August 10th, 2010 
AstroNerdBoy 魔法先生 ネギま！Volume 27
Negima! Manga Volume 27 Review
Negima! Magister Negi Magi Volume 27 is now included in Negima! Magister Negi Magi Omnibus Volume 9. It is out of print as an individual volume.
–> Purchase Negima! Magister Negi Magi Omnibus Vol. 9 from RAKUTEN.COM (formerly BUY.COM)
–> Purchase Negima! Magister Negi Magi Omnibus Vol. 9 from BARNES & NOBLE
–> Purchase Negima! Magister Negi Magi Omnibus Vol. 9 from RIGHTSTUF!
For detailed chapter summaries of Negima! Volume 27 with chapter reviews, look below.
- Chapter 241
- Chapter 242
- Chapter 243
- Chapter 244
- Chapter 245
- Chapter 246
- Chapter 247
- Chapter 248
- Chapter 249
I know I always say this, but whenever I get a new volume of the Negima! manga, I always have to smile at reading those chapters again as a whole volume rather than spread out over a 3-month (or so) period.
So, the tournament comes to a head with the fight between Jack and Negi. Without spoiling anything for those of you who aren’t reading ahead like me, I have to say that I love seeing the table setting that Akamatsu-sensei laid out in this volume with Negi basically creating new spells and even mastering a technique that Eva hadn’t even mastered. That’s really saying something and should Negi and company ever return home, I’d love to see Negi spar with Eva just to see how he’d stand up to the real thing.
Returning back to the scope of this specific manga volume, the fight between Negi and Rakan aside, the real treat here is allowing Kotaro to get some moments of spotlight, even if brief. When Kotaro was introduced in the Kyoto arc, he was revealed to be able to transform into a dog-humanoid form but wasn’t able to do much with it thanks to Nodoka’s artifact. Then in the Mahora Festival arc, Kotaro attempts the transformation while fighting Al in that tournament but it is too late by the time he pulls it out.
This time, he makes the transformation and Akamatsu-sensei allows him to kick a little tail. However, having Kotaro transform a second time into a full, giant dog form. I believe that Kotaro is a “hanyou,” meaning his is half youkai and half human. As such, he is very similar to Inuyasha. However, when Inuyasha did transformations, he couldn’t fully transform into a beast form as his half-brother Sesshoumaru could. Seeing Kotaro in his beast form with the perfect, working replica of Asuna’s artifact sword, I couldn’t help but think of Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha.
Regardless, it was fun seeing Kotaro go all out, even if he did take a major beating as a price to provide Negi cover.
A lot of fun things were resolved in this volume — the tournament ends; Negi and Kotaro get the money required to free Akira, Ako, and Natsumi; Ako learns the secret behind “Nagi-san;” and the Tosaka threat is resolved. Considering that the Ako-Nagi thread started way back during the Mahora Fest arc, it was about time that this was resolved.
The Magia Erebea starting to eat Negi starts here too. Heh!heh!heh!
Despite being a fairly action filled and serious volume, Akamatsu-sensei managed to work in a few humorous moments. I always laugh at Jack telling Negi how he’s able to overcome Negi’s new attack, complete with the super-deformed Negi and Jack. Negi being shown to call Jack to warn Jack ahead of time about his forthcoming attack just cracks me up.
Then, there was the moment Negi used Setsuna’s artifact to surround Jack’s head with those Japanese daggers. Funny how they start sweating with Jack starts chewing on a couple of them. ^_^
The other humor moment that stood out to me is Jack chasing Natsumi around after the tournament is over and Natsumi being afraid of being “defiled,” leading the child-sized Chisame to put an end to it. *lol*
On the Del Rey side, again, no special edition cover art. That’s a real shame ’cause I’d like to have it. Of course, this may be a Kodansha issue and not a Del Rey one. The Nibley twins are still the translators so no problems there. I did note a couple of “Misters” show up but I haven’t bothered to see what those originally were in the Japanese. Only one page of translator notes, but most of the stuff that would need to be explained is in the lexicon.
I loves me some Negima! on a whole multitude of levels. I strongly encourage any of you who like the series but who’ve been holding back on purchasing it to break down and do so. You know it is worth it. ^_~
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>>Seeing Kotaro in his beast form with the perfect, working replica of Asuna’s artifact sword, I couldn’t help but think of Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha.
Myself, I thought of Okami’s Amaterasu: http://media.photobucket.com/image/Okami/shelbyrp/Okami.jpg
Couldn’t find a pic, but she can also “wield” a rather large sword in the game.
Ack, forgot I was signed on Google. This is Cube, btw >_>
Actually I got pretty bored with the whole tournament thing. It’s “more of the same” even in Negima, and reminded me of how gawdawful Yu Yu Hakusho got from the third volume onward. Yes, the art gets better and better, and I did like the side story with the local who’s in love with Ako. But there just isn’t that much to interest me. My wife picked it up for me and now she’s mad because I don’t look at it very much.
@Cube/JTP — Not being familiar with that game, it did not come to my mind but it is interesting that it is similar. ^_^
@Gringo — The Mahora Budokai was rather long as each event was documented. For the Ostia tournament, folks were afraid of another long tournament but Akamatsu-sensei mostly skipped the tournament stuff (occasionally popping in) for other things. As such, I didn’t mind the Jack vs. “Nagi-senshu” fight because we hadn’t been weighed down with the whole tournament thing from the start.
Now, I haven’t read the “Yu Yu Hakusho” manga, but I do have the anime and yeah, the tournament stuff there goes on and on and on and on and on. ^_^;;;
Still, the tournament stuff sets the table for Negi to do what needed to be done in the current storyline, which I like. Granted, this “power up” stuff is similar to “Yu Yu Hakusho” or even “Dragonball Z” (from what I understand) but it doesn’t play off quite so kiddie to me.
Just me though.
As to the rereading, I do that from time to time, save for volumes 1 and 2 because I can’t stand the rewrites of Peter David.
The biggest disappointment was that we never found out who was responsible for the girls becoming slaves. I think it was hinted to have been Rakan.
The whole setup was just stupid. Girls become slaves, need a million to set them free, oh look there is a fighting tournament and the first price is, wait for it, one million.
Just got my copy in the mail today. Still haven’t stopped smiling! ^_^
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The whole setup was just stupid. Girls become slaves, need a million to set them free, oh look there is a fighting tournament and the first price is, wait for it, one million.
——————-
*shrug*
It’s a pretty obvious plot device by Akamatsu, because it’s needed by the plot. Without the need to free the girls, Negi won’t fight his hardest (something that Rakan acknowledges, which is part of the reason he told Negi that whichever of the two of them won the tournament was keeping the prize money). And if Negi doesn’t fight his hardest, then he won’t take the time to fully “level up”. And if he doesn’t “level up”, then Fate is going to curb stomp him… again… If Ako, Natsumi, and Akira hadn’t all ended up needing to be freed, then Negi would have spent all of his time looking for his students. The fact that three of them needed to be paid for through the gladiator matches meant that Negi was forced to train instead of spending all his time looking for his students. The arc is a subtle way of believably providing Negi with the power that he’s going to need to stand up to Fate, without making it quite so obvious that it’s doing so.
Besides… this is, ultimately, a fighting manga.
😛
Also, I think we can confidently say that Rakan was involved somehow in the girls’ enslavement. It’s mentioned early on that the head of the organization that owns them is also in charge of the local arena tournaments. And then when Jack meets with the three heads of state, there’s a throw-away line about him being in charge of the tournament in Ostia. Also, offering something for “One Million” sounds like something that he’d do, suggesting that he personally may have been the guy that did it…
@Hurin — I do believe it is implied that Jack owned the girls but better that he own them than someone else.
@Junior — Graf Herrman captured some of Negi’s girls to force his hand, then revealed his true identity to make Negi go to the next level.
As I see it, Jack figured out the girls were attached to Negi and just arranged it so that Negi would be enticed to enter with the perfect bait — the exact amount of money needed to free the girls. I think that’s pretty much what you are saying.
Anyway, when the tournament first was revealed with the prize, I was more with Hurin’s thinking then. As time went on, I shifted my thoughts as I learned what kind of person Jack was.
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I think that’s pretty much what you are saying.
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No, I’m saying that Ken Akamatsu set it up that way.
😛
Herman was a tough fight, but not so difficult that Negi couldn’t believably beat him. The problem with Fate is that at the end of the gateport incident, Fate had curb-stomped Negi twice. Having Negi spend all of his free time looking for the girls (which is what he would have done otherwise) and then beat Fate without any additional training would have been pushing things somewhat. Akamatsu needed a way for Negi to quickly and believably be brought up to somewhere near Fate’s level, and the slave arc was the method that Akamatsu used to bring that about.
It just barely occurred to me, shouldn’t Negi and Kotaro have won? It was a team match. By the time Negi and Rakan were done beating the crap out of each other Kotaro should have been able to stand since he was already half on his feet when he shadow bound Rakan’s legs, and Kagetarou should have still been pinned to the rock unable to move.
Heh! Kotaro did get lost in the shuffle there. I’d have to go and check to see if maybe Kotaro collapsed again but it does seems that you might have a point there.
iirc Kotaro was up, but I suspect that he was also spent. From the look of things, he was barely on his feet (and he definitely was standing after creating it) when he created the trap that caught Rakan. He probably expended nearly all of his power during his “43 seconds”.
Negi, on the other hand, intentionally held some back which is why he was able to exchange punches with Rakan.
299 Spoilers are out.
http://boards.4chan.org/a/res/39104139
@AstroNerdBoy
How strong do you think
1) Vargas
2) Chiko*tan
3) Ch1Negi
4) KyotoNegi
5) EndKyotoNegi
6) KyotoKotaro
7) TournamentNegi
8) Sakura Mei
9) Takane
10) Class Rep(Magic world)
11) Class Rep (Ayaka)
12) KotaroAfterSummerTrn.
13) Negi base strength before fighting Rakan but after ~month trning with him & 1/2 month glad.
14) Kotaros base strength after 1 1/2 months gladiator training
15) Negi base strength after fighting Rakan.
16) Kotaros base strength after Kagetaro
17) Yue after Summer Trn
18) Current Yue
19) Base Ku Fei
20) Base Setsuna
21) Base Kaede
22) Ku Af. Summer
23) Setsuna Af. Sum.
24) Kaede Af. Sum.
25/26/27 Current Ku/Set./Kae.
All are on Rakans chart.
I keep changing my mind about how strong each character is.
100 > Ch1Anya > Ch1Negi >>> 300
FestivalSetsuna ?? 650 (Dragon) < Library Island Dragon (who she didn't think she would be able to beat & it would take takes if she could beat it) M.worldKaede >> Rock Dragon > 650 Dragon
Ch1Negi < Sakura Mei(3 unincanted arrows is TournamentStart Negis lvl, but obviously somewhat lower due to her inexp.) Vargas >= 300
since Craig = ~300
We also know from Collet that
Void instant movement = Above A class.
I wish we had what other dragon varieties were in terms of strength, it would really help.
Anyway, I hope I didn’t already paste my weird always changing table of strength
Thanks for the spoiler alert.
@empty — I haven’t thought about it and so have no answer. ^_^; Sorry.