November 26th, 2009 
AstroNerdBoy Negima! Manga Volume 24
For detailed chapter summaries of this volume with review, those can be found here.
- Chapter 214
- Chapter 215
- Chapter 216
- Chapter 217
- Chapter 218
- Chapter 219
- Chapter 220
- Chapter 221
- Chapter 222
Volume 24 is now part of omnibus volume 8. As such, links below are for omnibus volume 8.
–> PURCHASE FROM RAKUTEN.COM (formerly BUY.COM)
–> PURCHASE FROM BARNES & NOBLE
–> PURCHASE FROM RIGHTSTUF!
We could call this volume “Negima! The Gathering” seeing as how most of the members of Ala Alba and the five tag-alongs came together, leaving only Yue (who was accounted for in the manga but not according to Ala Alba) and Anya to be gathered. We get to see the reunion of the folks and Akamatsu-sensei gives us a further tease of Asuna’s memories coming to the surface for a brief time.
The highlights of this manga are two-fold. The first comes at the end of the volume with Fate and Negi having a little confab that a determined Setsuna and Asuna invite themselves to. That was a very cool moment and makes Fate blowing past their defensive stand show that they still aren’t in the same league. ^_^; Negi and Fate having a conversation about tea seems almost odd, yet clearly is a way of conveying messages to the other without coming right out and saying something. I know you guys who aren’t current with the manga are going to be eager to see how things turn out since the volume ends on a cliff hanger.
The other highlight of the manga is actually my favorite. This time, we get to see Nodoka with the group of Hellas treasure hunters get attacked by the bounty hunter group Canis Niger. While Nodoka doesn’t come off awesome like Yue did last volume, Nodoka does show growth and increased courage in how she handled herself during the fight. She’s not a fighter, but a supporting member of Ala Alba, designed to provide the others with intel on their opponents thoughts. With the four Hellas adults down for the count, Nodoka’s being calm and using her new magic artifacts to work in conjunction with her pactio artifact to try to assist her is something I liked seeing.
Having shown us how powerful Canis Niger are after they trap Setsuna and Kaede, Akamatsu-sensei gives Negi a chance to show off what he’s learned by coming to Nodoka’s rescue. Further, Asuna gets her coolest moment of the manga to date by also showing up to pull Setsuna’s and Kaede’s butts out of the fire with her Magic Cancel ability while Negi schools four powerful bounty hunters. There’s never a doubt about the outcome of the fight as it is clear what Akamatsu-sensei’s intentions are. However, Akamatsu-sensei makes sure that even though you know the destination, the journey is still a fun one. ^_^
The remaining parts of the manga showing people getting back together, Yue and her team arriving at Ostia, and Jack’s words to Negi about Asuna are all fine and certainly not a negative. There’s some table setting in all that and as you guys know, I love how Akamatsu-sensei sets up his stories, often years in advance.
As before, the Limited Edition color artwork is not included with the Del Rey release. Either Del Rey is being cheap by not licensing it or the Japanese refuse to license the artwork because it is only for the Negima! otaku who paid big money to buy the LE manga with OAD disc. If you want to see what the LE art looks like (NOT SAFE FOR WORK), here you go (courtesy of Shiro Hane, aka: Shirobane).
As you see, Nodoka gets to sacrifice her clothing for the excited otaku.
A word on the name spelling of “Fate’s Girls.” Alethea and Athena went for the Latin spelling rather than what has been commonly accepted as the proper spelling of their names and that caused a bit of a stir in some places. Since Fate was performing a summoning, I think the twins went for the Latin spelling to indicate that he was still performing the summoning. I suspect that when the girls come into play down the road, their proper names will be used. I should check with Alethea and Athena about this though.
Update: I talked with Alethea and Athena and they will be using the normal Romaji spelling of Fate’s girl’s names during normal conversations. They used the Latin versions for Fate’s summoning.
So, a good volume that sets the stage for Negi and Kotaro to finish the tournament, assuming Negi survives his encounter with Fate. ^_~
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Perversely, I’m actually kinda glad they didn’t license the LE art for a few reasons:
* The embarrassment factor. It’s bad enough for an adult to buy manga at Barnes & Noble, but put a half-naked loli on the cover and it’s humiliating.
Turning it into overt fanservice grossly cheapens the context.
* Nodoka’s the most stereotypically sweet/innocent one by far. When Negi rescues her from what’s basically sexual assault, it’s a Crowning Moment of Awesome for Negi (and for the Negi/Nodoka shippers), instead of a generic “Negi’s power is over 9000!”
* The later scene where she freaks out Negi by holding his hands because she’s so glad to see him (forgetting what her hands were covering in the process) is one of the funniest of the entire arc. And it puts an extra exclamation point behind how much she’s changed from the shrinking violet she used to be.
Well, they could have had the LE artwork inside the manga. After all, Nodoka does lose her clothing in the story. ^_^;;;
Still, Nodoka has come a long way, which is nice to see. ^_^
You’ve got good points – it’s not particularly hard to do gloss color inside the front cover, though that makes it more expensive and makes binding it a little more difficult. And she is just as naked in the scene context as she is on the LE cover.
I’m kinda prejudiced, ’cause Negi’s reaction when she “Boing”ed him (and her Shinobu-esque armwaving when she realized it) made me LOL. But mainly, what Paio was doing flat-out infuriated me… which both makes Negi’s righteous wrath kinda awesome, and makes the idea of putting it on the cover feel hentai-level icky to me personally. I have weird hangups. (^_^);
But I can extend my sympathies to anyone who doesn’t have those hangups, ’cause I suspect the real reasons they didn’t use it are like you said – 1) Del Rey was cutting costs, or 2) “Go to hell, cheap Americans who only pay a fraction of what it sells for in Japan.” Or Del Rey is trying to stay well on the safe side of the PROTECT Act, which is even more irksome on principle.
*goes back and rereads the section*
Er, I take that back. She’s a LOT MORE naked in the story than she is on the LE cover, which makes your point even stronger.
*feels like kicking Paio through a wall all over again*
hey who’s on the back of this volume?
Fuuka.
I talked with Alethea and Athena and they will be using the normal Romaji spelling of Fate’s girl’s names during normal conversations. They used the Latin versions for Fate’s summoning.