am on November 1st, 2006
Pactios, pactios, more pactios…will we have one pactio per episode? For me, looks like Negi can’t do nothing without a partner!
Hudson at 12:02 pm on November 1st, 2006
WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!????????
NOW THEY’VE GIVEN NODOKA GLASSES!!!!???? SHE DOESN’T GLASSES!!!!!!!!!! it makes her design look even worse! And now they’ve gone strait to Kanoka’s pactio!? God this thing jsut keeps getting worse and worse!
I though at the very least Negi, Nodoka, and Asuna defeat the “flower fariy” before they moved on to the next pactio.
What ever respectable connection to the manga this thing ever had it has just strait out the window!!!!
Raadivaelin at 12:19 pm on November 1st, 2006
nice and impressive
and a bit fast
devilbunny at 12:58 pm on November 1st, 2006
why is hudson still here?
scootarski at 1:05 pm on November 1st, 2006
whoever is in the first screencap in the last row…looks a little like asa from shuffle!
jopchan121 at 1:09 pm on November 1st, 2006
I knew it wouldn’t take long for Hudson to respond. He probably doesn’t even watch it, either…..
Just because they put glasses on Nodoka doesn’t mean they ruined her character, you know>_>…..
whitey-chan at 1:14 pm on November 1st, 2006
This ep looks like so damn cool!! T_T need to DL this one quickly!!
Kageho at 1:16 pm on November 1st, 2006
Hm, interesting episode to say the least. I like the idea of those three under the fairy’s spell. Although, I think this is gonna set up either 2 of 3 or all 3 getting pactio’s (Chisame and Yuuna for sure, Kaede maybe). Considering the fast pace they are on with a pactio practically every episode. …you know I’m kinda curious how well Chisame’s gonna do in a fight. We know Kaede’s a ninja and Yuuna’s a skilled dual-slinger, but does Chisame have like some special magic skill of her own?
dukemon, he hasn’t even been really been trained by Evangeline in this one, so of course he’s gonna look like he can’t do anything. Because frankly he can’t, he’s sitting as standard mage instead of a swordsman mage. If he doesn’t get time to cast his spells he ain’t gonna be able to do anything.
And considering your posts Hudson, I’d say never had any respect at all. So why bother with the complaining and the watching if you don’t like it?
Besides if you look at the pactio, its glasses that come with the pactio I’m guessing. More than likely so that only she sees what’s supposed to be in there instead of everyone being able to see what she sees. A fail safe if you will. Which would actually make more sense than anyone able to see what she sees as in the manga.
And even if they don’t come with them, and they are hers, I’ve always seen Nodoka as a glasses type of girl if she spends all her time in a freaking library (her nickname is honya-chan). I agree though that she looks much better without them. Then again, so does Negi look better without his. People wearing glass rarely look good with them.
DC at 1:27 pm on November 1st, 2006
I thought the episode was great, the part where Nodoka rats Kamo out using her book was just hilarious. If there’s one thing you really need to give credit for in Negima!?, it’s the music. The music has just been incredible in my opinion throughout every episode. I definitely can’t wait for the Soundtrack to come out for this.
@Hudson: If you think it’s so disrespectful, then why is it that Akamatsu has given his approval for this anime? He’s gone on record to say that he loves it, and I think everyone knows that he pretty much knows what’s going to happen before it even comes out on TV. He does recieve the scripts on the show afterall and attends their meetings. So if Akamatsu loves the anime, then it’s not disrespectful one bit.
NewZX at 1:31 pm on November 1st, 2006
Nodoka looks kinda cute with glasses.
OskarAnly at 1:34 pm on November 1st, 2006
Asuna’s new transformation was hilarious
Don at 1:44 pm on November 1st, 2006
I will have to agree with you Hudson. This show has lost what little respect it had from me to begin with. Nodoka just does not look right with glasses. If anything it does make her look worse. And to go ahead and rush into Konoka’s pactio was not a good plot development. They should have waitied a couple of episodes… and least this one…. before they made a new pactio.
This blantent disrespect for Akamatsu’s work needs to stop. It just needs to stop!
RedWolf at 1:46 pm on November 1st, 2006
@Kageho well it’s either hacking AI Love You style or cosplay for Chisame. They did do a random Saati cameo in episode 2.
Hudson at 1:52 pm on November 1st, 2006
DC: Akamatsu as of late has started expressing his disaprovable of the way Shaft has played out his work. just look in his Diary on his site. or are you that lazy to look?
DC at 2:08 pm on November 1st, 2006
I have looked at his diary, and he hasn’t disapproved of anything. And by the way, we know “Don” and “Hudson” are the same person, so you seriously need to quit it.
Vexx at 2:11 pm on November 1st, 2006
A lot of the slack I was cutting the storyline was because Akamatsu was approving of it…. :\
None of the changes individually are major but they’re starting to accumulate. I can’t say I like Nodoka with glasses mostly because of the way it breaks up her features. I’m also a bit confused by how Kaede is so easily controlled unless they’ve weakened her character considerably. The little round creatures are just a freaking waste of the time budget (imo). Having Konoko pactio out isn’t terrible by itself but it makes it less likely we’ll see something similiar to a Kyoto battle event (with all the team).
The way Negima is hurling out the pactio cards is making each one less meaningful, they’re in danger of “Pokemonizing” the girls at this rate.
On the other hand, I’m liking the extra focus on Setsuna and Konoko as well as Nodoka.
Its still a very interesting and entertaining show but its becoming much more of a “Futokoi Alternative” - Negi style. Perversely, I’m wondering if some of these twists on canon are specifically to provoke controversy and therefore increase “the buzz”.